# Informal poll: What is your build style



## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Seriously, how do you approach your projects?
1. I'm methodical and meticulous, from start to finish - no matter how long it takes
2. I build in spurts, then quit for a while
3. When the muse bites I'll drop whatever else I'm working on for the new project, complete it, then go back to the old one.
4. I like the challenge of working on several projects at once. That way I can do something on one while waiting for paint, glue or parts for another.
5. I'm all thumbs, just do it for me and send me the bill already
6. I never finish anythi....

I sorta vacillate between #3 and #4 with occasional mis-adventures that fall under #6. At the moment I have 3 buildings, an oil well, 4 steam locomotives, a railtruck, 2 boxcars, 7 hoppers, a tank car and a work flat (and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee) on my plate.........


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

numbers 2. 3, 4, and 6 all fit more or less to my style. 
or with other words: i am as chaotic in building, like you - just sloooower.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

2, 3, 6 and a dash of 4 in that orded except the finnish part of 3... 

John


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

I'd have to say 1 & 2


Ray


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## cjwalas (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm number 7; all of the above. 
Chris


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

If there was a #7 it would have been "I've got lots of great ideas, and I'll get started on one just as soon as I finish my application for the Procrastinator's Society - Which I haven't sent for, yet." ...... But I never got around to adding it


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## GaryR (Feb 6, 2010)

3 and 4 You mean I have to finish them ?  

GaryR


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Random! I'd make you [email protected] url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/CEHtmlEditorProvider/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## ralphbrades (Jan 3, 2008)

I would say that I am a No.1 type builder. However when it comes to research and decision on which "candidate" model to build -this is more fits and starts.
I also seem to "revisit" my models and alter things -sometimes after several years!!!

regards

ralph


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## pinewoods (Jan 20, 2009)

I am a 2 & 4 with 3 getting in the way. I'll work on a project until I do something does not meet my rediculous self-imposed standards then let it sit for months (or years) before I correct the 'flaw' and move on.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Try to be a #1, but #4 ends up the case. Try to have only 2 or 3 going at one time however. I got a couple in the #6 closet too.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

I tend to be methodical, but I'm messy so far as my workbench and tools are concerned. I'll use something and set it down instead of putting it BACK. Periodically, I have to stop, clean up, put everything away, and start fresh... this usually happens when I can no longer find anything. I can also lose things faster than anyone I've ever met! 

Generally speaking, I'm working on one project at a time, but I occasionally have two or three going at once. 

When I hit a snag, I stop. Experience has taught me that (for me at least), using the first solution that pops into my head often has bad results. So instead, I'll stew on it for however long it takes, and suddenly one day some brilliant idea bursts through - a "why didn't I think of that sooner" moment. 

I will work on something balls out for a while, then get sick of it and stop for a few weeks, or even a few months, until inspiration hits again.


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

2 & 4. Pretty much like Dwight. 

I'm messy so far as my workbench and tools are concerned. I'll use something and set it down instead of putting it BACK. Periodically, I have to stop, clean up, put everything away, and start fresh... this usually happens when I can no longer find anything. However, I will finish whatever I start.................... Sometime. When I come up against a problem, I will draw back and think about a solution. Then begin afresh. But, in the mean time go back to an old project. Or forwards with a new project. I believe that I read on here once, the longer a project takes, that the greater the economic value achieved. Rod


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By Mik on 08 Feb 2011 01:35 PM 
Seriously, how do you approach your projects?
1. I'm methodical and meticulous, from start to finish - no matter how long it takes
No way no how. Maticulous in not in my nature.
I need it done yesterday 

2. I build in spurts, then quit for a while

This I do. I get inspired and drop it for a while The longest 2 years no working on the RR 


3. When the muse bites I'll drop whatever else I'm working on for the new project, complete it, then go back to the old one.

Me too. I get critizied for this. Tooo many Irons in the fire.
I get builders block ( like Writers block) and have think about things. I then go to some other project I have builders block on that I thought of a solution while working on the present project.

4. I like the challenge of working on several projects at once. That way I can do something on one while waiting for paint, glue or parts for another.

