I was reading about “Accuracy” in the general forum and a bit of disappointment came to me.
I am doing my first real layout and I am learning as I progress. EX. Laying ballast, paving roads, adding scenery. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Frustration sets in. THEN, driving around my great community I notice, thing are not perfect. Ballast or railroads are not even all over, roads are not always paved straight, up here our roads are loaded with frost heaves. Then I go back to my layout and see it in a different light. I guess where I am going here is I see the layouts in MR and think, wow fantastic. Just wondering how many folks feel the same as this new Modeler and have had a experience of laying scenery that just didn’t look right, get frustrated, until you notice that, things in life just aren’t perfect. I am not saying I do not want things looking realistic but, I guess sometimes realistic is not perfect. Thanks, Joe
Right you are, Joe! When I go to a show and see a layout with a bunch of golf-course class grass fields, I think to myself, “No, that’s nice, but it’s not realistic.” I put a lot of effort into making the grassy areas on my layout look more like, well, my own lawn. Patches of brown and lighter/darker green are for more realistic than a smooth green carpet.
I make sure my roads have bumps, holes and cracks, too.
Hi, Joe. Perfection is pretty much non-existent in almost all facets of life, as you have noted. Trying to achieve it will, for most of us, result in the frustration you have experienced. Realism, on the other hand, is a collection of near-perfect (and not so near!) elements into a believable whole. The real test should be how it looks to you.
I am very new to the model railroad hobby. In all of the preparatory research I have been doing in getting to the point of actually starting construction, in my opinion the best looking layouts are the ones that have many flaws, just as in real life!
When I started in wordworking years ago, I too tried to achieve perfection in my work. Never happened. Not even close. However, a number of my projects look fantastic to most non-woodworking people, i.e. most of the people in my life. The best words of wisdom I received then, and I think they will apply now, are “the biggest difference between most people and a true craftsman is the craftsman’s ability to correct his mistakes so they aren’t noticeable to the average person, and then gets on with it.”
So go build, and enjoy!!! If it looks good to you, it will look great to most people.
There is a HUGE difference between perfection and, “Good enough.”
As a modeler, I strive for good enough. If my trains don’t ever derail on my trackwork, it’s good enough - and the fact that I don’t have all the bits of ironmongery found on full-scale track doesn’t bother me. As you observed, the real world is far short of perfect, but it does work. (If it didn’t, the Earth would be as dead as the Moon.)
In some ways, it’s more difficult to achieve deliberate deviations from perfection and have them be believable. Weathering cars and structures is one example - one which I have yet to master. OTOH, if it looks good enough from a yard away, it IS good enough. Only a master nitpicker looks at a layout through a magnifying glass.
One other thing. No model railroad is ever finished. As your skills and confidence improve, you can always re-visit earlier work and improve it. (In the case of, “not quite good enough,” trackwork, you won’t have a choice!)
Thanks, and I see I’m not alone. Like I mentioned above, times it gets frustrating but, I walk away and when I go back, it looks good. (natural) God, I love this hobby…
As a professed perfectionist, I’ve been in your boat. Over the past 3 years that I’ve been in this wonderful hobby of ours, I’ve learned (and am learning) that perfectionism will both hamper and handcuff your progress greatly. That doesn’t mean that you don’t strive to do your best. It just means that you need to be willing to take risk and try things - even if they don’t turn out the way you want the first time.
And, as you stated, look around you and notice how “imperfect” things in the world are: Roads buckle and crack, tracks aren’t always straight, “Who let all those weeds and overgrowth in here anyhow?!?”, etc. As Crandell alluded to, striving for realism is actually adding the variety and (I’ll add) “imperfection” into your model and doing it believably. That’s the challenge and the beauty of this hobby of ours.
Keep at it, Joe. As Red Green always says:
“Remember, I’m pullin’ for ya’–We’re all in this together.”
JoeL.If you want good examples of scenery to work from, get out your camera and take pics. then keep them at your layout as you work on it. Take general scenery pics and detail shots too of the things you are interested in. A lot of painters take their easels out to nature and paint from there. With a camera you can take nature to your layout.
“Remember, I’m pullin’ for ya’–We’re all in this together.”