After seeing what Crandell (selector) accomplished in such a short time, I'm wondering how fast the rest of you model.
Me, I model at a glacial pace. It seems like what Crandell did in a matter of months, took me four years. I normally have a couple projects in the works at one time - usually I complete a project in a few days. Sometimes, I loss interest in a project and start another one. Often it will be a week or two or three before I start a new project.
Work, the wife, dog and the dreaded honey-do list eat up a lot of my time.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
My layout is two years old, the trackwork was completed fairly early on but the scenery is a work in progress issue. It gets doen when I have time, usually at Easter, Summer holidays and Christmas.
Ian
In college I knew a guy who could, and often did, build an entire layout in about 2 weeks, starting from nothing, including scratchbuilt structures and stuff. One of his buildings (a baseball stadium, with sound and lights) was even in the Walthers catalog one year. After a while he would tear them down and build something else (one time the fire department did it for him when the layout caught on fire!). He did work on oil platforms and would be home for a couple of months, then gone for a month, so he did have all day to work on them. One year, the club used his layout for news publicity for the local train show. We all laughed when the reporter asked how long it took to build something like that (it was really nice) and he said 2 weeks. She didn't know what to say as a follow up, it was such an unexpected answer.
Me, I can be glacial depending on what I have to do next. Wiring takes me forever. It just doesn't feel like progress because I can't see any changes. Benchwork and laying track, much faster as I can see progress. Scenary, it depends on what it is.
TerryinTexas
See my Web Site Here
http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/
nbrodar wrote:After seeing what Crandell (selector) accomplished in such a short time, I'm wondering how fast the rest of you model.Me, I model at a glacial pace. It seems like what Crandell did in a matter of months, took me four years. I normally have a couple projects in the works at one time - usually I complete a project in a few days. Sometimes, I loss interest in a project and start another one. Often it will be a week or two or three before I start a new project.Work, the wife, dog and the dreaded honey-do list eat up a lot of my time.Nick
I hope to change that with retirement in a few years.
Enjoy
Paul
nbrodar wrote:Work, the wife, dog and the dreaded honey-do list eat up a lot of my time.Nick
Add in a couple of young kids, a working wife and work related travel, it gets real slow in a real hurry
nbrodar wrote: After seeing what Crandell (selector) accomplished in such a short time, I'm wondering how fast the rest of you model.Me, I model at a glacial pace. It seems like what Crandell did in a matter of months, took me four years. I normally have a couple projects in the works at one time - usually I complete a project in a few days. Sometimes, I loss interest in a project and start another one. Often it will be a week or two or three before I start a new project.Work, the wife, dog and the dreaded honey-do list eat up a lot of my time.Nick
I have never had great success with multi-tasking...I think it is highly overrated, Nick. So, once my old layout was reduced to concrete memories piled up in the garage, awaiting my spring trip to the dump, I got right to work one evening designing out of the new layout all the faux-pas of the first one. As soon as I had the plan, after about two hours, my mind became almost singularly absorbed with getting it built. I posted my first photos of the bench and splines at about the six week mark, and then went to work on the tracklaying...about two weeks. Remember, these were at least 6 hour days of modelling, 4-6 days a week. I had to stop to do summer outdoors stuff and run two concurrent courses for RMC. It was not until late August that I was able to get the window screening, plaster, cement, and the fine vermiculite to begin terraforming. Once again, that is all I did for about 6 weeks, plus the usual putting the garden to bed and tidying up for winter. I got tired of looking at plaster and unballasted tracks, so I began to pour ground foam on the places that were ready for it. I had a few trees left over from the first layout, so on they went, too...part of an evening, maybe?
To keep this from becoming a tome, I was able to get variety by building a redwood one time, putting some ground throws together, building the trestle, and so on, but I like to stick with one process and see it through. That I had oodles of time is what makes the difference. I admire immensely, and am in full deference to, folks like you, Joe, and others who can peck away at a huge vision for years and not lose pressure, prespective, interest, and can still get pleasure out of it all. I am intense that way, and wanted almost desperately to get back to where I was when I had to tear down the last layout...my refuge and joy. So, I went at it like a lost woodsman who had to build a lean-to before an oncoming blizzard. Stop when it is done.
