Another MR garden railway.

In a word, no.

They are precision cut kits that fit together perfectly and require few traditional scratchbuilding skills. They've done the hard part for you. They require good (sometimes excellent) modeling skills, but not the traditional scratchbuilding skills. It's more like assembling a high end freight car kit.

And yes, I am a scratchbuilder. But also a kit builder.

So I ask you, why is it necessary for MR, or any magazine, to publish articles on scratchbuilding? You just said you and your legion of followers are now building kits.

You appear to be criticizing MR for not publishing scratchbuilding articles while at the same time making a case that they are not needed, since all those great scratchbuilders are now building kits.

Many of the articles they have been publishing cover the basic skills need to build one of the high end kits. You have to walk before you can run. One can therefor make the case that they are publishing articles that will help new modelers grow into the part of the market you are praising.

And likewise, FSM, FOS, Blair, Bar Mills, etc are "pandering" to their perceived audience - lazy ex-scratchbuilders.

These kits are to the scratchbuilder what RTR is to the "casual" model railroader. Why bother with the hassle if someone already makes it?

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

His opinion on this subject is incorrect, a simple fact, and don't be fooled by his other stories, unless you like fiction.

IMHO Mark Newton the expert is sufficiently dense to need the point made 4 times, as he repeated his incorrect opinion strongly at least 4 times.

According to Terry Flynn, chronic liar. LOL!

Now there's something I never thought I'd see - Flynn using the phrase "in my humble opinion"!!! I don't think you'd recognise humility if it ran up and bit you on the arse, Flynn. You're an ego in search of an epicentre.