Perfect? Not Hardly.

But still, loads of fun! Last time I regaled you with the story of how I was picking away at a unique model of a coal gondola that's not available commercially, at least as far as I know. There's been some progress in the interim, and it seemed loke a good time to update you on the status of this thing. So here are a couple of shots of where it stands as of now:



As a reminder of where this is supposed to end up, here's a photo of the real thing from a few years back:


I figure I'm not half done, with things like ladders and brake rigging not even started. There are times I just want to trash the entire project and start over, but I'm forcing myself to take it as far as I can to try and learn something about scratchbuilding. And I have learned quite a bit. Maybe most importantly, if you sit down and concentrate, you can make something that at least sits on the tracks. Now sitting level is another story, I may still need some work on that. But I must say it does please me to look at what I've created and see the slightest resemblance to what I actually am trying to do. I'm likely the most artistically challenged person any of you are aware of so it takes not much to please me.

Maybe I'm finding my niche?