A couple other standouts in my list are these;
Freelanced Plow-Flanger
MOW Excavator
MOW Car Topper
And my DM&E, (ex-MILW) SD10 with Cat Ears numberboard detail, could of used a '35 series' cab on her, but went for the challenge & authenticity of one of the real models!
If I had to put it in another way, it would be: "You can't buy that in stores!!!!"
Heh He, ha hah, ha !!!!!!!!!!
We all felt that way, ....didn't have the big hammer handy!!!
I've felt like bashing a few kits at times.. Grrrrrrr!
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
George,
Thanks!
I saw that caboose a while back & set aside a Tichy box to 'cut upon' it was insiring. The slug is really neat too. You do real nice work. I hope to touch base again when I have something in paint & decals!
Thanks! Thanks to everyone who is showing inspiriation in this thread! Incredible Works of Art!!!
Seeing Chad's locomotive reminded me of another couple of kitbashes I have done
IN the 1970s, B&M built a road slug from an old GP-9 they got from another RR. I got a dummy, undecorated Athearn blue box GP-9 and started cutting and filling to get something that looked like the photos of slug 100 I bought at a train show.The "Slug Set" was a railfan favorite for many years. Slug 100 ran with non-dynamic GP-40-2s BM 300 and 301 (also made from Athearn blue box with added prototype details). They were eventually repainted in Guilford gray, but I am not going there
From another photo. I built caboose MEC 646. A number of these were made by MEC shops in the 1960s from old 40' boxcars. I used an Athearn blue box undecorated boxcar, wide vision caboose, styrene sheet and body putty to get the smooth sides.
This flanger for my freelanced Bunker Hill & Eastern was made from a Roundhouse 3 in 1 kit. I never seemed to get around to complete the other 2 parts - a snow crab and a jordan spreader.
I built this cabin for the Booothbay RR layout from an Atlas Trackside Shanty and a building from a Lifelike Trackside Shanties kit. I spliced the 2 buildings together and added a porch so the checker players could get out of the sun
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
-- Have you tried "kit-bashing" before? If so, what all have you kit-bashed together?Yes, & I like it, I think it is one step further than super detailing! Generally Lokies & rolling stock..--What is your preference for parts-- looting commercial kits, buying purpose-made parts, using found parts-- some of each?Any parts that fit the effort, would be considered! Creative thinking 'out of the box' too!-- If you're a proponent of kit-bashing from commercial kits, do you have any favorites?Yes, there are many commercial kits that lend themselves well to any projects! Kato, Atlas, & Proto2K... Any model can be bashed, I almost didn't want to answer this one...-- How much "bashing" (combining / modifying of parts) must you do to really consider the results "kit-bashed"? Well any pretty major change, more so than just an add on parts, more like replacing a cab, nose, or anything that takes a SAW to change it...-- What's your favorite or least-favorite project and why?This one, should be done already, but I just seem to have hold-ups, if I can paint it OK it will be great!
PS: Seriously incredible work in this thread!!!! Wow Guys!!!
I forgot 2 other kitbashes in the Greenvale area...
The Dragon Products cement plant is a combination of a Walthers Medusa Cement , a Faller Cement Works and a Pikestuff Yard Office kit. The Walthers and Faller kits were done mostly per kit instructions; I added a couple of stairways to the Faller kit. The Pikestuff kit was heavily modified to fit as a join between the other 2 kits. The dry bulk semi-trailer in the photos was also kitbashed. It started as a Road Champs 1/87 bottom dump trailer. A carved dowel, 2 halfs of a Plastruct styrene dome on the ends, some bits and pieces from my parts box and a lot of body putty finished the job.
The graval loader in Upper Greenvale is a coal loader - don't rememeber who made it. From the catalog picture, I thought it was corrugated metal, but it turned out to be log cabin type construction. I sanded down the roughest part of the logs and made a styrene roof. I applied Campbell corrugated metal over all the surfaces, painted and weathered. I made an enclosed conveyor from a Walthers conveyor kit.
jwhitten "Kit-Bashing" -- Have you tried "kit-bashing" before? If so, what all have you kit-bashed together?
