Surprising poll results

wow, 26%? that seems high :) You should see my workbench...although in the last year or so, I've banged through alot of unassembled cars that I'd accumulated and hadn't had time to assemble.

But be sure to read MR's disclaimer below the question, initiated after a number of us argued out the matter on their BB as to whether these MR polls had any actual significance. These polls are not a survey and thus are very unlikely to represent reality. By way of example, an earlier poll resulted in Z scale being ranked as the best guage by the majority of those responding!

JB

But that's true, Z scale is the best.

Bob in Kalamazoo

Doesn't surprise me - I've got at least 100 kits tha I bought and squirreled away for retirement when "I'd have more time". Little did I know what my wife had planned for that time!

MR's polls are useless and irrelevant. They break as much new ground as MR does these days..........none. Notice who is reading them and then posting them here as if they mean anything to anybody?

While I agree that the MR 'polls' are a woefully small sampling, I think I'd be inclined to agree with this one. I know a lot of people in the hobby, myself included, that save their kits and so-called R-T-R items that have minor parts that need application by the modeler, for later completion. I have some kits that are over a year old!

Ha, you call that old. I've got some kits that have been waiting for their turn to be assembled for close to 20 years.

=> I have some kits that are over a year =>old!

Only a year old?????

I have some sitting on the shelf that I bought over 20 years ago. :-)

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 16:07:11 -0700, Larry Blanchard shared this with the world:

Same here. Everyone I know has as much "stock" in the basement as some small hobby shops. A couple of guys probably have more than some shops.

At the swap meet a couple of weeks ago, one older guy was "thinning his collection" and was selling un-opened wood kits from manufacturers than had been out of business since before I got into the hobby.

Kent

That's one reason to go to shows.

I model British O-gauge but that's rare in the USA. Through contacts met at O-Scale West and NMRA shows we took our British layout, I acquired some Colin Waite etched brass kits that were 20 or more years old but are still close to being state-of-the art. So I've got a horsebox, two 4-wheeled and two 6-wheeled passenger luggage/brake vans I would not otherwise have.

Pot calling kettle, come in kettle! Lighten up will ya! Finally, a thread gets started with a function of MR as the subject, and you have to go take a dump on it. Can they not do ANYTHING right? It would be nice to have a thread go happily off into the sunset, without it turning into a political, religeous, or a "my s**t doesn't stink" flame war.

For what its worth, I wasn't suprised by the results. I've got a pile of craftsman kits that I have had for years. Plus, the limited run mentality of the hobby forces many modelers to buy stuff for their "dream layouts" years before they are ready to build it.

Modelers of airplanes, armor, and cars have known this for years. We all, for the most part, have stashes of kits. I have kits that I bought in the

Pot calling the kettle black you are yes. You post a 'my crap dont stink' post telling how you don't like those posts? Approach reality please.

Speaking of black things, check out what Beldar did to some B&O Genesis F units. 5 minutes with an airbrush and any loco can be a Penn Central!

I don't normally criticize other modelers' work, but this isn't a modeler, it's the EIC who replaced a modeler. His weathering jobs look like the first ones I did in 1972 with a Badger 250 and Floquil grimy black. It's not horrible, or certainly no more horrible than my first attempts... but it's hardly groundbreaking technique.

Perhaps TT intends to teach beginners the hobby by letting them follow in the footsteps of another beginner--- himself. It's not a bad idea really. If that's what K-company wants out of the magazine. MR does have a policy of annually recycling basic topics, especially this time of year.

Some of the changes in MR have snuck up on me. The complaint that MR was being "dumbed down" is an old one, and one that has been aired continuously for something like 30 years now. I've never really formed an opinion one way or the other, about the time I starting thinking one way, something comes along to sway me back the other way. I have over 40 years of MR archived, and while it might be almost irrelevant to compare a 2003 issue to a 1973 issue, comparing it to a

1993 issue might be... enlightening. I'll get back to y'all on that subject.

Andy

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- Pre-Interstate Urban Archaeology

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One of the oldest unbuilt kits I have is a Quality Craft wood Santa Fe autorack, circa mid-1970s. I've often contemplated using the plans and patterns to scratch the car in styrene - I've never been much of a whittler. But I have some much older relics -- some 50 year old Varney tinplate kits, which had surprisingly sharp lithography on the sides... some diecast MDC/Roundhouse freight car kits. An original Globe dummy F7, a Rosebud Kitmaster NYC Hudson, a Hobbyline NKP Berkshire... interesting stuff. But most of these relics I got hold of later on. The autorack is probably the oldest kit that I actually bought new and have kept unbuilt all these years. Also from about the same time is a Red Ball(?) B&O wagon-top covered hopper kit, the body is to be built up from strips of pot metal that you have to bend and curve to form the shape of the car sides/roof. I have gotten it out and looked at the instructions once or twice since 1977, and put it away again.

Andy

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- Pre-Interstate Urban Archaeology

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I can't believe people would actually argue about, and then require, such a disclaimer on the results. "Polls on Trains.com are not scientific and reflect only the opinions of the users who have chosen to participate." It's a poll, not a survey. That fact should be obvious to everyone (except maybe Rathburne).

Check the subject of this thread, OK? Only people who respond to the poll are counted, they don't try to apply statistics to expand the results to the model railroading population as a whole. I find it hard to belive people would have trouble understanding that.

Unlilely to represent reality? I disagree with you there. The respondents to this poll are modelers responding to a question about modeling. It does have a basis in reality.

Wow, that's only 75 seconds to apply and dry each of the colors on the truck sideframes.

You say colors with an 's' on the end, as if it were a plural. If indeed it was a plurality of color then maybe the photographer was at fault. Looked pretty much like grimy black to me.

Andy

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- Pre-Interstate Urban Archaeology

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