kitbashing?

[Anonymous]

Would someone tell me what kitbashing means!!![?][:(!]

[IRONROOSTER]

Kitbashing means combining parts from two or more kits to build either a more prototypical object, usually rolling stock, or a bigger object usually a building. It can also include replacing parts in a kit with separately purchased parts that match a particular prototype such as different doors on a boxcar.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

Yup, Pauls right.

I can find ton's of older buildings for rural and small towns, but if you want to model a bigger, more modern inner city, you're limited on models that can just be slapped together, so you end up combining a few to make more unique buildings. I've found I think 3 or 4 unique buildings over 15 stories high, 1 parking deck, and very few Stations that are big enough for modern passenger service.

As I haven't begun to build the terrain yet, I've been looking at what i can do to make a more lively Inner city buildings, and have come to the concluision that i will have to Kitbash or scrap build a wide variety of new buildings to make it truely look like a modern inner city region.

But id doubt you'll have that problem, running a 4-8-8-4 as you are so fond of, you'll probably be fine with the pre-modern selection of buildings out there.

Jay.

[Jetrock]

If you model modern cities there are techniques you can use--there's a bit on making modern skyscrapers out of Plexiglas in Kalmbach's BUILDING CITY SCENERY, reprinted from August 1992 MR.

The "plus" one has in building even a modern urban railroad is that the rail lines probably run through the low-rent district, where buildings tend to be older and grottier. There are quite a few kits out there of old brick buildings in the 3 to 5 story range, both industrial, residential and commercial, and of course those lovely DPM kits. Bachmann made a couple of big-building kits that would look good from the Thirties to the present but they're kind of hard to find--they pop up on eBay from time to time.

For me, kitbashing is practically a requirement for kit construction--there's almost always something that can be done to enhance a model in at least a minor way.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys[:)] But the biggest city I would model would probably be Shyan, Wyoming, and that'd be in 1945...... hmm, I wonder if Shyan is anywhere close to Sherman Hill..........[?]

[Jetrock]

oh...."Cheyenne"...don't mean to be a spelling fascist but that made my giggle. Perhaps if you were doing a freelance line "Shyan" might make a good town name if you were modeling Wyoming and wanted to base it on Cheyenne.

You can do lots of kitbashing of rural kits as well--everything from barns & farmhouses to grain mills and cattle pens are kitbash-fodder, as are the rolling stock and engines. If it's a kit, you can bash it!

[Anonymous]

I have a modern city on my layout...and i put up a few (and the architects among us should love this one) Minimalist 30-50 story steel and glass towers. I know that sounds like a feat...but they were actually some of the simplist models i ever built. Totaly scratch built out of plastruct styrene. As for kitbashing...well i do that with just about every model i buy...i dont EVER want it to look like the picture on the box...they look to PreFab that way...i dunno maybe its just me. Although one of the more interesting things i decided to put in, in the urban area of my layout is a 8 Lane Freeway...the small section of it that will be modeled (it crosses a 6 ft secton of the layout) will come out of a tunnel over a small fill and then over some city streets and then the mainline and a few sidings on a long overpass. The peirs are up for the overpass and the tunnel portholes are built...but i havnt decided what i want to use as the actual roadway and weather i want to simulate steel beams or pre-stressed concrete beams for the overpass.

Wow...so anyhow back to the point...yes kitbashing is as described as above...but to tell the truith scratchbashing and scratchbuilding will give your layout a much more "Origional" feel to it...i mean you can kitbash a walthers "Greatland Sugar Refining" into just about anything (i used mine as a large "Heat House" and power generator building in my steel mill) but you can still tell what kit it came from.

[dehusman]

Cheyenne is abreviated "Chian" by RR people.

I usually take any building kit i buy and photocopy the walls. I can then take those photocopies and cut them up to make new kitbashed buildings. Once you decide on a arrangement you like, tape or glue the photocopies to carbboard and make a mockup of the building. I put it on the layout to make sure it looks right and to use as a stand-in until I can actually build it.

Dave H

[BentnoseWillie]

Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures (Kalmbach, most recent edition 1994), by the late, great Art Curren, is the reference for this subject.

Composed of various and sundry of Art's articles over the years in MR, this book starts with the fundamentals of a first kitbash. The chapters then work through progressively more complex projects. The big finish is "semiscratchbuilding" a structure, using kit parts as raw materials. After studying this book, I never looked at a kit the same way again! [8D]

Art had a real gift for writing structure articles that didn't leave beginners behind, and yet contained lots of substance for the more experienced reader. If you want to make your layout's structures unique and don't know where to start, grab this book. It's just great.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Johnnydash9

I have a modern city on my layout...and i put up a few (and the architects among us should love this one) Minimalist 30-50 story steel and glass towers.

really? looking at building a few tall glass and steels myself. was thinking of making a support structure out of cardboard beams covered by a dark blue plexiglass (i want lighted windows ;p) and for the steel, figured i'd just paint them on the plexiglass.

problem is finding some nice dark blue plexiglass that's about an 1/8" think. hmm...was also thinking a dark teal color for another one too.

would love to hear how you built yours, i may follow suit :)

Jay.

