General Discussion (Model Railroader)

...you used to build kits straight from the box, without modification?

I remember, just after getting into N scale, purchasing a JL Innovative design craftsman wood kit.  Not realising it was a craftsman kit, I looked at the box for a couple of days, then just got in and did it.  After that, I've found kitbashing/scratchbuilding easy.

What was your first kitbash/scratchbuild?  And what made you decide to 'take the leap'?

 I've done so many over the years it's hard to single one out as being the "first".  But there's no question what the inspiration was...  Art Curren's frequent articles about turning lemons into lemonade.

I especially liked his "kit mingles" that took common, inexpensive kits and turned them into truly unique industrial structures.  I liked the way he took the odd shaped real estate we always have on our layouts, and modified structures to fit in and look plausible.

Sadly, this kind of article is no longer featured in MR, as we are more likely to be encouraged to buy and plunk down rather than exercise some creativity, economy and skill.

I guess part of the problem is that kits have become so expensive, even the one's from tooling that's going on 40 years old, that people are afraid to break out the Dremel tool.

There needs to be more of that. 

 

I did this complex with a couple of old Heljan warehouses, and two Model Power breweries, which I bought on clearance for around $5 a kit.  Imagine how much money I would have to choke up to use new Walthers kits?  It's scary to think about!

Bash Away! I say...

Lee

 The 1st kit i got many moons ago was a wood brewery, which i built sorta as it was meant to be , then i decided this was not all that bad and have scratch built all my wooden buidings after  that...  The building are scratch built...

My first, that I recall, was taking a Juneco CP caboose (HO scale wood/metal craftsman kit) and making it one of the two shorties the CPR had for the line to Trail.  I just did what the CPR did and hacked out 10'.

Another early kitbash was a CP Rail SW1200RS from the Juneco kit for the Athearn SW switcher.

My first true kit was a Walthers tin sided baggage car kit in HO. Remember those?  Now it seems i've come full circle with a multitude of Ye Ole Huff & Puff craftsman car kits waiting for assembly.  BTW I still have that dang baggage car!   

Dave

 That's an easy question.  This one back in Sept of '05.  It's a DPM that I altered to fit in an odd space.  I've only done one other bash since then.

 

Tom

I have never scratchbuilt but have done several kitbashes over the years.

I recall my first clearly.I kitbash 2 Revell "Engine House" kits in order to have a longer engine house.

IF I may indulge..Along with that engine house I had the Sand and pump house,fuel tank,the crew shanty and yard office as my main engine service area.The Trackside maintenance shed was nearby on the caboose track.

 

How simple those times was!

wm3798:

 

 

I like it. Now what's it supposed to be. I'm so new I'm not even really in the game yet besides some N scale things and a few HO items from the budget bin that were too good a deal to pass up. The big thing that backs me away is what ws mentioned, the cost of the kits. Like walthers RJ frost, I don't care for the building, in fact if i built one it would be made from DPM modular sections and be about twice the size, only 2 story, but then it would lack the roof mounted cooling racks like the RJ kit has. I really don't want to buy that kit just for a few detail pieces. Laser wood kits have cought my eye, I will build a few for sure, and if they're fun/easy enough I will have EVERY home on any layout I build a laser kit. I do want to try scratch building, but so far only with plastic. I would like to scratch build a wood building or two, but my biggest thing there is I would design a building that I would just HAVE TO build and it would be designed beyond my scratch building abilities. Everythings still a hodge podge though for layout plans. My first interests were switching, but now I'm growing more warm to letting longer trains strech out there legs through rural scenes with small towns, maybe a spot or two in each town to do some switching when the urge arises, and overstated scenery that makes the trains feel somewhat miniscule. Large forests, tall hills, wide rivers, high fills. I also would do some rail car kits, but I don't really see any in N scale, and the few that I have, well, it would be way cheaper to go to the LHS and buy a car from Atlas or Athearn, which the LHS does have a pretty big sale going on lately (buy 3 Athearn N cars, get 2 free). But I also like trains and cars from all eras. 1932 AAR 40' box, PS-1 40' box, 50' rib side box, 89' flats, double and tripple deck auto cars, auto racks, smaller gondola's, Alco RS, GP9's, U boats, Dash 7's, ES units. But after all this I still want something that can keep me occupied operating wise for a few hours, something just running a train around beautiful scenery might not quite do.

Now where was I. Oh yeah, we need more car kits in N.

 The image I posted was two of the four good sized buildings that make up my paper mill complex in N scale.  The building in the foreground is the power plant, note the coal pier in front and the big smokestacks...  The boilers would be in the one story section, and the electric generating tubines would be in the two story side.

The big building in the background is the main mill building, a little on the small side compared to the prototype, and probably not as modern as it should be for my layout's era, but it fits neatly into the space.  

Here's an overview of the whole installation:

The structure on the left represents the pulp digester, using a Walther's built up that I got in a box lot on ebay for about $10.  The building on the far right is the outbound warehouse, which I built with DMP modulars.

