For a Victorian set of railings I might string beads along one for the big baluster, but for the little verticals I might take just a little bead on one, and then stick the pin into the stair until it’s the right height.  The ball at the top and the bead, which slides to the bottom, provide just a touch of detail, which is often all you need when you’re in a hurry and building in quarter inch.  Then I’ll take either scale lumber or a cut piece of matte board or something along those lines for the top railing part, and glue it right on top of the balls of the pin. 

For a more plain set of railings I might use just the pins without the balls and no bead, or I might use toothpicks.  I also use the pins without balls to hold together foamcore model pieces that I haven’t glued yet.  Sometimes when I’m building a model for a really fussy director, I’ll get my first white model roughed out in foam core and pin it together instead of gluing for that first meeting.  Then, during that first meeting when the director says, “I really like this part, but this is too tall right here,”  I can quickly disassemble that part, snip a little with scissors and put it back together in just a couple seconds and make sure they meant what they said. 

Pins with both head types can be used for all sorts of detailing in gazebos, building lamps (with beads strung in for the center part of the lamp), and a variety of other ways.

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