Poll
Question:
In your modelling, when building locomotives do you ...
Option 1: scratch build, including the chassis and mechanism
Option 2: scratch build, but only on commercial chassis
Option 3: build locomotives from "scratch aids"
Option 4: build etched locomotive kits
Option 5: build white metal and/or resin locomotive kits
Option 6: only have Ready-to-Run locomotives, but repaint them into other liveries
Option 7: only have Ready-to-Run locomotives, but have renumbered some of them
Option 8: only have Ready-to-Run locomotives, and have applied detailing and/or weathering
Option 9: only have Ready-to-Run locomotives, as they come from the box
I just thought it would be interesting to see what the modeling profile on the forum looks like. Choose the FIRST option that applies as you work your way down the list.
I can answer yes to all except the last one, I can't think of any RTR that I have kept in out of the box condition for more than a few days, the least I have done is renumbering, most have had detailing, The N class I received this morning will be renumbered and have smoke deflectors fitted within a week if all goes to plan.
Quote from: Dorsetmike on July 11, 2015, 10:53:08 PM
I can answer yes to all except the last one
Then you should vote for the first option, Mike :)
In N gauge to me its about operation and scenery, so the locomotives come as they are (more or less)
In other scales I'm still not very lococentric at all, i prefer wagons and track to look "right" as well as the scenics - The loco is just there to pull the wagons through the scene :)
Currently I am what was disparagingly referred to on another forum as a "box opener". I don't even add the little bits from the little baggies. Though I do have a small collection of AC locos in various weird post-privatisation liveries awaiting a respray to a proper shade of blue sometime this decade. I also like to resuscitate "non-runners" when I have the chance. However my main priority is getting some sort of layout for the locos to play in :D
All my locomotives are 'modified' in respect of very strictly-enforced height and width specifications, a process which involves the removal of fans and radiators etc. and any other 'bits' which are more than 14ft (scale) above the rail-top. It's not 'scratch building' or 'kit bashing' but because there was no category to cover what I've described, I had to vote for 'Only have Ready-to-Run locomotives, and have applied detailing and/or weathering'. Perhaps there should be an additional category added: 'Altering the locomotive structure to suit own purposes'?
Just a thought...
Not sure where I fit.
I have no layout, my trains are with my son in law..........
I draw N Gauge models in my CAD package and get them 3D printed etc, so that other people can build them
Quote from: PGN on July 11, 2015, 11:04:30 PM
Quote from: Dorsetmike on July 11, 2015, 10:53:08 PM
I can answer yes to all except the last one
Then you should vote for the first option, Mike :)
I would suggest that does not give a fair representation of what I actually do, to me it would imply that I only scratch build, so far only 2 of my 30+ locos fall into that category a further 11 come near the other end of the classifications modified RTR, the rest are in between the extremes, mix of kits, partial scratch builds and more heavily hacked RTR
Mike - I was interested in finding out the rough spread of the most intricate thing that people are willing to do. No intention to suggest that if you vote "scratch build" it means everything you have is scratch built.
Komata - oops ... I forgot kit bashing! oh well ... you can't have everything!
Railsquid - it annoys me when anyone in our hobby is disparaging about what anyone else in the hobby does! If, like Jason, you're an "operations and scenery" modeler, what on earth is wrong with that?? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned ... and I have to say, some of the modern boxes appear to need at least a master's degree in advanced engineering to open them successfully without damaging the contents (which does rather defeat the purpose of the packaging ...) so "box opening" is definitely a useful skill to have :laugh:
I have and sometimes still do make resin or whitemetal kits. My recent 10001 has appeared on the Forum Facebook page. On RTR I could not tick the boxes as they were worded "only", but I do all the options listed if/when the fancy takes me. I also, on occasions "bash" kits and RTR to produce other locos. Hence Langley B1s have been turned into K1 and K4. I am considering turning another into a K2. A UM J25 is now a J36, 2 BH D16s have been modified into D11 and D34. In my Cambrian lines days I cut down a Farish 61XX into a 55XX, using a Minitrix Ivatt chassis. And there have been a few others. Of course a few of these are now available RTR.
