Budget Group Build Challenge

I will be ordering my Sherman today. I think I have got everything on my list to fit, I'll have to double check.

Guys,

It can be done.

I had this 1/72 A-37B I got for 6 bucks at the LHS. A spray can of Gunship Gray, and a pack of military flats in the 1/4 oz bottles, and a 12 pack of Testor's acrylics in these little plastic "buckets" and was out the door for under $18.00. I used acrylics, because I can use alcohol as a brush cleaner. For decal setting, I used Future. It works great and isn't costly, since I have hardwood floors . I brushed Future on after bombing the model in Gunship Gray, and it worked really well to give a satin sheen to it. Now to figure out a cheap dullcoat.

Anyhoo, here's a shot of the decals on the tail, so you can see how the Future works. It eliminates almost all the silvering (the decals were pretty crappy) and will allow the decals to conform really well. Gotta be quick though, the Future gets tacky really quick. After the decals set, I'm gonna brush another coat of Future, then weather (with the thinner sludge), and dullcoat. We'll see. By the way, this is just a test, I don't know what I'll do for the challenge...

got me some freebee thinners from errrrr.... somewhere i'll re-calculate my total later and let you know what i come up with.
Greg

OK. Here we go
Kit €4.99
MM Black €2.00
MM I/Green €2.00
MM White €2.00
Game work shop Gun metal €2.00
Liquid Glue €1.75
Brush x 2 €1.50 (from a kids painting set)
4 way File €2.50 (girlfriend donated it)
Grand total €20.24, as of 7 July 2004 $25.00 was equal to €20.34.
I know I have forgot to factor in the price of a knife but because I work in a hospital I can get a scalpel when I need one.

I'll keep ya posted

Count me in. I have the kit I ( Mig 37 Ferret € 4.99) I just have to price the other stuff I'm going to need. I'll let you know and I try to post pics


James

yep, still going and getting paid for whatever it is i am supposed to do whilst i am there, LoL. i have scored a real biggie too but can't use it for this build (cos i ain't including my compressor - even if it was a freebee thought this would be cheating somehow), there was some old boxes and stuff that i was told to throw out, i asked should i look through it first and was told "no just bin it". guess who found a devilbiss spray gun in the pile the rule at work is if its scrap we can have it.... its been used but its in very good condition and i use this type of gun every day and can get the spray quite fine.(its going to come in handy when i build my B52 me thinks )
Greg

ANyone know of some good replacements for testors glosscoat and dullcoat? I have only found them in big bottles.

Hmmm...very interesting. I was wondering if there was a common household product I could use as a substitute for the decal solution, I guess this is as good as time as any to experiment.

The last week of July has been suggested as a start, so here goes:

The Official Start Date: July 26th, 2004

I agree with John with limited supplies and accesories it won't take as long to build so:

The Ofiicial End Date: October 31th 2004

How does this sound?

Remember to take the challenge seriously and build the best model you can while still staying within the budget. Have fun!

Dan,

Have you ever noticed how similar Micro-Set and vinegar smell? I've used vinegar as a decal setting solution and it worked great. I was using acrylics, didn't bleed through, and the decal settled in over an AV-8B wingtip just fine.... just my

I'm doing the same thing...trying to keep putty and decal solution in the buget. Picked up a Hobby knife out the free pile at a garage sale.

Seems to me that every time i make add up my list, it will come out perfectly, and then i will notice i forgot the knife, or the brushes. Every TIme.
Pretty muche everything has fit onto my list, except for the glosscoat and dullcoat.
I have got to find cheaper replacements.
I'll keep looking for cheaper stuff. Its harder than it looks!

Also do We have a start date? If no maybe we could start in the last week of July? I was also thinking to myself, if I have Limited supplies, it will take me less time to build because there will be no detailing. Just my Idea. THat Date might Not work for some others though.

ewc2003...looks like your in your kits about $2.00 each to me!

gregers, good job on the brushes, are you still gamefully employed?

guess who just scored a couple of free brushes from work. will still need to include one as a purchase for the fine work though.
Greg

Dan,

Let's say we get a lot of 8 aircraft on a popular auction site for 11.00 plus 6.40 s & h. Can I divide the total by 8 and go from there? This IS supposed to be a build on frugality, right?

