Modeling in T Means...

...never having to count rivets. I've not been much inclined to count them anyway, but the nice thing about working in T is there's a world of things I don't have to worry about. Such as rivets.

You see, a typical 1:450 rivet would be around .0025 inches in diameter. That's in the range of the diameter of a human hair. As a surface feature, then, it would be nearly invisible except under magnification—as well as nearly impossible to make. Consider that most rivets on N Scale models are somewhat oversized, and those on Z Scale models are usually grossly oversized (check out the monster rivets on the Z Scale gondola below).



Some modelers are of a mind that it's better to not model rivets at all rather than make them oversized. I'm a little divided over this; in N scale, rivet-less models look oddly plain. But for T, there's no question: leave them off.



It's not because I'm lazy that I find it enjoyable not having to render fine details, particularly since I love detailing my models; it's because I'm reveling in the challenge of modeling in a wholly different fashion. Rather than striving for accuracy and realism, I'm working in a new "impressionistic" style.



As it is, for raw materials we have track with rails that reach your knees; flangeways that could swallow a person whole; and rolling stock under which you could drive a pickup truck. Hardly realistic! (This is not meant to be critical; it's simply the reality with which we're faced.) So right off the bat, we can't do much except perhaps avoid close-up photography.



At one point I'd considered laying my own track, but that wouldn't address the other major issues, and I wasn't going to attempt fabricating everything else, including smaller wheels, finer flanges, and so forth and so on—while still trying to make it all functional. It's not only too much to take on, but it sort of defeats the purpose of buying into the scale in the first place.



So I've permitted myself the luxury of going in the other direction. This is not to suggest I'm happily making toy-like models; what I'm attempting to do is impart a feeling of realism, to trick the eye into accepting a scene as being evocative of a familiar scene. This is not as simple to do as one might presume, but it is quite a lot of fun, and refreshingly different.