Guest nzflyer Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 University next year. I'm in the final stages of selling off my dusty old Hornby train set and extra track pieces, and anything else railway related to earn some extra cash. It's something exciting to look forward to, but the railways will have to take the back seat for a couple of years. I considered buying some card and balsa wood packs from a local craft store and trying my hand at scratch building but in the end, the time is just not there and who wants to be inhaling modelling glue fumes while trying to study for a paper? A lot of other hobbies will be taking the back seat as well (gardening, whittling, carpentry, metalwork) but model building will always be in my blood. There's nothing like taking a Airfix kit, constructing and painting it and ending with a finished product to be proud of. It's a masculine nerve that will never leave. I might splash out on one tank or wagon kit to build and paint...paper weights and bookends etc. and it will definitely be something different! I realise that as a 'young blood' I have asked questions on some topics that many of you have already discussed, but I am afterall an overseas modeller and one of a young age. The skills I have learnt in the hobby will stay with me for life, and learning how to construct and fix things has come in handy, especially in this last week when the dishwasher in my school Common Room broke down. RMweb has been a constant source of inspiration, guidance, wisdom and support. I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone considering the hobby, hands down. I wish to express thanks to all my friends, followers of my posts and those who I have befriended. You railway modelling aficionados have changed my life. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Good luck at university. Absolutely correct about modelling taking a back seat, but it will always be there, waiting for your return. My university days are long ago, but the friends I made then, I still occasionaly see. As for modelling! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2865 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I hate to hear that. Life does often get in the way of what we enjoy. But, I can tell you its not impossible. I thought modeling would take a back seat, but I have to say, Ive done more in the 2 years Ive been at Uni than the 18 I had before it. (And just so you know, I've never done homework on my desk! Its far too cluttered with tools and plastic and paints) Its a shame you have to sell it all. I can tell you, youll miss it when you get back into modeling. Everyone always seems too. But money does help a long way. And budgeting it is key! But balsa and card are a good way to downsize. I always have wood strips tucked in a corner in case I want to try something. If I could make a suggestion, first figure out how much time youll have free and from there, you can gauge if you can budget some time to modeling. Youll be surprised how much time you end up with. Dont fret about what your professors say, uni isnt about mindless learning or constant work. Everyone fits a bit of their lives in their time at uni. Overall, good luck, learn, work hard, but most importantly, dont let it control your life. When that happens, you start hating every day. Make sure you have something worth getting through each day for, whatever it may be. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Colin_McLeod Posted March 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 28, 2015 Good luck. Be sure your studies don't get in the way of your university life. LOL Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jjb1970 Posted March 28, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 28, 2015 Best of luck at university!! You never really leave the hobby, you just take a break. Admittedly some of these breaks can be rather long but it is amazing how people come back when circumstances change. You never know, you may find that you do a bit while you are at university. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimbus Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Have you discounted the possibility that your chosen university has a railway / model railway club as a branch of its SU? The Nim. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Colin_McLeod Posted March 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 28, 2015 Or find a friend with a layout you can operate from time to time Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dava Posted March 29, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 29, 2015 Message from Uni prof: modeling at uni is OK! Teddy Boston was failing at Theology college till he resumed modeling (Font to footplate memoir) I built card buildings etc as therapy as a student, Owen Ryder produced 09 kits studying engineering Uni is not full time unless you're working as well I only stopped for 10 years to do PhD & write books,now building foam board microlayout as therapy with wrist fracture Enjoy! Dava Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Londontram Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Chance here for a nice micro layout in a brief case or something similar. Here's an example pinched off the web but a nice little British narrow gauge would work for me Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nzflyer Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 There is a local model club but I'd think I'd rather spend time with my peers and build a network of friends. Perhaps maybe when I go flatting but where I'm studying there's no decent model shops and you have to drive four and a half hours or get a delivery... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginelane Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I modelled when I was at university, basic tool kit and bearing in mind it was 40 years ago I went I bought some kits and with plastic card and bits made some wagons. Buildings are a possibility but take up space and get knocked off shelves etc. I found modelling a great help when under essay deadlines and helped me focus back into what I should be doing in the work. With rail card discounts great time to travel and see things at a lower cost. There could be a local club and just because there is not a uni club it does not stop you putting up a face book page etc and seeing if there is any interest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Never assume you won't have time to model at Uni. I found it to be a great way to get away from the dayly stress's. Having friends outside of university at the club I was a member of was I built this in my 4th and 5th year out of cardboard, brick paper and bits that I found round the flat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I modelled when I was at university, basic tool kit and bearing in mind it was 40 years ago I went I bought some kits and with plastic card and bits made some wagons. Buildings are a possibility but take up space and get knocked off shelves etc. I found modelling a great help when under essay deadlines and helped me focus back into what I should be doing in the work. With rail card discounts great time to travel and see things at a lower cost. There could be a local club and just because there is not a uni club it does not stop you putting up a face book page etc and seeing if there is any interest. I probably did more modelling when living in a bedsit as a student than I've done before or since; chiefly scratchbuilding wagons and NPCCS from plastic card. My 'bench' was my mother's old breadboard! Building bodies was relatively easy and cheap; underframes came from Max Williams' stock of Kenline bits. Whilst most were simple vans and