Off to Scaleforum today, mainly for a bit of shopping and a general nose around. Not my usual haunt or social circle, but there's usually some good trade.
First off, the food (compared to Woking) was top notch, good basic fare and plenty of it, so that's a relief. Just shows that it's not that hard to get it right even in a leisure centre environment.
The show... hmmmm. 10 layouts (Though you had to search a bit) obviously of the P4 variety - that much is expected. The rest however... quiet. Sparse. The first time I went to the new venue, after the Society left its usual Leatherhead home, you couldn't move, couldn't park, and couldn't get near any layouts. Today? Well the picture says it all. I wonder if they are suffering with the UKIP effect of now having shouted for higher standards and got them, they are in a wilderness period.
I suppose there might be a couple of factors. One is the age profile of modellers.
ReplyDeleteThe second which you touch up is the quality of modern products. In my first spell in the hobby I subscribed to the MRJ but never achieved anything like the level to which I aspired. I was talking a few months ago to the 2nd in command of our local model shop and we reminisced about the horrors of white metal kits and Araldite.
Now, after a return and a bit of hiatus I am planning new layout. Baseboard from Tim Horne, track the new Peco bullhead range. Static grass, downloadable kits or brick paper from the internet. Terrific RTR products, weathered with 3 link / screw couplings added supplemented by wonderful kits.
So look back at the early MRJs and then compare the contents to the stuff on Chris Nevard's Facebook page. His work may lack in prototype fidelity, however with modest effort we can all get near what he achieves, without committing a lifetime to doing so. Which going back to the age profile thing, most of us don't have enough left for that.
I went on Saturday morning. Very quiet - the only thing resembling a crush was around the second hand stall. Loads of space that could have been filled with a large signature layout to prove that P$ can be made to work with express trains and steam age shunting at realistic speeds across complex trackwork (e.g. not done at a dead crawl)
ReplyDeleteThere was some excellent models on display - Danby was instantly recognisable as a station from the Esk Velley line. Brettle Road, set at night, was also effective - but that canopy was a pain for the operators.
I had very interesting conversations with RT models and the guy demonstrating a CNC cutter he was using to score plasticard.
Did it convince me to switch from EM to P4 - NO!! Too many derailments and finger poking.
Regards, Geoff
Derailments were certainly a feature of the day. No names, but a Heljen Class 16 out of the box on one of the commercial track systems wouldn't fall off. I did wonder why a couple of times
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