My layout looks like the best from the magazines, trouble is I was shooting for as photo real as possible, unfortinatly I don’t have that skill so I have to settle for a caricature of what I want. Maybe I should have gone with a larger scale for more detail but I just didn’t have the space. As far as cost, my hobby has cost nothing as I have bought most at bargin basement prices and paid for the rest out of selling what I ended up not needing. What I am trying to get at is go for what you want to end up with, look deep inside and the easiest thing to look at in my opinion the type of layout you want, that alone can lead you in one direction or another. Next is era, if you want to run stuff that needs broad curves and desided on a running railroad, your space will dictate what you can do. Next would be level of detail wanted, if you want to model indiviual leaves on a tree, then HO is too small. Ect.
I know how you feel, Mr Ron! When I started my first layout several years ago, I was inspired by some of the photos of layouts done by experts.
I quickly realized that if I was going to enjoy it, I had to get over the idea that my layout was going to reach the great level of some of the forum’s posters.
I still try to do my best and aim high, but I’ve grown to enjoy the hobby even though my layout won’t win any awards. I also never never take pictures of parts of the layout and then resize the photos into very close-up shots. All it does is show up all the mistakes I made that aren’t as visible to the eye.
I see on your bio page that you live near Biloxi. We used to spend a lot of time there near the beach. The best was Aunt Jenny’s seafood restaurant in Ocean Springs. All-you-can-eat catfish and shrimp. Heaven.