Scratchbuilding - Sharing the Hobby Within A Hobby

[munter]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Denny- Check your PM.

[gascarnut]

Great thread! It is amazing to see the resurgence of scratch building in 1/32 scale.

My motto is, "I race so that I can build". It's the creation process that is the most rewarding.

I started in about 1964 trying to solder frames together using an old plumber's soldering iron that had to be heated on the gas range in my mother's kitchen then rushed out to the garage for a single joint. Rinse and repeat...! It took a long time to build those early cars, but they ran fine and it was fun.

I built and raced through to 1989, going from simple wire frames to brass plate and then Dremel-cut spring steel, from plain old Mabuchi 16D motors to cobalt-magnet strap cans, all in 1/32 scale. Then I tool a break to race RC cars until 2004 when that got to be too expensive. I started back where I left off, building from brass and piano wire and 12 years on, I'm still at it.

I race pretty much anything with wheels in 1/32 scale and a lot of 1/24 scale Retro cars too. I build for myself and others, and over the last 12 years that has amounted to 635 frames so far, of which about 80 are in my personal collection.

To me, there's nothing to beat this part of the hobby!

[munter]

[BARC 1]

I scratchbuild a lot of 143 cars. it is the biggest part of the hobby for me. I pretty much scratchbuild everything except the motor and turned wheels.

Not without its trials though. I was casting a new tire mold last night and just as I watch the orange urethane cover the last master, I realized I had forgot the mold release!!!!!ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG.

Dumped it all back into bowl, added some black tint and used the urethane in previous made molds to make tires. I then turned my attention to my masters, and was able to clean them all up so I can have a go at it again.

Regardless it is all fun, as I am now scratchbuilding some 132 cars as well.


Cheers


Dan

[munter]

[gascarnut]