LAYOUT CLUB

In recent weeks I've often found myself drawn to my burgeoning collection of old MRJs. I rarely actually read them cover to cover, but I enjoy the tone and sense of vigorous enthusiasm. The words within have a real buzz, and excitement for a growing, and increasingly "cool", professional approach to modelling (even if it was all-to-often tied up with an almost cult-like obsession with P4)  It feels like a stark contrast to the more downbeat mood (perhaps linked to the growing volume of obituaries!) and impersonal content that we've grown used to from the modelling press. I suppose a longing for a fresh approach was what I was so keen for James to launch Layout Club, but that's enough pontificating for one post. It was whilst flicking through one such tome that I came across a picture which stirred the modelling spirits in a perhaps surprising way. An image from the lesser spotted "Real Atmosphere" feature - the specimen in question, a humble coal merchan...

I accept I have a limited attention span with my modelmaking and from afar the latest distraction, especially if the interest isn’t shared by the observer, could just be seen as another frustrating delay…  “James stop messing around with XXXX and finish off YYYY” - meanwhile I’m probably on to ZZZZ! However, that said these meanderings are often just how long it takes to work out a problem or stumbling block with a particular scheme or prototype I feel inclined to interpret in model form. The wrestling of ideas, a balance of space and reality - this means long held interests can resurface and distract without much warning, whilst others languish unfinished, incomplete. Wonderful N scale ScaleTrains Rio Grande GP30 posed on the latest Mosslanda blank canvas, provisionally titled ‘ Defiance ’… Rather than worry why I’m not able to come up with a plan, a scheme or even specific prototype for my Canadian adventure I’ve written about here recently, I choose to embrace my imagination; I...