Biggest obstacle personally. Vision. My vision is horrible but still manage to build HO models. Just finished up a HO Liebherr 974B wheeled material handler after a year working on it. It’s home will be working in my scrap yard. It’s not prototypical nor is it perfect.
Like others have said. Scratch building is waiting on parts or making them yourself. Had to scratch build wheels for my liebherr 974B. You don’t have to have all the tools to build something.
The first tool you need is your imagination.
The second I recommend. A Dremel or other motor tool. Mine has paid for itself over & over.
Do your homework on the prototype you wish to build.
Measure twice, cut once,test fit before glue.
You are going to mess something up at some point. Don’t be to hard on yourself, don’t quit,take a breath and try again. The end result of your build is worth it.
I should have started my first post off with “Me” as the biggest obstacle, but once I get going, I’m on it.
Vision is also an obstacle with me, so the Optivisor I bought, with extra lenses and been a huge help. I also used it yesterday to rebuild two small engine carberators.
Ulrich. With all due respect I would have to disagree with your number (3. lack of skills needed). I find it confusing that you feel that way. I’ve seen pictures of your layout and it seems evident to me you don’t lack any skills what-so-ever
My biggest obstacle is time. it has improved since I took a desk job and i have been able to seriously work on things. I think my next project will be building flat for a paper company.
Some structures I wing it, other I have drawn up in CAD before building them. Here is one such structure I designed in CAD first.
I did use a Walter overhead cram on the front but the rest is scatchbuilt
I use to fly model airplanes. At first, it was line control and when I got my drivers license it was R/C. I built a few kits and eventually started building R/C planes of my own design after I saw how they should go together from building the kits I had done. I was extremely proud of the last couple I built as they were great performers in combat flying.
Because I had a good assortment of tools for hobby work, the transition back to trains was easier than it could have been. I had the Dremel drill press and various cutting tools so I was off to the races.
I built some craftsman kits and once I saw how those went together, I am not sure I will by another structure kit as they are pretty straight forward and paying big bucks for a few sticks of wood just doesn’t make sense any longer. I have three Labelle kits to get me started on rolling stock kits, but there again having seen the parts in the box, I have done my learning with those as well.
Health has come into play as I was always a “lets get’er done” kind of guy. I found out that even putting one or two pieces on a project a day can give you something significant to show in a month.
Life is full of obstacles, so have a cup of tea, study the situation and then get up and deal with them and take what you learned along with you.
In my limited experience scratch building takes a LOT more time to design and build than it does to slap together a laser kit, especially if you want all the little details. On the other hand I take MUCH greater pride in designing and building my own kit than I do building somebody else’s kit, even if the results are modest.
Since I’m into small ON30, I plan to scratch build much of my stuff, partly because the limited number of commercial O-scale structures are usually way too large for small layouts and they can be quite expensive, if nicely detailed. Since I’m not a rivet counter and just go with what “looks good”, scratch building works for me.
I think the biggest obstacles are lack of imagination, choice of modeling materials (wood, styrene, card stock, etc.), and just deciding to go for it!
I model Southern California, an area subject to frequent ground movement (earthquakes). This, in turn, means few brick structures since they tend to fall down in earthquakes. Since most available structure kits simulate brick structures, they aren’t very useful for my layout. I also needed to model several unique, key structures to make it easier for layout visitors to recognize locations on my layout. Thus, I have done a lot of scratch building.
My favorite modeling material is styrene although I have also used cardstock, wood and foamcore board.
I get many of my structure ideas from searching Google Maps Street View for old “survivor” buildings in the areas I’m trying to model. I print out building facades I like, then develop plans using an architectural CAD program (although a CAD program is not necessary). If I am concerned about whether the building dimensions and proportions will work in the spot I plan to install the model, I will print the drawing out on cardstock then cut, fold, and tape it together to create a mock-up to place on the layout. When satisfied with the design, I will go ahead and build the model in whatever material I deem most appropriate.