[Anonymous]

Reduced to its essence 'kitbashing' means: to me at least, constructing a kit in such a way as to not match the picture on the box :)

Since we are wandering off the topic thread, has anyone noticed the lack of stucco-tile roof kits? Any southwest RR worth its prototype should have some of these structures. They were commonly built for housing, commercial and business purposes from the late 'teens through the current day.

[Anonymous]

Well the prototype i used for one of mine was the FreeMarkets Tower here in Pittsburgh. It is i believe 41 stories (not the tallest in the city by far the USX tower is 74) but its definately the Minimalist style that i like). The buildings color is a clad burgandy glass and steel. What makes it so interesting is if you coming into town on I-579 and the sun hits the building just right it almost looks like its on fire.

To make mine i used Clear Plexiglass as the backing and and then went to a buddy of mines auto detail shop and got that Mirrored auto window tint. I used the window tint on the inside of the plexiglass (the side not facing the world). Then i prepainted Plastruct structural shapes and then cut and glued them on the outside of the plexiglass.

DONE....see they are actually very easy to build....and 99% of the building is the plastruct parts and is what takes the most time to do. But if you want the mirrored glass and to do lighting....CLEAR plexiglass and Auto tint is the way to go...

BUT.....FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS on doing the tint...beacouse if you dont you will get those stupid looking bubbles...and your building will look as cheesy as peoples cars do that havnt followd the directions and tinted their car windows that way LOL

[Jetrock]

rda1964: I feel your pain. Most model railroad companies are in the Midwest, which is why most American model railroad structures don't have things like tile roofs or Mission styling. On my last trip to Chicago via Amtrak, I commented that most of the buildings from Nebraska east looked like they came straight out of the Walthers catalog!

There are a *lot* of Mission-style buildings here in California, railroad and otherwise, and a good chunk of older buildings in town have at least partial tile roofs--which, of course, one can't find in any scale. One exception is the Heljan Spanish-style station, but it is a rarity. At least one company makes sheets of plastic "tile roof" which would be ideal for use in....kitbashing!

[Anonymous]

Jetrock:

On the subject of 'mission style' buildings there are indeed many standing examples of the style ...in all sorts of sizes... from tiled sheds to large terminals. San Diego union terminal being the prime example of large railroad architecture.

As to structural materials, stucco walls are available in both plastic sheet and hydrocal. Tile roofing is available in HO as both plastic sheet and individual runs of tile. Thus roofs are not a problem. Sheets of 'spanish' tile flooring are also available. The real lack is in windows. To my knowledge there are no examples in HO of swing out 4 and 5 panel windows. In the end I will likely have to 'bash' single hung windows or scratch build them. Windows are specially imortant as the structures are very plain and undecorated and windows catch the viewers eye far more than on a brick or wood structure.

If you or anyone else knows of a source of 'wood 4 or 5 panel swingout windows' suitable to HO scale, or a small wondow jig, I'd love to know of it.

Randy

[eastcoast]

BASHING?????? My kits are always being bashed together or cut to fit
etc. I do not like the BOX LOOK at all. I like being original and LOVE to
make new things and models out of box kits. Sometimes,I need to bash
to copy a prototype,not often, 'cause I like the look. I also find that some
stucture kits stretch a long way by making many structures along my
layout in various areas OR to create a periodic look in a corner.
EXAMPLE: I got some MODEL POWER structure kits a gifts. At first, did not
know what to do with them. BUT, I hacked and slashed them into SIX buildings
and back flats for a "colonial" town . KITBASHING IS AWESOME for
penny pinching, really stretches those dollars, ya'll get the point.

[krump]

1 brand new kit + 1 large hammer + 1 toddler = kitbashing

or so I thought until I joined the forum

[nfmisso]

Originally posted by 4884bigboy

Thanks guys[:)] But the biggest city I would model would probably be Shyan, Wyoming, and that'd be in 1945...... hmm, I wonder if Shyan is anywhere close to Sherman Hill..........[?]
[/quote
Cheyenne is rather close to Sherman Hill. Head west out of Cheyenne, and you are going up it. Head east out of Cheyenne, and your in Nebraska (flat).

When you are old enough, take a road trip along I-80. It parallels the UP through much of Wyoming, the major exception being Larmie - Rawlins, you'd want to take US30.

Nigel N&W in HO scale, 1950 - 1955 (..and some a bit newer too) Now in San Jose, California

• Reply