How do you know if you're made it as a railway modeller?

[Horsetan]

.....I think that should someone like Roger Daltry, Pete Waterman or Jools Holland (who only settle for the very best) ask me for a building - I'd be right chuffed

 

....and your fees for building would rise accordingly.

[iL Dottore]

....and your fees for building would rise accordingly.

Hardly, I build the buildings for fun and I'm glad to get my materials and costs reimbursed. Being asked to build something is what's important to me, it is a positive reinforcement for me to continue modelling and to continue improving my models.

 

Were I to try and make a living at it, I would have to (a) seriously up my game in order to (b] charge a reasonable per-hour or per-diem fee.

 

F

Edited July 19, 2012 by iL Dottore

[pirouets]

Been wondering if this applies. When you move from buying ready made to a kit, from a kit to adapting a kit, from adapting a kit to building yourself, etc.

 

I'm some where on that path and would consider as my approach is some where on that path.

[bluebottle]

Been wondering if this applies. When you move from buying ready made to a kit, from a kit to adapting a kit, from adapting a kit to building yourself, etc.

I'm some where on that path and would consider as my approach is some where on that path.

 

Or, as Robert Louis Stevenson put it:

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour."

[BlackRat]

When you have the ability to give someone a help up.

[Jol Wilkinson]

On a wider level I reckon its when someone else thinks " ooo yeah, that reminds me of such and such a time or place" regardless of what bits have been thrown into the construction mixer....

 

Unfortunately that is less likey to happen when you make a more "historical" model, as fewer people will be aware of it's accuracy/realism (or otherwise). Even those things that we remember from our younger days are often distorted, especially with colours. How often have we returned to a place after many years to find that it isn't quite how we remembered it?

 

Jol

[coachmann]

How often have we returned to a place after many years to find that it isn't quite how we remembered it?

 

 

How true. I expect because we were small children the streets seemed much longer for a start and it's quite a shock going back after half a Century. The railway scene got cleaner as 100+ years of encrusted soot began to crumble and fall off bridges and retaining walls after the steam-era. For me, painting & lining model railway items 24/7 in liveries surrounding the 1880's to 1964 has kept me in a time warp since the mid 1960's and so early LMS livery is just as fresh to me as the latest vinyl-clad Units.

[Jenny Emily]

Unfortunately that is less likey to happen when you make a more "historical" model, as fewer people will be aware of it's accuracy/realism (or otherwise). Even those things that we remember from our younger days are often distorted, especially with colours. How often have we returned to a place after many years to find that it isn't quite how we remembered it?

 

Jol

 

My Father builds 4" working steam traction engines. He got so sick of 'armchair critics' telling him that he had X wrong or Y wrong on his model Garrett (no two of the real ones were ever the same anyway) that he has built an Alfred Dodman, none of which survived, none of which were ever known to have been photographed and that only the plans survive. He still gets armchair critics at shows trying to tell him that his model is inaccurate in some way.

 

One modeller has been heard to say of his model when it was criticised "It's like that because this one wasn't built at the Foster works but was built in my shed at the bottom of my garden"

[rodshaw]

My Father builds 4" working steam traction engines. He got so sick of 'armchair critics' telling him that he had X wrong or Y wrong on his model Garrett (no two of the real ones were ever the same anyway) that he has built an Alfred Dodman, none of which survived, none of which were ever known to have been photographed and that only the plans survive. He still gets armchair critics at shows trying to tell him that his model is inaccurate in some way.

 

One modeller has been heard to say of his model when it was criticised "It's like that because this one wasn't built at the Foster works but was built in my shed at the bottom of my garden"

 

It would be nice to get a layout to an exhibition or two as a sign of having achieved something. But I'm not sure how I'd behave to nitpickers, I'd probably say something which ensured I was never invited back!

[Guest jim s-w]

"thanks for your feedback, I'll look into it". It's up to you weather or not you actually do!

[RBE]

90% of the people through the door wouldnt have a clue whether something was accurate or not. When I'm building stuff I have to research and dig out my old platform 5 spotting books etc to see what things were like and I lived in the time that I model and knew quite a lot back then. The years haven't locked that level of info into my brain so hence the research. I try to get things as right as I can but more for my satisfaction than what people at exhibitions say. Its unlikely that many people will be able to stand there and say "That loco shouldn't be on that stock because it was in that livery 2 months after that stock had this modification done" or whatever. If they can correctly say that then they need to have a sit down. I don't get involved in silly discussions just informative and relavent ones. I run a class 85 with a euro distribution 86 and no-one yet has made a murmor. As long as the layout has a rough timespan I don't see the problem.

 

Cav

[GC Jack]

It is unlikey that someone will say that this or this didn't run with that or that but they sometimes do,and with great authority.

 

I had a chap in front of my fictitious layout - approximately west midlands somewhere - loudly proclaiming to all the visitors round the layout, that this loco and that loco never ran there.

 

I tried to point out that this was not an actual location but to no avail he just got angry.

 

In the end he moved the layout next door and it started all over again.

 

Jack

[Ruston]

How do you know when you've made it as a railway modeller?

 

Personally I see it as being responsible for the main picture on the cover or Railway Modeller (or perhaps being the inspiration for a Railway of the Month).

 

 

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

 

Sorry that I have just dragged this thread from the depths of time but I remembered it from all those years ago, even though I never posted in it.

 

This may seem big-headed to some but I think I have made it as a railway modeller - in my own eyes at least because I now do things that, when I joined this forum over 10 years ago, I would never have thought I would ever be able to do. Some of the things that people have suggested as being indicative of having "made it" - published articles in magazines, people seeking advice, and being comissioned to build models for other people - I have done these in the past twelve months but they are not the reasons why, to me, I have "made it".

