If you like working with wood and making scale models, then have a go at making an authentic scale model of a Horse Drawn Vehicle. A Ledge Caravan or a Garden Seat Omnibus perhaps? If you would like to attempt something less demanding then go for making one of the many Farm Waggons that are available. Take a look at this none commercial web site for inspirational ideas
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There is a MODEL GALLERY page where you can see some fantastic models that have been made by other model makers. There is a TIPS & IDEAS page, advice on where to get plans from and loads of links to suppliers and other sources.
It might be possible to actually enjoy, the admittedly intriguing models, if you elevated the website above the realm of "amateurish". The pages load
*very* slowly....look into the concept of pre-caching the images....
...and decide on how you are going to spell "wagon" (or is it "waggon"), and stick with *one* spelling. That mistake alone, is offensive enough...to launch a crusade to keep *everyone* away from your website.
nice job on the horse drawn models..and . thats whats important !... just ignore the idiots who have nothing positive to say about someones skillfull workmanship and obvious time invested.
So I'm supposed to compliment 'jraah' for his good work because he requests it? Over and over again? And I'm an idiot because I won't stroke someone's ego? Puh-leeease.... Look, he's got a webite up and running. He's posted multiple times - the same thing - since January. Begging to visit the website has nothing to do with the workmanship therein. It only serves to lessen the willingness to visit - for me at least. I'd hate to be considered the only voice of RMS... I made no comments on the contents of the website. And, *I* refrained from namecalling.
A few of the pieces on the website *are* nice, such as the U.S. Army wagon...but that does not excuse his juvenile-ish and shameless promotion of the website. And his site *is* very amateurish. It violates many of the common-sense rules illustrated in that witty, informative "Web Sites That Suck" series of books. In fact, they could probably do an entire new volume on this site alone...lol.
I refuse to do business with "brick-and-mortar" outfits that are sloppy with their business skills (i.e. poor organization, lack of proof-reading in promotional material, offensive "in your face" promotion, etc...), so why should websites be treated any differently?
Now, if a few of his contributors would RE-write articles, to a higher standard, for submission to a site such as internetmodeler.com; then perhaps my opinion might change.
So, I do not feel you were too harsh in your sentiments.
Well Greg, first I must thank you for your *professional* advice. I will admit that my website wouldn't win any awards, but it is the first and only website I have created and I don't profess to be an expert, but I will take on board any constructive criticism. I didn't want bells and whistles or annoying pop-ups and sponsored adverts as you see on some of the award winning sites.
Some, (not all) of the pages do load slower than others and this is due to the contents of some pages - i.e. the number of jpegs/gifs per page and the size of these graphics. I have purposely kept some of the images on the large size so that model makers can enlarge them without too much loss of detail. This was a request from many visitors to the site, and I have therefore tried to hit a happy medium.
May I respectfully suggest that you go from dial-up and onto broadband and/or upgrade your PC, as even the slowest page on my web site will load up in about 8 seconds, or before you can scroll half-way down the page.
Now! About the spelling of waggon.."Waggon" is the British, Canadian and Australian way of spelling, even then, there can be some who spell it "wagon". The United States prefer using "wagon", but here again, it can be "waggon" by some authorities. I have opted mainly for the British spelling, as the majority of plans available are from Britain, the spelling with 2 "g"s, is influenced by Dutch and German craftsmen to some extent. The "Wagon Trains" that you are perhaps referring to is the only spelling that occurs on my web site. (Let me know if otherwise!) This is because the term is usually associated with the pioneers who travelled the American plains to the west. If you wish information on the spelling, there are a number of web site links that will help you Greg. So as you see, its not a
*mistake*, its intentional - sham you were offended by something so irrelevant. Call off your crusade, you will get few followers! ;o)
Oh dear! I feel terrible!! I should tear my amateurish web site down immediately. I have violated common-sense rules, I am a complete failure! If you could give me a few examples of your all time favourite web sites Greg, I would be most grateful, that's what I need, a bit of guidance from someone who knows these things.
I should ask my contributors to RE-write their articles, and they should have a degree in the English language before submitting anything to my site? Great idea! I will implement that immediately! Being a great model maker is not enough eh?
My web site has been running since 18th January this year. It looks like I may have kicked over a hornets in here doesn't it? I didn't get any reply to the post I submitted a few weeks ago entitled "Scale Model Horse Drawn Vehicles", and it soon disappeared below many other posts. Then, just on a whim, not meaning to upset or annoy anyone, I thought I might try a different approach - hence my post entitled "Look at this!!"
WOW! Did that cause a furore! Do you think I should destroy my web site if it offends others so much? Do you find the pages load up much too slowly? I have explained the reason for this in my reply to that nice person Greg.
I thought so too, and corresponded with the poster after the initial post. I thought maybe the second post was an accident. However, when we see the same stuff day after day, that is spam, good modeling or not.
People in similar situations have found that starting their posts with "Shameless plug for my [fill in the blank]" strikes the right chord when soliciting people's attention. If you've been online long enough to have e-mail or habit a message board such as this, than you should know "Look at this!" is a hallmark of spammers and the response you will get is nothing short of predictable - 1) nothing like the first time in January and 2) flames like this time
Not a flame, just an observation you might find helpful in the future.
All this he-said, she said about web pages has made me just a bit weary. I don't claim to have anything beyond a rather average web site at best but, if you're interested in seeing an example of an average, general interest (including modeling) web site, constructed and published by a non-professional and not particularly computer-literate person, Jraah, you're welcome to take a peek at the link below. It's quite easy to build something like this with a program such as Front Page (or even Netscape Composer, which I used before getting Front Page).
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