Given the quality of most current RTR, no shame in being a box opener if the boxes contain what you want. when I started seriously in the hobby as a teenager (in the 60s/70s) there was a guy called Bill Oldroyd who, working in OO, produced all manner of models, mainly locos, by bashing and adapting kits and RTR. An inspiration so perhaps I caught it from him. It is probably from him I gained my take that looking reasonable is central over dead scale. Though what is your own threshold for defining reasonable?
My question would be "does it matter?" ;)
Paul
It does to some, Sprintex, even if not to others.
Those to whom it doesn't matter need not contribute to this discussion ...
For me it depends how much I want something that isn't available. My 20 Shunter was built from scratch aid kit parts because I wanted it on my sidings. But mostly I'm happy with the RTR plus repaint/remumber, or just detailing and weathering in the case of most of the new stuff like 47 096 that is on its way now...
In my experience 'Ye law of Sod' dictates that having searched around to find plans, paid over the top for the bits, made a bodge of the painting, got the markings on all wrong and generally taken weeks to complete a kit Dapol or Farish will announce one which will be produced to a higher, maybe far higher, standard than all but the best scratch builders can manage and due out in a few weeks!
Why bother building it yourself?
As ever, this is my own opinion on the subject.
I've only really had that happen to me once, I took a Dapol 14xx chassis and hacked an ABS 0-6-4 highland tank kit to make an M7, and what did Dapol produce a few weeks after I finished??? Mind you mine with the white metal body is a somewhat better puller than the Dapol version!.
Quote from: Dorsetmike on July 12, 2015, 06:10:47 PM
I've only really had that happen to me once, I took a Dapol 14xx chassis and hacked an ABS 0-6-4 highland tank kit to make an M7, and what did Dapol produce a few weeks after I finished??? Mind you mine with the white metal body is a somewhat better puller than the Dapol version!.
You are lucky - I had it with a Western (just before the GraFar model came out), trying to convert Class 29 into a 22 in N with diesels and a Pannier tank; when I'd finished the 22 Dapol announced theirs, the Western struggled with more than 5 coaches and of the Pannier the less said the better!
All were produced r-t-r within a few months anyway - I gave up!
In N nearly all my loco's are straight from the box. When I modelled in OO I used to build all types of kit and scratch build. I don't in N for two reasons,
1, Old age is catching up & my eyesight aint wot it was
2, You can't get the necessary bits to scratch build.
The poll chart looks like the result of the General Election. The affluent Tories
buy their locos ready made and the working classes have to make their own.... ;D
I started late in this game. So far I have successfully completed some scenery together with a number of Metcalfe kits, and also disguised some of my Kato track. However, when I bought some Ratio signal kits, I completely botched the painting and then had a frustrating time attempting to glue the bits together. The end result was I threw them back in the drawer for another day so no signals yet. If I can't cope with simple plastic kits what chance have I got to "improve" a new and expensive RTR model never mind scratchbuild something. Hence I voted for the "out of the box" option.
In my Railway career I was always in the Operations Department and the building of the track, signalling, locos and rolling stock was the responsibility of the various qualified Engineers. An Engineer I am not so I am quite happy to take something right of the box, in pristine condition, not weathered, and just operate it. If it looks something like what I remember then I am very happy. Rule 1 applies!
Ron
Quote from: Agrippa on July 12, 2015, 08:25:42 PM
The poll chart looks like the result of the General Election. The affluent Tories
buy their locos ready made and the working classes have to make their own.... ;D
I will not be getting political here but even though I buy my locos and passenger stock r-t-r (the quality is many times better than I can manage myself) I AM NOT A TORY!