"Kit-Bashing"
-- Have you tried "kit-bashing" before? If so, what all have you kit-bashed together?
Kitbashing is the name of the game when it comes to making almost everything I want, so it's a standard part of my modeling. Kitbashes include installing Japanese irimoya tile roofs on small buildings, butchering AAR hoppers and SP cabooses into articulated coal hoppers and coal brakes and assembling completely different superstructures on steam locomotive mechanisms. My big colliery's major structure will be an unsanctified union of a Walthers mine and some old Athearn composite hopper car sides, plus scratch-built conveyors and support structure.
-- What is your preference for parts-- looting commercial kits, buying purpose-made parts, using found parts-- some of each? What do you think gives the best results?
All of the above. Whatever I find that gives the result I'm trying to achieve is what I use.
-- If you're a proponent of kit-bashing from commercial kits, do you have any favorites-- i.e. Walthers Cornerstone, DPM downtown kits, etc.?
Any kit is a candidate for kitbashing. I have no preferences.
-- How much "bashing" (combining / modifying of parts) must you do to really consider the results "kit-bashed"? Would simply making a flagpole from a bit of left-over sprue count? Or do you think it oughta be more substantial than that?
Adding or making minor changes to details is superdetailing. When the change involves altering structure or completely re-purposing the model it's a kitbash if the parts are largely prefabricated, such as windows or complete walls. The line between kitbashing and scratchbuilding gets fuzzy when the result bears only nodding acquaintance to the original kit or RTR model - but, IMHO, altering steam locomotive frames or wheel arrangements crosses it.
-- What's your favorite or least-favorite project and why?
I don't have any particular favorite. That role is usually filled by my most recent project, which will then be displaced by the next one.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My first kitbash was on one of my first layouts in the early 1960s (was kitbashing even a name back then??). I cut the end off 2 Revell engine house kits to make it longer so my Athearn pacific would fit. I have done quite a bit of kitbashing of buildings on my former layout; they are mostly sitting on a shelf waiting for a home on my new layout. I used "How to Model Kitbashed Structures" now out of print as a reference for a number of them
Some of what I have kitbashed in Greenvale Junction include the Walthers Centennial Mill background model. I discovered that the kit had a back wall, so I cut one end wall in half to make a set back section and used the back wall to extend the front width. It became the Country Kitchen Bakery in the back center of this photo. Another kitbash was a Wathers Merchants Row 1 that I cut down in width and removed the front (since only the back will show). This made a low relief background model near the backdrop at the right rear of the photo. The buildings on the backdrop are made with the Model Maker program and printed on photo paper.
Another kitbash involved a City Classics tile front building. Originally 5 stories, I feel it was too tall for the area in Sheepscott I was planning, so I removed one floor and added an interior. The Shamrock Hotel was made from 3 or 4 Lifelike Belvidiere Downtown Hotel kits. I added one floor and used the side walls and spliced the narrow end walls to make a square structure fron a rectangular one. I added an interior, lighting and a Miller Engineering animated sogn on top
IN one of my references, there is a photo of some B&M advertising about their "new" 1946 lightweight coaches that gives an interior detail. I used this to kitbash an IHC lightweight coach interior to match the B&M and MEC prototype
I also used the same IHC interiors to make interiors for some Athearn HW coaches. This involved cutting down both the length and width. The photo taken before it was painted.
jwhitten -- How much "bashing" (combining / modifying of parts) must you do to really consider the results "kit-bashed"? Would simply making a flagpole from a bit of left-over sprue count? Or do you think it oughta be more substantial than that?
When I initially saw this thread, I thought, "Yeah, almost everything on my layout." However, after some consideration, I realise that much of it can be discounted.
