I’ve often said it but time is the most valuable commodity we modellers have. It matters not if you ‘buy’ time, either literally by paying someone to do something for you, or making the best use of your own time to carry an element of the hobby further. Its also not a crime to pay for people to make things for you, literally, or on mates rates swapping tasks and abilities. A brilliant example where paying for products/help is in some of the makeovers I do on RTR equipment. Many of the modifications I do can be done ‘long hand’ flush glazing for example.

This week I had the privilege of helping Brian at Shawplan tool up laser cut windows for the Hornby Sentinel which I looked at over the new year period. https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/hornby-2015-predicitons-and-sentinel-maintenance-101/

Shawplan Laserglaze

A great little model just crying out for a bit of personality and ‘fine focus’, well here it is with a bit of weathering, new windows and a subtle repaint of the removed original lettering. What’s that got to do with time? Well the glazing modification takes just about an hour, including the internal repaint of the cab, where the time was saved is in not hand cutting new windows. Yes there was a cost for the windows, of under a tenner. For the time saved and the appearance benefit, that money well worth spending as well as the fact that the components fit, that’s what we want and need from todays products. It’s not just these and similar products that help, it is a mental attitude to ‘do something’ part of the ethos behind my 2012 fifteen minute heroes. It doesn’t need to be a big thing you do, this year I’ve built a small ‘shelfie’ layout, (fits on a shelf, made by me) and that’s been great fun and produced another photo set, much like Albion Yard has been. The photography has been rekindled for me, the images here are all from an iphone5s, I had a chat recently regarding editorial photography with some requests for me to provide some images for consideration. Without making things to photograph I would have been behind the curve to provide pictures. What I have done is dust off the DSLR, borrowed a GoPro, used the Iphone and the Canon G10. I’ve also been offered gallery space to sell images. Time to make time to get snapping!

So its a bank holiday, got nothing on?, then make something, I dare ya! Remember if you’re part of the hobby, then that’s making and playing trains. If you find your railway modelling is sitting looking at the interweb and shouting and typing angrily on forums and theres little time to do any modelling, then your hobby is actually shouting at computers, not railway modelling.

There’s a distinct difference, try it!