In Praise of Modeling

[Bruce Archer]

Hi All!

   The current prices of N-Scale equipment have reached a point with me, of being too expensive. So, what is one to do? We call ourselves modelers do we not?
    While working in a hobby shop part-time, I managed to purchase several N-Scale collections I managed to sell some items, but I have a lot of early, poorly decorated cars. These do not fit my time period (Conrail to the Guilford rape of the D&H, and the 50's on the LNE), nor the area ( the northeast) of my planned layout. So I have started to strip and redecorate these cars. It is quite easy as there are still many brands of paint and decals available. Plus if you have your own road ( I do, the Delaware and Atlantic) you can literally run any car you want. New trucks and couplers these older cars are quite servicable.
     Since I model the Delaware and Hudson, there are other issues put in my way. For example, Atlas makes a nice RS-3. But it is wrong for the D&H. I have to change the headlight to a large single bulb, relocate the horns, add the dynamic brakes, and repaint the Lightning stripe scheme as the paint and plastic greys do not match. The Atlas RS-11, and U23B, and the Kato U30C are all the wrong phase and have some paint issues.  I also made GP-39-2s before Atlas made theirs with a simple conversion ( and saved the $100.00+ price). The list goes on.
      The same goes for freight cars and vans. I wanted wooden vans, and I had to make them. They are not 100% correct but are close enough. Unfortunately, most of the freight cars decorated for the D&H are in error, either in the model or decoration.
       As I look at the images posted here, I see I am surrounded by modelers. And if you have not taken stripper, or saw to plastic, go ahead. It is FUN!
      Remember, build what YOU want, how YOU want!

Bruce Archer
Delaware and Atlantic N-Trak
Modeler of the D&H and LNE

[brokemoto]

I have done this to get equipment or buildings  that no one sold.  Further,  I have done it to make minor improvements to some equipment, such as swapping out clunky hand railings on cabooses and locomotives.

If anyone ever bought any Father Nature shells, you will understand what I type about cleaning up those things and making appropriate additions.

[robert3985]

When I first got into N-scale model railroading (Ntrak) in the early 1980's, there wasn't much available for correct cars and engines.  Fortunately, what I wanted to run were mainly UP engines, and because of the iconic nature of many of UP's big locomotives, there were a few that were available and were pretty close to being accurate.

Frankly, one of the reasons I liked N-scale, was the fact that to get a level of accuracy that pleased me, I was going to have to do a lot of "modeling", both scratch building, kit-bashing and superdetailing engines and cars to satisfy my detail-oriented soul.

Having been building and modifying models since I was around 6 years old, and with the critical eye of my father letting me know what I was doing wrong, as well as what I did correctly, and his patient teaching me how to cut, saw, glue, sand, solder and paint, then being employed as a senior graphics/technical artist and industrial model maker/machinist, building my own and/or modifying plastic, metal and brass models and structures was not intimidating since I'd been delving into it since my pre-teen years.

One of the revolutionary tools that has become affordable to modelers is 3D resin printers and free 3D modeling apps to create the 3D models and making them ready for printing.  Although not much from the manual skills of traditional model making is translated using 3D printed objects for model railroading, there is still research, design, assembly and finishing of the 3D prints necessary for well-detailed and correct N-scale models...either whole models or pieces/parts for modifying and detailing out commercial models.  With a bit of further UV resin research, even smaller (and durable) 3D printed parts will soon, if not already, be possible, making such things as grabs, stirrups, railings, stanchions, etc., practically feasible at near prototype dimensions.

After the initial investment, which for me was less than the cost of a DCC/Sound A-B-B-A BLI set of E-units, now I can have parts and models at a fraction of the cost of commercially made products, and are designed to be more accurate and more highly detailed than anything I've been able to purchase either in kit form or RTR.

Yup. I agree that stripping paint, drilling holes, bending grabs, and cutting plastic is FUN...and my 3D printer allows me to extend the possibilities of my model building like no other tool I've ever had in my 70 years of building models.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[mmagliaro]

I am glad the OP started this thread.  It's good to just express the importance of the joy of just plain ol' model building.  As those of you who know my work would surmise, I am an extreme "do it myself" kind of guy.  I don't think this would have been the life-long hobby that it has been for me if not for the pure joy of model building, and the more scratch-built, the more fun it is.

[randgust]

I started in HO as a kid and got crowded (and sawdusted) out of the basement I shared with my father's wood shop hobby.   The only place left I could 'have trains' was in my bedroom, and no table would fit bigger than 3x6.   So I tinkered with some used N scale and got hooked.  That was 1971. 

I was always that kid that tore his toys apart to see how they worked, and combined stuff.   Remember Sid in Toy Story?  Yeah, kinda like that but without the destruction, just the complete lack of respect for OEM design.   If it had screws it was disassembled and modified.

And then, virtually NOTHING was available, but I was a long-time model builder already, not afraid to tear things apart, paint, etc.   By 1973 I did my first 'scratchbuild', a styrene boxcar from HO plans.   By 1976 I hacked up a Roco Atlas GP30 frame, Roco 0-6-0 wheels and rods, and made myself a Heisler with a brass boiler.   It's now gone through three motors, but it's still running today and has been nicknamed "Bigfoot" due to the wheelbase, but it still outperforms any other geared steam I have.   

My friends were still all HO guys, and I turned into that 'crazy N scale guy' at NMRA meets.  And half the fun was, and apparently still is, the sense of shock in the HO guys when they realize what can be done in N - my latest crowd silencer was demonstrating my sound-decoder equipped PRR Decapod done from a Minitrix frame.   It's probably wrong to admit, but my competitive nature still secretly enjoys taking HO modelers to stunned silence.   

But starting in 1971-2 assumed that nothing you wanted was available, and/or didn't run very well, or failed shortly after.  HO was easy, this was a challenge.   I remain rather old-school, it's still far more natural to build something from a pile of material than sit down at a computer screen and design something to be printed.   I've managed to deal with DCC and now sound, but I'm a still pile of styrene/DC/decal it guy at heart.

[wm3798]

I stand in admiration of you guys who have gone balls deep into 3D printing.  It has taken almost anything imaginable off the "you can't do that" list.

@bbussey 's electric motors are outstanding examples of this, but also great platforms for the rest of his modeling skills, from etching metal, bending wire, adapting and bashing commercial parts, right through to paints and lettering.

@John 's endless finagling of structures and line side details is another good example.

Being something of a CAD designer for a living, though, I just can't bring myself to spend yet more hours staring at a screen pushing lines around, so I limit my modeling time to old school blades, styrene, wood and a lifetime supply of scavenged parts.  Maybe one day I'll turn the corner, but until then, I'll continue doing my usual hatchet job using whatever junk I have laying around.







Lee

[SAH]

'crazy N scale guy' at NMRA meets.  And half the fun was, and apparently still is, the sense of shock in the HO guys when they realize what can be done in N - my latest crowd silencer was demonstrating my sound-decoder equipped PRR Decapod done from a Minitrix frame.   It's probably wrong to admit, but my competitive nature still secretly enjoys taking HO modelers to stunned silence.   

Can't help but agree.  For my presentations at an NMRA or RPM meet I do not mention my models are N scale.  The presentation is usually proto information heavy until the end when I show how I'm executing the subject of my talk.  At a RPM in Marion I was into that last part of the presentation when someone blurted out "Hey!  What scale is this anyway?!"  Old stereotypes die hard.  But it's still fun.