Try something simple like a shack or small cottage for your first project. Once you’ve successfully completed a few simple scratchbuilds, you’ll be ready to move on to bigger and more complex models. Before long, you’ll likely wonder why you ever spent so much money on kits when scratchbuilding is SSSOOOOooooo much cheaper. I can purchase a 4’ by 8’ sheet of 0.040" white styrene for around $20. I also bought the two window and door casting assortments from Tichy and I was ready to build lots of structures. How many structures do you think you could build f
I’ve been using 4’x8’ sheets of styrene for years, although only the first one was .040" and around $20.00. Since then the price has risen over the years, and took a pretty good jump a couple of years ago when one of the two local suppliers closed down. Nowadays, I use .060" 4’ x8’ sheets, and with the Canadian dollar being so weak, the cost is about $35.00…still a bargain compared to the equivalent amount from a hobbyshop. I’m currently on my sixth sheet, I think.
Initially, I thought so, too, but the dealer simply rolled it into a tube, put some tape on it, and it was good to go. It would have fit into the front seat of my little car, or I could have carried it onto a bus or ridden home on a bike with it tucked under my arm.
I use a lot of it…almost all of the structures on my around-the-room layout have only three modelled sides. The backs, interior bracing, and often the roofs, too, are all .060" sheet styrene…
The station, centre-frame in the photo above, is all .060" sheet styrene, with left-over windows from a Walthers kit.
I really enjoyed scratch building when I had no opportunity to build a model railroad. I “reverse engineered” several of the old Ambroid and Northeastern kits and built lots of similar rolling stock. I’d take two kit boxes, one with tools and one with parts and the in-work model, in my bag on business trips and spend evenings building models.
Now that I’m actually building a large layout, the biggest obstacle to scratch building is building the layout: benchwork, roadbed, track, wiring, scenery and structures. After years building the layout, actually operating the layout (either lone wolf or formal operating sessions) can easily put aside plans for further construction or scratch building replacements for things that are ‘good enough for now’. I’m happy to have lots of fun things to do on a model railroad.
At present there are three obstacles, all of which can be overcome:
My main priority is getting trackwork that will be hidden up to totally bulletproof standard. That has proven to be more time consuming than I expected, since I’ve found several places where some heavyweight adjustment is required.
As a direct result, most of the sites for buildings I need to scratchbuild or heavily kitbash are floating in midair above to-be-hidden parts of the netherworld that aren’t covered over yet.
In the meantime, my physical health has suffered a considerable decline, down to a near death experience a little over a month ago - that would have come even nearer if my wife hadn’t been present and helping.
That said, I have no qualms about scratchbuilding anything, to published plans or ones I’ve made for myself. Contributing to that is my history of aceing every course involving pencil navigation, up to and including Naval Architecture. The Air Force built an avionics shop building to my design (and then moved Quality Control into it - go figure!) I designed and personally built modifications to my old home in Tennessee that greatly enhanced its market value. Scratchbuilding is the same, only 1:80th the size.
Yes, Matilda, 1:80. I model in HOj, not HO everywhere else. The odd (for the US) scale isn’t much of a challenge. In fact, it makes redimensioning full size plans with metric dimensions easy.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - from plans with metric dimensions)
Three obstacles to scratch-building are what I would call the Three T’s, Time, Tools, and Talent. If you lack one of the three you’re not going to enjoy scratch-building. Also what helps is a high curiosity factor and critical thinking.
Time & experience. On my current layout I have a couple of structure needs that will have to be filled with scratchbuilding. The fact that I’ve never done that, have sooooo much other stuff to do on the layout, and so little time with kids/house projects/etc, that my scratchbuilding needs have been put on the back burner. Way on the back burner!
I bought a sheet of .040" white styrene about six months ago for $20 from Industrial Plastics in Anaheim, California. Looking on their web site this morning, I see that the current price is now up to $34. That is indeed a pretty hefty price increase! Still relatively inexpensive when you consider the cost of plastic kits.
