Model Railroading, arguably the greatest hobby in the world is unlike anything else! For those who are smitten by those intricate pieces of miniature engineering marvels such as model trains can hardly ever come out of the enchanment of those little magical creatures - they can make a grown man's eyes glow like little kids in a matter of seconds.
But the subject of Model Railroading is much deeper than little trains, at the heart of the hobby there is the concept of realism - recreating the real world exactly the way we see it to the best of our abilities. You need a lot of skills to be a Model Railroader: research, basic understanding of architecture and engineering, carpentry, electricity, electronics and programming if you are really that ambitious, proficiency in the arts and crafts of miniatures and paintings, planning and execution, problem solving, finance... A successful model railroader, the seeming-loner lurking all day in his trainroom might just surprise you with his little bag of knowledge, skills and talent!
Diorama Art on the other hand might not be as complex and labor-intensive as model railroading, but they can touch subjects that are far beyond the reach of Model Railroading - the possibilities here are endless! You can depict anything and everything in a diorama - war vs. peace, machines vs. nature, death vs. life, joy vs.despair, reality vs. fantasy...
The art of miniatures however, exapnds far beyond model railroad or dioramas. While a hobbyist might be building model railroad, a scale model of a tank, plane or a ship and a diorama artist builds displays to exspress their art in 3 dimensions, the world of miniatures doesn't really end there. Miniatures have been an integral part of movie making and animation for a long time and in many ways shaped the 'industry' of miniatures as we know it today. If you are a Star Wars fan, than it is no news to you that the movie that shaped the history of movie making is nothing but a tremendous demonstration of the impacts that models and miniatures can have in our culture and society - miniatures can literally help in creating a new world within our own, letting our imaginations run wild and help blending realism and fantasy in a way that both can be interchanged so confortably that you'd hardly know the difference! Today, miniatures are an integral part of various types of digital art, photography, concept art, modern art, film making and animation.
My name is Kaustav Chatterjee, and I celebrate all of it! An engineer by education and an artist by passion, I have been building miniatures in one form or the other all my life, and I truly believe that the world will be a better place if we just focus on the 'little things'. I am a learner and educator in parallel - in these pages and in my YouTube channel you will find all my knowledge, creativity and research - passed onto you as I learn them. Rest assured that this will be growing for as long as I live since I am in it for life.