What I'm left with is Bertram's Machine and Tool Works, a Walthers Vulcan Foundry built with the two long walls facing the viewer:
It was combined with an addition made with brick walls from an MDC 3-in-1 kit. The roof is mostly left-over panels from a Vollmer roundhouse, with others, along with the loading dock, made from .060" sheet styrene. On the near end, the office complex is a re-worked LifeLike Fairhaven Bottling Plant, while the low structure tying everything together is parts left from the bottling plant, along with some scratchbuilt stuff.
Here's what used to be the Vollmer roundhouse. I built it into a shop to better suit the available space:
...and from the rear:
Another would be "The Bee", a free-lanced doodlebug. It started as a Rivarossi Combine, which I cut into three sections, rotating the centre one in order to re-locate the baggage door. I added a couple of windows to the passenger area using an X-Acto knife and some strip styrene, then added scratchbuilt doors, along with windows from an Athearn Pullman to the RPO section. The motorman's area had new door and window openings added, which were finished with more strip styrene. The pilot is from a Bachmann Santa Fe Northern, with details from Cal-Scale, Detail Associates, Details West, MDC, New England Rail Services, and Tichy, along with, of course, some scratchbuilt parts, including the metal sill steps.
There's a very basic interior using PikeStuff seats and homemade styrene window shades:
The rear truck was modified using Athearn metal wheels to improve electrical pick-up:
The front truck, frame and fuel tank is from an Athearn F7, with C-Liner sideframes from Detail Associates (they look a little more doodlebug-ish than the Athearn Blombergs, I think ):
Power is supplied by a Mashima can motor, driving the front truck only via Athearn drivetrain parts:
As you may imagine, with almost 12 oz. of lead attached to the underside of the roof, she's a strong puller and smooth runner.I have a lot of modified freight and passenger cars, although most are simply detailing projects, and a lot of modified structures - tough to classify as simply kits, kitbashes, parts-builds, or scratchbuilds, though.
Wayne
Don't limit the raw material to kits. Bashing RTR equipment also works.
Here's a pic of my "NW2M," a Kato NW2 that was converted to narrowgauge and had a steam generator and dynamic brake added. The conversion provided enough room under the extended hood and repositioned cab so that the DCC decoder install was much easier than it would have been. In fact, the unit has been on the deadline for the last 4 years because the decoder install was going to be a PITA.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Always. There are very few structures on my layout that are stock from the box.
Anything and everything. Over the years I've accumulated tons of junque, and have bins and boxes to keep it all more or less sorted. Larger structures are usually a combination of several kits, augmented with some scratch built pieces that use Evergreen sheet and strip stock, or perhaps modular wall sections, or perhaps something I scavenged from a totally non model railroading source, such as these storage bins fabricated from plastic sleeves gleaned from a scrapped chandelier...
Whatever works... This mill complex is a combination of a bunch old Heljan kits, DPM modulars, a Walthers built up, and a bunch of scratch bashed add-ons...
Anything that takes a stock kit and makes it "mine" is enough. Maybe it's just rearranging some window placements, maybe it's putting an addition on a built up, or adding some of my own roof details to an otherwise stock kit.
My favorite was probably the Union Station I grafted together out of a bunch of Heljan station kits...
Least favorite, I don't think I have one. I've had some challenging projects, but I think I like them the best!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Wow! I like gandydancers 2-level Heritage Furniture!
A philosophic thought about kitbashing. It is a little akin to motion picture set design where the designer sees a way to use an existing stock set on the backlot to represent something different from what it was originally designed as. For instance, a wild west town might be redressed a bit to become a Yukon gold rush boom own in Alaska. A Bible-story temple set from a 1920s silent movie became part of the island native’s great wall in the original King Kong and then the same set was re-dressed to be set afire as part of the burning of Atlanta in Gone With the Wind.
A 90 minute drive from my home in Corpus Christi takes me to a reconstructed Spanish presidio built to protect a mission in the 1700s.
That stone-walled fortress could be used to represent a Bible story scene, for instance if I wanted to stage a Christmas movie with Joseph and Mary entering the gate and looking for a room at the inn. Movie producers do this kind of stuff all the time. Maybe call it “re-purposing.”
