Show us your scratchbuilt building

[Neal Ball]

That pub is great.

[saxokid]

My finished "basic" two road small depot

made from plywood and evergreen plastic card..

[trw1089]

Here are some shots of a building recently scratch built for the Stanley layout of the Wakefield Railway Modellers Society.  This was a small waiting shelter which had more than its fair share of architectural extravagance.  It made the trip all the way from here in Oz to the UK in time for the Pontefract Show.

[grahame]

Here's a few unfinished scratch-built buildings, in fact they're all scratch-built. And all based on real ones:

 

 

 

[Gravy Train]

That looks great, Graham, a lot of work put into that.

Edited May 6, 2020 by Gravy Train

[snitzl]

A few pics from Snitzl Town and Fun Town , all scratchbuilt of course.

Trestle bridge constructed from styrene sheet and brass wire.

Yard Crane - Constructed from brass sheet with a few turnings.

Just a small section of the wall on the 'Walls Traverser Cover',  constructed from multiple layers of 0.5mm styrene sheet. Each stone is glued in place with solvent and later textured with dental burs.

 

Thanks for Looking.

[Alister_G]

Not sure if this really counts, but here's a small section of my scratch built 4mm scale dry stone wall, made from individually cut pieces of styrene:

 

 

It looked like this before painting:

 

 

Al.

[BoD]

9 hours ago, Alister_G said:

Not sure if this really counts, but here's a small section of my scratch built 4mm scale dry stone wall, made from individually cut pieces of styrene:

 

Al.

 

Very nice - but I bet that took longer than building the real thing.

[Alister_G]

1 hour ago, BoD said:

 

Very nice - but I bet that took longer than building the real thing.

 

Yep, you're probably right. Not the actual building, but the preparation of all the "stones" beforehand was the thing that took time.

 

Al.

[Pete the Elaner]

2 hours ago, Alister_G said:

 

Yep, you're probably right. Not the actual building, but the preparation of all the "stones" beforehand was the thing that took time.

 

Al.

 

I expect it is rewarding to see it & know you have made it unique?

I hope to join this thread soon. I have nearly completed my first 2 scratchbuilt buildings. There are some on my layout which I feel need to be as accurate as possible in order to get the overall look right.

Seeing some people's work used to make me think I need to try harder, but I am finally happy with my latest builds...so far.

[Pete the Elaner]

Its not finished yet, but here is the first effort. It was my first attempt a making a building. I was dissatisfied with the height of the roof (not pitched enough), it was slightly crooked & I was making a poor job of building windows from plastikard. The remains of these can just about be seen. The front had warped after the fumes from a split bottle of Mek had affected it.

 

The brown building is its replacement. I found 3d printing to be my way of making windows & doors. The 2 doorways on the rear corner are for staircase access to one of the platforms & a walkway to the other. I also used the 3d design software to improve on the roof's pitching.

It looks even better with the window frames installed and I am working on the doors & their frames now. I also need to add chimneys, which I will also 3d print to get them more accurate.

It has taken me a lot of time but I really don't think there was any other way to get something as close to the prototype.

[Alister_G]

That looks great, really good.

 

30 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

I expect it is rewarding to see it & know you have made it unique?

 

Yes, definitely, and I do prefer to make stuff myself rather than use off-the-shelf items. It's that aspect of modelling which I find most rewarding.

 

But the main reason was simply that none of the commercial offerings had the right look and feel that I was after.

 

Al.

 

 

[Tony Teague]

This is St Giles' Church, Stowe Magna; I wanted to build a more substantial structure to replace a little old Superquick model but I couldn't find a suitable plan, so in the end I downloaded the Scalescenes church and used the printed paper outlines as templates from which to build the model in foamboard covered with Slaters textured styrene.

 

 

I had to amend the shape of the building to fit the available 'plot' but the only "parts" that I used directly from the downloaded / printed kit were the windows and window frames.

 

[vulcanbomber]

I copied the scale scenes plan as well, and used embossed styrene plus some of langley windows

 

 

 

[Alister_G]

Fascinating to see two different interpretations of the same basic plan. Both excellent models.

 

Al.

[acg5324]

Probably the smallest building for Kensington Olympia. Franks Sandwich Bar..........just the awnings to add.

[Tony Teague]

16 hours ago, vulcanbomber said:

I copied the scale scenes plan as well, and used embossed styrene plus some of langley windows

14 hours ago, Alister_G said:

Fascinating to see two different interpretations of the same basic plan. Both excellent models.

 

Al.

 

Very nice, and as Alister says, interesting difference in our two interpretations!

(I had to leave the side chapel off for space reasons, but I also moved the position of the side door to the nave.

 

Tony

[Tony Teague]

12 hours ago, acg5324 said:

Probably the smallest building for Kensington Olympia. Franks Sandwich Bar..........just the awnings to add.

 

 

very nice!

[grahame]

Here's a few pics of incomplete scratch-built buildings (N/2mm scale) that might be of interest. I've possibly posted before (apologies if I have) and/or they probably include just a little modelling progress.

 

 

 

 

[acg5324]

Finally a nearly complete Charles House for Kensington Olympia. A bit more weathering and some more roof details to add.

[grahame]

17 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Finally a nearly complete Charles House for Kensington Olympia. A bit more weathering and some more roof details to add.

 

 

An impressive monster of a building, probably bigger than many people's layouts.

 

 

[Gravy Train]

Phew,

a lot of work gone into that Grahame, brilliant work.

peter

[Hector Lawn]

I agree, your buildings are extraordinary Grahame. Well done. I am very envious of your building skills in such a small scale!

 

Regards

Hector

[Hector Lawn]

For the benefit of those who may not be following my topic on the Layouts section, here’s a few picks of my latest efforts, the Charwelton (N) platform canopy. More pics and descriptions on my Construction link below:

 

A quick mock-up to see how it looks on the platform:

 

And here’s the original:

 

Regards

Hector

 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Hector Lawn

[Pete the Elaner]

5 hours ago, Hector Lawn said:

For the benefit of those who may not be following my topic on the Layouts section, here’s a few picks of my latest efforts, the Charwelton (N) platform canopy.

 

 

I had never properly appreciated scratchbuilding until I needed to have a go myself.

I always viewed it as something peple did for the satisfaction of knowing it was their own work.

 

Then I decided to build a real station in minature...

 

I wanted buildings to look right & window styles to be correct. I also wanted to build thing mainly using styrene.

The only way I could get the buildings right was to scratchbuild. I ended up buying a laser cutter to get the tunnel mouths correct because everything available was the wrong shape. This has since been very useful for retaining wall arches, bridges.

I then found windows difficult to make neatly. This drew me into 3d printing.

I now have quite a collection of artwork for both. It is surprising how quickly the collections grow.

 

I always knew scratchbuilding was a slow process but I never appreciated how satisfying it is to build something from scratch.

For those considering giving it a try patience is obviously necessary, but I also found that I really enjoyed have a second try at something I was not entirely happy with first time.