TS2016 article on Engine Driver

[tbundy1982]

The ability to repaint a model really depends on how much thought the original creator put into building it. I won't call what was done on these DTG locomotives poor modeling...they look great in their original form. It really comes down to what the modeler considers to be important. Most of these issues stem from a lack of foresight on behalf of whoever created them. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's intentional...yet. I will say that it takes time and diligence to what appears to be unnecessary detail: a modeler may need to paint the locomotive in a crazy rainbow of stripes or other alternative paint scheme to catch mistakes before someone else does. If the modeler doesn't care to do such a thing, they can still make an outstanding model. I've cursed many a modeler, even with popular repaintable models, for their lack of foresight. Since RW models are much more detailed than, say, an MSTS model, the time and diligence to these details grows with the level of detail.

Years ago I made a few models for MSTS using Train Sim Modeler (bad choice for the future, but that's a different story) and I spent many hours of thought and revision to make sure that they could be repainted fully and evenly. I looked at it as ensuring that the model could live on past my interest in modeling. That was MY choice, plus I didn't want to create any additional headaches for myself when painting a variety of liveries on the same model. I paid on the front end to save on the back. Because of contractual agreements with DTG, the original modeler may not intend for the model to live past the original intent: sell to DTG and be done. It's a shame that they took shortcuts but those models seem to me to be worth only their face value to their creator. I can't put 100+ hours into something and not treat it like one of my babies, good enough is just not good enough.

Tyler