I like to scratchbuild when I need something unique. However saying that, it is rare for me to scratchbuild as I really enjoy Laser kits and I like the way the designs of such kits as Sierra Wests Eureka Boiler house or Water tank look great from every angle. It really does take an Imagineer to create a good kit and when just following along gets you there, I find that very satisfying.

Marc, I do agree about the black burnt edges of laser kits but it just makes me more determined to sand and paint all that black away, in the wash up I think laser cut windows and doors look fantastic over plastic. It's my hobby and sometimes I like to follow the leader cause I have less time now than ever. Now in retirement... It may be different.

Oh and Vance that is some great modelling on your Website! Way to go.

PaulD[:-sly]

Vance-thanks for posting your gallery link. I especially like your Wiliker's. A much different setting than you usually see it in. Nice work

Scratch building (in my opinion) is easier at times than trying to figure out some of the instructions in kits. Some are very good and others your darn near scratch building anyway. The BM kits and MS I have been working on as of late though are very good and enjoyable...Jerry

I'd be happy with prototype building drawings rather then whole kits. Maybe a supply list for detail parts when available. I'd pay for something like that. Those things don't show up in model magazines too often these days.

Joe

I agree Joe, I copy plans from mag's or books then draw to scale. Place them on my bench under wax paper and lay out the walls with studs top plates window framing etc. just the same as a full size building.It's not complicated if I can do it. Works well and the bonus is a realistic interior wall with studs and all. Use Grandt line windows and doors for the most part. Even if they don't give plans you can get pretty close on buildings from photos and if your lucky enough to visit in person break out the tape.............Jerry

I voted for the "cost saving" choice. If I had lotsa money, I'd be happy to just build the really great kits that are constantly coming on the market. But reality intrudes, so I scratch-build in between the splurges.

Don Reed

Pittsburgh

Scratch-building gives a feeling of accomplishment. With sufficient funds and time, almost anyone can complete a highly engineered and expertly designed kit. But when you have designed the project, machined the parts that move, or constructed the various components yourself, there can be a joy that cannot quite be equaled by finishing a kit, no matter how complex, for somebody else has already performed a major portion of the work.

The number 1 reason Iscratch build because I can't find a job that pays enough to be able to buy all the stuff that I want.

The second reason is it makes the stuff I build unique.

Why do I scratchbuild? There are two answers.

The old days. When I was a kid in the 50s, I lived in a little desert town with no source of kits. I could buy model airplane kits at the hardware store so I used those kits for sources of balsa and spruce. So I scratchbuilt originally because I didn't know kits existed.

Then I went through a phase when I built kits but soon found that painting and glueing a kit together did not satisfy me much.

Today. I build board by board because I find it quicker than cutting scribed siding. Plus I avoid all the warpage problems with scribed siding. Plus I have one of a kind models you will not see anywhere else.

I have a closet filled with FSM, Bar Mills, and other beautiful kits. But I don't find the pleasure in building them that I do in scratchbuilding.

I don't have any model railroading friends within 2,000 miles so I don't build to with them in mind. I build only for my own pleasure and that pleasure comes from scratchbuilding.

There are lots of great model builders. Those whose work I am especially fond of are all structure and diorama builders. Not layout builders to speak of. I know nothing about locomotives at all. And could care less.

I have never lived more than 50 feet from a railroad so I am no more impressed by trains that most people are by the cars parked in Walmart's parking lot. They are simply too common to me.

Chuck Doan, Dave Revelia, Brian Nolan, Marc Reusser, John Hunter, Laurie Green, and Brian Block are just a few of the living model builders who I really wish lived down the street from me so I could visit them and watch them build.

I was fortunate to live near Max Corey for many years. Max is an eccentric model builder who is right there with all of the above for outstanding modelng ability and imagination.

I can do a credible job of looking at any of the work of the above model builders and replicating it, but I don't have an original bone in my body, so all I can do is copy.

All my vacations are planned around going to out of the way areas to look for old delapidated buildings to build models of. When I am building a model of an old building I think about the man who originally built it. How proud he must of been and how hopeful for the future. Now all his work has been abandoned and nobody cares at all about his pride and joy except for me.

If you would like to see a couple of hundred photographs of old buildings I have found along the way in my travels, please follow this link:

http://oldbuildings.photosite.com/

"I can do a credible job of looking at any of the work of the above model builders and replicating it, but I don't have an original bone in my body, so all I can do is copy."

Just what I am doing with the blast furnace project...coping Jeff Bournes outstanding work!

"Why do you scartch build?" That's almost like asking why I model. For the fun of it!

#2 & #4
..........

My reason to scratch build is to match the prototype. If somebody made the exact kit I need I would probably buy it. So I voted other. No. 2 comes close to my reason. Now all I need to do is actually do something. haha

Jon R. Gearhart

I scratch build because the costs of importing kits into the UK makes them prohibitive for me and there are very few sellers of O scale structures etc over here.

Does test my ingenuity when I can't get to my Grandt line supplier or he'sout of stock :erm:

I voted yes for all of them. Its a hard choice but its normally to have something unique.