Scratchbuilding Beginner

[Anonymous]

Hey how would I get started on scratchbuilding? What materials are usually used for projects such as freight cars? Does anybody know where I can find deminsions and measurements for locomotives and freight cars?

[orsonroy]

I would suggest NOT starting your first scratchbuilding effort with a freight car. Things that move are the hardest to scratchbuilt, since they need to look right AND perform well. Even using commercial trucks, wheels and couplers, there are a lot of things that can get screwed up while scratching a car, witht he results being a useless POS.

I'd suggest starting off simple, like with a few buildings. Work from Mid to small to large (small building can be more difficult to build than mid sized ones).

Most people these days scratchbuild using styrene (plastic). I's suggest doing the same. It's easy to work with, comes in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes, and glues beautifully with liquid plastic cement (pick a brand). Evergreen and Plastruct are probably the two biggest distributors of hobby plastics. Be warned: Plastruct sells two types of "plastic": styrene-based and PVC-based. The PVC stuff can only be glued using superglue or their own PVC-compatable liquid cement. Stick with styrene.

Check the Walthers catalog (the hard copy, not the website, which is too hard to navigate for this sort of thing) for detail parts, scratchbuilding supplies, and tools for working with plastics. You don't need anything more fancy than an Xacto knife, lots of blades (plastic dulls blades fast), tweezers and a metal straightedge for now. Look into the lines of plastic doors, windows and accessories made by Grandt Line and Tichy; they're the best on the market.

As for plans, they're all over the place. Mostly, your best bet will be backissues of Rail Model Craftsman (RMC) and Mainline Modeler. Model Railroader USED to publish plans every month, but they don't as frequently these days. N Scale magazine, especially back issues, is another great place to search for plans. Essentially, any model RR magazine you can think of has published SOME plans in the past, so your best bet is to hit a swapmeet and start digging through back issues. There have been several targeted books that have published loads of plans, but they're usually "real" plans of cars, engines, and structures. You might want to hold off on those for now. I've rarely come across a set of modeling-suitable plans online.

[Anonymous]

Ditto orsonroy's remarks. LOTS of blades. Buy in packs of 100 if possible. Or make a jig to resharpen them on a whetstone (never as good as a new edge, but close).

If you're in a reasonably large city, check your yellow pages for plastics suppliers. You can sometimes buy LARGE sheets of styrene for the same price that hobby shops charge for much smaller pieces. My LHS stocks it in 2 square foot sheets (about $4-10 depending on thickness). That same price can get (or almost get) a 4X8 foot sheet at a plastic supplier.

Instead of spending beaucoup bucks on cement, I went to the hardware store and bought a pint of methyl ethyl ketone. Now I find out it's a carcinogen...so to use it safely I'll have to work in a fume hood.

Start with buildings. I built a well car, but only after cutting my teeth on a few kitbashes and simpler scratchbuilds first.

As far as mags, sometimes you can get lucky and find a store that stocks old ones. Two in the Milwaukee area are a treasure trove of old mags. IT's too bad they're not indexed or organized.

[DSchmitt]

There are many materials that can be used. I started out using wood and paper. Tin and brass have been popular in the past. Many modelers, including me, now use styrene plastic. Evergreen Stryene has a large selection of plastic sheet, scribed siding and shapes which makes scratchbuilding easier than ever before.

Plans are published in most of the model railroad magazines and many of the publishers have put out plan books. Some historical societies and railfans have put plans or car diagrams (the railroads line drawings which give information about the cars) on line.

[IRONROOSTER]

Assuming you have built some simple kits, I would recommend that you build some craftsman kits including a Labelle kit -http://www.labellemodels.com/ - as this is very similar to what you will do in scratch building and will give you some idea of the sequence and parts involved. Whether you use plastic, wood, or metal is up to you, I prefer wood, but others like plastic or metal. Search the Index of Magazines above for scratch building articles. They were very popular several years ago.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by IRONROOSTER

Assuming you have built some simple kits, I would recommend that you build some craftsman kits...

Just what I was going to say, because that's how I got started. I built several Campbell kits, starting with a small simple one, then on to a water tower and coaling tower, and then a Fine Scale Miniatures kit. They supply all of the material, methods, techniques, etc., and will teach you all of the basics. After I had built several kits, I realised that I was paying a fair amount for some basic materials that I could buy myself. I used methods learned in putting the kits together to make my own original models, and engine house and then a machine shop.

I've even scratchbuilt two copies of Fine Scale Miniatures kits from their photos in the ads. See my latest building supply dealer on my web pages:
http://www.geocities.com/fundynorthern/Diorama.html

Start small and work your way up! [:D]

Bob Boudreau
Canada

[ericsp]

I looked at Plastruct in the Walthers catalog. I found Styrene, Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS), and some type of acrylic (Plexiglas [polymethyl methacrylate] being an example, I do not know if that is what Plastruct uses), however I did not see polyvinyl chloride (PVC).