Not sure if this has been hashed-out or not, but let's give 'er a go!

- You completely finish a kit and more than 50% of the wood is still in the box...

- You replace more than 33% of the “hardware” in a kit...

- You buy women’s purses at garage sales for the leather (Tom!)...

- If you’ve ever been in the pots and pans section of a store looking for an engine cowl...

- If ANYTHING hobby related has ever been in your kitchen oven...

EJWash

Or in my case you don't even buy a kit but genuinely scratch build from maybe a 3-view drawing.

Also as many scratch builders do in the Foamies (Scratchbuilt) forum, from just an idea.

There sure is plenty of what I think of as 'scratch builders' on the forums, (what wives/girlfriends probably call, 'junk hoarders'. ), and plenty of them are not old fogies like me.
Hopefully there will be many more in the future, even those that start out with ARTF.

Long live the Scratch Builder.

Originally Posted by eflightray

Hopefully there will be many more in the future, even those that start out with ARTF.

Long live the Scratch Builder.

I'll hoist one to that!

EJWash

There was a similar thread some while ago, but so what!

You might be a scratchbuilder if:

1: Every second time you ask for something at the local hobby shop, the pimple-faced kid behind the counter asks, "What's that?"

2: Old computers are junkyards for airplane parts.

3: Your significant other asks if you've got wood, and you reply, "I just ordered $300.00 worth!"

4: All your old office calendars have design ideas - or entire plans - sketched on them.

5: You have a better assortment of small screws than the local hardware store.

6: Your significant other keeps finding her dressmaking equipment in your hobby room.

If you spend time in a fabric store looking for upholstery material.

If, when in any store, you are looking for things that will work on your models.

If you are cleaning your newly soldered exhaust system, and the chemicals react, creating smoke and ruining your wife's new baking pan.

If your snowblower is covered in balsa dust.


No, I haven't bought any garage sale purses.................lately.

7: If you get excited about a new piece of furnature.... Not for the furniture, but for the packaging materials left over.

8: You have a box/drawer/closet (garage) for parts you "Might need someday"

9. You buy plans, not to build from, but for the big hunks of clean paper on the back to design airplanes on?

you missed #9.
you might be a scratchbuilder if you cant take time out of your build to read the "you might be a scratchbuilder if..." thread.

Sorry, wrong thread.

I scratch this post so I am a scratchbuilder.

10. You can find more building materials at the local contractors' supply (foam, door skins) and boat repair shop (glass and epoxy) than the local hobby shop (ARFs).

Nauga,
who searches far and wide

No might about it. Not only do I scratch build but I design them too.

Originally Posted by ChuckA

No might about it. Not only do I scratch build but I design them too.

I've been told (and don't agree) that your only a scratch builder IF you design them!

...

I think that whatever you do which involves not following a set of instructions is scratch building. If you modify a kit, change something, build from a plan, you are scratch building, because you are using your own modelling initiative.

Only if you follow instructions to a letter, or build ARTF without changing anything, are you NOT scratch building. Everything else IS scratch building, across a spectrum from changing a wing mounting to designing an exact scale competition model from scratch.

I think we get hung up on these terms. Some "scratch" builders will look down their nose at ARTF and yet go out and buy wheels, tanks, props, horns, pushrods, decals, undercarriage, canopies, cowls, spats and goodness knows what.

Its just a matter of degree.

Webster: "- from scratch 2. From nothing; without advantage."

I guess key word in the definition is "nothing". Does "nothing" start at self-harvesting and milling lumber from the tree (balsa, basswood, spruce maple, etc.)? How about buying a horse to get glue?

I purchased a set of plans and then purchased a kit from a customer kit supplier. When I build this model, am I "scratch building"?

I have been building a production line kit and have replaced several pieces of the wood, some for quality, some that was too soft for my liking, and some because it just wasn't the right size. Am I "semi-scratching?"

Can "scratch building" start at more than just one place in a project? Can it *only* start with designing one's own creation and putting it down on paper (or not) and bringing the project from idea to the workbench and then to the flying field? One modeler is building a giant-scale Cessna C-185 from a simple 3-view print. If an aircraft already exists and you model after it, are you scratch building or not? It's not this modeler's design, but he is producing a set of plans with model building in mind.

I guess if we are going to commission a department of Word & Term Police, then:

build from plans - "plans built"
build from a kit (includes custom kits for a set of plans) - "kit built"
build from "nothing" (includes milling one's own lumber from a tree, etc.) - "scratch built"

Now, you might be a SCRATCH builder if you can't get the smell of horse out of your shop...

EJWash