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I've been following this thread with some interest and fell somewhat qualified to respond. You see, I'm one of those who make a living building layouts for those who can afford to hire me. Its a great job, doing the thing that I love and getting paid besides.  It's always a bonus to see a  layout I worked on in print, like the Lenhoff project.Raildreams has a great staff of perhaps a dozen people that contribute to the final look and get virtually no credit for their work. Its only a satisfied client that matters. For every 10 projects, maybe one or two get a feature in MR. The editors at MR are interested in two things, ad revenue and selling magazines. And they use (or write) articles to achieve that end.They do appear to struggle with the concept of showing professionally built layouts, fearing the backlash from some readers (such as has appeared in this forum) and it seems they're trying to offset that with the abundance of How-to's so that average modelers can upgrade their skills and keep this hobby alive. There is nothing that I do as a modelbuilder that makes me any better, except refining my skills so I can do it faster. I don't have the luxury of tweaking a 4 sq. in. junkyard scene over and over as I did when I had a hobby.As for MR, my inspiration comes more from Kalmbachs How-to books by some of the real talented people in the hobby, Furlow, Hayden, Bob Smaus, and Pelle Soeborg. I find I'm long past the 4x8 in-house projects with unpainted Walthers building, that continue month after month. However, these do have their place in getting those youngsters started in the hobby, so I'm happy to see them.So don't be too distressed when you see a pro-built-layout featured in a magazine. There aren't may of us and our egos have been minimized in the rush to get one project out the door and another started.Chris
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