Digging through my stash of bits'n'pieces for something that wasn't there, I couldn't help wonder how the pile of packets had come about.
Loads of buffers, wheels, detailing components. All solid gold to the right sort of modeller - the sort of modeller I used to be.
I'm going to be controversial and say, the best era for railway modelling was 1993.
Iain Rice's book Detailing and Improving Ready to Run Wagons had just been published. RTR models were improving a bit, but serious types needed to tinker with them to add better brake gear and modify the bodies. You weren't aiming for perfection, just a few gentle improvements that would raise your layout above the herd.
A few extra bent bits of wire for brake safety loops, perhaps even ripping off the plastic bits and replacing them with metal bits from Kenline would do the job.
All this was within the grasp of a reasonably capable person who really wanted to have a go.
Nowadays, RTR has pretty much reached perfection. Even the most basic four-wheel wagon has brake shoes inline with the wheels and often all the rods and stuff you should find under there. Generall, the quality will be amazing.
I miss those days, and I miss that sort of modelling. While I can do my best to spread the gospel of tinkering with RTR models, I know I'm fighting a losing battle. The world has moved on.
Rice's efforts in his enjoyable books would be laughed at by the finescale talliban. You can't be cutting things out with a knife, you MUST use a laser, or better still, 3D print it. Why use a scalpel when you can sit in front of a computer?
A sensible person would consider unloading all this stuff to clear space.
I am not a sensible person.
One day, I will hide in my cave and gradually upgrade old RTR models. I'll build Parkside kits. My layouts will be a bit better than those I created in the 1990s, but not much. And I will enjoy building them. On the exhibition circuit, I'll claim it's all retro, or ironic, but really it will be because I enjoy doing it. And that's all that matters.
6 comments:
Hi Phil I and some of my friends have bits hidden away for the day they are needed.
Like you I lost my mojo but its coming back even started a micro layout with Metcalfe Factory and builder sheets for a bridge.
So you not a lone, guess we cut our teeth on airfix kits(still do) so like building in any medium.
You do reach a certain stage in life or perhaps age when you find splice in some of the old ways. I must admit I do find my old Model Rail magazines from the 90s still so inspiring when guys like Darren Sherwood and Chris Leigh would take you through the steps of upgrading a model to something better in a way that was achievable. The World changes though - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse but I think we need to stop believing that we have to compete with the best and by what measure do we deem the best by anyway? The internet and social media has a lot to give but also a lot to answer for. It is a hobby and the true delight in a hobby is satisfying yourself and achieving what makes you happy. Generally in doing that you'll find most people including modellers will be in inspired, intrigued and delighted by what you produce - I certainly have by what you do. For every model made there are perhaps another hundred or more sitting in cupboards because we are afraid we may not build what others will praise us for or to the standards others achieve. I am now at a stage in life where to be blunt I will not have enough life left to build everything I have or would like to have or want to do. However I am going to have a damned good try! You don't see epitaphs on gravestones saying I wish I had not spent so much time making models! Life is too short. Do what you want to and do it because you enjoy it! To misquote a film ' If you build they will come!'Woody.
Until recently I would have said 009 was considered immune to this trend. But sadly for many of us “old timers”, or probably stuck in the mud types, the latest offerings from Heljan, Peco and particularly Bachmann, with their magnificent Double Fairlie, have raised the bar. But all this does come at a price. Partly I put it down to the manufacturers running out of standard gauge prototypes they can sell in the quantities needed to make a profit.
Thankfully we still have a lot of members of the 009 Society content to buy, and build, plastic wagon and coach kits and white metal locos on N gauge chassis and get a lot of fun and satisfaction out of the hobby at moderate cost. The price of 009, members exclusive, Society wagon kits start at only £6 (forgive the commercial).
However we have not been entirely untouched by progress made by manufacturers. Most locos are now produced in batches which limits availability, and the chassis, while much better, are no longer sold as spares at a reduced cost. The exception being the forthcoming Kato/Peco FR England loco where we have been assured the chassis will be available separately. Thank you Mr Kato.
This is yet another reason I build models in 1:55 narrow gauge; there's only a handful of people building anything in this scale. Of course making modern image German Narrow Gauge models puts me in a minority of approximately 1, so I doubt the big companies will be very interested in making RTR models to sell to me.
What has happened to modelling? Like you Phil I enjoyed, and still do, reading and being inspired by Iain Rice's fantastic books.There's still nothing to beat something you've made yourself out of brass and tinplate, etc., etc. all 'stuck' together with my faithful soldering iron. I've just bought 5 chassis kits, wheels and buffers all waiting to see what I'm going to put on top of them in the form of vans, waggons (filled with bits of coal from the beach I've collected close to where I live) and then showing them off on a nice long goods train on the show-circuit here in Denmark and when people take photos of them I can truely say: 'Yeps, I made them!'
One of my best modelling friends is a genious with 3D printing turning out the most fantastic models, yet I think there's something missing - the hands-on approach. Looking at my burned finger tips, oily hands and dirty finger nails I know this is real modelling for me!
Keep it up Phil and friends.
Regards, William (Gauge 1 live steam in Denmark)
I have a similar feeling, I mostly enjoy taking Lima stuff from the 80s and making something cool out of it.
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