Ready to stay in the box...
This is a relatively cruel close up of my Hornby 3 axle Sentinel. I've added jewels for the headlights and drilled through the lifting eyes, otherwise she is out of the box...
When ready to run models of fairly obscure prototypes become so good, for what I'd consider a reasonable price where does that leave us as modellers? One of my favourite parts of the hobby is taking a ready to run model and improving it, personalising it. I bought this Sentinel with that in mind, yet it has languished in my stock box ever since. Why? It runs well, it captures the character of the prototype and is a good size for a small industrial model railway yet remains box bound.
As a modeller, rather than collector, I find this an interesting dilemma, and one that I will ponder a little longer. Until next time though, more soon...
I'd be the same. Maybe its all about investment, not in the monetary sense but in the time invested in the model. Yes you've put the time and effort in, but not as much time and effort as you would a kit or scratchbuilt model.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure - perhaps I need to design some parts to 'uplift' the quality of some of the components. Taking a ready to run model and improving it, not always even repainting it, is such a wonderful part of the hobby for me... if you look at my 08, it doesn't look much different to a Bachmann or Hornby RTR model but by adding finer detail, replicating parts not in the original tooling and repainting it feels very much my own - a British version of the Canadian modelling I enjoy so much.
DeleteI wonder if it's not so much directed at the model itself-whether or not it's the ready-to-run compared to one bearing a more personal touch but where our interest in the hobby is? We tend to hear that question and still revert back to "make more kits".
ReplyDeleteFor someone where their interest lies in the recreation of the railway itself the divide between building something from a kit or buying from the shelf might be a hazier line because it's just a component of an overall story.
For someone whose interest is in making models of the railway's equipment it would seem more obvious why the interest in RTR lacks because, well, that's just not the hobby.
I think I see so many of these RTR models as answers to questions I asked myself years ago when I'd think thoughts like "I'd love to build a model railway based on...but the kits and models just aren't available" so those layouts never got built. Now, models like this, pry open a frozen box of forgotten new layouts to build or at least start but still inside the caveat of where a person's interest lies. In our conversations you are so open about your interest in making the models of the trains themselves so I can totally appreciate where the difference lies and that's what makes us a whole population.
Chris
...and here I am replying to myself again (sorry).
DeleteIt's fascinating how nuanced the vocabulary of how we approach the hobby is. If our motivation is aimed at using the hobby to access a place or time that we can't otherwise touch than it's the making of the overall composition that is what's being "made". Collecting the RTR model as a component part becomes no different than making a model of a bell or whistle or spinning it on the lathe.
Perhaps the concept I'm stumbling around in my clumsy words is to examine our relationship with how we factor the definition of make?
Chris
The idea of what these models open up, the opportunity to model something we’ve longed for is one that is satisfying in a few ways… firstly because it helps us model something real rather than another model of a model or a train set and secondly because it may encourage someone to become a modeller rather than purely an enthusiast.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say modeller of course, I mean this in the broadest sense, one that models trains or railways.
Funnily enough, the Sentinel is back in the box, whereas the older 2 axle chain drive one I reworked is out, the difference? I fitted flush glazing, replacement skirts and smoothed the panel lines before repainting this - yes the new Hornby model ks great for most, as these problems have been addressed, but for me there is less mileage in the result.
What I am now considering is dropping the chassis out and measuring up for a few kit ideas…