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Discussion The Cost of Kit vs Scratch Build: A Real Divide or Just Perspective?

Ahoy!

In my opinion, the biggest issue nowadays is the lack of time for hobbies. We have too many other responsibilities. That’s why more and more often we turn to kits or additional parts that we can add to our models — to save time and start building the next model.. As a result, scratch-built models are becoming less and less popular.
I must admit, I have great respect for people who do everything by themselves — especially those who create their own figureheads and decorative elements for models.
 
For me the decision to build my first model from scratch was partly based on the cost factor.
At that time I was not yet sure whether this hobby was something for me, so I did not think it was wise to choose to purchase an "expensive" kit.
I had inherited the book "De 7 Provinciën" from my father. This book stirred my interest in 17th/18th century shipbuilding and this ship in particular. The accompanying building plans however were not on the scale I wanted to build but there was also a set of downloadable drawings on a scale of 1:50 and on MSW I found a building method that I, as a beginner, liked.
So I started cheap with the purchase of only a metal ruler and a piece of plywood. I printed the drawings on A4 and taped them together. The bulkheads were sawn out by a jigsaw and the filler blocks were cut out with a normal handsaw. My enthusiasm grew, not least by this forum, and I am now more or less addicted to this hobby and have gathered over the last years a small library of books and different tools.

So I started with minimal costs. Despite the fact that I have of course already spent several times the cost of a kit, the costs have been spread over several years what makes it easier to handle.

Greatest investment? Time!

I do prefer to make everything myself, mostly by hand so the choice for scratch building was the right one for me. I think I enjoyed making my figurehead the most; luckily there is still plenty of carving left.
 
While I haven’t settled on a strict preference between scratch and kit building, I do tend to build more from kits, mainly for practicality. That said, depending on the kit manufacturer, I often end up scratch-building much of the deck furniture, the deck itself, to achieve the level of detail I enjoy, or as I like to call it, acceptance level. At most, I don't strive for parts I made to be authentically correct, but accuracy is a more important factor.

I’m particularly drawn to smaller fishing vessels. They allow me to stay engaged without committing years of work, and they generally require fewer materials for upgrades or aftermarket enhancements. The only costs involved are the material (mostly pearwood and box) and aftermarket parts, so cost, for me, is a factor, but not a major one. I wouldn’t say it drives my decisions, but I certainly appreciate when a project is manageable in both time and budget.

At the end of the day, whether it starts as a kit or from a blank sheet, the joy comes from the building itself, unless the future ship becomes an airplane towards the trash bin (one-way ticket ;)). At its point, who cares if it was from kit or scratch... ROTFROTFROTF
 
AllanKP69 said:
This is a great suggestion Bowwild. Most kits are based to some degree on contemporary plans but for sake of keeping things affordable and other reasons, some details are not addressed or are at times may be incorrect. Free downloads of thousands of contemporary plans are available today thanks to the internet and can be used to compare against modern redrawn plans IF YOU WANT TO. Do you have any specific ships in mind?
Allan
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The Santa Maria is one kit I almost bought (thought I had, but it didn't work out).
 
With a brand new Brynes table saw (haven't even plugged it in yet) and the Ultimation from Canada, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to save money going scratch. :cool:
 
If I might add my two cents on this not so recent thread:
I´ve started scratch building from mainly cardboard as a teennager because of the cost factor. I build historic sailing ships. I just couldn´t afford those expensive kits, even the plastic kits were out of reach for me, I got a Revell Wasa for christmas when I was 14, but that´s about it, and I was never really satisfied with the process, felt like lego building to me personally. I was never a fan of the typical cardboard kits either, too two-dimensional for my perfectionistic taste.

I´m a very creative and artistic person and really enjoy the process of designing, problem solving and manufacturing of my own components and all the research that goes along with it. I just started again a month ago, working on a Galway Hooker wich is nearly done. Material costs, if you just count what´s on the model is maybe, if even, 10 bucks and the most expensive part is Revell Plasto to even out the hull before the outer planking. Of course, the innital investment was quite a lot, airbrush set included, but still nothing in comparison to all the tools you need for wooden ship building. I also make my own blocks and the masts from cheap roundwood from the hardware store, the ready made blocks are expensive as hell. The rest is cardboard, wich is theoretically free in the household, but I prefer photo cardboard, but that´s also really cheap.

So, I guess the price factor really depends on what materials you choose and how you approach it. Also, some people tend to view time as money, but if I spend the time with something I enjoy, it´s a gain for me. It all depends what you want and what your priorities are. Most poeple would say, kits are more accessible, but ironically I started scratch building because kits were too expensive for me at the time.
I also come from a poor background, with a single mom, so I always had to find ways to make due with what I have wich forced to develop that DIY-drive very early on.
 