Me too 
5. I'm all thumbs, just do it for me and send me the bill already

My thumbs are all smashed from being hit by a hammer or caught between rocks. I do everything myself. Hence I have a Back hoe. No one is ever around here. I have been blessed with a ability to figure things out.
My Father alwasy said " You broke it you fix it." That may have been the gretest give he gave me.









6. I never finish anythi....

This get finished eventuley.

I sorta vacillate between #3 and #4 with occasional mis-adventures that fall under #6. At the moment I have 3 buildings, an oil well, 4 steam locomotives, a railtruck, 2 boxcars, 7 hoppers, a tank car and a work flat (and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee) on my plate.........


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

The vision hits, the feeling comes over me, I'm enerzied, and off and running. 

Now its time for a bubble bath with candles. 
And a tall glas of Kool-aid...on the rocks.


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Posted By NTCGRR on 09 Feb 2011 03:11 PM 
The vision hits, the feeling comes over me, I'm enerzied, and off and running. 

Now its time for a bubble bath with candles. 
And a tall glas of Kool-aid...on the rocks.










Heard you liked Cherry Kool aid the best.


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Well, I just read Dwights reply and it describes me exactly. The more I read the more it was me. I couldn't have said it better Dwight. I wonder if Dwight is my long lost brother (not that I have one I'm aware of). 

Not to mention I have something else in common with Dwight.....here's a clue


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Your both live in the past??


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## TrotFox (Feb 15, 2008)

2, 4, and 6. I have so many irons in the fire that some of them have melted by now.  I still have fun at it though!

Trot, the "wait for it", fox...


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

I suppose 2 and then VERY SLOW at that. I wear a lot of "hats" both at church and with the various clubs I help out with. Then I've also started exercising at a local athletic center. The ol' bod is 65 years old and all joints are original equipment, so I need to try to keep them that way. Plus I still work full time.

Anyway, as an example, this car was FINALLY completed about four years after the club member who gave us the original "kits" had passed away. I do regret that he never got to see it.










Same holds for the 2011 Challenge car. I have hardly had a chance to do anything as yet, but I hope to have it done by late March for ECLSTS.

Yours,
David Meashey


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## R Snyder (May 12, 2009)

Dwight's post looks familiar. I usually have several projects going. I generally work on something until I can no longer find my tools, then I stop and clean up before resuming.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Your both live in the past??That's right Marty - back when men were men, and not sitting in a comfy chair in the cab pulling their lever while the computer does all the work.


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Everything you guys mentioned except number 5. Except for locos and most rolling stock (the exception is a caboose I have been dreaming about building and even have the flatcar which will serve as the base), I would never buy ready-to-wear buildings, scenery or whatever. One reason is I like my stuff to be unique, and kits are not. As for finishing, as I have been saying for several months, I have three buildings in various stages of completion, a cardboard mockup of a single stall engine house, photos and dimensions for more buildings and that caboose project, which inspired Kevin Strong to build his EBT hack. I guess it's procrastination, although I do have other irons in the fire (part-time work, travel, home chores). But I love a good daydream!


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dwight Ennis on 11 Feb 2011 10:18 AM 
Your both live in the past??That's right Marty - back when men were men, and not sitting in a comfy chair in the cab pulling their lever while the computer does all the work.








As compared to, where was that again? (Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, West Virginia, Wyoming...dozens of places have been named, pick one) Where men were MEN and the sheep were nervo..... oh, nevermind. 

The big problem with the past is it wasn't near as nice as we'd like to pretend. Infectious diseases, famine, grinding poverty, tobakky spit, horse apples everyplace, flies, unbathed women (and everybody else - once a month? once a week? eww!), coal smoke fogs and smudge, sweatshops, child labor, rampant discrimination from Jim Crow to "Irish need not apply" to .... you get the point. unsanitary, aromatic (and not in a good way), uncomfortable, back breaking weary --- just about everything we now associate with "3rd world country" right here at home. 

