Stuart Firth
I think the Chairman has a very valid point – demand for a kit is known to fall off a cliff when a decent RTR model is released. It seems that a lot of people just want a decent model of something. This seems very odd to me as I enjoy making things and RTR is therefore, to me, the definition of pointless, rather like an artist buying a painting because it’s quicker than doing his/her own (I’m very far from being an artist I hasten to add!). Nevertheless it is a threat, and probably more to us than to P4 because they, in a way, are more likely to be people like me than the other type. Going back to the discussion above, I don’t think we should sell ourselves short. I’m sure I could work to P4 standards but choose not to because the visual improvement seems, to me, quite small compared to the extra time and swearing that would be required to achieve it successfully.
Sadly therefore it is very important to appeal to the RTR-loving modeller, showing how easy conversions are, publicising the track, etc. We just need to do this without dumbing down the craft side of our hobby.