A random thought on terrain

About this time last year, I posted about some mountains that I had built.  I got some nice comments on it, and at least one was along the lines of "I don't think I could do that."

And, today, I was reading through a thread on a zeppelin docking tower on the forums. It's a truly impressive piece, and obviously took a lot of time, but what struck me was the number of comments along the line (again) of "I could never build that."

theproffet (who built it) said in one of his posts, "Im trying to encourge people to build there own stuff, not just quit and feel sorry for them self. this defenetly isn't my first building and the only way you learn i by doing."

The reason this really jumped out at me is because, just the other day, I picked up a copy of "Great Model Railroads, 2013."  My son really loves trains, and I am currently in the process of getting ready to tear down his existing layout (a simple 4' x 8') and make a new, considerably bigger one.  So, it's mainly an ideas book, looking through to see what other people have done.  At the very end, on the last page, is a quick viewpoint article.

It's titled "You, too, can build a great model railroad," and the main thrust of the article is exactly this defeatist attitude that I have been seeing.  The author states that it's not rooted in the belief that the speaker does not currently possess the skills, but rather, that they never will. 

I build (and have built) a lot of terrain over the years.  What stops me from building things like the zeppelin tower is primarily a lack of desire and time.  I am reasonably confident that, if I wanted to build something like that, I could do so.  But it would not be my first try at building something, and frankly, I don't think my first attempt at houses were exceptional; except perhaps in the sense that, with a small amount of effort, they were easily reclassed as "ruins".  Or possibly, "garbage."

My first attempts at painting were bad.  Very bad.  Random blobs of red and blue and yellow and orange and purple, all on the same miniature bad.  I have improved somewhat since then.  Not as much as I would like, but enough that I am no longer ashamed to have my stuff on the table.  Now I just need to work on my speed, and see if I can work on the backlog before I pick up a bunch of stuff come spring.