A reason for kitbashing- to use something otherwise unusable. My wife bought a “wonder mop” that didn’t work for her. The unusable backing pieces looked to me a little like a vaulted roof.
I did a second mop backing piece after taking this mockup picture. I will unwrap and cut a story off Walthers’s Brach’s Candy Factory to build fronts after I lay the staging tracks that will go inside and under the roofs. Think I’ll also lose the thumb tacks. They look too “tacky.”
Another reason for kitbashing. Sometime kit parts are so nice and even and regular, more so than I can scratch—even if the overall kit isn’t what I want.
The window-spacing, etc. of Model Power kits for Grandma’s House/ Bella’s Farmhouse, etc. is so regular, it seems dull for a private house.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/490-1556
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/490-1559
However, the modular design of the kit allows each regular opening to be either a window or a door. Each kit has two parts of the house, a larger and a smaller unit, placed at different angles in different kits that use lots of shared pieces. That even spacing of windows and doors is just what is needed to create an institutional look. I used 3 kits to build a Navy base scene. The large portions of the buildings became the headquarters administration building.
The smaller portions of the 3 kits became a long barracks building—similar style but plainer and slightly smaller.
I plan to use a couple more of these kits for an isolated ratty rambling “seabreeze” hotel built in 1900 when the object of a resort was going to someplace with a breeze in the summer. But I intend to model as it appears ca 1955 when it is run down and used only by fishermen and duck hunters, and illicit couples looking for an out-of-the-way rendezvous.
Least favorite kitbash- I had a photo of a ex-T&P ex-boxcar in storage service, one that had apparently started as a COPY of a USRA or ARA single-sheath design, then rebuilt as a steel-sheathed car, and then converted to non-revenue service. I tried to replicate this, cutting up sides, roofs and ends of various 1970 vintage N-scale boxcars and stockcars. Never went together.
I do some kit bashing in a limited way. It really depends on the space I have for a particular building and the results that I am looking for.
The parts that I use depends on what I have on hand. However, on my favorite project, I did go out and buy a second building of the same type.
I will generally use whatever I have on hand if it fits the project.
I think a kit bash should change the original appearance of the structure in some way.
My favorite kit bash was the Herritage Furniture background building that I modified so it would fit on two levels. There is a track level (original ground level) that is higher than the truck dock level which is the lower ground level (which I added).
(The building on the right in the photos below.)
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Yes, I have kit bashed buildings, structures, freight cars, and passenger cars.
My preference depnds on what is being modeled and what materials are available from various sources. Using left over parts from kits can be a time saver if they are appropriate for the model.
I really do not have a favorite brand.
Actually, I don't put much thought into whether a model is scratch built or kit bashed.
I don't have a single favorite project. Here are some I like. ... Reggie's Junk Yard and Auto Parts was fun to do, and it is a bit whimsical. The auto parts store was kit bashed from an old junker wood box car obtained from a train show. The shed behind the gate is scratch built as is the dog house for the junk yard dog named "Dawg" .
"Silver Fountain" is a Diner-Parlor-Observation Car kitbashed from a Walthers Budd observation car.
The large grain elevator was kit bashed from several kits of different manufacturers.
The large flour mill was made mostly from three Walthers kits. It fits around two walls of the layout room which meet in a corner.
The large bakery was made mostly from Walthers modulars.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Most of my stuctures are scratch built and most of my rolling stock is kit bashed to some degree. For example, in this photo of my HOn30 logging camp, the round house, crane, shed, and loading platform are scatched built. The blacksmith shed is a bashed Woodland Scenics kit. The flat car is bashed from the frame of an N gauge flat car. the disconnects are bashed from 4 wheel British N gauge carraiges. The yarder on the dock is bashed from a yarder casting and the box car is bashed from a HOn3 kit.
The hardest bashing job I've undertook was this California & Northeastern 4-4-0 No 1. The research alone took many years but it is on of my favorites.