Retirement, by the way, is exactly as you hear us retired folks joke about it...you are busier than ever! Honestly, you wonder how work ever got into the equation...where did you find 10 hours a day?!
-Crandell
For me, construction has been progressing at a pace somewhere between snail and seriously arthritic turtle. Part of that is my own physical limitations, part is the "Honeydew" factor; but the major problem is one that no one else has mentioned:
Once it became possible to operate even a small part of my timetable, operations began to eat up time, to the detriment of further construction. Granted that the station signs are supported by toothpicks stuck into otherwise paint-free foam and that key industries are represented by empty breakfast food boxes, operating is what it's all about - and operating when I should be building means that this layout will probably take longer to build than Cheops' Great Pyramid!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Let's see... Benchwork construction on my 9'x17' layout began early last May. I got enough track laid to run a train (less than 40% of the total) about two weeks ago, with no progress since. Work seems to go in short intense bursts interrupted by (involuntarily) extended stretches of inactivity.
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
Off and On probably best describes my efforts. Due to various personal issues right now I've somewhat lost interest, although I did do my sound decoder in the dummy F7. But back when I started this layout, once I had a track plan defined, I build allt he benchwork in one weekend. It took a couple of weeks for find a reliable way t transfer the plan to the table (somethign I will NEVER do again - my plan is more like a guide to verify that what I want will fit in the space I have, not a to the millimeter reference for where the tracks go. My future endeavors will involve locating critical parts of the plan and then fillign in the rest as close to the plan as I can without outright tracing. Once I had that done, I had a train running (back and forth, no continuous loop) in another week. A few weeks after that I had the first complete loop. It took over a year after that until I finished the rest of the track. I STILL haven't built any of the 3 remaining control panels, haven't hooked up all the feeders (basically just the yard area), and haven't begun scenery unless you consider some Walthers track bumpers as scenery. I haven't even painted the pink foam with the earth brown paint I have sitting there.
In between I have done other things - built car kits, installed DCC decoders, started detailing an MDC RS-3 kit, and built some electronics.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
nbrodar wrote:After seeing what Crandell (selector) accomplished in such a short time, I'm wondering how fast the rest of you model...
Fits n' spurts describes it for me. I bought my current property in July 2000, then spent ~ 1 month erecting the benchwork (minus the top surfaces) in my garage. When winter came around and I realized that getting heat out there was not as easy as I had hoped, my work on the layout stopped abruptly. Over the next 4 years I built a series of "mega-structures" mostly for display, hoping to eventually use them on a layout.
My big break came in December 2004, when I received a modest inheritance from my late mother's estate. I used most of this money to install climate control and insulation in the garage, and spent the remainder on track and other infrastructure. During the period from February 2005 thru June 2006, I spent an average of 20 hours/week working on that layout. Did everything myself - carpentry, tracklaying, electrical wiring, scenery - no outside help. At the end of June 2006 I had a layout that was about 80% covered by scenery. Then I suffered a case of burnout.
In the last month or so, I've had a resurgence of interest. Currently I'm swapping-out defective track sections/turnouts from a section leftover from my previous layout. Probably spending ~ 10 hours/week on layout work. But at least now I can run trains in between work sessions...
With honey-dues, a full-time job, and kids still living at home, free time is precious and scarce these days...
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Methodical, but slow. That would sum it up pretty well. I can only learn at a certain pace.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Let's see,
I've been "back in the hobby" since buying a couple issues of MR I saw at the bookstore in late 2003 for a long drive my wife and I were taking.
Since then, I've learned to scratchbuild (i.e. handlay) turnouts - made about 3 or 4 now. Planned a couple shelf layouts, and that's about it.
As far as my MRR'ing activities are concerned, I'm quite a lazy guy! I have, however, put a lot of thought into the kind of layout I'd like to have. Due to so many other things going on that require a lot of my time, I know it's going to be an extremely simplistic around-the-walls narrow shelf layout, built one module at a time, with a temporary loop setup the whole time for continuous running.
P.S. other activities since being "back in the hobby" since 2003 have included:
-buying a house, remodeling it, starting my own business, having our first baby!, selling the previous house, buying another house, remodelling that house. Wheew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Now where's that issue of MR so I can get back to my armchair modeling?
