How did I miss this?

Where was this advertised?  I'd like to know so that in the future I can plan to attend.

Thanks,

Galen (in Puyallup)

Advertised on the web

Galen,

It was posted in two places that I know of. On the Pacific Northwest Prototype Modelers Facebook page, and on their website.

http://www.northwestrpm.com/

https://www.facebook.com/northwestrpm

That's at least how I found out about it.

Craig

Getting the word out

It was also on TrainOrders, which is how I heard about it.  Besides those places and a few local hobby shops, this RPM meet has not been widely publicized....at least the past two times I've been able to attend.  I do hope that the next one is more widely broadcast so that more modelers can attend.  Those of us who knew about it, including myself, probably could have helped spread the word more.

It's a great meet with some very nice models and very talented modelers in attendance.  This year was bigger than last with many more models.  It's a smaller RPM meet when compared to ones like St Louis, but it is still great.  I pickup a lot of tips from the other modelers there which I hope to incorporate into my own modeling.  I was able to catch up with some old friends and meet new ones, many of which has similar modeling interests to my own.

If you're anywhere in the Northwest this a meet that is well worth the time to check out, especially if you do any sort of prototype modeling.

-Kevin

various yahoo groups

It was also posted on various NW related yahoo discussion groups.

Thanks Paul!

Thank you for sharing these photos!!

I know that this meet kind of came together late in the game so the reach of information probably would have been better if there was more lead time.believe that this was the first time in couple of years this show has happened as there was a break in shows.  Also I I had planned to attend but was not able to get things to line up with my work and life schedule.

I know next year I plan on attending was there any discussion on if they were going to use the same venue and same time of year?

Bad Link

The link you posted just leads to the TrainOrders web site. If not a paying member, we can't log in. 

Thomas Gasior

Trainorders

The Trainorders page should be the departure page for the pbase link, which is  http://www.pbase.com/railvan/pnw_rpm_2016

"The Trainorders page should

  Yeah, it worked fine for me. Leads to lots of neat modeling.....DaveB 

Drawing more modelers in

As one of the people that brought models to display to this years RPM, I was surprised at how many of the modelers were focused on HO scale, and very little in other scales. Granted HO scale is the most popular scale, but I figured that modelers would bring more.

Here's what I did to promote the RPM. Since I model in 'large scale' 1/29, I posted on largescalecentral.com about the RPM (where I post regularly). This one post brought more people to the RPM from Eastern Washington. One brought his 1:20.3 scratchbuilt Mogul, and the other didn't bring anything.

That said, I would have liked to see a bit more involvement of "my community" of modelers. In the large scale world, we have quite a few talented modelers (including MRH's own Ray Dunakin) that are willing to share their modeling if they are given the opportunity. So, I think that means  getting the word out about the RPM as soon as possible when the date is set not just the PNW RPM.

Maybe the perception is the RPM are 'only' for HO modelers, that have achieved 'perfection' in their modeling. Maybe spreading the word that it's perfectly okay to bring under construction models to share. I certainly thought that bringing a model (I brought a GN Snow Dozer) under construction would have generated more conversation than it did. Or maybe people just weren't interested....

Craig

RPM and HO scale

I'm not involved with RPM, but it wouldn't surprise me if one of the reasons it is overwhelmingly HO scale is because Cannon & Co, Details West, Hi-Tech Details and Detail Associates all tend to concentrate on HO scale. It's probably a positive feedback loop thing - more high-detail modelers are in HO, so the detail companies focus on HO, so more high-detail modelers get into HO.... 

N scale is just too small to show off a lot of details, and O scale simply doesn't have enough modelers to make a significant dent, much less S scale. 

That's my off-the-cuff analysis anyway. 

Details available to modelers

Jeff,

I would agree. N scale lends itself to modeling bigger scenes with less detail. HO seems to strike the balance between mass/size and detail available. I've been out of HO modeling now for 15 some years and enjoy the level of detail that I can put into a 1/29 model at 3x HO scale. Granted the variety of commercial products is very limited in 1/29, but it certainly pushes one to discover the joy of scratchbuilding. A few of my large scale buddies have even contacted Cannon & Co to see if they would be willing to market some of their detail parts in a larger scale, and the reply was "no thanks".

