The 3 foot rule

You know it’s a funny thing.  Some old school self proclaimed expert will come around and spout his wisdom about our paper models.  “Well, I suppose its ok for background stuff, The 3 foot rule and all.” Then I’ll see the same guy bending over with  his nose so close to my layout, that I’m worried about his beer gut getting the better of his balance and there goes a chunk of my hard work.

Three foot rule my shiny hiney.  At Clever Models we work to a three INCH rule.

I was working on my layout, the one that travels around.  I had a real rough “just the walls,no detail” version of our Mercantile.  That’s the triangular one.
It fit so many different places.  I could probably use four of them.  I catch my self thinking “if only it were brick” Duuuuhhh, why not?  So I spent the afternoon drinking coffee and created (or recreated) “Olsen’s Coffee, Importers and Roasters.”  I have to say this is gonna be a winner.  I’m going home to build it right now and I’ll post pix in a few days.

Comments

[JDuv]

The rule should be the 3 B's, Beer bellies and Beards all these come standard with model railroading. You can throw a comma in between beer and bellies and it will still work.

[Jim Gore]

Thom,

While I agree with your statement about the 3-foot rule, it seems to be the standard excuse for why modeler's won't consider cardstock models. I have found, though, at my clinics, the old "just a background structure" group are pretty amazed by the nature of cardstock models. My version of Plant #2 gets lots of second glances (wow ... amazing brick) and, as you know, the enginehouse at Gorre won the President's Award at the Sunshine Region NMRA event a few years ago. The President, by the way, is no slouch ... he's a Master Modle Railroader, one of only eleven to have completed ALL AP certificates [I think I will respect his judgment]. I continue to present my clinics on cardstock models as craftsman structures. I manage to convert one or two every time. Next clinic is in Inverness, Florida, next June.

Jim

[John Humes]

So true, there are those who judge and critize our paper models. Just ask them what they have done lately. Odds are the reply will be "ah hum, in the planning stag" etc, etc. I have friends who consider paper modeling a wast and will not stand up to wood craft kits. Yet they gladly accept a paper model I have completed and place them on their layouts. Makes one wonder.

As to the Clever brothers, keep up the good work. I for one am gratful for your efferorts.

John

[JDuv]

I agree, I will even go further and say that the three inch rule doesn't even cut it. Most people have to pickup my models before they will believe that they are made of cardstock. A few months ago I purchased a Bars Mills wood kit, paid around 130 dollars for it and to my surprise I found that all the roofs and alot of the wall material was actually cardstock. That day I decided to switch to cardstock modeling, it is so much more rewarding and the truth of the matter I achieve far better results with it then I do with the wood kits. It seems to me in HO scale if you try to recreate things like shingles, or siding the actual thickness of the material exagerates the true scale thickness of what is being modeled.
I think just a few years back the printer technology was the biggest deterant for cardstock modeling. Back then you couldn't print at a high enough DPI to achieve the results we do today with a mid priced photo printers. Now with the higher DPI, without actually touching most cardstock models most people could not tell the difference between wood and cardstock.

[Dave]

I appreciate the support gents. Jim you know your advocacy has been a huge influence. We will always be thankful for your work. Your building the G&D engine house was a huge undertaking. (not to mention all the other models) I never thought we would ever sell even one of those monsters and I think we've sold about 75 to date.
John, you have always been a staunch supporter. Thanks and Mr Duval, as a newbie to our kits I can already see the level of accomplishment. welcome aboard.
Thom

[Steven]

As someone who is new to model building I'm thankful for the Clever Brothers for their efforts. Their products have allowed me to have FUN without the major expense of plastic modeling, I make many mistakes during my building but instead of going to the hobby shop and spending another 20+ dollars I just print off another copy and do it again. Another thing, I've never seen my granny's house in a plastic model but with textures and such I can build it from memory.......... no plastic can do that.

Thanks again