I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve noticed an incredible explosion on you tube in the last couple of months of videos on weathering and various other tutorials on rr modelling?
And I have also noticed what in my opinion is a wonderful thing…a lot of these channels and videos are being created by YOUNG cats, new blood in the hobby, and, BOY, ARE THESE GUYS GOOD! Like, really, really good. I’m thinking especially of the red-headed kid, the energetic *** **, the Canadian who’s always saying “eh?” all the time, Lee Choung, and a couple more I can’t think of off hand.
Does anybody beside me at least some spend time watching and saving these videos? Does anybody else enjoy their irreverent attitudes and bad language and all? I think they’re good for us and I wish they’d start showing up at our club meetings…ha! ha! ha! wouldn’t that be something?
I have watch quite a few of *** **'s videos. (Hate the palm tress curtain thing) I do enjoy his videos, but do not care for the cursing. Can’t say I have learned anything from his videos because of this site. Now, when I got stated he would have been a great help.
I have referred some of the new members that come to the site to U Tube. Seeing is worth a thousand words.
If you tube is helping young people in the hobby, great.
Personally I have no time or interest in you tube - but then again I have never had much interest in model railroad “help” video’s. I was unimpressed by the first several “Dream - Plan - build” series and resented MR “pushing” them the way they did, sending them without asking, etc.
Irreverent attitudes and bad language would really turn me off, thanks for the warning I’ll be even more sure not to waste any time.
No, not for me. I am older, don’t much relate to that stuff, really haven’t seen anything interesting when I have looked. Generation difference I guess, but I don’t spend a lot of time glued to a screen. Too much life to be lived to confine myself to a computer.
There is so much wonderful prototype (and historical) train (and boat) material on YouTube that I have not paid much attention to all but a few of the model railroad tutorials. In general, and not talking about model railroad vids for the moment, most attempts to deliberately do “funny” stuff on YouTube fall pretty flat. Film of almost any puppy on earth is funnier.
I will say that there are certain techniques – how to handlay track is an example – which are almost easier to show in 25 seconds of video than in pages of text with still photos. So there is a place for tutorial videos and layout visits to be sure.
Although I spend a lot of time online I’d rather learn from actually trying things and from good old fashioned books. I just like books. My favorite model railroad related book is Frank Ellison on Model Railroads from 1954. It’s amazing to me that many of the things he did 50 years ago were somehow lost to time and are only now being rediscovered as revolutionary. Back then people did things out of necessity as many things weren’t available to buy. There were many more kits sold back then and much more creativity resulted from it. That definitely wasn’t a generation of Chinese built instant gratification and I respect that. It’s probably why I’ve been buying older pieces from the 30’s through 50’s.
I like looking at what was once tried as well as what some people do today but don’t let any one person influence me. The greats of Frank Ellison, John Armstrong, and John Allen will always be my primary interests. A few local modellers here are also large influences such as Barry Bogs, Craig Brantley, and Gil Freitag. I’m fortunate to be able to just show up and play or help out with them and I encourage others to get to know their local greats. Pelle Soeborg is a current writer who I admire. His books are very easy to understand. He shows how to easily create a convincing scene and how to photograph it in a believable way. I’m sure many online videos are helpful but there is really only one video set that I think anyone really should watch as it is done very well and very professionally. That is Joe Fugate’s tutorials. He’s a master. He’s also polite and thorough. He takes things to the next level. He shows how to attain the utmost in realism right down to details that you’d probably be the only one ever even noticing. After watching his videos, you’ll never want to watch another. I didn’t really get anything out of the Dream Plan Build series. To me many of the techniques they showed were meant for the beginner rather than the advanced modeller although admi
I have found some of the stuff on Youtube helpful since I am new to the hobby, but also did a lot of reading here and from books from the library. What I find great on Youtube is the vidoes of people running trains on their layouts, it gives ideas on how to plan my buildings and industries.
I’ve seen a few, but other than that I don’t watch that many model railroad videos on YouTube. I shoot my own videos of my layout, but a lot of the tutorials are repeats of each other. As for quality, you have to know where to look.
