K is for Kit or Scratch built

K is for KIT or scratch built in to-day's A-Z challenge.

With me its not a choice, I've never built a Scratch built model and don't think I have the ability to do one.

With a Kit the hard work and thought has been done for you by the manufacturer, In the case of my "Wyeforce Tug" below it is the firm of Model Slipway.

see here  

With these kits all the bits and pieces are supplied with a Plastic or fibre glass hull, the tug shown is fibre glass. 

My mate "Bob the builder" won a photographic competition with this picture 

With a Kit you can still have a go with a bit of scratch building with all sorts of deck clutter, the picture above has those silver lockers added with padlocks on, lost the keys though!!

A boat never looks right to me without figures on.

Son John bought this hull off Ebay and then scratch built the rest from pictures of other boats on the Net, great first boat, great attention to detail, he's usually a train man!

 but if your a modeller I don't suppose it matters what you model.

My Kit built "Aziz" rig supply ship

The deck clutter wasn't in the kit, so a bit of scratch building there.

Now it get's tricky!.

Bob The builders "Jeanie Deans"

Completely scratch built, Seven foot long!

It works as well!

The gull's are real though.

And then it get's really tricky.

Bob found out that "Jeanie Deans" was taken over by the Royal Navy during WW11 as a minesweeper, BUT he could only find one picture anywhere on the net of the ship in its navy livery, with armour plating and guns! so it was down to his engineering and CAD skills to drawn up plans based on this one picture.

Taking the height of the superstructure as a given he then worked out the rest!

Dazzle paint working.

There is the other type of modelling, the quirky or novelty 

Both these birds are motorised

Stowaway.

Click here for video of the duck

That in a nutshell is why I do Kit building!!