Monday 15 August 2022

Is railway modelling doomed?


 I read Phil's post from a couple of days ago (link to your right) with interest. The general argument is that there is a demand for perfect RTR coupled with a shift toward add-ons being produced via the medium of CAD and 3D printing. I have to disagree, well up to point anyway, and I don't think that traditional modelling is doomed – far from it.

Whitemetal lumps

When I started, the overriding material used for rolling stock kits, plus a lot of other stuff was whitemetal. Easy to work and cheap and simple to cast in a cottage industry workshop. Then during the 1980s this fell from favour with the advent of etched brass which was jumped on with glee with the finescale boys as the way forward, often with a religious fervour not to mention a slightly down the nose attitude. The smart money (and I'm thinking Roger Chivers and London Road Models) took the best from w/m and brass or nickel silver using the properties for each and used the weight of the whitemetal and the delicate nature of the sheet material to improve the breed. The traditional makers such as SE Finecast had to play catch up. To an extent we are at this juncture again.

The desire for RTR perfection is really a separate subject and is not really any different from  any other consumer product such as TVs, that is, constantly evolving due to consumer demand. Actual modelling is another thing. It's a pastime.

Quality

The model railway 3D print products are in essence no different from the whitemetal products of yore. We all know there is some excellent stuff out there... and there is a lot of absolute crap produced by well-meaning but unskilled amateurs. When building Unnycoome a decade ago we struggled to find decent, proper 2mm castings amongst all the mis-labeled and badly made whitemetal items that were passed off as top quality and scale. My point here is that 3D printing is just a new way to make crap parts and in 20 years time people will be rummaging around on club stands picking out secondhand 3D parts that failed the quality test. The good will stand the test of time. This is positive and not the end of the world. Glossing over the environmental aspect, the parts are plastic and not nasty lead-based things. 

The fire pit

Phil's point about not being able to compete is not new. I've being saying for 20 years plus that I can't reach the standard of the RTR stuff, and to be honest this has probably been the case since the Palitoy ranges of the early 1980s... So what? This may be more to do with Phil living in 'the bubble' and mixing with top talents, not to mention the fire-pit of criticism that is RMweb with everyone ripping every new product to bits and demanding more and more detail, but t's not the real world and not where the vast majority of modellers live.


A positive future

What are the positives? Well I'll give an example. Two good friends of mine have recently collaborated lightly on a project to scratch build an O gauge Q1 in cardboard (yes you read that right) and the result is fantastic, standing up to any etched brass kit. The collaboration occurred with the Boxpok wheels that the Q1 ran on. 3D print overlays were drawn and made ensuring a fine and consistent finish which which saved time. As far as I can see, the modellers will model and the buyers will buy and the 3D print will just gradually replace the lost wax castings and misshapen whitemetal blobs. The only real difference is the screen design which is a lot less dangerous than ladling molten metal around.

4 comments:

  1. Is railway modelling doomed? Short answer, no. Long winded rambling follows.

    What one thinks about this question I think depends on what keeps one in the hobby. Myself, I like making models and layouts more-or-less with my own two hands - and sometimes my brain :-) I certainly make use of commercial parts, and have used, and liked using, 3-D printed ones. Scratchbuilding and kitbashing are my favourite activities. I can’t say where I draw the line about using industrial-like tools. Frankly, I can’t be bothered with tightly defining what it means to scratchbuild or kitbash by hand. For example, I use a Dremel motor tool, but actually owning and using a 3-D printer would seeming like I’ve left the world of handcrafting and entered the world of industrial production. Some people like that, and that’s great, but for me, that’s leaving behind what I like to do.

    I have no illusions about “The Good Old Days”. Just as in the wider-world, there was a lot wrong and got improved (and lots of stuff that still needs improvement), but there were certainly methods and techniques that were quite good and lead to interesting work. I think there is a feeling among many people that everything from the past is bunk and should be scrapped. I’m not so sure about that. I like to read through the old model railroading magazines, and am constantly surprised by the modelling and layouts. Without some appreciation of quality work and innovations from the past, and how it was accomplished, the ground is certainly prepared for commercial concerns to convince everyone that everything should be purchased ready-to-use.

    Which I think leads to the idea of model railroading styles. Maybe along with the usual styles like fine scale, freelance, and so on, there should also be a hand-made style. Don’t ask me for a strict definition, but I know it when I see it. Hmm, I’d have to collect up some example layouts and models and try and tease out some hand-made style guidelines from them.

    Don’t get me wrong, I like to buy RTR locos and cars, but when I do, it’s to play with on the layout, not stick on a shelf. Although, after a few years they often become shelf queens as my interests move along :-) If someone wants to fork out a lot of cash to put something on their shelf, fine, to each their own.

    Ok, enough blathering. This is an interesting post. Hope you continue with your new found blogging mojo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I shared somewhere a letter from an early Railway Modeler from a pre-war modeler proclaiming the death of the hobby and the decline of standards since people no longer built every single element of a loco from scratch. The average builder can now produce a layout that would have been mind-blowing in the seventies. That isn't just about locos and stock. Track, buildings, ground cover have all benefited from new techniques. Yes there are a lot of copycat layouts out there, but people are still pushing ahead with new ideas. In the plastic modeling world, which I follow for ideas, improvements are seen as helping spur people on to even higher standards. You don't get people wishing Airfix would return to the standards of the fifties.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sure my view is tainted by the need to earn a living from this stuff - and if the majority of modellers are only interested in buying rather than building, then there's no need for practical articles which I specialise in. Perhaps if (when?) I find a way to step away from all that, things will seem different. Or maybe I'll jack it all in and just sit and watch YouTube like many people do instead of bothering to do stuff.

    As for RMweb, yes, the bits everyone likes to watch are the arguments, a bit like the pub clearing to see a fight in the car park, but ignoring the guys have a quiet game of darts in the corner. On the forum, people ignore things like the card modelling area (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/113-card-structure-modelling-forum/) and the inovation filled Cakebox area (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/330-brmrmweb-cakebox-challenge/) because hating something is more fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apologies for the above being anonymous - Google is being wierd.

    ReplyDelete