Life is funny - as much as you want to just do the "fun" stuff, you really have to do a lot of other more difficult / yet more rewarding things to enable you to enjoy the purely "fun" stuff. That's how I am anyway... So I know I'll enjoy even a very basic layout, even if it takes me many years to construct.
Interesting question ... after 40 years in the hobby I've found one of the tricks is to get the right tools (like a Northwest Shortlines Chopper) and you will speed things up. There's a whole host of tools that fall into this "faster" category.
Next, I build and use a lot of jigs for things I need a lot of, like bridge trestle bents. Jigs make it so you don't have to keep measuring and checking things, you just slap the pieces into the jig, glue, and go.
Certain modeling materials facilitate faster modeling -- building in styrene is one of them. For example, I can build a ready-to-go trestle bent out of styrene in a few minutes. I used an A-West needle point applicator to apply my MEK glue solvent, and with this applicator I can glue joints just about as fast as I can move. It sure beats using a brush to apply the solvent, no more dip brush in - move to joint - back to the bottle - back to joint ... it's just joint - apply drop - joint - apply drop: much faster!
Once I'm done applying the solvent to the styrene, I give the part about 60 seconds then I the solvent has set up enough I can add the next piece -- try doing that with wood or cardstock.
To save time, if you can't see it, I don't model it. For example the backsides of buildings are blank sheet styrene. I don't go crazy detailing my scenes like George Sellios does, for instance. Not only do all those details cost a lot of money, they take a lot of time to make. I model things to a reasonable and consistent level of detail, and call it "good enough".
Finally, make good use of the great timesaver -- weathering. I can take a model with only a moderate amount of detail and give it a good weathering job (don't overdo it, subtle goes a long way) and it looks more detailed than it really is.
Even though I'm 40 years older than when I started into the hobby, I get lots more modeling done in the same period of time because I try to work a lot smarter these days. When you have a larger home layout, you have to learn all the tricks if you ever want to get the layout to a reasonably finished state and still have a life.
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
My modeling proceeds at a geologic pace. When the Rockies have worn down to about what the Appalachians are, my layout may be almost finished!
November 2003:
April 2006 (about 2 1/2 years later):
(Actually, maybe I'm not all that slow...)
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
jfugate wrote: Interesting question ... after 40 years in the hobby I've found one of the tricks is to get the right tools (like a Northwest Shortlines Chopper) and you will speed things up. There's a whole host of tools that fall into this "faster" category.Next, I build and use a lot of jigs for things I need a lot of, like bridge trestle bents. Jigs make it so you don't have to keep measuring and checking things, you just slap the pieces into the jig, glue, and go.Certain modeling materials facilitate faster modeling -- building in styrene is one of them. For example, I can build a ready-to-go trestle bent out of styrene in a few minutes. I used an A-West needle point applicator to apply my MEK glue solvent, and with this applicator I can glue joints just about as fast as I can move. It sure beats using a brush to apply the solvent, no more dip brush in - move to joint - back to the bottle - back to joint ... it's just joint - apply drop - joint - apply drop: much faster!Once I'm done applying the solvent to the styrene, I give the part about 60 seconds then I the solvent has set up enough I can add the next piece -- try doing that with wood or cardstock.To save time, if you can't see it, I don't model it. For example the backsides of buildings are blank sheet styrene. I don't go crazy detailing my scenes like George Sellios does, for instance. Not only do all those details cost a lot of money, they take a lot of time to make. I model things to a reasonable and consistent level of detail, and call it "good enough".Finally, make good use of the great timesaver -- weathering. I can take a model with only a moderate amount of detail and give it a good weathering job (don't overdo it, subtle goes a long way) and it looks more detailed than it really is. Even though I'm 40 years older than when I started into the hobby, I get lots more modeling done in the same period of time because I try to work a lot smarter these days. When you have a larger home layout, you have to learn all the tricks if you ever want to get the layout to a reasonably finished state and still have a life.
