For the past year or so I’ve heard people lament that MR has dropped articles on kit-bashing and scratch building. The reason is that is given is that all the manufacturers have moved away from kits and to pre-built structures. That everyone in the hobby is a McDonald’s born fast-attack junkie that won’t do what it takes to actually build a model.
Bull!
If you want a plywood central with green painted wood and plop and drop structures that is what you will have.
IF you want basic scenery with a kits, that is what you have.
If you modify those kits, and think about and plan your scenery, then you’re are getting closer.
If you don’t let the fact that no one makes a model of Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Foods Grocery stop you from putting one on your layout, and you do what it takes, you have taken things to the next level.
We each have different needs in this hobby.
It’s a progression and each of us determines where we settle. I challenge anyone who thinks this hobby has gone fast food to look at the weekly photo fun. And don’t cast dispersions on MR for choosing where they think the biggest market is. Maybe they think they can do the most good by showing the basics and only introducing the advanced techniques.
In the end, it’s up to you where you settle. But don’t blame a magazine one way or the other.
No it’s not…[:)] As soon as I saw the title, I thought to myself, “Yea, just look at this past weekend’s Weekend Photo Fun” and the answer will be obvious.
Gee, I think I even agree with you Chip. For me most of the fun is creating various odds and ends to go on the layout. That fence you liked over in WPF was made from 1/4" pine boards sawed up into scale 6’ lengths, split by had to make them look like split rail Locust and then stained with an India ink and alcohol mix. Heck of a lot more fun than desprueing a plastic fence and sticking it on the pike so it can look like a “plastic” fence…
How about an IHC 34 foot ventilated boxcar with a scratchbuilt underframe and doors, and new detailing? (sort of an IC car)
Or a MDC 36’ boxcar with cut to fit Tichy ends, a scratchbuilt roof, a Bowser door, and new details? (C&O prototype)
Or finally, two City Classics row houses mushed together into a typical multi-unit rental property?
Scratch bashing probably isn’t dead, nor should it be. There is still too much stuff in the railroading realm that ISN’T offered as either a kit or as a RTR. Bashing and semi scratchbuilding fills a LOT of those voids, even if the end result is still “only” a stand-in model (as with my C&O boxcar above. It should have a radial roof and different ribbed ends). Besides, bashing is FUN!
In O scale and especialy S scale scrathbuilding is a must and a rite of passage as there is not as much available as in ho and n. I kinda made some gons by making a mold of an old American Flyer that was pretty beat up and truck less got 5 or 6 good castings and one funky one that looks like the metal side had been eaten up by rust. I painted the copies black and plan on making them railgon gondolas. Will add American models trucks to them.
I plan on making a 3 teir auto rack in brass, tin or copper which ever I can find, I will use an old article from MR and increase the size to S and maybe an O one as well. One of the members of the S club I was in had an old kit to make a tank car less the trucks, told him he sould usethem to make a patter before he assembled it he thought it was a good idea don’t know if he did.
I’m building the P2K Moore and Company and am adding a square external smokestack from an IHC two stall engine house kit (trying to make it look more like an industrial structure instead of a warehouse). Plan on adding some additional detail parts as well (don’t quite know what yet).
My ultimate goal–to build my grandparent’s house in HO scale. I have pictures that an architect friend has offered to make drawings from. Someday…
I agree, I suppose this is somewhat in response to my earlier thread about how much is missing from the newer MR’s. I think this wonderful section of the hobby that deserves more attention. I think the “Art Curren Kitbashing Award” was a excellent contest in MR, and certianly worthy of a repeat this year, if they haven’t already done so. [:)] I think the more it’s published in Mainstream modeling magazines, the more people will “Think outside the (kit’s) box”, and this will enrich our hobby. Did MR put plans for a scratchbuilt/kitbashed structure for this recent layout? It doesn’t look like it, but please correct me if they did.
( BTW, I frequently Kitbash kits, I scratchbuild, and I enjoy just heavily modifying kits to my needs as well.)
If you are referring to MRs Black River Junction then, no - the staff decided (because of lack of time) to incorporate a number of RTR structures and products to expedite things. It appears that they did put together a few kits. Because of time constraints, kitbashing and scratch-building weren’t on the agenda.
I will be curious how much MR ends up spending when it’s all said and done. Actually, they probably go some or all the RTR stuff either donated or at a reduced price.
I started an ice plant and cold storage facility for my planned “Island Seaport” layout. kitbashing a plain “box” from the windowless end walls of two old Pola #260 4-story factories (aka “Baldwin Locomotive Works”). (same structure as the currently available Faller #272-222201 “Kalb & Co. Machine Factory”, and the Model Power #490-2608 “General Electric” bullt-up.)
I used the 2nd, 3rd and 4th story walls as the side walls, and stacked the first story end walls to make end walls. The wall framing does not match from side to end, but I have seen this on at least two prototype ice plants. I turned the 2nd-3rd-4th wall sections upside down primarily to keep a beam from falling across where I needed to place loading doors, and secondarily to provide a masonry foundation at platform height. The end walls were short so I added a strip of Plastruct brick across the bottom.of each end. This structure will loading doors on the side for a siding that will run in the street pavement. For various prototype and structure placement reasons, the loading door side will be facing AWAY from the viewer-operator. I plan to add very thin doors that appear to open in, made to resemble heavy insulated doors, without cutting into the plastic brick “box” of the structure. I scratched a platform for one end, and plan a canopy, ice delivery and trucks using the end platform, and a small frame office at platform level.
I totally agree with you Chip. I just came across 2 boxes of wooden coffee stirrers which I consider gold. They are about 1/16" X 1/4 X 6" Combined with 3/16" wooden dowel & instant trestle as long & high as I want. In my book it’s not dead by a long shot! Tweet.
Not to mention that EVERY small DPM/WS R-T-R building sets you back AT LEAST $50.00.
How about those factory kits…and the walther’s Towers, and station$?! You oughta have a wallet of gold before even considering building it…
I miss the Alkali Central (Hey, does anyone know what happened to it?) that layout would only cost you about $1,000.00 today, including the buildings, wood, scenery, track, hardware, throttle and the trains, if you bought them new. You barely get the KATO track, and Digitraz zephyr out the door for $1,000+, not including state and local tax! [B)]
Scratch building and kit bashing are definitely alive and well, especially in narrow gauge and minority scales. Although Model Railroader does not have very many articles pertaining to scratch building or kit bashing, the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette and RMC magazines are full of scratchbuilding and kit bashing articles. I enjoy scratch building in that it enables me to have unique models on my layout - and a big plus is that I can model them the way I want.
The first time I completed a shake the box plastic structure, I was utterly disappointed. The second time I painted the structure and it was much much better. I now find that I derive virtually no satisfaction from a plastic structure kit. It is wood kits or scratchbuilding for me from now on. The notion of taking a ready made plastic structure out of a box and placing it on my layout is so far removed from what I enjoy in the hobby that it would never cross my mind. Having said that, I am more than happy to place an R to R loco on the layout. Strange how we set out own standards.