opens, there were a few more ambitious projects, such as a Gresley BG and Buffet and a Siphon G. The first two have gone into a black hole, but the latter stands up well even now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB-AU Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 If you're going away to university, see if there is a club nearby. Don't let it interfere with your studies but it's a good way to relieve a bit of stress. If you're lucky there might even be a university railway club. EDIT: And this may be a good time to think about a box file or other micro layout. Cheers David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmthtrains - David Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Modelling at Uni is definitely okay, especially when you can find ways of linking it to your studies. Does help if you're studying Modelmaking anyway though... David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted March 29, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 29, 2015 Some 45 years ago at University I used to make wagons, in those days from Peco kits. Once I moved into a bed sit with a separate kitchen I built a small layout. When friends came round, as happened most evenings, they always ended up in the kitchen playing trains - even if they said they had no interest in model railways. Girls enjoyed running trains on the layout just as much as men! For tools I mainly used my dissecting kit as I was doing a Biology degree. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nzflyer Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Never assume you won't have time to model at Uni. I found it to be a great way to get away from the dayly stress's. Having friends outside of university at the club I was a member of was I built this in my 4th and 5th year out of cardboard, brick paper and bits that I found round the flat. Thought I recognised it! This is Otago Railway Station in the same city where I'll (hopefully) be attending University! Such a rich railway town so fun to go there but modelling New Zealand railways is so bloody expensive! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB-AU Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Such a rich railway town so fun to go there but modelling New Zealand railways is so bloody expensive! No prototype is particularly expensive if you are prepared to scratchbuild. And it depends on what scale. Sn3½ would certainly a bit expensive if you buy available kits and 9mm scale even more so, but NZ120 (TTn3½) isn't overly expensive as you can use many commercial N gauge products for mechanisms and trackwork. Cheers David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNER4479 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I (scratch) built half of this... ...whilst I was at university. SIx months further work after I left and she was finished (1987). Still doing sterling work 28 years on (yikes!) Plenty of time for modelling at Uni (even though lectures, beer and women occasionally get in the way...) Enjoy it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 No prototype is particularly expensive if you are prepared to scratchbuild. And it depends on what scale. Sn3½ would certainly a bit expensive if you buy available kits and 9mm scale even more so, but NZ120 (TTn3½) isn't overly expensive as you can use many commercial N gauge products for mechanisms and trackwork. The Otago Model Engineers hae layouts in both 16.5mm and 9mm gauges. The smaller scales (and don't write off NZ120) are easier in terms of space required and also starting materials. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 University next year. ...A lot of other hobbies will be taking the back seat as well (gardening, whittling, carpentry, metalwork) but model building will always be in my blood. There's nothing like taking a Airfix kit, constructing and painting it and ending with a finished product to be proud of. It's a masculine nerve that will never leave.... Ah, but what are you signed up for, course wise? It it's physics you can model the entire universe with no more than the time honoured blackboard/chalk, pencil/paper, keyboard/humungous supercomputer, combinations: and the railway is in there somewhere, full size and in all modeling scales... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurboSnail Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 No need to stop modelling at uni! As a current Uni student, modelling makes a really nice way to spend a quiet evening weathering a wagon or putting a plastic kit together to take my mind off the precariously towering pile of paper on my desk. I've had a bit of flak for it from some of the 'booze brothers' but I still manage to go out and have fun a couple of nights a week. It's just the time management that's initially tricky... Have fun Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sp1 Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 You could have a layout in a cupboard: have a look at C J Freezers 'Dugdale Road' (it's in one of his track plans books) - created for/ by his son at university. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamjamie Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 At university I trained in theatre where we do quite the opposite of modelling! Taking set designer's models and making them life-sized! I'd suggest if you want to keep a bit of modelling going try a layout in a box file, or something similar. At least that way it can pack away quite neatly. When you're stuck on a project or assignment, taking a bit of time out and doing something completely different (like a bit of modelling) can work wonders! You come back to the problem with a fresh set of eyes again, and it can be quite remarkable how obvious the solution is once you give yourself a chance to step back! It's the awesome power of distraction, not procrastination! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aforsyth Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Hi nzflyer - I know what you're going through, like many others. Even so, I do wish I'd had forums like RMweb when I was growing up! My mind was already on other things a while before going to Uni in the early 90s, and to be honest the battered EMUs of Kent I would travel on didn't inspire me to jump back into modelling while I was there! I do however regret losing contact with the rail world so much at the time. For example with the fun of student life, I didn't even notice my favourite diesel loco of the time (class 50) vanish from the West Country in that decade, and certainly never got to model anything. More recently, as various events brought me back to model railways, it was more the lack of space and money that was the problem. However, although tempted, I had never sold my old railway stuff (just my music collection!), so eventually I picked up the box of goodies from my parents and took it home (abroad). Setting up the occasional circle of track on a table top and running a few locos kept me going for many years! I would recommend, if you can, that you try to hold on to at least a loco, some track and a cheap, small controller, unless you really want to 'escape' the hobby for a while. It'll be more fun that way if you do end up scratchbuilding a wagon or building over the coming years. Finally, as further 'inspiration' - one of the treasured moments in my life was when I could give my young son his first 'real' loco, which was in turn my first loco (Hornby 0-4-0) given to me at age 8, with motor now removed!. It's certainly not in perfect condition, but he's loved playing with it. Good luck with Uni - I have a feeling that modelling will come and find you again soon enough. Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.