Staying on track?

[Sumpter250]

No pun intended! i suppose the real question, is how do we keep our modeling skills rounded?
There is something i've noticed about myself while browsing the forums. Another young modeler , had a thread on super detailing an engine, which surprised me. His scenic work is stellar, yet superdetailing seemed have him concerned.
I realized that i am much the opposite. I have almost no major scenic things. in fact, i've only ever built two HO scale trees in my life!
On the other hand, my various commuter locomotives, MU cars and small freight diesels all receive some sort of detailing, and now i've got several highly detailed pieces of equipment.
I'm itching to finish various locomotive kits i have, but now that i think of it, i should really have a nice environment to run them in!

"Another young modeler"......Time, and specific effort, round our modeling skills. Even then we don't always excel at everything. You've built two HO scale trees. OK, What's wrong with them, and how can you "fix" that with the next tree you build.
A model is a model. Whether it is a fully detailed locomotive, or a fully detailed rock, a model is a model. The trick, is to learn how to use the materials used to build that model, to learn the different techniques. You know what details a specific loco should have, you learned that. You just have to learn the details a specific tree should have, and how to get that detail made.
In model shipbuilding, the mantra is " build models of parts of ships, and assemble them into a ship model"........build models of parts of ____________, and assemble them into a layout.
Oh, and enjoy the learning curve for each of those things.
And oh yes, don't be afraid of trashing an impending failure, and starting over again. The 17' Whitehall skiff, that hangs on the stern davits of the 40' cutter I built, is the fourth one!.......the first three...."disagreed with me".