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CNJ831 (it's great to see another fan of the Big Little Railroad here!) I agree with your closing paragraph completely!! The question is what can be done? I'm at a crossroad myself on this issue. I love the detail on the expensive stuff, but really don't want to spend that much on a hobby. I also want to have rolling stock that's a little more detailed than Athearn Blue Box or RDC. I think there are many folks out there that have the same problem, but the issue is seen as blue box or RTR, no gray area. How do we enter the gray area? I think an article where the author showed step by step how he took an Athearn hopper and by adding a few detail parts and some decals came up with a car that looks almost as good as the expensive RTR stuff. These articles used to be pretty numerous a few years back. They have all but disappeared, I think mostly because the idea then was to come up with a better looking model, not save money. Well, now that the better detailed models are here, somefolks don't see a reason to detail their own stuff, hense the lack of articles. But heres, the kicker. In the article have a price breakdown. 12 RTR cars - $150.00. 12 Blue box cars, some packs of grab irons, some number decals, some paint - total cost $100.00. Now, if the modeler was smart he could tell his spouse - "look what I did!" She/he might not understand why a couple of hours were spent in putting on those 'funny little wire things' and stuff, but would definately enjoy the dinner out that the saving allowed!!! Wow! Same total cost and you get 12 cool looking cars plus a spouse that thinks that your genius modeling ability saves money! There must be bunches of experienced modelers out there that could write such an article and I really do believe that such an article would have tremendous interest in our hobby. Remember the dozens of articles that came out when Athearn frist introduced their GP38-2 and SD-40-2 models. I bet Athearn sold a ton to folks that were inspired! The same can be done with Blue Box and MDC. Hopefully, someone will get inspired and write such an article!
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