01-15-2009, 11:38 AM
I shouldn't make it sound like I'm bashing MR...I did cut my modeling teeth on the magazine like so many others. But this was back in the mid 80's, kindof a controversial transition period in the publication. Authors like Malcom Furlow were being praised for their creativity while getting accused of being John Allen knock-offs. The magazine still had a sense of fun but it was quickly losing that during the early 90's.
Art Curren's kitbashing articles were becoming fewer and farther between. There may have once been a balance between freelance and prototype, but the scales were inevitably tipping toward prototype modeling. Just look at Tony Koester's Trains of Thought columns as well as the progressive change of his own freelanced Allegheny Midland into a Nickel Plate layout.
I read through the first couple points of the current loco kitbashing contest. I pretty much stopped after
I had been excited originally thinking I could enter my Shifter project. It, however, matches no specific prototype so it's automatically exlcuded. That's too bad, since I've done a load of research into steam locomotive workings in order to make this freelanced engine more plausible as a locomotive that could have been. It has characteristics of several other switchers, details that I've borrowed from actual locomotives. I have gone out in the field and done hands on research, taking photos and making notes of how things are affixed and how large pipes are, etc. I have even purchased resources as well as checked them out from my public library. I have learned so much about steam engines during the past few years and it has been a great learning journey.
Oh well. Just because it doesn't meet their criteria (looking for the next John Pryke or Jim Six) won't spoil my fun. I know alot of guys who just love prototype modeling and I understand that trend is catching on through all these regional prototype modeling gatherings. I just wish they hadn't been so exclusive in their description of kitbashing. I don't know that I'd even call it kitbashing, since the days of chopping up a pair of diesels to make a particular engine seem to have passed and been replaced by folks upgrading already nice engines with a few prototype specific parts from Cannon & Co., Details West, etc. Call it a Prototype Locomotive Modeling contest, but please refrain from calling it kitbashing.
Okay...down off the soapbox...for now!
Oh, and I love that dies..er...steam...er just what the heck is that thing?
Galen
Art Curren's kitbashing articles were becoming fewer and farther between. There may have once been a balance between freelance and prototype, but the scales were inevitably tipping toward prototype modeling. Just look at Tony Koester's Trains of Thought columns as well as the progressive change of his own freelanced Allegheny Midland into a Nickel Plate layout.
I read through the first couple points of the current loco kitbashing contest. I pretty much stopped after
Quote:Show us a locomotive that you have modified to match a particular prototype -That's fine. I even have parts to make a pair of Athearn Trainmasters into more accurate models of VGN diesels, as well as parts to upgrade my Bachmann N&W Class J 4-8-4.
I had been excited originally thinking I could enter my Shifter project. It, however, matches no specific prototype so it's automatically exlcuded. That's too bad, since I've done a load of research into steam locomotive workings in order to make this freelanced engine more plausible as a locomotive that could have been. It has characteristics of several other switchers, details that I've borrowed from actual locomotives. I have gone out in the field and done hands on research, taking photos and making notes of how things are affixed and how large pipes are, etc. I have even purchased resources as well as checked them out from my public library. I have learned so much about steam engines during the past few years and it has been a great learning journey.
Oh well. Just because it doesn't meet their criteria (looking for the next John Pryke or Jim Six) won't spoil my fun. I know alot of guys who just love prototype modeling and I understand that trend is catching on through all these regional prototype modeling gatherings. I just wish they hadn't been so exclusive in their description of kitbashing. I don't know that I'd even call it kitbashing, since the days of chopping up a pair of diesels to make a particular engine seem to have passed and been replaced by folks upgrading already nice engines with a few prototype specific parts from Cannon & Co., Details West, etc. Call it a Prototype Locomotive Modeling contest, but please refrain from calling it kitbashing.
Okay...down off the soapbox...for now!
Oh, and I love that dies..er...steam...er just what the heck is that thing?
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!