Scratchbuilding? Kit bashing?

When grandma makes a cake from scratch it means she doesn't use a prepackaged mix. Instead she uses basic materials to create her own mix and produce a tasty cake.

In modeling we do the same, create something from basic resources. Bits of styrene, cement to make a part or in some cases a complete model that otherwise isn't available as a kit. Take for instance this seat I am making for my lil buddy GI Joe, who is going to have (eventually) his own scratchbuilt aircraft.

Kitbashing is the art of using parts from kits to create other variants of a subject or something completely unique. Here I use seats from something else to create an interior for a helicopter project I was working on.

Or you an mix and match assemblies from different kits like this a B727 with B707 wings

Wow!  Great pictures to describe the process!

That GI Joe brings back memories!  I had a GI Joe figure when I was 8 (a long time ago!).

Thanks for the info, these two concepts are fascinating to me, as I am interested in doing some Mad-Max kinds of models and anticipate having to utilize these two concepts!

JR

Kitbashing can be as simple as putting an out-of-the-box anti-aircraft gun kit on the back of an out-of-the-box flatbed truck kit with few or no mods to either, or as complicated as using hundreds of different kits to build & detail one model, like the Star Wars movie Death Stars...

Scratchbuilding is making your own parts from raw materials, much like Hawk's scratch-baking scenario.. As simple as stretching a piece of sprue into a radio antenna to as complicated as creating an entirely original model with no pre-fabricated parts anywhere (If there are, they've been modified), made from various materials like styrene, ABS, epoxy, resin, wood, metal, paper, and by carving, stretching, molding, vacuum-forming, thermal-forming, accompanied by blood, sweat, & tears,etc and all stuff in-between...

Both scratchbuilding and kitbashing are techniques made up of skill-sets that are required to be a "Modeler", are nice-to-have"/optional for a "Model Builder", & beyond hope for an "Assembler"...

For instance:

I needed a nose-castoring set-up to build my "Ralstion Trainer" SNJ... No kit exists of this unique Navy bird, so I had to scratchbuild the castoring system from styrene rod and a Kingfisher tailwheel, then mount it on the Monogram SNJ kit..

Oh yeah, one more thing... The Scratchbuilder has a Master's degree in "Creative Gizmology" with a minor in "Imagineering"... Instead of a sheepskin on the wall though, there's more likley boxes and tubs of what others call "junk"; wires, strips of wood, plastic, metal,  pieces of this, parts of that, bags of thisn'that& "interesting shapes" and other materials  scavenged from all sorts of places all over town & country...  EVERYTHING he sees is examined to determine if it "looks like a miniature something-or-other"... EVERY trip ANYWHERE will yield at least ONE "bring-back" if it's small or cheap (usually means "FREE") enough, or at least it'll filed away mentally as to its location..  Packaging, blister packs, shipping foam, broken electronics, pieces of broken toys, whatever...

To do either you need to keep everything left over from previous builds, acquire pieces parts and incomplete kits others don't want as well as gather the other purchased materials you need for your projects. You can never have enough. I'll need a couple years to sort through all of the stuff under the bench that need put away in the drawers and storage bins.