Peter Smith, Memphis
jwhitten My guess is that sooner or later most modelers get around to trying some kit-bashing. The idea is, of course, to take parts from one kit and use them together with parts from another kit-- or multiple kits, or even scratch parts such as brick sheets, extruded girders, fence parts or what have you. Or even to make or modify stuff using "found parts", stuff that isn't from a kit at all but just bits and pieces from who knows what found just lying around. Of course some modelers also use commercial kits, or purpose-made "kit-bashing parts" such as the Walthers Modulars components. My Questions For This Week are Really Simple: -- Have you tried "kit-bashing" before? If so, what all have you kit-bashed together? -- What is your preference for parts-- looting commercial kits, buying purpose-made parts, using found parts-- some of each? What do you think gives the best results? -- If you're a proponent of kit-bashing from commercial kits, do you have any favorites-- i.e. Walthers Cornerstone, DPM downtown kits, etc.? -- How much "bashing" (combining / modifying of parts) must you do to really consider the results "kit-bashed"? Would simply making a flagpole from a bit of left-over sprue count? Or do you think it oughta be more substantial than that? -- What's your favorite or least-favorite project and why?
My guess is that sooner or later most modelers get around to trying some kit-bashing. The idea is, of course, to take parts from one kit and use them together with parts from another kit-- or multiple kits, or even scratch parts such as brick sheets, extruded girders, fence parts or what have you. Or even to make or modify stuff using "found parts", stuff that isn't from a kit at all but just bits and pieces from who knows what found just lying around. Of course some modelers also use commercial kits, or purpose-made "kit-bashing parts" such as the Walthers Modulars components.
My Questions For This Week are Really Simple:
Some kitbashing. Kitbashing means modifying a kit, as opposed to scratchbuilding where you start from scratch. Kitbashing is more than just paint shop stuff, new paint and decals.
One favorite project. This started out as a regular structure (you know four walls and a roof). I split it in half to make a double sized flat. Drain pipes and loading docks were added.
Another favorite project.
This began life as a Mantua Pacific. It is now a Boston and Maine P4. It has a cast brass pilot , air pumps, bell. and generator, hand made name plate, and Speed Lettering on the tender.
And then we have the creamery.
This started life as a couple of train show junk structures. With a foundation, a sign, and a loading dock we have somewhere to load the vast collection of milk cars.
My preference for parts is train show junkers. There is some motivation in the silk purse from sow's ear kind of project, as opposed to screwing up an expensive kit kind of project. I use those wonder little brass castings for steam projects. Expensive but really cool. And I have a junk box. I keep looking for "found" parts, bits and pieces from non model railroad things that can be made into models, but I have never found anything really good.
Refurbishment is just paint and decals. The project rises to the level of a kitbash when you have to wait for mail ordered parts to come in, or you get out the Zona saw, or you combine sizable pieces from elsewhere with the underlying kit. If there is no underlying kit, it's a scratchbuild.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Yes, a lot of time since the last 12 years so far. Modelling Canadian trains makes kitbashing almost an obligation to me. My locale, Quebec City, is particular for it's French heritage, so buildings from American or Canadian aren't ideal to represent structures built prior to 1880.
So far, I kitbashed almost all my steam engines, rebuilt my MoW cars and tackle with diesels. Most structures actually on the layout are kitbashed from various parts.
Both. I think the quality of results is mainly associated with the crafmatnship deployed to bring eveything together.
Anything that fits the bill. I like DPM, but using too much on a layout maybe be repetitive. I like to scavenge AHM, Heljan, Walthers, Bachmann and other kits together. I'll take a chimney from one, the front from an other and the siding of a third one.
Habitually, we I have to saw the original shell, I feel like I really doing bashing. But honestly, the limit is quite fuzzy on that aspect. It range from superdetailling to Frankeinstein creation.
