Most of my own kitbashing involves structures not rolling stock/locomotives. And there are (at least) two schools of structure kitbashing, one exemplified by Art Curren and his Kalmbach books (and older RMC articles), the other by Tony Koester and his Kalmbach book. Both focus on styrene kits.
Curren's goal was to use familiar and inexpensive AHM, Tyco, Revell, Bachmann and LifeLike kits and build them into utterly unrecognizable yet highly impressive buildings, utilizing the fact that really large factories and other such structures are as a rule a combination of repetitive patterns. His raw materials, and he had favorites such as the LifeLike Mt. Vernon Manufacturing, or the Revell enginehouse/bakery/publishing factory, would be piled up and the results looked just right (he experimented by putting actual kit parts on a Xerox machine and then play around with the paper parts) He was not particularly concerned with modeling any one prototype structure, but the results looked highly realistic and prototypically plausible.
Tony Koester's book by contrast generally has a prototype he wants to model, or at least closely approach if only as a stand-in until he can scratchbuild or acquire an exact model. But he too follows the Curren idea that really large buildings are a series of repetitive patterns and that kitbashing using small structure kits can get you there, or very close to there.
I can say, because I've tried it, that kitbashing using laser-cut wood kits is a bigger challenge because the material does not act like styrene and once you cut into a laser-cut wood kit's parts you've likely already jeopardized or even lost one of its nice features that being the way the parts fit together, tab in slot.
A number of my friends really prefer resin rolling stock kits. While they make modifications to improve accuracy (or change eras) I have not talked to any who have attempted actual kitbashing in the Art Curren (or Robert Schleicher -- who also wrote a good Kalmbach book on plastic modeling) sense.
Dave Nelson
I think these would count as kitbashing or scratchbuilding.
This is one of those old cheap Bachmann Plasser EM80 track cleaners that I modified to somewhat resemble a Plasser EM120 owned by Korail.
This is my current project. 3D printed SW1001, also for Korail.
-Peter. Mantua collector, 3D printing enthusiast, Korail modeler.
danmerkelI suppose that since I started modeling by building cars, ships & planes, I've always been partial to models. And in model railroading, this is kind of important since you can't always find what you want for your layout. So the natural extension is kitbashing and scratchbuilding.
Man after my own heart. As a boy many an allowance and lawn mowing earnings were spent at the local variety store buying models. Same is true today, except my allowance is bigger, but no pay for mowing the lawn. And although the variety store is long gone, my passion for model building remains strong.
Btw, nice work on the plow. Thanks and regards, Peter
I suppose that since I started modeling by building cars, ships & planes, I've always been partial to models. And in model railroading, this is kind of important since you can't always find what you want for your layout. So the natural extension is kitbashing and scratchbuilding. Believe me, no kit is safe when i have my razor saw in hand! :)
I'd like to see the efforts of others along these lines so if you have a favorite or recent project, how about sharing with the rest of us? I'll go first to break the ice...
An old side door caboose from Model Die Casting was the basis of this snow plow. No, it's not exactly like the one that the Nickel Plate had but it does give the "look & feel" so it works for me. I don't let super small details get in the way of my modeling fun.
The finished product works for me but since I've completed this project, there's been no snow in the area to clear from the busy NKP mainline! :)
dlm