how do u guys do sracth build?using what to do?
do u guys always have excess PE?what do u do with them?

Tim,

As a fellow modeler in Hong Kong. I hope what I am about say will be taken as my sincere observation. I think you are trying to accomplish too much in too short of a time here, reading you other posts, you are talking about detailing gun barrels, building interiors, and such. Talking to you in MSN messenger or through email, I knew that the tiger you are working on is like what ? your 2nd or third model?

Don't get ahead of yourself to try all the difficult stuff, start from the easy build, get your interest up. try little things first, like, learn how to make the Aber Bracket for one, you build up your skill a little by little, don't overstretch yourself, and get into a difficult project that you hope to do all, then get the interest killed because of the inevitable difficulties you surely is going to encounter.

If you need anything let me know, and FYI, no, I have been using aber for almost every kit I had done since my forth model, and I can so far only use 80% of what's on the sheet. My first Aber model, I used 3 pieces.

Take it easy buddy.

Dave is correct, you must work into it. You must also learn as much as you can in the time you have available. To do good scractchbuilding, you must know what you are building, how it should look, where it goes, what size it should be, and 100 other things. Become confident in your skills then step out side your comfort zone and kick it up a notch. This will serve you the best.

Rob

These guys are very correct. Don't try to do too much all at once. This could make you frustrated and unhappy. Try little things at first. Take a small simple piece from any model and try to duplicate it. Maybe something like an axe handle for instance. Try to make it look like the one in a kit. As you feel comfortable with this you move on to more complex pieces with more angles. And then to multiple pieces to make one large part. Study anything around you. Look at how the pieces come together. Take the piece apart either in your mind or actually dismantle the piece if you can. This way you will let your minds eyes work with your hands.

Timlo besides taking the time to learn the techniques you also need time (and Money ) to get the tools and supplies. I have bee seriously modelling for 13 years and have slowly bought things like plastic rod and strip , tools copper tubing and shapes etc. All in all a hefty sum financially. each however was bought as I at least became proficient in its use. Biting off too uch at once lands up being a lesson in frustration.

JOshua Weingarten
IDF armour group Janitor

Josh also brings up a good point. I started a project about a year ago on building an interior for the abrams. I have put so much money into it I feel a little ridiculous (but not as much as Lee and his Tiger ), much of that on new tools, references, supplies (sheet and strip styrene) and as many accessories as I can get. Now I am doing the uber rivet counter on it and most serious scrathcers won't even go this far, so it's not like you will spend every spare dollar for over a year buying abrams stuff to do one maybe two tanks, but you will find that it is going to cost you a lot to do well.

Rob

Good advice - very sage. But I recommend you follow your heart.
BUT
Let me share my experience.
I Love modern jets, AFVs, SciFi, and WWII German anything.
So for my first kit back in the hobby I went for a Hasegawa 1/48 F15E.
I figured I'd go slow and it would be like riding a bike.
(I did a lot fo this as a kid and in my 20s when i was still single)
Now its ten years later and this is my first kit since getting back in.
I bought some resin, PE, and extra references.
Enjoyed the build it took almost 6 months.

However I ruined a lot of paint on the wash, forgot some of the stuff I knew about spreading putty, and would have been better to just stay out of the box, and focus on the basics for a while. And I probably would have been a little less frustrated about the investment of time and money I made in a kit to mar it during the stuff I thought would be old - hat.

i then also did a more "kiddie" style AMT/ERTL SciFi Star Wars model.
I think it came out better, The Eagle (regrettably) bore a lot of the brunt of my learning curve.

Pics of both are in my gallery for your perusal.

I like that you ask for advice and listen to the answers before diving in. You can find a technique that lets you leverage the experince of the other members.
BUT
my first acrylic wash was a mess, and I'll probably stick with thinned enamels over a glossy surface, and then apply a matte when done. ( A decision that might have saved my Eagle and its panel lines)

You make up your own mind, but maybe my experience here will help you to find your way.
I wish you success.

