I slowly worked my way into scratch-building. Not that I planned it. It was more of a this-would-be-cool-if" sort of thing. But somewhere along the line it dawned on me. Scratch-building is easier than building most of the models out there. It is certainly easier than the craftsman kits. Why? Because you can do it your way. You don't have to figure out the way they did it. They have to figure out how to make a kit so someone else can build it. Then they have to explain it. If I scratch it, I don't have those worries.
My biggest problem is finding the materials. It's hard to order on line when you don't know what you are looking for. If I could see it...
If you have a choice, live near a good LHS.
All-in-all, it is liberating. Don't worry about it. Just do it.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I've been scratchbuilding for more years than I'd like to admit to. I started as a teenager because I didn't have a lot of money. Most of my earlier structures were made from heavy card stock and they held up quite well.
Now I prefer to use styrene - it goes together so easily. I live about 2 miles from a great hobby shop and they have always taken good care of my needs. If you are building structures it is nice to know the size of windows. I spoke to Tichey and they now show the window sizes on their web. That is a big help. Another trick is to look at the N scale offerings if the HO one is not the exact size you need. Several years ago I built a B&M yard tower and compromised on the windows only to later discover the exact window needed - an N scale one.
Scratch building allows you to build something that is the right size and style for what you need. And it ain't hard!!
We needed a duck farm for the club rr - a definite scratch building project. We even added a few protesters. Daffy Duck and friends campaining for everyone to "eat more chicken".
SpaceMouse wrote: All-in-all, it is liberating. Don't worry about it. Just do it.
"Amen" to that! As a modeler of heavy industry, I had no choice but to learn it if I wanted to have decent-looking architecture without waiting for Walthers, Heljan or whoever to produce a kit for it.
As soon as I started on my first scratchbuild, I realized how easy - and fun - it can be!
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Thanks, jwar. So, I should do what works, and not necessarily adhere to a false code that if you model in styrene, it has to be s.t.y.r.e.n.e. I am going to construct a kit made by Kanamodel, a Canadiam company, that is of a CPR style water tank. It has all the nice wood parts and such, which will be a challenge for me, but the wooden slats that are to comprise the belly of the tank are apparently to be fastened around the girth of a section of fairly thick PVC tubing. If it works, it works!
Thanks, again, for answering my question.
-Crandell
Edit: looking over this, I see that my use of the term "false code" can suggest that I have heard one should stick with one medium to the fullest extent. That is not the case, but perhaps a newbie hearing, " I find that styrene makes better models.....yadda..." might guess that it should be either/or. So, when wood works better, use it, when styrene is better, use it, and so on. I just didn't want anyone to think I was questioning some scratchers' code. It is non-existent to my knowledge.
Scott - Dispatcher, Norfolk Southern
TrainFreak409 wrote:I wish a hobby shop around me had scratchbuilding supplies. I would start scratching if I just had some place to go and browse for stuff I might need.
Scott,
If you head south on Md32 for North Laurel, there's a LHS called Peach Creek Shops that has a huge selection of scratchbuilding supplies: Plastruct, Evergreen, Tichy - you name it. Even has the larger-sized Plastruct tubing and fittings that 'typical' hobbyshops don't carry. Here's their website: http://peachcreekshops.com/
SpaceMouse wrote:I slowly worked my way into scratch-building. Not that I planned it. It was more of a this-would-be-cool-if" sort of thing. But somewhere along the line it dawned on me. Scratch-building is easier than building most of the models out there. It is certainly easier than the craftsman kits. Why? Because you can do it your way. You don't have to figure out the way they did it. They have to figure out how to make a kit so someone else can build it. Then they have to explain it. If I scratch it, I don't have those worries. My biggest problem is finding the materials. It's hard to order on line when you don't know what you are looking for. If I could see it...If you have a choice, live near a good LHS. All-in-all, it is liberating. Don't worry about it. Just do it.
I agree with you 110%.! I find scratch building both easier and extremely more enjoyable than assembling a craftsman kit. I like planning and doing things my way, not the way the usually incomplete and incomprehensilbe instructions of a craftsman kit says I should. Another advantage of scratch building is that you can have a unique model that isn't like the tons of craftsman kits currently on the market.
As far as the availability of materials, many arts and crafts stores, hardware stores, discount chains stores carry artists paints in almost every color imaginable (MUCH cheaper than dedicated MR paints), styrene, brass, stripwood, glues, air brushes and many other useful items - and usually at a substantial discount. Although I model Large Scale which is a scratch builders' heaven, these materials are useful in any scale. Heck, I've noticed that Pearl, a discount arts and craft store in San Francisco, is starting to carry HO scale lumber and other items.