My favorite one was my CNR Spectrum 2-8-0. I did it in only a few days without commercial parts. Everything that needed to be redone or added was made from scraps including ballpoint pen tubing! This project tought me kitbashing wasn't about starting a project when you have bought every little bit needed.
My least favorite was my early try to make a MLW M420 from an Atlas C424 shell and a Kato frame... I didn't have enough experience at that time and failed after few years. I'll wait a manufacturer to make this one!
The next projects that inspire me are building a CNR RSC-24 and kitbashing President Choice IHC CNR 4-6-4... Going to be quite an endeavour.
Spectrum 4-4-0 undergoing a chirurgy, mainly on the tender.
The Massey-Harris store was kitbashed from DPM front store, Life-Like Plumbing supply parts, Heljan wood warehouse and parts from the junk box. The overpass is a kitbashed Rix Product bridge.
Matt
Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.
http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com
http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com
I do a lot of modification--not so much rolling stock, but buildings and especially bridges. I've got about 12 bridges on the Yuba River Sub and only about 3 of them are 'straight from the box'. the others have been either 'bashed' or modified from the kit in some way. For instance, my Deer Creek Viaduct started out as two MicroScale tall viaducts, but then I modified the girders to conform to a 36" radius curve, and fiddled around with the towers. Another bridge--my Bullards Bar arch bridge is an 'Americanized' Faller German kit.
Probably my most extensive 'kit-bash' was converting an old brass PFM 3800 series Santa Fe 2-10-2 into a Rio Grande F-81 2-10-2 'lookalike'. Turned out pretty well, if I do say so. In fact, when I got lucky and could actually AFFORD a brass F-81 (Precision Scale), my PFM turned out to be much closer than I thought--enough that I'm not afraid to run them side by side for comparison. The Brass Purists were aghast at my 'desecration', of course, but what the Hey, I ended up with two smooth-running F's, even if one is a 'kinda-sorta'.
So yes, I enjoy 'bashing'. I don't do a lot of it, but when I do, I have a lot of fun doing it.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
jwhitten -- Have you tried "kit-bashing" before? If so, what all have you kit-bashed together?
Yes, an NYC emergency war caboose from a MDC wood boxcar and the doors and windows from a Walthers NYC wood caboose.
The best results come from the best products available. I use whatever. Sometimes that's scratch-building something if the part(s) aren't available, or buying it commercial, if it is. If it's an intricate, well-produced and/or hard to replicate part,, why try and re-invent the wheel.
DPM kits are fun to bash and embellish.
I think there are varying degrees of both kit-bashing and scratch-building. IMO, drawing a line in the sand and saying "This is....but that isn't..." is a waste of time. Some projects take more or less time to "bash" than others. The important thing is the end result; no matter how much or how little time you spend on achieving that.
My favorite are the projects that are believeable; the least-favorie being the ones that are not.
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I usually build kits following the instructions. If I want something not available as a kit, I usually parts/scratchbuild it. I'm always picking up parts at train shows, hobby stores, as well as keeping all the left over pieces from kits.
But I have some kits and RTR that I picked up with a little bashing/modifying in mind.
Enjoy
Paul
It’s hard to remember when I haven’t kitbashed. I especially kitbash structures. I consider ready-to-run rolling stock as ready-to-rebuild. I have done only a little locomotive modification. One reason for kitbashing- I don’t want my railroad to look like everybody else’s...to look like a bunch of frequently seen kits. I like to model scenes with a feel and a sense of place, so I try to find a way to get that from what is available, with only a little scratchbuilding. I have gotten ideas from many kitbashing articles, but I don’t believe I have EVER copied one of those projects. Rather I bash to fit my space and my desired scene.
Whatever fits – or CAN BE FIT- to create the feel and scene I want.
Heljan Danish railway station converted to a southern church resembling the one where my mom and dad got married.
The prototype church, by the way, was “bashed” into a rehabilitation center for teenage drug addicts with slogan painted across the parapet, “The Bible is my Needle.”
1/700 Japanese naval base harbor crane kitbashed into N scale gravel loader.
