01-15-2009, 01:12 PM
The contest sounds interesting. The difficulties in free-lancing versus prototype modeling vary. Modeling the Pennsy isn't near as difficult as modeling the 6' gauge Erie of the 19th century...but much of the modern free-lance is about the easiest thing possible...as is some modern modeling.
If you are very creative, your freelance road can be more challenging than the most difficult prototypes, but it seems far to common for people to use free-lance or especially proto-freelance as a cover for a lack of creativity/modeling skills. I admire some of Dr. Wayne's creations, Sumptors, and various other people's work in the same way I admired John Allen's...most of the locomotives are not remotely stock, but they are free-lance. I really love that sort of thing. I love looking at a locomotive and instead of saying: That's a UP engine or that's a Pennsy engine, but rather that's a Delta Lines engine or that's a Port Kelsey engine.
I admire someone's model for the effort and skill it took to build...and chasing after a specific prototype or a highly imaginative concept seem to place the bar so much higher than for me to dry transfer DSP&P onto IHC 4-4-0s and call it South Park proto-freelance. I prefer for the layout to break strongly from specific prototypes or to hold very strongly to the specific prototype. Perhaps one is more of a task of creativity and the other is a task of researching/recreating very specific items.
How many people would just drop stock Grandt Line windows into a passenger car project or use other standard dimension parts to make their modeling tasks easier than my exactly 23 5/8" wide windows for my new South Park coaches. You might consider this detail odd, but it gives them a heck of a lot of character in my eyes when sitting next to other cars with different windows. Clearly, I think of model railroading as being more about the building of the roster and layout than operation or collecting.
I frequently don't read any modeling magazines. So much of the info is worthless to me (since I'm not building an n-scale layout, I don't care about detailing a MP GP-38-2, or the same old soldering article they re-write every 5 years). Besides, it is usually more fun to interact with the creators of fine models over the internet. I study older MRs, older NG&SLG, older RMCs, and a few others. I received a subscription to the NG&SLG for Christmas. If I never saw another new modeling magazine ever again, it wouldn't really bother me.
Michael
If you are very creative, your freelance road can be more challenging than the most difficult prototypes, but it seems far to common for people to use free-lance or especially proto-freelance as a cover for a lack of creativity/modeling skills. I admire some of Dr. Wayne's creations, Sumptors, and various other people's work in the same way I admired John Allen's...most of the locomotives are not remotely stock, but they are free-lance. I really love that sort of thing. I love looking at a locomotive and instead of saying: That's a UP engine or that's a Pennsy engine, but rather that's a Delta Lines engine or that's a Port Kelsey engine.
I admire someone's model for the effort and skill it took to build...and chasing after a specific prototype or a highly imaginative concept seem to place the bar so much higher than for me to dry transfer DSP&P onto IHC 4-4-0s and call it South Park proto-freelance. I prefer for the layout to break strongly from specific prototypes or to hold very strongly to the specific prototype. Perhaps one is more of a task of creativity and the other is a task of researching/recreating very specific items.
How many people would just drop stock Grandt Line windows into a passenger car project or use other standard dimension parts to make their modeling tasks easier than my exactly 23 5/8" wide windows for my new South Park coaches. You might consider this detail odd, but it gives them a heck of a lot of character in my eyes when sitting next to other cars with different windows. Clearly, I think of model railroading as being more about the building of the roster and layout than operation or collecting.
I frequently don't read any modeling magazines. So much of the info is worthless to me (since I'm not building an n-scale layout, I don't care about detailing a MP GP-38-2, or the same old soldering article they re-write every 5 years). Besides, it is usually more fun to interact with the creators of fine models over the internet. I study older MRs, older NG&SLG, older RMCs, and a few others. I received a subscription to the NG&SLG for Christmas. If I never saw another new modeling magazine ever again, it wouldn't really bother me.
Michael
Michael
My primary goal is a large Oahu Railway layout in On3
My secondary interests are modeling the Denver, South Park, & Pacific in On3 and NKP in HO
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My primary goal is a large Oahu Railway layout in On3
My secondary interests are modeling the Denver, South Park, & Pacific in On3 and NKP in HO
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://thesouthparkline.blogspot.com/">http://thesouthparkline.blogspot.com/</a><!-- m -->