Scratchbuilding a NSWGR VHO Passenger Brake Van Part 1

For those who model the New South Wales Government Railways in HO scale, a quick look at today’s market will show we are blessed with an ever increasing selection of r-t-r rolling stock to complement long standing ranges of kits from various manufacturers. However, sometimes we may need or want to possess a model of a particular prototype in a certain form, era, variation, condition, etc. which isn’t available off the shelf. If the desire to own such a model is strong enough, then we must consider the concepts of either kitbashing (taking a preexisting kit/model and altering it to what is needed), or scratchbuilding (building a custom model from raw, often specialised components).

The practices of kitbashing and scratchbuilding rolling stock, structures, etc. have been a part of our hobby for many years, giving the modeller the chance to build many varied, often ‘individualised’ and ‘one-off’ models for their collections. However, this very sentence automatically assumes the modeller has already completed at least one or two kit-bashing or scratchbuilding exercises; so what about the beginners?

It is understandable for the beginner or ‘modeller to be’ to be a little apprehensive and hesitant on their very first kitbashing or scratchbuilding attempt (I know I certainly was!) In fact, it could be argued the main reason behind these thoughts is the self-doubting of the modeller’s abilities and skillsets. There are plenty of magazine articles, books, and other resources where the kitbashing or scratchbuilding process of a model is shown in full (such articles have been written by many authors over the years, each usually with something unique to contribute to this topic). However, while these types of resource material are excellent, omnipresent and deserving of consideration, it should be noted most of these articles are primarily written for the ‘intermediate’ or ‘advancing’ modellers.

Therefore, while there is no reason a beginner could not attempt to build one of the models following such an article, I believe it could be more beneficial for the ‘modeller to be’ to build a prototype which is simple in its body shape (with perhaps fewer cuts and joins than a standard kitbash), but educational enough to establish at least some of the basic techniques, methodology, and ways of thinking, in order to give the modeller a solid grounding.

With this last point in mind, this is where the NSWGR