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Many years ago in the 1950s, I built a couple kits. When I wanted another, my parents said they couldn't afford one (although they cost less than 10 shillings- half a £). I remember my mother saying "What do you need a kit for? if you had anything about you, you would just build models from whatever you can find!" A few days later, I was given a small tool box with a few simple hand tools in it, and a box of yellow pine off-cuts from a local carpenter's shop. I never looked back, and would not even consider building a kit now - too large - too expensive, and mainly the same worn-out old subjects.
Far too many ship modellers convince themselves they do not have the skill to scratchbuild, without even trying. Just make the effort and make the next one better than the one before, and skill builds up over time. Building costs for these two was negligible!



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shipbuilder said:
Many years ago in the 1950s, I built a couple kits. When I wanted another, my parents said they couldn't afford one (although they cost less than 10 shillings- half a £). I remember my mother saying "What do you need a kit for? if you had anything about you, you would just build models from whatever you can find!" A few days later, I was given a small tool box with a few simple hand tools in it, and a box of yellow pine off-cuts from a local carpenter's shop. I never looked back, and would not even consider building a kit now - too large - too expensive, and mainly the same worn-out old subjects.
Far too many ship modellers convince themselves they do not have the skill to scratchbuild, without even trying. Just make the effort and make the next one better than the one before, and skill builds up over time. Building costs for these two was negligible!



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I fully agree
 
shipbuilder said:
Many years ago in the 1950s, I built a couple kits. When I wanted another, my parents said they couldn't afford one (although they cost less than 10 shillings- half a £). I remember my mother saying "What do you need a kit for? if you had anything about you, you would just build models from whatever you can find!" A few days later, I was given a small tool box with a few simple hand tools in it, and a box of yellow pine off-cuts from a local carpenter's shop. I never looked back, and would not even consider building a kit now - too large - too expensive, and mainly the same worn-out old subjects.
Far too many ship modellers convince themselves they do not have the skill to scratchbuild, without even trying. Just make the effort and make the next one better than the one before, and skill builds up over time. Building costs for these two was negligible!



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Beautiful work! And yes, I agree, many modellers are too afraid to try it and rely on the safety of a kit, wich kinda is like a puzzle in comparison to scratch, not to talk it down by any means, to each their own.
To be honest, I was a bit afraid before starting my current project. The level is not comparable with what I have built in my teens, as I have much better recourses and tools now. I was aiming for more of a professional display level of model this time, so going into it I was a bit sceptical, but I think she turned out really beautifully, although somethings I plan to do differently in the future. But this is what it is about, to learn from mistakes and keep refining your process.

Here a few pics, I wanna add an anchor on the stern deck, the sails and sheets are still missing, as well as the name signs, I wanna call her An sèala dubh, wich means The Black Seal in Irish. And as a highlight I wanna tie a little fishing rope, with little pearls as swimmers. The scale is 1:50. I just love it soooo much to come up with all those little details to add and in the end sit there for hours, admiring it and thinking, "I´ve built this with my own hands, from basically nothing". To me, there is nothing more rewarding and building a kit would never deliver me the same level of satisfaction.

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My mother, somehow across thousands of miles, must have been talking to Bob Wilson’s (Shipbuilder) mom. What she told him was word for word what my mom used to say when I wanted something. Fortunately for me the scrap lumber pile was in our basement.

For the past several months I have been building a pair of steam winches for the deck of my current steamship model. At 1:96 scale these are tiny. The steam cylinders are only 3/32” in diameter. While not working models, they still need to be realistic. By spending much time thinking how to make each part and trying different approaches until I’m satisfied, so far so good.

This is what I Love about scratch building.

Roger
 
Roger Pellett said:
My mother, somehow across thousands of miles, must have been talking to Bob Wilson’s (Shipbuilder) mom. What she told him was word for word what my mom used to say when I wanted something. Fortunately for me the scrap lumber pile was in our basement.

For the past several months I have been building a pair of steam winches for the deck of my current steamship model. At 1:96 scale these are tiny. The steam cylinders are only 3/32” in diameter. While not working models, they still need to be realistic. By spending much time thinking how to make each part and trying different approaches until I’m satisfied, so far so good.

This is what I Love about scratch building.

Roger
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Same with me Roger it is the challenges to figure out how to do something rather than follow someone's instructions.
 
