oh, i totally agree, but the under coat needs to be correct first; Painting is all about layering; You start with your primary color, paint the whole thing that color; then do the next color and the next color, getting to smaller and more detailed area's as you go; if you cant get your lines streight; then its not going to look right; After all, the train doesn't come from the manufacture with crooked lined; Thats why you also have to know how to 'tape' things off right. When you see people on TV doing these crazy paint jobs, its because they spend DAYS taping off their rides; spray - tape -dry repeat. I consider 'weathering' and flare to be the final step in the process; What I have seen people do is print decals; Basically you get those clear labels from office max, print your 'grafitti' on it; then stick it on; You can then clear over it with some satin clear, or flat clear so that it doesnt have that 'waxed' look and evens out the sticker so it doesnt look like its sticking up to far.. Same goes for any logo's, wrapped cars with murals on them, etc. weathering and flare are some of the harder things; because if done wrong, it looks completely obvious. You have to think about shadowing, where dirt is likely to collect, where fading happens, etc.

When i was growing up my friends dad was a pro; He would spend months on a single house, making if from scratch with wood and match sticks etc etc. The finish product was something out a of a magazine and of course we weren't allowed withing 50ft of any of it. Anyway, that being said, you dont have to spend months anymore; There are websites dedicated to CAD designs specifically for model railroads; So now you can just 3d print out anything you want. You want a oil rig? There's a design for that; Some of it is open source, some of it cost like $5; Normally the sites have the option to outsource the printing for a relatively cheap price; But then you have to wait, and if you mess up the paint, you might have to buy another. The only problem is that you have to get really good at painting. Since all of it comes out creamy white. You also have to sand the plastic down to get it smooth.So a good drummel and lots of mineral spirits. But still a lot less work then my friends dad.

This is mostly true; I work for a IT outsource company and almost all of our customers are startups that cannot afford to hire a full time IT person. They are constantly going through periods where they need to get funding and when you hit that period everything spending wise stops; You know things are going really bad when they stop filling the break room with soda and snacks; But for every 10 that have failed; 1 has gone on spectacularly. 2 Of the companies we have been supporting will be going IPO in the next 6 months. They both have solid products and should do well on their own or as a take over. The innovation that used to come out of NASA has now been replaced with Stanford. The chip foundries have been replaced by Medical Labs. The new Silicon Valley is DNA Valley because all of the technology firms are being replaced by bio-tech. Rich people are getting old, and they want to live, so there is plenty VC money if you can find the next cure for cancer. So when they say that this place will bust, its because they dont live here. Unlike Detroit, the industry here has evolved from Ag, to manufacturing, to tech, to bio tech, and lets face it, we have WAY better weather.