In the second part of our end of year 'specials' I'm going to look into my crystal ball and try to predict what the coming year might hold for the scale.
- On the immediate horizon there is the promise of an etched Ds and Dsc models. I'm looking forward to see what these look like in the flesh. The initial etches seem to hold quite a bit of promise and personally I'm looking forward to them. If anyone mentions a De I'll have to ban them from the comments section.
-Laser Etching; this sleeping giant could revolutionise the scale as we know it. the possibilities here are endless quite honestly. The initial work that has been done suggests that amazing things are possible if one wants to spend the time learning CAD. I've also been told that the etcher enjoys the challenge doing this stuff as its so much more interesting than the run of the mill stuff that normally comes through the door.
-I think that there are huge advances that could be made in the wagon underframe department. One only has to look at the 2mm website to see what can be done with brass etching, and we should be looking at moving towards this sort of etched brass fold up underframe with pin point bearings. The axle lengths are a problem currently though.
- Steam loco's; There is so much potential here, both in the modified ready-to-run and the start-from-scratch areas. It will take a bit of thinking outside the box, but I'd like to think that by this time next year that there will be some big moves in this area. The only problem I can see here is that the costs for this may well be prohibitive for some modelers,. This in turn affects the economics of the exercise in that if one is going to do a kit of a loco then the number of sales required to break even has to be set at a lower number cf other scales which increases the price, possibly above the price point for most modelers. This is yet to be proved or disproved in a real world example and I would love to be proved wrong ( but I'd be surprised if I was).
-Nz120.org. the take up on this has been quite good, but there still appears to be some reluctance for people to use it as a workbench blog style thingy. Some still persist in uploading pictures to the yahoo group where only a limited number of people can see them. I assume there is a stack of good modeling going on out there but the wider world does not get to see much of it.
Any other thoughts gentlemen?
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3 comments:
One might hazard a guess that in the next couple of years Farish will standardise on their 6.5mm wheels with 14mm axles for wagons and 7.4mm wheels for coaches, both of which are closer to prototype, but both are now only available on new release stock, and not as parts.
I guess their reluctance to sell them as parts may stem from having large stocks of the older wheels to get rid of!
Happy New Year & thanks for all the inspiration.
Ben
Alright Mr Druffstein, I've changed my name. I've never been a fan of the whole 'hiding behind a handle' thing on the internet. Bah. Humbug. Happy New Year.
I am probably sticking my neck out here, but I personally think that underframes are a low priority in this scale. I think it is all about good scenery and the train being lost in the landscape. Moana from Darryl is a great example and the work done years ago by you S.I pioneers still gets me inspired when I see photos. I still like to see detail in locos to a degree, but at the speed I model (6 months stopping and starting on a Darryl DF, so far)I sometimes wonder about how much is too much. The fine scale modeller in me has for many years stopped me from just having a go for fear of not doing a good enough job, I would like to see more hands on projects like 2009. I probably won't start or attempt many, but because of darryls article on DF and DFT's , I have a nearly complete DF with DCC sound to run. that would never have happened without this site. I felt that I had support every step of the way. I think they call it coaching. just think if everyone attempts one project in 2010?
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