Roger Pellett said:
My mother, somehow across thousands of miles, must have been talking to Bob Wilson’s (Shipbuilder) mom. What she told him was word for word what my mom used to say when I wanted something. Fortunately for me the scrap lumber pile was in our basement.
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And my mother makes three! Not because we were poor, but, rather, because she was cheap! :D My parents were a bit older than those of my peers and came of age in the midst of the Great Depression. Every piece of butcher paper, every paper bag, rubber band, and piece of string was saved and reused. That was good training for the essential scratch modeling skills of the age: using ordinary junk to represent something else when modeling. With enough pestering, I might get a plastic model kit for a birthday present or a reward for good grades at report card time. My mother was a big believer in incentivization. One of her stock lines when I'd lust after a particular model in the local hobby shop window was, "... Maybe, if you get an "A" in arithmetic next report card." Then she'd welch on the rare occasion when I was able to do so: "... I said 'a' model, not 'that' model." and I'd have to settle for something less costly than what I'd worked so hard for. The hell of it was that what was probably the best hobby shop in Northern California was a couple of blocks from my house. Like all the neighborhood boys, I knew the owner, and he knew me. There would always be a display of completed models of all sorts in the store windows and we kids would drool over them going to and from school every day. Those models were the work of some extremely accomplished modelers, especially the HO railroaders, and we strived mightily to emulate them.
 
Like most scratch builders I started off building kits. The problem with most kits is the scale of the fittings such as too big rigging blocks
wrong scale anchors, ect. I once had a kit where the supplied capstan was so small the sailors would have to be on their knees to operate it at the scale the ship was in. The hand tools required are not that much different than those of a kit builder, and the only power tools I have are a scroll type saw, mini table saw, and a dremel style tool with a flexible extension. As for plans, yes, you can spent hundreds for museum supplied drawings, but the internet in full of printable plans that can be ( with a little math) scaled as you like. Wood is cheap and sometimes free, and the fittings can be done on a 3d printer at pennies per item. I know for some modelers that 3d printing sounds intimidating or blasphemous but that is what you will soon be getting in your kits instead of the poorly cast decorations and cannon. C.A.D. programs are available freely, and with a little effort and time can be learned easily. Sure an investment in a 3d printer is a cost, but a decent small printer can be had for about 300.00 or less. A program for the "slicing" can be purchased, or there are free versions ( with limited features ) available. This is the only way that you can control the scale of fittings and save a small fortune in fittings ( due to new tariffs and plain greed of suppliers ). I cannot express more that the savings I have made for myself and the enjoyment and satisfaction of creating something from almost nothing can give you. The investment in a 3d printer and some resin is probably less than you would spend on an average quality kit. Anyway, enough ranting I am about to design some rigging blocks in my Freecad program, then print them up. Thanks for listening.
 
shipahoy said:
Like most scratch builders I started off building kits. The problem with most kits is the scale of the fittings such as too big rigging blocks
wrong scale anchors, ect. I once had a kit where the supplied capstan was so small the sailors would have to be on their knees to operate it at the scale the ship was in. The hand tools required are not that much different than those of a kit builder, and the only power tools I have are a scroll type saw, mini table saw, and a dremel style tool with a flexible extension. As for plans, yes, you can spent hundreds for museum supplied drawings, but the internet in full of printable plans that can be ( with a little math) scaled as you like. Wood is cheap and sometimes free, and the fittings can be done on a 3d printer at pennies per item. I know for some modelers that 3d printing sounds intimidating or blasphemous but that is what you will soon be getting in your kits instead of the poorly cast decorations and cannon. C.A.D. programs are available freely, and with a little effort and time can be learned easily. Sure an investment in a 3d printer is a cost, but a decent small printer can be had for about 300.00 or less. A program for the "slicing" can be purchased, or there are free versions ( with limited features ) available. This is the only way that you can control the scale of fittings and save a small fortune in fittings ( due to new tariffs and plain greed of suppliers ). I cannot express more that the savings I have made for myself and the enjoyment and satisfaction of creating something from almost nothing can give you. The investment in a 3d printer and some resin is probably less than you would spend on an average quality kit. Anyway, enough ranting I am about to design some rigging blocks in my Freecad program, then print them up. Thanks for listening.
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IDK, to me it just seems too much hassle to learn CAD and calibrate the printer and everything. For decorations in the future (my aim is to build The Sovreign Of The Seas one day) I plan to sculpt them from green stuff, wich I´m very familiar with from my tabletop game endeavours in the past. Cannons can be made pretty easily by yourself in different ways from different materials. What I´d love to invest in some day is a nice laser cutting machine, but then again, learnig CAD and all the calibration that goes into it, we´ll see, I guess.
 
I don’t use Cad and 3-D printing. Nothing wrong with it but I don’t want to learn the technology. I make all of my fittings. For the ship that I am modeling, it’s surprising how many fittings can be broken down into simple geometric shapes. These parts are then assembled by soldering.

Roger
 
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