Joe, all good tips. Getting good tools is definitely a time saver. My biggest problem is I am so disorganized. I spend as much time looking for my tools as I do using them. I've made many vows over the years that I was going to do a better job of organization but it just doesn't happen and at some point, you have to realize that it probably isn't going to. Although I've never been diagnosed, I strongly suspect I have ADD which leads to a haphazard approach to modeling. I have things going on all over the place, tools laying around all over the layout, and clutter everywhere. I'll be in the middle of one project and then I'll get an idea for something totally unrelated and off I go. I still manage to get some good things done but it just takes me two to three times longer than it probably should.
The suggestion to not model the building backs is an interesting one and several weeks ago I started a thread discussing the pros and cons. Obviously, it is a great time saver. I see two downsides. One is that if you decide to reorient the structure after you assemble it, you will have a problem. I often find that after I complete a structure and put it on the layout, I don't like the way it looks or it doesn't quite fit and I have to move it. The other downside is that some rears of the buildings may not be visible from the aisle but might be from the trackside. I would like to eventually get an onboard video system and plain styrene walls would spoil that effect. Another plus to doing the rears is I can experiment with a weathering technique and if it turns out bad, it won't hurt the visible sides. This has saved me several times from ruining a structure.
I have 3 young children (ages 2, 7, 10) and a fairly demanding job (pastor and only fulltime staff member of a church of 150), so I move in spurts. I've been building for 3 years, 3 months. I finished basic benchwork in 6 months. Then my youngest was born and did nothing for 6 months. I started laying track about 18 months ago, finished the main body of my primary yard pretty quickly, but just finished the main a couple of days ago. I tend to get a lot done in January-February because things are slow then. I tend to get next to nothing done June-December except an OCCASIONAL Saturday morning.
Ron
Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado.
Check out the TC&WRy on at https://www.facebook.com/TCWRy
Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings
jecorbett wrote:My biggest problem is I am so disorganized. I spend as much time looking for my tools as I do using them. I've made many vows over the years that I was going to do a better job of organization but it just doesn't happen and at some point, you have to realize that it probably isn't going to. Although I've never been diagnosed, I strongly suspect I have ADD which leads to a haphazard approach to modeling. I have things going on all over the place, tools laying around all over the layout, and clutter everywhere. I'll be in the middle of one project and then I'll get an idea for something totally unrelated and off I go. I still manage to get some good things done but it just takes me two to three times longer than it probably should.
I am somewhat the same way, and try as I might, organizing can be somewhat painful -- and even then it doesn't last. I will end up with tools strung all over hither and yon.
So here's a couple of things I'm doing that make a huge difference.
First some people are global thinkers and others are analytical thinkers (Learning Styles inventory). Global people, like ourselves, have no problem with things spread hither and yon, while analytical thinkers are linear, and generally far more deliberate with how they do things.
Globals generally deal with things all over just fine, but analytics go nuts unless it's all organized. So work with your bent, don't fight it. First, get a large mobile toolbox so you can carry your tools to the project. For inexpensive tools like pliers and screwdrivers, get several. Chances are something will be available if you do that. For pricey tools (like a NWSL Chopper), they are usual large enough they can't get lost nearly as easily. I figure the time I save by not having to look for tools is worth the cost of having extras.
Also, every month or so I will declare a "down day" on some evening and just spend the whole time gathering up all the tools from projects here and there and moving everything back into the toolbox or shelf where it's "place" is. If some crucial tool I use a lot turns up missing, I buy another one.
For a toolbox I got a nice craftsman box with a handle and several nice smooth drawers. I lined the drawers with deluxe rubbery shelf liner from the kitchen section of the department store. The tool box is a very pleasant and deluxe place for the tools. Inside each drawer, an analytic would have heart failure ... for the tools are pretty much thrown hither and yon, but I know where each one is!
Looking for tools can be a real time waster, so these things seem to help me keep things under control. Probably the worst thing that can happen is my wife come through and put things away. Then I can't find *anything*, which is the mark of a true global! It may have looked like a mess, but I knew exactly where everything was!
I think it depends on how 'bullet proof' you want to make it.
Also acquiring the 'right' tools has a lot going for it. My first layout I used only a hand saw. and large screwdriver. Now I have a 10" Table saw and Sears powered screwdriver.
EXAMPLE: I like to power rout my turnouts (I'm using Caboose SPDT 220S ground throws). After hand-filing the first round hole to make it oblong, I bought a Roto Zip.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/97-220