available parts, and build by hand just to demonstrate their
craftmanship prowess? These days, that’s called a special
technique for more contest points – almost no modelers build
layouts that way.
We contend a better goal, and one that actually is good for the
hobby, is to get more modelers building more layouts. To make
that practical, that means modelers need to focus their hobby
efforts wisely by only building what they can’t easily purchase.
We won’t argue those old timer hobby craftsman like Carl
Traub, John Allen, Jack Work, and Ben King did some amazing
work, especially considering what they had to work with.
But modelers today are doing even more amazing work – if
you consider how the end product looks. If you don’t believe
us, just look at the last 12 months of Ken Patterson’s “What’s
