JohnChic.com

The “Good Enough” School of Modeling

Posted September 12th, 2008 by johnchic

I am a member of the “Good Enough” school of modeling.  Buy this I mean that when I model a scene or structure or piece of equipment, be it locomotive or rolling stock, I am out to recreate the look and/or feel of the prototype.  Some in our hobby are what I call “rivet counters”.  These folks are into the minutia of exact dimensions and locations of every aspect of a model.  Now while I have great respect for their abilities, I don’t want to get bogged down in the height of a letter or the placement of a ladder step.  If one of my models has the look and feel of the prototype then that’s good enough for me.  Now having said that, I do like to give all my pieces a dose of weathering.  I am into making my models look like the real thing in terms of what time, use, neglect and mother nature do to things.  When I buy a new engine or piece of rolling stock the first thing I do is “dirty it up”.  I get out the air brush and pastel chalks and go to work.  There will be more photos showing these techniques in the near future.