07-04-2011, 12:41 PM
dave1905 Wrote:steinjr Wrote:[
And a "master model railroader" should pretty much ignore the modeler's goals. It should be about skills. From the standpoint of skills, the person who did the scratchbuilding may have more skills. That person has the ability to work with material and fabricate parts. They had to be able to design the parts, they had to have the mechanical aptitude to fabricate a drive train and wire it to run. Then they had to be able to paint and finish it. As far as it being prototypical or not, that's where the documentation comes in. I have seen pictures of logging engines that were similar to that.
The person who weathered the RTR has a more impressive scene and may be better at scenery and painting, but hasn't demonstrated any superior mechanical or electrical aptitude, hasn't fabricated any parts with precision. While the SCL scene may LOOk better, that doesn't mean that that modeler is a more versitile modeler. Being a master isn't about the flash, its about having a wide range of skills.
In my opinion, based only on the those two pictures (which in no way would be representative of either modeler's full range of abilities) while the scratchbuilt steamer may be less of eye-candy than the SCL diesel, the steamer demonstrates a wider range of skills.
OTOH, the modeler who made that first engine (a modeler who is great at producing rustic looking backwoods locomotives) makes landscapes that to me looks like amusement park ride style old west layouts, while the second modeler makes great realistic looking scenes, with thoroughly researched scenes, nice kitbashed buildings, realistic tracks, engines, cars, and so on and so forth.
It all depends on what aspect of the modeling you look at, and what your personal preferences are.
Smile,
Stein