QUOTE (nevardmedia @ 16 Jul 2008, 15:38)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I think in the UK we've been so het up about the rather tardy OO/EM/P4 debate, many modeller don't look beyond flanges and wheels to judge how realistic a model is (then forgetting about everything outside the four foot). Everywhere else in the world has been free from this and hence concentrated on the other aspects of creating realism which are is much more important.
***Funny Chris: I rate your modelling very highly and always enjoy your photo essays as your work both sides of the camera has a real artists touch but..... as a modeller who is fussy about track among other things I'd say exactly the opposite:
I really don't ascribe any dilution of quality in scenery or model realism to an obsessive focus on track - exactly the opposite in fact.... they usually ignore it as an issue.
UK Modellers will often complain loudly about the quality of running or thickness of the windscreen wipers yet happily run their loco on peco's "relatively clunky, unreliable and wildly innacurate by any measurement anywhere in the world" track with nary a comment.
With apologies to the hundreds this will offend (and ignoring the gauge issue totally as I model happily in OO fine, EM and P4), a layout using Peco or any brand of set-track
can look "good" but will never ever be "very realistic" because the railway itself is fundamentally inaccurate in turnout design, geometry, rail size, sleeper spacing etc etc... The track and its infrastructure surroundings ARE the railway after all.
Thats not to say a nice model cannot be built or enjoyed, but it IS to say it will never reach its full potential or achieve true realism no matter how skilled the scenery work...
Quality UK modelling is as good as any in the world and real modellers in
any country rarely use off the shelf kits, certainly never building them "as is" .... Absolute miracles are frequently accomplished by UK prototype modellers with imagination, plastic, card, DAS modelling clay and a bit of time.....
As to the current thread - yes, in general there is some clever use of waste materials in that US email thread but none of those examples are really very good models, are they... be honest!
Regards
Richard