In my opinion, to be a good scratchbuilder you have first to learn and make good kits OOB, get very experienced with glue, cutting , sanding, forming at first. Then with a lil help of the referenced you try to find wrong points of a kit and the correct shape dimension from the real thing (pictures) then after have read all the wonderful techniques here or in your modelling books try to make one piece at a time with slow steps leaving time for steady gluying and using a gentle mentality, not trying to finish it in one night all ( as i used to do when i started modelling 23 years ago!!) try to finish your stuff with proper paintig and finishing with attaching on the main model (if one there).
I d also suggest that good practising is trying to do simple diorama stuff from easy materials and from schemes you know - maybe a door , a window , an electricity pile, a table, some small cottage , and generally simple stuff not very small at the beggining with dimensions that you can easily convert from real thing down to your scale . After been comfortable with this kind of making you can go far more to more difficult stuff. i ve started scratching about 3 years after i have been modelling out of the box kits, When i when immidiately to hard stuff i had hard time, but when trying to do simple stuff in an easy way i had good results. so step by step i made it to be able to make all kinds of stuff by scrathcing, though in my country some stuff is not easy to find, and i dont want to wait 10 weeks for a mail order so i learned to check new materials of everyday life and turn them to a piece of gold. For example yesterday night i was making coca cola tins from medium aluminium foil sheet that found in my babes powder milk packaging .rolled them over a proper size chop stick made them tube like. Cut them in size secure them with superglue, and added a drop of white glue to both ends to seal them. leave em enough to be tight and today ill use my crocodile jaws holders to paint them. i am doing it for first time , cause i ve never need it befora, but due to all the nice techniques i ve read all this years and read here and in books i ve find it very normal to doi it and almost easy.
So i think i gave u an idea. Try to be calm when model and everything will come in time .

Although I'm very happy with all the answers I'm getting from you guys, cause it sometimes seems like there are answers for allmost any question on this site, I'll have to go with Timlo.

Beeing an amateur myself I know what he's talking about...
Coming to this site (and other great modeling sites) makes you (me) see what some people can do with there models, it's amazing to see what detail some of you guys go into and how great that looks on the models. Having a model waiting for you on your workbench makes you wanna go into the same amount of detail and finish, beeing at the bottom of the modelingstairs (so to speak) doesn't make you say to yourself; "hey, I'm just beginning let's hold back" NO it makes you say to yourself; "hey, how did they do that, I want my model to look the same"" (and maybe even better)
Okay, when you think you figured it out and y're starting yourself doing difficult things, you know that this isn't gonna work for you, but you still wanna try it. So back to the forum and posting questions again...
So... I know what Timlo is talking about. (being just started myself, I allready wanna know about pouring resin and crazy difficult stuff like that) I know that it will take me several years to accomplish that kind of work, but I still can't help being curious about that and posting loads and loads of (sometimes even silly) questions about it... This being a wonderfull source of inspiration and help doesn't help much either...
Anyway (and correct me if I'm out of line here) I'm with Timlo and would say to him; "post as many questions as you like, and figure out for yourself if you can live with the answers"
Getting great answers here, but knowing you can't do it yourself makes you go one step back anyway...
But... that's just me....

(hope you guys still wanna answer my dumb questions after reading this post... )

To answer the queries straight:

"How do you guys do scratch build?"

Simple really. All you need is imagination, the proper tools, and some materials around you. Some use wood. Others use paper or stiff board. It really all depends on what you're trying to build. Scratchbuilding can be as simple as replacing a headlight with some materials because the original kit part was destroyed or forever eaten by the Carpet Void. Scratchbuilding can range from such simple things to highly complex items like whole engines or even a whole model.

"Using what to do?"

I reckon you mean materials. Here, imagination and resourcefulness is the key. Some limit themselves to certain materials like sheet styrene. I meself have been guilty of this trait. The important thing is that almost anything can be used for scratchbuilding. Wood, styrofoam, paper - any material. What matters is that the end result looks very convincing real. However, reality bites, and that means there are certain materials that are best for some items because it is so much easier to use them for your project. BTW, in every project, one generates waste. KEEP THAT! DON'T THROW IT AWAY! Unless it's really really useless, such "waste" will have applications in future scratchbuilding projects. Keep them in your spares box.

"Do you guys always have excess PE? What do you do with them?"

I for one don't use much PE because it's expensive. However, if I do use it, I still keep the surrounding frame/fret/whatever-you-call-it because it has its uses for future projects, like engine grills, or belts, etc. etc.

Hope this helps and good luck with your project. :-) BTW, the key in this hobby is always one word: ENJOY. Enjoy whatever project you're doing - either it be OOTB or super-detailed. Once you've lost that feeling of enjoyment, then you've lost that reason why you took up the hobby - as a means to relax and enjoy some time by yourself. Always enjoy in every project you do.

