Encouraging constructional modelling/kitbashing etc

[Gnep]

There's quite a few comments here about the fear of ruining a purchase - and I suffer from the same... but these days starting with a computer, drawing software, a printer, some glue and card I am starting to scratchbuild buildings purely as modelling practice to learn and then also learn to paint better using old ratio kits I built as a youngster but now need a bit of freshening up...

As I grew up the only way I could afford to build a rake of wagons was to buy the peco kits slowly with pocket money (50% of a loco might be a birthday/christmas present combined with my dad "owning" the other 50%!). They were readily available and relatively cheap. Still didn't want to ruin them by painting too much though. That's now changed, and I've been getting the brush out with increasing confidence, but having popped into various model shops recently around the country (the joys of travelling!) the peco wagon kits don't seem to be stocked much these days - apparently they take up too much shelf space talking to the owners. And ordering from the larger online shops seems a bit excessive for a kit that costs a few quid. If Peco did bargain packs of x5 wagons for a tenner then I think a lot more people might be tempted into giving it a go...

[Zunnan]

I think confidence is the biggest hurdle to get over, all too often I see people say 'I couldn't do that'. Assuming you're willing to try it, 'I couldn't/can't do that' should not be in your vocabulary!

Cost is another biggie, whether its weathering a £200+ Blue Pullman or a £20 coach, with 'I don't want to ruin it' nibbling away at your confidence. Practice is key when it comes to this, either that or a complete disregard of somethings value in the pursuit of getting what you want. With scratch building structures cost usually works in the opposite direction, take my bridge building for example ~

Farish ask £21 for the GCR single track bridge. I know that I could build the same basic design bridge using one sheet of 1mm plasticard, one sheet of brick plasticard and a handful of bits of evergreen styrene, one tin of red primer, one tin of mortar colour paint and one tin of brick colour. The odds are that I could build at least two out of the materials I list above and have some of the consumables such as evergreen styrene and paint left with enough to make another two or more. For £21 worth of material I could probably build four of them. The only non monetary consideration would be time, if I batch built them I could probably scratch build those four in a week. (don't go asking me to do it! )

Again, practice is the key. I had a dabble in N initially but was never happy with the results so I started out building in 00 and then refined/scaled down the methods I found worked for me. Then I practiced by building dioramas (one completed in 24 hours straight, which is posted HERE), and now I build for my MRC exhibition layout.

Once you're over the cost/confidence hurdle and you actually begin to modify/kitbuild/scratchbuild, the satisfaction (for me at least) is that you have built something unique; put your signature on the canvas that is your layout as it were.

[Dorsetmike]

I've been kit bashing RTR hacking and scratch building for about 30 years now,  If you want to model the SR with anything like prototypical stock you have to - or not run much stock!

As with others here chassis are my stumbling block, that includes finding wheels to suit; that's one reason for my thread re a 4-4-0 chassis, could also be used for 2-4-0, 0-4-2, 2-4-2 or even 4-4-2. Having a tender drive also makes the loco chassis very much easier to do. not many 4-4-0s had outside valve gear which is another awkward bit.

I'd also endorse the Ebay non runners aspect, if you can pick up a loco for say £20, look on it as paying for lessons, sometimes you get lucky maybe buy 2 of the same and make one out of the two, the other one can always be made to look well rusted and parked behind the shed or suspended from a wheel hoist, or maybe just sat there with the smoke box door open.

With Poole Farish the chassis of most of the 6 coupled locos were identical except for the size of the wheels, early ones had 3 pole motors, later ones had 5 pole, either will fit to the chassis block. You could easily drop the wheels out of a Duchess and replace them with wheels from a black 5, or take the motor off a black 5 and fit it to a GP tank.

Once you've had a play with something like that you gain confidence to move on to something a bit more challenging.

[Jack]

I'm finding this an fascinating topic.

I have the the same fears as most beginners have. I think sometimes those fears are built because we go to exhibitions and see outstanding layouts, or we see very good layouts in various journals, but want tends to happen is we don't see the mistakes that were made in the first place. That's because we also forget that some of the builders have made their mistakes, learnt the craft and moved on.

I've bought eBay stuff that to some would seam a waste of money but it's been used to learn, for instance how to hard wire decoders in different ways. I always wanted to scratch build buildings but like others, its a confidence thing. So I thought I'd start by making my own tunnel mouths by using the Peco ones as a guide but making them a little smaller to suit what I wanted. I've forgotten how many times I've painted a scratch built structure until it looked nearly right.

All these little steps have helped to build up the confidence levels for the next projects, one is to re livery a full HST. I'd would like to be able to make a reasonable look alike of Par signal box. Mistakes may happen but as long as I learn from them....

I won't be looking for perfection but at least I'll be able to say "I did that".

[johnlambert]

I'm not sure if building/bashing needs to be encouraged, my experience is that you reach a point where you want or need to start doing things for yourself.  For example; I wanted some of Dapol's Collett coaches with magnetic couplings and the only way to achieve this was to cut off the original couplings.  A Peco wagon kit was used as a practice piece (without encountering any problems) before attacking the coach bogies with sharp implements.

There have been mishaps; the N Brass front bogie for the Poole Farish Hall/Castle simply fell apart in my hands.  I've given up on that as I'm sure the new Farish Castle will look and run better than anything I can do with the old type.  Maybe in the future I'll attempt something powered but the big names have done a pretty good job of supplying the locos and multiple units I want.  Maybe at some point I'll even attempt re-numbering so that the locos match those that were on shed near my modelled location. I've also bought a job lot of broken locos from ebay just to practice repainting/weathering.

I'm not sure I'd want to attempt to build a coach either as I doubt I could produce anything as good as the RTR types and I'm lucky that I've got plenty of suitable coaches (Dapol Colletts and Farish suburban and gangwayed Mk1s) available off the shelf.  On the other hand I've built a few Peco wagon kits and have even invested in a cheap airbrush to do a better job of painting.  Also I bought a new Dapol Siphon and disliked how plasticky it looked so took a deep breath and dry brushed a few different shades of brown paint over it. 

Other than that I've built a few building kits, at some point I'll need to try and make my own building.  Claverdon station, which I'm trying to model, had some distinctive buildings and I wouldn't expect any manufacturer to produce it either as "ready to plant" or even as a kit.

I suppose it comes down to what people are looking for.  My main interest is running trains but that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed building and adapting.  It is very satisfying to look at the things on my layout that I have made unique.  You don't have to build your own stuff to enjoy the hobby but sooner or later you will want something that isn't available off the shelf; at that point you'll probably start having a go and discover how satisfying it is to try a bit of DIY.

[H]

Some good positive stuff here: 

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Once you're over the cost/confidence hurdle and you actually begin to modify/kitbuild/scratchbuild, the satisfaction (for me at least) is that you have built something unique; put your signature on the canvas that is your layout as it were.

Once you've had a play with something like that you gain confidence to move on to something a bit more challenging.

I have the the same fears as most beginners have. I think sometimes those fears are built because we go to exhibitions and see outstanding layouts, or we see very good layouts in various journals, but want tends to happen is we don't see the mistakes that were made in the first place. That's because we also forget that some of the builders have made their mistakes, learnt the craft and moved on.

I won't be looking for perfection but at least I'll be able to say "I did that".

. . . .sooner or later you will want something that isn't available off the shelf; at that point you'll probably start having a go and discover how satisfying it is to try a bit of DIY.

H.