What happened to all of us?

[Anonymous]

We're here, just in smaller numbers. I recently was at my LHS getting some windows for a cardstock(!) freight terminal and a dummy F7A for a camera project, and the owner remarked "Modelers? We still get those?" while he cast me a wink and a grin.

The explosion of high quality RTR offerings has tempted many a kitbasher and scratchbuilder. I'll freely admit to picking up an Athearn yellow box caboose last month (one of 4 RTRs in my collection), and I haven't even thought about superdetailing a locomotive since my Bowser K-11. The threshold for me has shifted some, now that work consumes a majority of my time and energy. I have models half built and unpainted, waiting for that elusive weekend when I can devote 16 hours to the trains. I'm proud that all my structures are either kits or scratches, and that there is currently a bag of parts for a brass water spout for the eventual steam maintaince terminal on the modules. I have come to a balance I think...I don't handmake parts that I can get from the little bags on the wall at the LHS, and Plastruct is my friend for shapes, but I'll never touch an RTR building and I still weather all my own rolling stock.

My $0.02

-dave

[Anonymous]

Well I would love to kit bash and scratch build
but it seems we are thought of as crazies who sit hunched over work benches cluttered with tiny I-beams and other angle iron replicas in balsa.
No one makes a kit for UP's roundhouse in HO scale
nor most other buildings or bridges.
I work for a home builder in the architecture dept. I love to draw and design building from old black and white photos.
Laying out the girders and beams and supports to see a structure come together. Doing it this way really puts an emphasis on the interior detail that most standard kits are missing.

[fec153]

don't be so quick to judge. some of us just aren't handy,skillful or whatever. I have put together many BB kits but canNot get a handle on the craftsman kits. My fingers are to clumsy. Yes, I've tried but darn, can't do them. And no, I have very few rtr cars. Out of 500 maybe 12.

[Jetrock]

I definitely still kitbash, and occasionally scratchbuild--and, at the very least, hunt for cheap kits that can be made beautiful with a little modification.

My main problem with RTR is that someone went through all that trouble to build a kit and I'm just going to have to disassemble it! Thus went one of my Christmas presents this year--a Walthers C-30-1 caboose--I'm going to repaint it so the first thing I did was grab the screwdriver and crack it open! Now it's a kit again!

Building structures and rolling stock is definitely more fun in cold weather than doing trackwork/benchwork--while I do enjoy doing scenery, I am tempted to just build up my stock of built buildings until the weather gets warmer!

[BNSFNUT]

I still scratch build or kit bash a lot. I have no problem with RTR freight cars as they save me time that I can use on other projects. I have very few kits that are built to plans I like to change a kits looks so no one can just look and say thats a Walthers kit number xxxx. I have bought one built up structure because it was the only way I could get it and even then I repainted it.

[cjcrescent]

Chuck;
Funaro & Camerlengo currently offer the VGN "battleship" gons. They are flat castings and are nice kits. You can obtain them two ways, in a box for about twenty, maybe a little more and out of the box for less. They even may still be on sale at a two for one price. The trucks recommended for the model is a six wheel buckeye and they recommend the Athearn buckeye for this.

[cefinkjr]

What's this "kit bashing" people keep talking about? Do you mean mixing parts from multiple kits to create something unique? Is there any other use for kits? [:)][:)][:)] [swg]

I've done some scratch building and intend to do more now that I've retired. The distraction of earning a salary (and being on call 24x7) kind of got me away from most modeling projects.

danpik: Beautiful GE center cab!![bow] Wish I had your skill. From your web site, I see that you're into resin casting. What do you think of the feasibility of reproducing VGN (or N&W or C&O) 100 ton 'battleship' gondolas as castings? Could the basic body be a single casting or would it have to be multiple castings combined to make each car? The correct trucks would be a problem but I could live with "close".

Chuck

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Cox 47

Is there still anybody out there that still likes to build things? Anybody out there still use card stock? enjoy digging into a junk box and making something for the layout? Think they should charge less for something already put together?Has time passed me by or are there some of us still left out there. Remember the $ car articles in MR and the ER Moore stuff mostly in balsa in RMC ? I know times they a changi........ but they must be some of us out there O'd KZ DJ

I'm a scratchbuildin' fool! My latest project was a brass HO scale ore bridge with a working tram and clamshell bucket. Before that, an X-large blast furnace (styrene); and before that, a selectively-compressed Great Lakes ore boat (styrene/resin).

This is precisely why I still haven't gotten anything done on my new layout besides the bench work --- I enjoy building structures a helluva lot more than... *UGH!*[xx(]... laying and wiring track! But I will summon all my willpower and overcome that hurdle in 2005 (I hope...!)

