Incredible Urban Decay Modeling

[randgust]

Wow, if the point of good art is to get people talking and thinking, this is excellent work.

Personally, I think it's great and rather groundbreaking, at least in N.   And anybody that can get an art gallery exhibit doing it, well, more power to them.   I'm at least mildly jealous.    3D scale modeling is a media that hardly ever gets done except in museums.  For all we say about modeling instead of 'pour it out of the box', this should be the last place to ever trash it.

Within the social commentary is also a rather wicked sense of humor.   The 'zoo' billboard features a snarling raccoon, possibly rabid.   "Dollar Store" is "dolla Sto ", in some neighborhoods, letter-dropped just like it sounds.   "Bed Bugs & Beyond" used furniture?   That's a gem.   We may all be taking him more seriously than you think and the joke is on us.   He's got a full profile on that page, and I think he's done well as an artist by any measure.

I'm trying to model Flagstaff, AZ in the 70's.   During that period, Santa Fe Ave. was a borderline tacky mix of 3rd class retail, bars, and old tourist hotels, all left bypassed off of Rt. 66 when I-40 was built.  While no where near the situation he models, it's not squeaky-clean either.   The Commercial Hotel burned with a fire of suspicious origin.  Today, Joes Place (bar) is now a souvenir shop, the "Hong Kong Café" is now "Karma",  Club 66 is a crystal shop, just the entire area reeks of college and upscale, and the mild Rt 66 tackiness is completely gone.   The Hotel Monte Vista now has a ghost cult following and is a "must see".   They've even planted TREES along the sidewalk.  Capturing that now-lost feel in a model is a challenge.  It's not bad, but you'd definitely think twice about going down there at midnight on a Saturday in 1972.  Anybody that can capture that 'feel' on a model gets my admiration, I'm still rather struggling.

The Pithole, PA museum has a wonderful N diorama of the entire town in the 1860's, and it's every bit the sorry, muddy, treeless, paintless, and hell-bent-for-fortune boomtown mess that the historic photos show - no "Little House on the Prairie".  I always admired that one.   

I sent the link to one of my friends and he responded "rather accurate, take the Paoli local out of Philadelphia".

[Jesse6669]

   Much like (as the kids say).     This thread is a gem.

Great modeling is great modeling. As for the ideological bourgeoisie vs proletariat N Scale Model Railroad purity test. From one photo you can tell someone situation, motivation and class. Well done Railwire Politruk.  Due to your vigilance and ideological purity, you have extinguished the bonfires of the ground foam and ready to run bourgeoisie.  Long live the modellers paradise, The Railwire Revolution.

Not fit to be a Comrade a$$hat

[jmarley76]

Interesting modeling and interesting thread.

The gallery pics became a distraction, but they clearly illustrate that society has many subcultures that do not connect under normal conditions. So Mr. Thomas should get kudos for bring model railroading into an urban art space, and vice-versa.

That said, if we had more hipsters get into the hobby, maybe more of those 80's Model Power, Con-cor, and Life-Like engines and rolling stock that seem to still be lingering at train shows will finally get a home...