We’ve all heard of Rule 1 – “It’s my railway…..”  But thank you RMweb for these additional rules, that we all know are very true!

Rule 2:  “If it looks right, it is right”

Rule 2a: “If it looks finished, it is. Leave it alone and don’t fiddle with it.”

Rule 2b: “No matter how accurate you think have made something, there will always be someone who can point out the bit you got wrong.”

Rule 3: “There IS a prototype for everything – you just have to look hard enough.”

Rule 4: “If the small bit you have is really vital, it WILL suddenly exit your control with a ping sort of a noise, be heard to ricochet off one or two things close by and then disappear, claimed by the infernal carpet monster. The level of importance of said component is in direct proportion to both the speed it exits your tweezers and the ingenuity and/or illogicality of its final hiding place.”

Rule 5: “The carpet monster is building a quite respectable collection of your favourite scale model railway components.”

Rule 6: “There must be a bus crossing a bridge over the railway.”

Rule 6a: “And/or an Eddie Stobart lorry…..”

Rule 7: “There’s nothing wrong with box opening (see Rule 1)”

Rule 8: “Always expect the worst. At the most critical point in your modelling session, three things may happen: (i) you’ll run out of glue, (ii) a family member will burst open the door and ask where the vacuum cleaner is, or (iii) you’ll suddenly remember you left the dog tied to a tree in the park. On the rare occasion where none of this happens, there will instead be an earthquake.”

Rule 9: “If you really – really – want a model of some unusual prototype, then you’ll have to build it yourself.”

Rule 10: “If you are forced down the road of building your own loco / rolling stock / multiple unit, you’ll find that decent drawings – and most of the parts you need – are next to impossible to find (and prohibitively expensive if you do manage to find them) – and none of the parts fit together properly.”

Rule 11: “If/when you almost finish your build, you’ll find a well known RTR manufacturer offering a more accurate version of the same model at about a tenth of what it cost you to build your version.”

Rule 11a: “However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that said RTR model will actually have been supplied to any shops and it will probably have a five year lead time.”

Rule 11b: “If/when you’ve decided to bite the bullet and you’ve scrapped your scratchbuilt and kit built models you discover that said RTR model has already sold out.”

Rule 12: “Who said there only had to be 10 of these rules?”

Rule 13: “If you’re modifying RTR models or kits, you can almost guarantee that some parts (or bit of them) will get damaged – enough to make them unusable in the build.”

Rule 14: “A number of the pieces you discard as a result of such damage might turn out to have other uses (possibly even unexpected uses). ”

Rule 15: “When you decide to embark on a modelling/detailling project you discover that a key supplier has recently stopped making the parts you need, through lack of interest, retirement, or worse.”

Rule 16: “You will never have any useful leftover bits in stock to complete a model, unless you work for a magazine where the correct leftover bit you need is always available!”

Rule 17: “After hours and hours of research, then building (then leaving the model for awhile to see if the illusive photo of the type and era of the vehicle to be modelled had a left or right-hand ‘spridget’ fitted) and then taking the plunge (after a three month cooling off period) painting, applying transfers, weathering etc (to the best standard you have ever done it to date) etc. The illusive critical photo (of the specific detail that you were after) appears, as if by magic, a week after completion of the model, and yes as sure as eggs is eggs, you have applied the wrong type of spridget, the wrong way around and on the wrong side!”

Rule 18: “A recognisable model is a model of the prototype running in a credible background”

Rule 101: “If it annoys you, Get Rid of It and Start Again.”

Rule 101 has been applied to a lot of my modelling efforts…..