I don't suppose someone here would consider a series of tutorials with a few selected photos to help those of us who have never begun a scratchbuild to figure out what to do? It could start with a simple trackside shanty and maybe end up with something more challenging. It could begin with the basics, such a a drawing and measurements, tools, materials, tips on handling of each, and move into the cutting, assembly, staining and painting, and detailing, etc.
Just a thought.
I encourage a bit of custom building but am such a coward because nothing comes out the way I plan it. Corners not that great, gaps in the walls and problem windows. But one of these days I might actually build something worth keeping from just raw materials. Am working on it little by little. A total KlutZ I am with raw materials.
I started my HO layout about six months ago, with an extremely small space for HO and a very limited budget. I plan on scratchbuilding all my structures. (I built Sailing Ship models from kits for many many years so I know what is involved in putting together intricate kits.) I like the idea that the structures I will build are "my ideas" and that I can fit them into the space I need and can alter them at will.
Here are two examples of how to get started scratch building. I'm sure there are a lot of other methods also. I'll just share mine in hopes that it will give you some food for thought.
Just today I wanted to begin building a passenger station for my layout.
First I have been looking in my collection of model railroad magazines and found a HO scale plan for a passenger station that also included a photo of the actual structure. I laid out the plan on the cardboard from a cereal box, cut it out with sissors, drew the windows and doors in with an ink pen, taped the sides and roof on with scotch tape, and then set it in place on my layout.
Step one done. It's too big for the spot. It looks out of place. It needs to be cut down a little in size. Don't fret. That's the beauty of doing a mock up step. You discover what needs changed before you invest a lot of time in it. (Kinda like drawing your first track layout and then taking a critical look at what the problems are with it, and then making a better plan).
Now that I have done step one, I will take out some quad ruled paper and draw my own version now that I know what I don't like about the one I made out of cardboard. That will be step two and then I'll make another cardboard mock up. When I get it right, then I will do a more detailed drawing and start gathering materials to make it.
Now for the second example.
My very first scratcbuilt item for my layout was a wood bridge over a river. Again I found a photo in a magazine of the bridge I wanted to build. This time I took a ruler to the picture and measured the distance between the rails (and knowing the true distance between rails for HO scale) I schetched it on paper which gave me a starting place to calculate the size and position of all the other parts of the bridge. For instance I measured the width of the beams in the photo and converted them into real size, and then back into HO scale size. Too make a long story short, after doing all of that, I went to the hobby shop and bought a good supply of various size pieces of balsa wood. Using my newly made scale plans, I constructed the bridge by looking at the photo and comparing it to the dimensions on my scale drawing. As with everything, scratchbuilding requires making small revisions as you go. I glued every piece together individually with elmers glue and then use acrylic watercolors diluted down to a wash consistency and stained the parts. I dry brushed some more watercolors on to give a weather look. Then I set my bridge where I wanted it and carved the river out of the foam base to fit the bridge.
Best advice I can give...Think...plan...attempt...modify as needed...and make it your's. You can't go wrong. Because if your first attempt doesn't work, you start again, learning by your mistakes. Just go for it. It's fun and very rewarding to create your own.
Woodlandtoots
selector wrote: I don't suppose someone here would consider a series of tutorials with a few selected photos to help those of us who have never begun a scratchbuild to figure out what to do? It could start with a simple trackside shanty and maybe end up with something more challenging. It could begin with the basics, such a a drawing and measurements, tools, materials, tips on handling of each, and move into the cutting, assembly, staining and painting, and detailing, etc.Just a thought.
The easiest way to start is with some styrene and a scale plan. Do you have a good station? I have a plan I could photo copy and send to you. You would need some board and batton styrene, some strip styrene. a few doors and windows. And it wouldn't hurt to read Evergreen's book on modeling with styrene.
Crandell,
I might be game. I also have a simple shanty and a VERY simple wood fence on my layout that might make for a good starter project for this task.
I find that the simpler scratch-building projects are much more "freelance" and flexible in their design. My ball signal tutorial (yet to be completed) could also be used as a more challenging project, but not one that would take a substantially significant amount of additional time to accomplish.
I find that when I start out on a scratch-building project, I initially end up with a lot of "napkin designs" for my prototypes before I get it down to actual building. I might try a special aspect of the project first to see how easy or difficult it is to achieve what I'm trying to accomplish and "perfect" before moving on to another "aspect" of the project. Once I put together enough "aspects", I can then start in on my prototype.
Even though my first run-through fabricating the prototype may not yield the results that I ultimately desire, I don't consider the exercise a wasted or a fruitless effort on my part. By this method I eventually learn two things: 1) how to build a particular project in a more efficient manner and time, and 2) what the project is ultimately going to look like.
Scratch-building is both a learning and revealing process. I may have a general idea about what I'm trying to build, but I don't necessarily know how I'm going to get from point A to point B; nor do I know what revelations and discoveries the road between the two points is going to entail for me.
