The price of everything .....

Apologies, I'm late with the weekly update. I've been gardening, the hard landscaping bit most of the weekend and things have slipped a bit. 

This week I'd like to talk a bit more about the cost of railway modelling. I had been meaning to go back through the blog and detail how much I've spent so far. This would be quite easy to do as so far I've only bought three things specifically for the layout and only used one of them so far. But there's a problem with such a simplistic approach as it comes nowhere near the actual cost; I'll try to explain.

To date I've bought a tube of PVA and two balls of wool for this project; everything else I've had in stock. Take the starting point, the large packing box; checking online they cost six quid from my local storage centre. I have a few of them left over from our last house move seven years ago, so if you've moved recently the basic baseboard material will cost nothing but if you haven't there's some outlay before you've started. Of course there are other sources of 'free' boxes, some supermarkets will have them just after the checkouts for packing your groceries but these days most don't. I lined the inside of the box with lining paper as I had part of a roll spare. Sugar paper, the stuff used for art in primary schools would probably do as well and I dare say you could use newspaper too as long as you covered it with plenty of coats of paint so the print didn't grin through. I hope you can see that defining the true cost is riddled with difficulties.

Apart from the materials used there's one other expense that is hard to quantify and that's the tools needed to build the thing we're making. Many, probably all, will have other uses whether that's building more models, other crafts or diy around the home. It's possible I suppose to quantify knife blades used, paintbrushes worn out and the like but that doesn't come close to any proper reckoning.

So, what to do? I think it's safest just to plug away at the build and to select thrifty ways of getting there. I won't be detailing the costs or keeping a running total but I will try to demonstrate economical ways of practising our hobby. 

Thank you for your patience; here's an image of progress so far.