Seeing some recent comments, me too. I built Skytrex 264T (mine was actually sub standard) and Crab then Farish produced their own shortly after. They also produced their original 4F albeit some years after my 2 BHE (formerly D&M) kits. My Langley B! was in use for longer before Farish produced theirs. Then there was Karl Peplow's resin Class 27 and a Farish 33 turned into a 26, then Dapol produced theirs. More recently I found the required chassis so bought a Parkwood's resin Clayton; now there is a RTR model on the way. And my D11 converted from a BHE D16 was done shortly before the UM version appeared.
That's life!
Quote from: Agrippa on July 12, 2015, 08:25:42 PM
The poll chart looks like the result of the General Election. The affluent Tories
buy their locos ready made and the working classes have to make their own.... ;D
I make a lot of my own stuff, just not rolling stock in N.
but I suppose that makes me an Aspirational Artisan Model Railway Tory - just like reality then :)
Quote from: D1042 Western Princess on July 12, 2015, 09:07:39 PM
I will not be getting political here but even though I buy my locos and passenger stock r-t-r (the quality is many times better than I can manage myself) I AM NOT A TORY!
Well nobody's perfect.... :D
Skirting close to breaking the CoC here, folks.... even if it is in a lighthearted fashion.
Please stick to the poll. :thumbsup:
Quote from: Bealman on July 13, 2015, 07:33:46 AM
Skirting close to breaking the CoC here, folks.... even if it is in a lighthearted fashion.
Please stick to the poll. :thumbsup:
Spot the Labour man !!! ::) :P
How'd ya guess. ;)
Let's stick to the poll, though. :thumbsup:
I don't see a category in the poll for "fiddles about with RTR locos in misguided attempt to improve them, ends up with box full of mangled mechanisms which will never run again".
:laughabovepost:
Can I send all mine to you?
Quote from: belstone on July 13, 2015, 10:07:06 AM
I don't see a category in the poll for "fiddles about with RTR locos in misguided attempt to improve them, ends up with box full of mangled mechanisms which will never run again".
:D I think most of us have done that at one time or another, usually following an article on improving r-t-r locos sandwiched between 'How I built a full scale model of the Tamar Bridge in a weekend using just a sheet of old cardboard from a cornflake box and a bent toothpick' :thumbsup: and the 'Railway of the Month', a 4 platform O gauge terminus layout on a single 2'x6' sheet of plywood' :drool: in the latest edition of the Railway Modeller's Monthly or some such!
I long ago decided that what comes out of the box stays that way on my layout (kits excepted, naturally! :)
Quote from: Bealman on July 13, 2015, 10:36:20 AM
:laughabovepost:
Can I send all mine to you?
The way things are going, my next layout will be Barry Scrapyard, circa 1975.
My next layout will be Barry Gibb, circa 1977....
Can't see an option for 'only have Ready-to-Run locomotives, and have had someone else apply detailing and/or weathering' :dunce:
So I went for the just RTR option ;)
Too many options.....aaarrgggghhhhhh :confused2:
Quote from: belstone on July 13, 2015, 12:14:36 PM
Quote from: Bealman on July 13, 2015, 10:36:20 AM
:laughabovepost:
Can I send all mine to you?
The way things are going, my next layout will be Barry Scrapyard, circa 1975.
Those with a drawer full of kaputt BR blue locos can take inspiration from this 'Orribly Oversized layout idea (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/model-railway-resin-loco-Cabs-and-accessories-kit-to-make-berrys-scrap-yard-/252022119439?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aadb05c0f)
:beers:
Kind of back on topic, what might also be interesting would be a poll of what people would (realistiaclly) like to do if they could. Like I mentioned earlier, respraying some locos (into conveniently simple BR blue liveries) is on my todo list (the one in flames on the back burner) and I'd like to have a crack at some kits just for the hell of it. Though I don't ever see myself scratch-building entire locos from old toilet paper rolls and double-sided sticky tape.