If I’m not entering a contest with some fancy rules, I don’t give a Rat Sass. (Vulgar expression wordbashed into a scene from a kiddy movie...) Some of my “bashes have been rather minimal modifications. From those sets of “3 unfinished houses” that have been around in the 1950s in HO and 1960s in N scale, I built 2 as completed houses built to identical plans in a subdivision—but inhabited by very different residents—Mr. and Mrs. Messy and their children at the left, and Mrs. Neatnik at the right.
Republic Locomotive Work’s “The Office” became a hillbilly’s cabin with the addition of a porch in front a leanto in back.
The real kitbashing I did was converting HO pigeons into N scale chickens.
I guess my favorite would be Lumberjack Cookhouse. I bought a piece of an old broken kid’s toy at a garage sale for 10 cents. Had it in my possibility box for 5 years or longer. A log cabin from a western set. It looked close to HO (I model N). Openings where windows and doors lost, no roof, made of soft kid-safe flexible plastic and warped out of shape. I thought I ought to have some kind of restaurant or cafe in my lumbering-region town of Johnston. I had already built a highschool with a sign in front for the hometown team, the Johnston Lumberjacks. I have often seen small-town cafes named for the mascot of the local team, so why not a Lumberjack Cafe. In fact, it could be a “theme” restaurant, the Lumberjack Cookhouse.
I cut the height of the building down to N height, making an HO one room cabin into an N dining room. The single window openings for HO, became double windows for N.
I wedged a stick through the skewed soft-plastic building to get it to stay straight. Well, pretty straight. Yes, one of my favorite kitbashes.
That rail us is a work of art! Very nice!
Van Hobbies H1b, K1a, T1c, D10g, F1a, F2a, G5a. Division Point: H24-66 Hammerhead, Alco covered wagons A-B-B-A, C-Liner A-B-B-A, EMD FP7A A-B-B.
H1b modified to replicate modern day 2816. All with Tsunamis.
I build most of my kits pretty much "straight up (per the instructions)," but I've also done a little kit modifying - just taking a kit and making changes. I don't recall blending more than one kit. Here is one kit modifying project:
It began as a Jordan Highway Miniatures school bus kit. I added a NWSL Flea mechanism and a scratch built pilot truck, using N-scale wheels:
I've modified a few structure kits, too. This one was intended to be a boat builder's shop. It was a fairly plain looking 2-story design:
It would have been too tall to look credible on my layout, so I reworked it:
I think that most folks who build kits eventually get around to revising them in one way or another. It seems to be sort of the natural growth of creativity.
I like craftsman kits in general, so I really can't speak to the question about source of parts. Mine generally come from craftsman kits. On the Dream, Plan, Build video series, I recall seeing one segment covering the blending of two masonry buildings (two plastic kits) and the results were very good.
As far as my favorite kit bashing project, it would have to be the railbus. It was a lot of fun - the mechanism fit perfectly within the body, so it went together pretty quickly and without any hangups. I don't really have a least favorite.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Interesting topic... Pretty much everything I build is kit bashed to some extent. Matter of fact, I don't know anyone who builds structures exactly as they are designed. We all have our little changes, additions, subtractions we do...
I personally love wood structure kits. Much easier to switch stuff around than plastic.. Bar Mills, Sierra West, FSM, and other craftsman kits, they all make excellent starting points for something different. Presently, I've got some Branchline lighthouses on the bench. Grafting 2 of those buildings together and losing the towers will make an awesome New England company H.Q.
Get out the knife and straightedge, and start cutting stuff up. It's fun!
I have been kitbashing and scratchbuilding since I got back into the hobby in 1978.
I have no preference for a parts supply,anything is fair game.
Any kit (and some prebuilt) models are fair game.Nothing goes on my layouts "box stock".
That flag pole from a piece of kit sprue is not kitbashing.It is scratchbuilding.
Imhave no least favorite project ,they are all my favorites.
As usual, I'm looking forward to your thoughts and comments!
Photos are always fun too :-)
John