It's dawning on me that our hobby is changing. The slow and steady incremental developments that have always been with us are leading us towards a point where a dramatic shift, out of all proportion to the increment that takes us there, will happen. Each year brings fresh models of a standard that pushes kit and scratchbuilding to the sidelines, now the preserve of those who do it not out of necessity but choice. Quite how all pervasive this trend has become has been highlighted by the release by Bachmann of the Pendon range of ready to plonk buildings. I find it hugely ironic that the models that embody the most painstaking and patient approach our hobby have begat resin copies now available to the idle comfortably off at the drop of a wallet.
Model railways used to be a creative hobby; I fear that we'll soon see retail therapy overtake creative endeavour.I can't in all honesty see where the fun in that is. My youth was a blur of sticky fingers, Superquick kits, Humbrol paints and tubes of Airfix glue. They may have been crude and childlike, but they set me up for a lifetimes enjoyment of making things. I'm convinced that making things is fun, it's something that we see in all children but that often gets lost in our busy adult world where short cuts to having things seems like a good idea.
Here's the latest thing I'm making. Nobody else will have one quite like it and it's kept me utterly absorbed for hours. Ready made buildings; you can stick 'em where the sun don't shine..