Wow I cant belive I forgot glue ok I can take out the color yellow, for the oxygen bottle/s, and replace it with some proweld, $2.00, curtosey of Als Hobby Shop.

Vintage Aircraft, I think you need to work some glue into the budget then your good to go!

Hey count me in and to fully make this a challange I am going to use the 1963 1/48 Monogram Spitfire MKII, so it will be more like the old times.


$2.00 per can of paint (Tamiya), so I will use 8 cans of paint which is $16 worth of paint, and the kit was $7, and $2 for a wal Mart craft brush pack. Which is what I use because they are really nice belive it or not and are very cheap with about 20 different sizes, with brushes in it with sizes from fine detail work all the way to a large coating of paint like for and exterior. So total is exactly 25$

So am I in?

Come on edog, find a way to fit it in, you know you want to! We haven't set a time frame yet, what to you all want to do?

This build is SOOOOOOOOO tempting, but I must resist. I just have too much other stuff going on right now.

Grandpa works at a....hmmm....Hobby Shop, wonder what they're discarding? It's an RC shop, no plastics.

I promise I won't cheat

Gotcha... I'm an electronics type in the Navy and our lab has tons of "discarded" wire, etc, that would normally be dumped....nothing big, just lots of 20/22/24 gauge wire.....

Scrapes of material that would normally be discarded from your work place will be allowed as long as it doesn’t and/or can’t lead to your dismissal from said employment.

Can we use "liberated items" from the workplace? Since this is not only a challenge in budgetary management, shouldn't we be able to use our resourcefulness in other ways? I'm not talking about heavy duty stuff like air guns, etc... but little bits of wire, etc... for detailing, maybe?

Yes the nail files and sand paper are a go, most homes will have these.

Alright, so ill exclude the paint. What about using my sisters paint brushes, she is sort of an artists with oils, here brushes were the ones i first used, secretly.

About sanding sticks and paper, my mom has nail files, and we have, always, alot of sand paper in our shop, so does that count as a household item. let me know. either way, im still in. This is going to be sooooooooooooo much fun. Just to see how much of a difference the tools make, or skill level.

Do we have a start date yet?

Very nice build and a perfect example of the spirit of this challenge! Hope it will inspire more builders to join the BGBC (Budget Group Build Challenge).

It’s also food for thought. Alternate building materials, I have been scrambling trying to fit the cost of the kit and supplies into the budget, this should help with ideas on how to stretch our dollars.

I posted the following because when I read the article, I thought about this group build. Perhaps it'll be inspirational in that this guy built this diorama practically out of nothing but common materials. Check it out.

Diorama Depicting the Rescue of Army PFC Jessica Lynch in Iraq

i have scrubbed the gun mettal paint and one brush from my list, going to price up some "green stuff". if this will send me over budget i can use some kids modeling clay called plastercene that the kids don't need anymore (at least thats my excuse for pinching it from them LoL) and seal it with gloss paint (either the red or green). i will be using the white as a primer to check that everything is smooth then the black to undercoat the silver on some panels.

Greg

There is a forum for figures here at FSM so I think I have to disqualify your paints, sorry Rebelreenactor. Remember only common household items count as freebees.

Yep gregers looks like you might have to sacrifice something to get under budget.

This is going to be tougher then I thought. It’s been a little slow at the shop today so I’ve started working on my list; I have had to cut some items I really wanted to use, like my super glue.

aw hell, i forgot about sanding stuff. i have some sandpaper of various grades that i use on cars (real ones that is). i'll also stick to just using one brush though god only knows how because i also need some filler. i will have to sort that out price wise. probably will drop the gunmettal from my paint list too because i can mix that from the others on my list.
off to do some re-calculating

Greg