Chip's statement is so true: When it comes to scratch-building, you just have to DO IT!
Decide on a (simple) project (first)...do your research...figure out your supplies...get your supplies (at least enough to get you started)...put your inhabitions aside, and...GO FOR IT! Nobody is going to be looking over your shoulder. Enjoy the experience along the way of discovery. It's amazing what you will learn in the process - and it will make you a better modeler.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
That's the truth of it, Tom. Thanks.
Chip, I have photos of a nearby shack that I took anticipating that it would be my first, and perhaps only, scratchbuild. It is essentially your typical wooden frame with simple framed window, and cedar shingles for siding. It will take some doing to cut realistic cedar shake-type vertical grooves, but I am game...a few minutes here, 30 there, and eventually I'll have that odd layered look, and then weather it. Harold's online tutorial will help.
Must repeat to myself, "Just do it!" Heck, I did spline roadbed....and a double-slip!
selector wrote:I can figure out how to measure, cut and to fit sheet styrene, but how do you make cylindrical shapes...do you buy tubes of the stuff..what?
Look around the "regular" world!
I once built a huge cement plant, using Pringle's potato chip cans as part of the silos!
Safety Valve wrote: I encourage a bit of custom building but am such a coward because nothing comes out the way I plan it. Corners not that great, gaps in the walls and problem windows. But one of these days I might actually build something worth keeping from just raw materials. Am working on it little by little. A total KlutZ I am with raw materials.
Practice, practice and more practice..Of course proper tools and materials help. Don't give it up, keep trying.
I for one don't know if my early scratch building and love for modelling, lead me into my profession, or I thought I could model until I learned to apply the methods of doing the 1:1 version of construction and apply it to my methods now.
Styrene is so great to work with, especially when kit bashing a plastic structures or changes to locos and rolling stock. My favorite material, though, is wood. Many times I just enjoy milling out the material list for the job. (I always have scraps of some clear pine-select sugar or white available) If I need basswood or other I find that I will just buy it. I really like the products from Northeastern Scale Lumber but there's others out there if you don't have the time or equipment to mill it. http://www.northeasternscalelumber.com/
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Agree. I'm only just starting. When I found this actual model in the Elgin depot I made a spot for it on my layout. I could wait until the cows come home and Walther's or someone provides a kit ... and charges phenomenal prices, or, this is the opportunity to start a scratch build project.
I had some card stock and decided to rough out how this might look. As woodlandtoots wrote, practice, practice and more practice. It's a start. I saw in Walther's catalogue a picture of a building using the modular pieces that might start to approximate this. I'm going to try that first. It will be fun. I stongly suspect though that after that experience with one building, I will probably just go and get the raw materials.
Regards,
selector wrote: That's the truth of it, Tom. Thanks.Chip, I have photos of a nearby shack that I took anticipating that it would be my first, and perhaps only, scratchbuild. It is essentially your typical wooden frame with simple framed window, and cedar shingles for siding. It will take some doing to cut realistic cedar shake-type vertical grooves, but I am game...a few minutes here, 30 there, and eventually I'll have that odd layered look, and then weather it. Harold's online tutorial will help.Must repeat to myself, "Just do it!" Heck, I did spline roadbed....and a double-slip!
You can do it that way, but three are easier ways. If I wanted that look, I'd use styrene for the walls and Campbell's roll shingles over them. Then stain (I'd paint them using artists acrylics) the shingles to match.
I'd use Harold's way only as a last resort. To me, that method seemed like a lot of work.
And did this come to you in a dream, Mouse? I feel for you with the lack of a good hobby shop close by, while living in the hinterlands has appeal, there are these pesky draw backs. Maybe you can have some luck online with the sources mentioned above for styrene.
The road to a rewarding scratch building project is the road itself, gathering the materials, doing the drawings and mockups, and working out the problems of the gaps and other fit areas. I had a friend who worked in the Chrysler design area who made absolutely beautiful mockups of structures for his layout. Unfortunately he passed away before those became structures.
The best benefit fo the process is the unique structures you and you alone have made, specifically made for an exact space on the layout. The imagination is the only limiting factor in the structures and rolling stock you create.
I don't see a down side to the process, except for the time involved, but the benefits are huge. Dream, plan, build as someone said.
Will
Chip,
I am kind of like you, but a bit further behind... I just started kit bashing (just kitbashed my second major bridge.. this one a MUCH bigger change than prior). I too, am excited about it and am thinking of starting to scratch build. I love the creative and artistic expression it allows... Anyway, great topic! I wonder, if any of the scratchbuilders wanted to start a forum/clinic on tips for the beginner...common mistakes, etc. Also, must have and would like to have tool list. For example, do most of you have a riveting machine?... anyways, great topic.
Brian