That’s gotta be Steve, the ‘Koomloopia’ or whatever. His stuff is more War-gamer (the rustic barn and the ruined church section were to hide warrior pieces in), and they weren’t contest-level models, but some of his advice is useful, most of his stuff looks good enough, and some of his commentary is hilarious. Anyway, I think he had videos up for a while (years), but consolidated all his stuff under one channel (still needs a ton of editing, but still) - and perhaps the other guys you mentioned are doing the same and now you’re getting all their tutorials on one channel instead of spread around and hard to find. I think we had one poster on here who put up tutorials on laying track (they were OK), but kind of got irked at low viewership and pulled them all and complained about it on this forum.
The one most recent youtube tutorial I found useful was how to fold fitted sheets - I watched and practiced some (the video with a guy - the one with the woman didn’t work), and now I know how to fold my fitted sheets nicely (for the first time since they came from the store) - there have been several printed articles over the years concerning folding fitted sheets (really!) - all were confusing and hard to understand - but one 2 minute video, bam, comprehension…
I haven’t seen them myself, but being a “young gun” myself (rather young in fact at 15) I can say that I wish a lot of these guys would grow up. There’s being funny and then there’s being immature. there’s being cool and then there’s being a jerk. Sounds like they have some good tutorials, if they would cut the cursing out then I suppose they’d be able to have some great followings. I personally try to keep my mouth cleanish (I do say substitutes like “frick” or “crap” (hopefully we can include these words in posts on here) but there are times when the struggle fails. however if that moment ever gets captured on video camera I’m deleting the video.
I really don’t like Youtube all that much for 2 reasons:
almost everytime I try to use it, the website tries to launch a something or other file into my computer (Nortain antivirus saves the day)
2: the cursing, rude gestures, imaturity, and everything else stupid, dumb, illigal, etc…etc…
For an example of #2: I don’t read the comments because almost every responce dropps every possible bomb that should never even be allowed where children could see.
Another example is that 75-80 % of the videos can be classified as profannity by federal law ( I’m not real sure about the laws, but everything must meat some part of it’s criteria or it’s profanity) Now, I know that teen-agers want to have fun and most (not all) would like to have that fun be illigal in some way or extent ( I don’t know if it exists, but you could search on Youtube for “how to paint graffitti” and, if you don’t specify “model train” or “on a model train,” you could find plenty of people in some back alley somewhere doing exactly that, teaching how to paint graffitti on some wall.
Don’t get me wrong, some Youtube people don’t use explitives in their videos and have very good how-to videos for their respected hobbies, like this one teen-ager who calls himself Ohiosouthern, and try to make a fairly good effort into teaching you how to make that neat weathering effect on a locomotive without an airbrush (Thanks Ohiosouthern) or how to model a junkyard scene complete with wrecked cars ( I can’t remember who made those videos.)
But I will say that the problem with the profanity (you all know what I’m talking about) as well as what is accually in the video (The horror) is a major problem for me, and it’s rapidly spinning out of control. One thing I can say, Youtube is not the place for me (you can tell thats bad, I’m only 15 myself.) The majority of the material is bette
I find many of these youtube videos very helpfull. The maturity of the posters doesnt get to me much if the information is usefull. With regards to weathered cars. Its nice to see more good modelers posting thier how-to videos on this sort of thing. It seemed only a few years ago, many would not share how they were doing things just because they were cashing in on weathered cars on Ebay. Many modelers that do that are very selfish with thier crafts. Its nice there are open and honest modelers out there that are more then willing to share how they create nicely painted and weathered models in how-to videos. Which in the end, saves your sanity in preventing errors and also saves you money in meterials that would have otherwise been wasted in testing what works and doesnt.
The Youtube tutorials are pretty interesting sometimes. My problem is that I start clicking on the other links and before you know it I’ve lost a couple of hours.
I’ve watched a few of the you tube postings, found them useful, somewhat entertaining. I’ve been modeling off and on since the late 50’s. I watch how to videos and read how to books, always looking for a better way to do things. If I get one good idea they are worth the cost. I certainly admire anyone too smart to learn anything new, but I just turned 61, run my own manufacturing business and don’t know 97% about anything! There is an old saying, when you’ve stop learning, you’ve stopped breathing!
I just recently started to use polystyrene foam to form scenery. (I used to use the classic hard shell method.) I purchased a hot knife from Micro-Mark and was not sure how best to use it. You-Tube answered all of my questions in about 10 minutes. Peter Smith, Memphis