Over the past decade I’ve had a hard time ignoring the similarity between model railroader’s penchant for impulse buying/indiscriminate accumulation as compared to the same issue in any other retail setting. I’m not sure there is a difference between purchasing more shoes than there are days in the week as opposed to buying dozens of […]
Category: Opinion
Layout Lifespan
It’s pretty easy to sub-consciously buy into conventional wisdom without thinking through whether such an approach actually applies to our situation. It may or may not. The expected lifespan of a layout is one such example. For many of us, when we set out to build a layout, it’s with the thought that it will […]
You’ve Come This Far
I’ve gotten a number of emails in the past week illustrating progress on switching layout construction. To a person each project looks fantastic, well designed, simple but efficient, and neatly constructed. You’ve come this far, don’t shoot yourself in the foot now. Next up for many of you will be the steps of painting the […]
Enough Rope To Hang Myself
I was sixteen when the model railroad bug bit in earnest. In the early years of the hobby EVERYTHING is interesting and we really want it all. At that time my parents were on a two year overseas sabbatical and we lived in a small apartment. Our Cape Cod house in the states, complete with […]
Easy Way/Hard Way
Achieving successful looking modeling results is 80% color and material selection with experience/skill probably only accounting for around 20% . The great news here is that beginners can achieve great results right out of the starting gate and more experienced modelers can improve their results quickly simply by switching to better materials. One crucial area […]