I’m pretty handy, can read blueprints and have worked around the construction industry for a bit.
I’ve also built some pretty advanced models and have had forays into wood with some laser kits.
Anyhow, I’ve come to thinking, I have a few craftsman kits I’ve yet to approach. One in particular I’m considering selling. The South River Modelworks Brick Roundhouse and 3 additional stalls.
Here’s my rationale.
It’s a big box of sticks, and some nice hydrocal/ plaster castings.
I can buy sticks. Probably cheaper than the kit. Plaster castings look like fun too. I think I can do that. Windows, doors, rafters, chimneys, etc…All the detail parts are readily out there.
Framing? I can do that and the neat thing is I can get prints from the NYCHS of a number of roundhouses.
Besides, I need 15 stalls. I guess the point is that with a little more judicious planning I can build a unique structure for maybe a 1/3rd more the effort than building an enormously complex kit.
What say you folks with the experience behind you?
Most “craftsman” type kits are more or less as you’ve described yours. After assembling several, it doesn’t take a whole lot of work to buy your own wood and materials and scratchbuild your own. I’ve scratchbuilt two copies of Fine Scale Miniatures kits myself, after assembling a few of their smaller kits and some Campbell kits. All I used was photos from FSM ads .
Before you sell, one thing you might do is make full size photocopies of the plans and construction templates. Even if you don’t build the structure in exactly the same way, it will be a starting point. Be careful to keep everything else as mint as possible (don’t open detail bags etc). As I’m sure you know, these kits do sell for decent money if they are mint (or near mint).
I am scratchbuilding an engine house right now and half the battle was coming up with (or drawing up) the plans. George Sellios (FSM) reports that many people ask him for plans to the kits he produced over the years (he doesn’t sell them as far as I know).
I suspect anyone who can build one of the more advanced craftsman kits could, yes, scratchbuild the same structure or car.
But the key thing is, without the kit sitting there it tends to be something you’ll get to someday. Someday you will assemble the parts list. Someday you will begin to gather together the parts on the list. Someday you will search out the plans that you know are around somewhere. And someday might never come – and all too often never does come.
That is what the kit does – it kicks you in the, um, shins, and gets you going because the only thing you can put off is opening the box.
So I guess my vote is to keep the kit if it is a building you really want to construct.
Considering the low cost of materials, what’s the worst that can happen? It doesn’t work like you hoped and you’re out maybe $20. At the very least, you’ll learn a lot and my money is on you being happy with the results. Cutting out window openings in sheetwood is a challenge. I use a tiny dental burr in a motor tool and cut close to the line, then finish it up with a file. I don’t enjoy it much, so I still buy craftsman kits just to have the window opening job done for me. Micromark sells a tool that you use in a drill press to cut them out. My dad uses one on model airplanes and he likes it. I’ve never tried it.
while im in the : “go for it” camp maybe you can widen your mind a little bit and use some ready to use detail part. Youd have to be very handy and have tons of experience to achieve casting that rival or better that of grandt line etc… I love to scratchbuilt stuff, not only for the freedom it gives me but also for the cost/time benefi i get but i know that getting quality detail part will help me get a better looking structure and i can still say i built it from scratch.
I saw a seller on eBay selling the plans from all the crafsman kits he’d built over the past 40 years. It was going as one package and it might still be available.
There are levels of scratchbuilding, from preposterous (grow your own trees, smelt your own iron…) to creative kitbashing (taking the two side walls of a three-stall roundhouse kit and putting twelve extra stalls between them.) The key to all of them is having the necessary plans, either purchased or self-created. If you are trying to reproduce a specific prototype, a lot of photos will also help. (Actually, the same is true even if your entire intention is to copy the ‘flavor’ of some particular geographic region.)
With the qualifications you mentioned, scratchbuilding structures should be an interesting challenge - and the results will be uniquely your own.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - mostly from scratch)
I’ve been doing just that all along. I’ve noticed the very few craftsman kits I had were just a bunch of uncut sticks and a few detail parts. For the price they charged they should have been gold plated. I find it much easier, cheaper, and relaxing to scratchbuild using my own materials - and I get to plan and construct it the way I want and have a truly unique model. Most plans are available in older issues of Model Railroader, NGSL, RMC, online, and from many other sources for free. As far as detail parts go, there are many sources (look beyond Walthers!) Since I model in G scale, doors, windows, and some other details can easily be scratchbuilt.
I would sell the kit. You can probably get a small mint for it, invest a small part of it into some RTV, casting plaster, and wood and still have enough left over to fill one or two of the stalls with new locos. I quit chasing craftsman kits years ago for the exact reasons you state in your orignal post and I can freely change anything I want without any worry as to the fidelity of the kit itself. Good luck and show us some progress and completion of your roundhouse as you go.
Start with a cardboard mockup. That will help you get the scale and look right, and allow you to fit it on to your layout correctly.
Take your time. If something is puzzling you, or it’s not going together right, put it aside. There’s a good chance that the solution will come to you in a day or two. This is going to take longer than you think, partly because you’ll underestimate the time you need to finish the project, and partly because, as you go along, you’ll find things to add which will improve your model.
I think you’ve made the right call, by the way. Sounds like you’ll have fun with this one.
I’ve been around construction for 15 years, and I’m about to jump into scratch building with both feet. I’m building, at least in part, historically accurate buildings. My approach, and I think it will work is this.
I’ve been to the local library and Historical Societies to get accurate pictures and dimentional characteristics of the buildings.
Take those and either freehand the elevations of the buildings or use a photocopier to get as close as I can.
Use those plans to create the framework. I plan to build these just like a house. Build the frame to hold the weight and then apply the siding, roof, etc.
That’s pretty close to my rationale for scratchbuilding vs. kits. However, since you already have the kit, I’d put it together. Because you’ll have a procedure to follow, you’ll be able to concentrate on mastering the techniques, which will help you in your future scratchbuilding endeavors. Building a little house is something like building a great big one, but not as much as you might think…the permits are easier to get, tho’.
Duplicating a craftsman kit’s engineering is IMHO a much better practice than duplicating its design. I am as guilty as the next person of basing my modelwork on other people’s models, instead of the prototype, but if you’re going to start from scratch, the best practice is to make something only you have, or something you can go out and photograph in real life. For instance, the Meadville, PA roundhouse was a clapboard or novelty-sided wood structure whose like I have never seen on a model RR, and yet it had a very railroady look to it.