Hello everybody,
this week my scratch building career started
I have build models for 3 years and this week I started with the interior of an 1:32 Lancer evo7 for a diorama I will build once. Well to say it looks good, I don't mind super detail since it is not the car that is the main part of the dio but the armor ... but just does basic shapes that's what I'm looking after. Anyway this gives a lot of experiance.
Also the T2k campaign gives a good change to practice since you are the one making the model. So here is a tip just get one of those cheap kit's and rebuild it in a "What if" style.
Hope this helps, it will give you fun and practice.

80a2

Welcome to scratchbuilding. If scratchbuilding is what you like to do, scratchbuilding is what you should do. If the scratchbuilding bug bit you, there's not much in a box kit that can make your heart race anymore.

Some companies throw extra items on the market to superdetail your kit : resin kits, photo-etched parts, special decals, ... Some of those "aftermarket" products are wonderfully crafted, and make for superb scale models. But they are expensive indeed.

Real scratchbuilding does not involve those extra items, but is the art of crafting such parts yourself. This involves a multitude of techniques.

Some of these techniques allow you to do wonderful things on a low budget, other techniques involve expensive tools. It takes GOOD tools to do good scratchbuilding. A sharp knife, milliput and a few sheets of polystyrene are just the first of a long list of useful tools and ingredients.

I suggest you start browsing the posts in the Scratchbuilding forum on this site to start.

Even if you only made a few kits before, scratchbuilding may be the thing. Some people just prefer to create their own work rather than assemble the parts that were created by others. Even if they can't achieve the same degree of detail at first.

Enjoy !

Basically before you get your feet wet into scratchbuilding, consider the fact that you'll need a lot of time, an ample supply in your spare box, and of course a substantial reference materials.(plans and photos)

It's like this, usually when you get a box kit the first thing you look at are the parts and the set-up instructions, right. Now in scratchbuilding, you make your own set up guide. you build your own parts, And think of a best method of construction,By the way -Think SUB-ASSEMBLIES!

Well, I have to admit and the others will agree, that it's also a trial and error stage where you have to cut and fit your own parts.Only to find out that your not satisfied with the fit. So you really have to be careful and extra patient, Always have a cardboard template. Take it slowly. But at the end it's one rewarding job.

Good Luck on your first scratchbuilding project.

Time is the big thing. First you have to decide what you want to build. It should be something you are really interested in or you will lose interest fast. Second do a lot of research. Third, take your time. My AVLB took about three years to get right. I have been working on a TUA for almost a decade now. Obviously not straight on that model but I only preceed when I have thought my next move through thoroughly. Heed the advice of the fellows who have spoken here a ease into it.

I am NOT one TO WAVE THE COMPETITION or else FLAG BUT...... After you have WON
multiple Regional and National competitions in the "OUT OF THE BOX" catagory, by a hands down, no doubt landslide, Then you can attempt to venture into scratch building.
Scratchbuilding will get you no where nor will it improve your talent if you cant master the basics. ASK any 15+ yrs experiance modeler. The basics are the key

As always there are 2 sides to every argument, I consider myself a pretty competent model builder, I used to build (shame on me I know ) only aircraft in 1/72 and then 1/48, I have dabbled with 1/600 ships and am now building armour, each demands different qualities and skills that carry over into other aspects, for example after using photo etch parts on a 1/600 ship I consider using them in 1/35 easy.

I don't enter competitions & don't attend a club (there are none in my area). But I enjoy a challenge, I recently started scratchbuilding a 1/35 scale Cruiser tank Mk IV, I've already built the hull & basic turret, but I'm not entirely happy with the hull and will be having another go. I wont give up and it may take me years to build but it won't beat me.

My point is, don't be afraid to try different things, use your imagination, when I first got into this addiction of ours, some of my best models were imaginary combinations of the most unlikely kits, but the skills developed have served me in good stead over the years.

You will waste kits but then you can buy a few cheapies to try out different skills.

Don't try to run before you can walk, but don't be disappointed if it don't quite work first time.

Remember what the Bruce said 'If at first you don't succeed try & try again'.

Above all enjoy your modelling.

My friend Animal gave you the best advice. Try something simple and progress from there. There are tons of materials you can use. Sheet,strip and rod styrene, resin, putty, paper, metal rod, strips and sheets. Some of these guys build entire models from scratch (animal being one) others like my self might scratch a few parts to add to or substitue for other parts. Don't limit yourself just because you are starting out. Hey I just heard a 14 year old is playing professional soccer. He isn't letting anyone tell him what his limitations are. Discover your own