But thanks to 3D printing we have our parts being printed.

Forget a Cannon & Co. door, you can make your own...

https://www.shapeways.com/product/J2S7PH2KK/paddlelatch?optionId=55973235

https://www.shapeways.com/product/J2S7PH2KK/paddlelatch?optionId=55973235

But back to the PRM. How do you generate more publicity to promote the meet? I would guess that maybe 40 people showed up the whole afternoon.

Craig

other scales

Craig - my apologies at not being able to ask about your models.  I was surprised at how fast time went.  Before I knew it we were already at the closing raffle and I still had not even seen at least three of the tables.  There were a lot of models I only had time to glance at but not talk to the modelers about.

It's true that RPM's are mainly HO scale, but that doesn't mean that other scales aren't welcome.  I'd love to see more of larger and smaller scales at these meets because I, for one, have no idea what sort of work goes into them to model them.  At the next NW RPM I'll make it a point to learn more about the other scales!

-Kevin

Cannon and Co was there

All of Cannon and Co employees were at the meet, did you get a chance to visit with them?

Most detail lines are made, not to make money, but because a modeler needs parts that aren't available and kindly shares his parts with the rest of us.  Gordon Cannon didn't contract out his mold making, he did it himself.  There isn't a factory that makes detail parts for them, it is now Dave in his basement making and packaging the parts for HO modelers.

If parts you need aren't available it might be time to step up and see if you can fill a gap.

But enough words about that, did anyone look at the photos?  Any thoughts on the modeling presented?  Favorites?

I was happy to learn about the Coeur d' Alene Railway and Navigation company.  Their down river terminal was across the river from my great grandfather's homestead.  My grandmother lived next to their old right of way and my dad was born in the town that was their eastern terminus.  I had wondered about the little bits of what looked like old roadbed next to the river.

And Kevin is getting to be a pretty good painter, I was happy to be able to give him some tips on painting his coal gons.  (You can't see it from where you're sitting but my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek.  We had a discussion about the black ring inside the coal cars and determined it was from the surfactant required by BNSF since 2010 or so gluing coal dust to the inside of the cars.  Prior to that the cars were clean and shiny inside, the coal polished them up.)

Paul

Parts needed

Paul,

One of the interesting things about the large scale community is that it is quite small, so a number of modelers have been working together to develop some much needed parts for detailing. The problem however is that a vast majority of large scale modelers aren't dedicated to prototype modeling, but I see a huge shift in the last few years towards more prototype modeling. With the help of some commercial products, 3D printed parts and some good old kitbashing some really cool models have been built in the large scale community. How many of these have been shared at a RPM meet? Very few if any... But I think it would be a good way for modelers in other scales, as Kevin points out, to see some of the differences/similarities with the smaller scales.

I never had a chance to speak with anyone from Cannon & Co so I wasn't able to talk with them about largescale modeling.

The one thing I wished for at the meet was more hands on clinics, and/or something beyond the 'basics'. I felt that the clinics presented were fairly basic, but nevertheless interesting.

Overall I think the quality was quite good of the modeling. I did notice that I was more drawn into the models that had more background/prototype information along with the model to help explain/share exactly what was being modeled.

Craig

No worries

Kevin,

I too was surprised how fast time went. I wasn't trying to imply that it was an exclusively HO event, but how do we as a collective attract more modelers (in any scale) to these types of events? The PNW region has a lot of great modelers, but it seemed that only a few knew about the event.

Craig

PS. I'm hoping to have my Snow Dozer finished by next year... And to have an accompany working brass model to go along with it. If you really want to learn more, here's a link to my build thread. And when I get it finished, I might be picking some brains here on how to weather it...

N scalers

N scalers

In addition to the detail parts problem I think N scale is easier to find room for a layout so more N scalers can build layouts instead of a collection of static models. I've found that modelers in any scale who start a layout usually relax their standards for individual car details and concentrate on putting their time toward more efficient development of the overall layout so my guess is most of the folks who go to these RPM meets are not building layouts for whatever reasons so have more time to spend on individual models? ......DaveB