[pike-62]

Here is my latest scratch build project.

This is a GE 132 ton centercab as was owned by Ford then sold to the Wellsville Addison & Galeton RR. For more pictures click on the "how to" link on my web site.
Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com

[raynbecky]

The good news about that last post is that those of us that do possess these skills and those that take time to learn them now will be in higher demand. That in turn means we can charge more for our services too. :> Take a look at how much those custom vehicles sell for on E-Bay!

[Anonymous]

I'm here and have said many times I don't like the direction this hobby is headed. Too much pre-built stuff. Don't need it, don't want it! This hobby is about building stuff, to me! Just last night on 60 minutes they talked about the Echo generation, which I guess is the kids growing up now. My kids generation and slightly younger. These kids have no patience, everything must be instantaneous and they are driving the market, now. When something doesn't work, they throw it away! They have no abilities to take things apart and attempt to understand how it is built, functions and effect repairs. Both my kids learned how to model and, have a curiosity about what makes things ticks, because I was a modeler and messed with stuff and fixed things when I could.

The truly sad thing about all this is the manufacturers are simply responding to what the market wants. Therefore, none of us whom like building kits can do anything about this. I predict in a few short years no (or very few) manufacturers will offer kits anymore! It's to their advantage to provide built kits and charge more for them.

[cjcrescent]

There are a lot more of us out here than you think. I personally do not know anyone who buys RTR in our group at all, or if they do, its so substantially reworked that the RTR term no longer applies to the model in question, this includes cars, locos and buildings. I personally only have two items purcahsed RTR, and both of those have been so rebuilt, if you didn't know they were originally RTR, you'd be hard pressed to say otherwise.

I'm not putting down the people that do buy the RTR and such. Remember, please, that there is no one way to be a model railroader. I know that it did take me many years of learning and practice to acquire the skills/knowledge that I do have and some folks don't have the desire or patience to learn similar skills. But I get way more personal satisfaction knowing that one, I did it myself, and two, no one has a model exactly like it , any where. There may be similar ones, but none exactly like it. With unaltered RTR, you can't say either of those.

[areibel]

We're still out here! I'm a fairly new addition to that list, since I switched scales from HO to TT. But going from a scale where almost everything was RTR to one where nothing is RTR, I'm slowly learning.

[jdolan]

Scratch building and kit bashing are fun and good for a person to use his head.

[randybc2003]

I do like to scratch. [^] I have worked a very little in brass, mostly in wood, and a little in plastic. I still think of plastic as a "new" scratchbuilding material. I don't use cardstock too much any more. Yes, they DO charge too much for pre-built structures. I like my particular designs so much, I more likeley think of scratch building than kits. I do use kits some, both plastic and "craftsman". At the local club, I get rave reviews on my shanties, sheds, and a little branchline station. One guy wanted a fruit stand for his siding, so I left him the scrap to do it. He was surprised that the woodshed that inspired him was scratchbuilt. On cars, I do modifications and kitbashing. MR has run a number of articles on scratchbuilding, and still ocasionaly shows how to modify a kit. Check out Narrow Gage & Shortline Gazzet. If you want easy "craftsman" stuff, check out the LAZER KIT stuff. Grandt Line has some good kits too, and supplies a lot of windows, doors, etc.
I don't think the art is dead yet! Here's to the memory of Ben King - CLINK!! [:D][:D]

[Fergmiester]

We're here but time is always the issue these days. I do scratch out of necessity as I find somethings to expensive or don't meet my requirements. If the price was right and what I needed was readily available I'd be inclined to go that route. Still there is alot of satisfaction to be gained from doing things from the ground up.

Fergie

[raynbecky]

Sure, all the time! Although now it's not so much on cars and engines thanks to the availability of so much stuff these days. Now it's buildings/cars/trucks/etc...I have had to scratchbuild things like tool boxes/chassis/etc for MOW trucks. If I need a part that isn't made commercially I'll build it myself. I still do it, just not to the extent I did many years ago. Thankfully I don't need to! :>

[cwclark]

I'm here huckleberry......i love to kitbash and scratchbuild...it brings me great enjoyment to play with balsa and styrene..i also like to work with brass...all my signal targets are scratchbuilt and i'm about to start a brass sanding tower to incorperate on my layout...i don't hand lay track except for the rails on the bridges...that's the only exception...Chuck

[Cox 47]

Is there still anybody out there that still likes to build things? Anybody out there still use card stock? enjoy digging into a junk box and making something for the layout? Think they should charge less for something already put together?Has time passed me by or are there some of us still left out there. Remember the $ car articles in MR and the ER Moore stuff mostly in balsa in RMC ? I know times they a changi........ but they must be some of us out there O'd KZ DJ