 

The reason, as far as I'm concerned, is that I can now do something that I have wanted to do for years and have looked up to people who can do it and that is to be able to scratchbuild locomotives. I know scratchbuilding isn't fashionable these days but, to me, scratchbuilders have always seemed like alchemists and it feels like I now share the secret of making gold out of base metals or rather locomotives out of sheets of brass.

 

As for awards, or being published in MRJ being regarded as having "made it", I couldn't give a toss - to quote Father Fintan Stack (from Father Ted) "I've had my fun and that's all that matters". 

Edited July 19, 2018 by Ruston

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Do you ever really "MAKE IT" as a modeller ?. Railway modelling is a really subjective and personal hobby. In my opinion if you build something and are really happy with it whether is a perfect fully rivet counted model or just a really nice representation of the same model or layout then you have made it. After all if it looks like duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck......It's a duck.,,,  It is not how other people feel that count, but how you feel that matters. Be happy with what you do and do not worry about what others think. Praise and constructive criticism is great from your peers but not the be all and end all.

Be happy and play trains after all that's how we all started in this hobby.

Edited July 20, 2018 by cypherman

[RedgateModels]

On 07/03/2012 at 15:39, RedgateModels said:

I'd still like to make a cover one day .........

 

Forgot about this thread 🙂

 

 

Only took a year and a half to wait LOL

Edited August 17, 2022 by RedgateModels

[chris p bacon]

As for awards, or being published in MRJ being regarded as having "made it", I couldn't give a toss - to quote Father Fintan Stack (from Father Ted) "I've had my fun and that's all that matters". 

 

 

How about, 'I've just sold one of my etches to the owner of MRJ'. . . .

 

Does that count ?

[br2975]

"......How do you know if you're made it as a railway modeller?......"

.

You know you've made it as railway modeller, when you enjoy the hobby ! ,

[Phatbob]

"......How do you know if you're made it as a railway modeller?......"

I felt like I'd "made it" the first time a well respected exhibition manager asked me to exhibit my new layout without even seeing it first!

An act of such faith in one's ability builds a sense of achievement that hard to believe, until it happens.

[Pacific231G]

Railway modelling is essentially an artistically interpretive hobby so it's worth remembering that if recognition by ones contemporaries is the measure of quality then the works of the French Impressionists would not be in many galleries. Within our hobby the work of A.R.Walkley in the mid nineteen twenties went almost entirely unrecognised for decades though he pioneered a great deal of what we take for granted now and was probably the first advocate of putting the railway in a scene and of the small shunting layout.

 

 Provided their modelling is of good quality it's often been the ability to write about their work that made certain modellers into "names" . The Buckingham Branch is justifiably famous. It is a great example of a layout that captures the essence of the railway it represented in a remarkably small space but I wonder how it compares with say Richard Chown's Castle Rackrent in its fully developed form. Though he wrote a few articles, Richard was not a prolific writer so his work is not very well known though his small (for O gauge) Courcelles Part, his enormous Allendenac and some other layouts did appear at exhibtions..Similarly in the early nineteen thirties, Bill Banwell (with Frank Applegate) effectively invented the most popular layout format, the portable terminus to hidden sidings layout with Maybank. Bill Banwell wasn't a writer, the only detailed article about Maybank was written by someone else, and though the editors did manage to squeeze a couple of short articles out of him in later years, he is now largely unknown outside O gauge circles. 

Edited July 21, 2018 by Pacific231G

[The Johnster]

Not sure I'm particularly interested in 'making it', though the approbation of my peers is always welcome and valued.  I am happy if my layout and the modelling I do for it give me satisfaction and pleasure, which they do, and really don't care too much what others think of it or me.  

 

But this is a forum (really, Johnster, I never realised...) and I express views and opinions (such as this) on it, as well as trying if I think I can to inform or instruct others who are having problems.  My views and opinions are just that, and I try not to offend with them but nobody has to take any notice if they don't want to.  Not sure what point I'm trying to make here, but I think it's something to do with the degree of respect and regard with which I hold my peers on the forum and with which I think they hold me; and my feeling is that this is at about the right level considering my limited skill and knowledge level.  I've been doing this off and on fore many decades, and haven't picked up anything like as much as I should have.  I will never 'make it' in the way that Tony Wright, or Dibber, KNP, or NHY have; these are people who I find inspiring and try to emulate.  But I am happy with things the way they are, at least from a personal perspective!

Edited July 20, 2018 by The Johnster

[tomparryharry]

Have I made it? Listen pal, some days I'm lucky if I can make it to the front door......

[The Johnster]

Have I made it? Listen pal, some days I'm lucky if I can make it to the front door......

 

i call that 'achieving escape velocity', and. like you, do not always achieve it!

[bike2steam]

How do you know when you've made it as a railway modeller?

 

 

Who gives a damn ?? I do it because I enjoy it, not because I want to make myself noticed.

[jcm@gwr]

I agree that most of us (including me) do it because we enjoy

doing it, and we all strive to do better (well I do anyway).

But, I think we all appreciate it when other modellers start to 

compliment your work (especially those you respect)

[Craigw]

I don't know about "making it" but I wrote quite a few articles for our local model railway magazine and still do the occasional review. I must admit it is pretty good when you see things on a layout inspired by one of your articles or have people seeking me out to show me models they have modified and altered after reading my articles.  Seeing that people have done something because you inspired them is pretty special in my books.

 

Regards,

 

Craig W

Edited July 21, 2018 by Craigw