Those that were there tended to forget the bad parts (the brain is funny that way). Those that weren't are just fantasizing about something that never really was (We'll just leave those who want to drag everybody else into their fantasy "Golden Age" out of this discussion!).

Wanna hear something really scary? Today will soon actually become somebody's "Good Old Days"....


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By Mik on 08 Feb 2011 01:35 PM 
Seriously, how do you approach your projects?
1. I'm methodical and meticulous, from start to finish - no matter how long it takes
2. I build in spurts, then quit for a while
3. When the muse bites I'll drop whatever else I'm working on for the new project, complete it, then go back to the old one.
4. I like the challenge of working on several projects at once. That way I can do something on one while waiting for paint, glue or parts for another.
5. I'm all thumbs, just do it for me and send me the bill already
6. I never finish anythi....



*7. I've got lots of ideas and someday I'll get around to them if I can remember what they are. *


Perhaps it says it all when I say that by the time I got to the first post I had forgotten what the choices were and I had to keep flipping back to figure out what everyone was saying.

I can't remember what most of my projects are that are in various stages of completion.

It is all a question of priorities which boils down to what I happen to think of that is most important to me at the current time. Right now I should perhaps be working on a project instead of posting here but it is cold outside and there is snow on the layout while it is warm and comfy here so here I sit.

It seems that as soon as I finish a project I lose interest in it and move on to something else seldom going back to that project which happened to be so important (I thought) when I was building it.

Some times I think that subconsciously there may be a fear lurking that if I ever finished all of my projects I would have no reason to get up in the morning so perhaps it is somehow intentional that so many projects remain incomplete. 

If we ever succeeded in accomplishing everything we wanted to build, buy and otherwise complete - what the heck would we do with ourselves? Perhaps those of us with the least are the winners because they are the ones with dreams and aspirations of what the future may hold for them. Some of us (regarding our layouts) may be near the conclusion of our dreams and perhaps that is why we may be less energetic at finishing our projects.

Then again maybe this is pure BS. Heck, I don't know.

Jerry


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

It's true Mik that we tend to romanticize the past and forget all the awful stuff you mention. But then again, if that's all one has ever known, it's "normal." One can't miss what they've never had (or even imagined for that matter).


However, in the context of Marty's comment, and knowing that Marty loves his "modern equipment" the way he does, I was comparing a breathing, sweating, snorting, coughing, wheezing, dripping, LIVING steam locomotive to a modern, sterile, lifeless, relatively clean and BORING dismal and what it takes to operate either. Granted, running a steam locomotive was a lot harder and sweatier work than sitting in an environmentally controlled cab watching over the computer, but it did require lots more experience to do it well, and required having a "feel" for the snorting beast under one's control. I exaggerate somewhat, but you get the idea.


Then again, I'm obviously biased (though probably no more so than Marty).







And I couldn't let Marty's potshot go unanswered now could I? I do have my reputation to think of after all. hehehe


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## Pagardener (Jan 10, 2008)

I am basically #1. I would love to be #4 but my working area /table is not big enough. (In 1:22.5 buildings tend to be large) I do get frustrated sometimes with the glue/clamp/wait periods but I plod along until it is finished.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

I think I've got you lot beat hands down. I started building a streetcar when I was 39, now I'm 63, I've decided I'll try and get the chassis painted this year. Hows that!
I too have many projects going at the same time and I love it. If as someone else has already mentioned, I get in a corner or stuck for one reason or another I pick up on something else that is waiting to progress.
I should also say that posting your projects on My Large Scale Web Page is a great motivator. Because like minded people ask some serious and technical questions and often provide encouragement, for me especially, to get going and show some results in a timely manner.
May be we might have a member who is a psychologist who could explain all this to us.
Cheers.


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## Jerrys RR (Jun 28, 2010)

Posted By harvey on 15 Feb 2011 08:02 PM 
May be we might have a member who is a psychologist who could explain all this to us.
Cheers. 


Now THAT is something I would really like to see...

A psychologist who plays with toy trains.









Better yet a psychologist who admits to playing with toy trains.









Ever wonder why they call us Train NUTS?









Jerry


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