The junction tower in the foreground is scratchbuilt.

Hope that clears things up.

Lee

I previously posted photos of my kitbash/mash structures.  I have three scratchbuilt structures still in possession.  They are a Georgetown, Colorado inspired depot, a freelanced narrow gauge/standard gauge freight transfer facility with warehouse, and a East Broad Top inspired overhead crane.  The crane was my first scratchbuild project.  I think it was around 1971.

 

 

 

 

 

Mark

Remember when Model Railroader used to have articles on building, "Dollar cars?"

Being an experienced balsa-and-tissue-paper aircraft modeler, a teenager and strapped for cash, I undertook a drop-end gondola as my first scratchbuilding project.  It didn't turn out too poorly, except that I had built it of scrap balsa with Ambroid glue.  The first time it was between a backing locomotive and a relatively immovable object (cut of cars with 1948-issue trucks) the stress reduced it to toothpicks.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

 

My favorites were the Bill Schopp articles in RMC about kit-bashing brass steam locos to build locos that even the brass manufacturers might never release, LOL!  Of course, this was back in the era when brass was 'affordable' (well, relatively speaking) and the late Mr. Schopp had no compunctions at all about gleefully hacking and sawing and soldering unsuspecting brass models to fit his specifications.  My college buddies and I always referred to his articles as "Chop-Schopp." 

I remember with great affection what Mr. Schopp did to two PFM Santa Fe 1950 2-8-0's, turning them into a Santa Fe 2-8-8-0 (and yes, Santa Fe DID have a short-lived love affair with Mallet articulateds--mostly weird ones--in the first two decades of the 20th Century).   Another one was a 2-10-10-2, and I believe he even came up with a Santa Fe 4-6-6-2, complete with 'articulated' boiler a-la a failed ATSF experiment of the 1910's, or so.  At least I think it was a 4-6-6-2.  It might have been a 4-4-6-2.  At any rate, the articles were a hoot to read, but Mr. Schopp always came up with a very workable brass model.  (I wonder how amused PFM was about all of this, though. ). 

Oddly enough, remembering those Schopp articles, when I acquired a 'junker' brass PFM ATSF 2-10-2 some years back at a swap meet for the astonishing price of $25, I looked at it and said, "I bet I can turn you into a Rio Grande F-81.  Or something close." 

With the memory of "Chop-Schopp" firmly lodged in my crafty cranium, out came the saw, cutters, soldering iron, about six tons of Cal-Scale castings, an extra boiler front from a Rio Grande mountain I'd acquired, and I went to work.  Gleefully, I might add.  About six months later, rolling out of my loco shop (well, okay, my kitchen table) and onto the layout, came my ex-ATSF, new Rio Grande 2-10-2 and by golly, it didn't look that bad at all!  

In fact, next to my new PSC Rio Grande 2-10-2, it looks pretty darned respectable.  Well, let's say that I'm not embarrassed by it.  Besides, it runs sweet and hauls like a team of oxen.  In fact, when someone notices it in my yard, or pulling a train and ask "What's that?"  I just smile and say, "It's my Schopp loco." 

Of course, the Brass Purists are still gasping. 

But it's nice to know that Bill was absolutely FEARLESS during a time in the hobby when you pretty much had to be.

Tom

The earliest scratch-build I remember was a coal tank I built as a teenager.  With furrowed eyebrows, hopefully you are asking, "a coal tank?  What is a coal tank?"  Sorry, at that age I wasn't much of a prototype modeller.  I did have a Vollmer coal loading facility, which is on my layout now.  But, it didn't hold much coal, only a couple of hoppers worth, so I built a large tank to feed more coal into the top of the loading bin.  It started with a tin can, and was supported on a spindly set of balsa wood legs.  You see, I learned a lot from building things that fell over a few times before I got them right.

The coal tank is gone.  Many years later, I built this structure for the Burns Coal and Oil company:

I couldn't resist adding Mr. Burns to the interior:

 

tbdanny:

What was your first kitbash/scratchbuild?  And what made you decide to 'take the leap'?

Well, you asked:

I had scratchbuilt a pile driver from plans in RMC. The main body of the driver overhung each end of the flat car it was built on (it turned on a center bearing like a crane). I modified my model to be a diesel powered version (as opposed to steam). I wanted a fuel car, and I figured I'd have to allow for the overhang. I put a three-dome Athearn tank body on a 50' Athearn flat--I shifted the tank to one end. I also built a framework over the tank to provide easy worker access. I was in high school at the time. I've certainly done better modeling since then, but it was pretty presentable at the time.

Ed

I think my first craftsman kit was a LaBelle flatcar.  As I recall, my first scratchbuild was a section/tool building that had double doors for a hand car and a single door for people.  It had a window on either side and a chimney.  I followed an article in one of Kalmbach's books.  I built it on a small piece of plywood and added some bushes, a pile of ties, and track from the double doors.  Somewhere, I still have it packed away.

I love those old kits.  I pick up some when I come across them, but in S scale now.

Enjoy

Paul