I would like to welcome Mike Kirchoff (drumthumper) aboard as a new section host/manager for "Scratchbuilders!". This new area will house the Scratchbuilding forum that was part of Armorama, but is now part of a broader network wide range of genres.

So if you are an aircraft, ship, armor, sci-fi or ANY kind of scratchbuilder you now have a homebase from which to check for new topics, features, reviews, etc. This new section will be housed on Modelgeek, but with a kitmaker domain of it's own: scratch.kitmaker.net

Of course the forum, Scratchbuilders!, is accessable from any sites Forum page or the latest posts pages as well. And the scratchbuilding section in Features is also accessable from ModelGeek as well.

I would like to thank Mike publically for offering to host the forum and hopefully this will put us on the path of having even more scratchbuilding content in the future.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
Jim

Nice! I think this is certainly much needed for our fellow scratch builders out there to have a place that they can scream for help.

Im sure Mike will do a great job hosting too!

Welcome aboard, Mike!
I'm sure that this "new" section will prove to be a popular one, mate!
Cheers,
~Gunny

Absolutely superb news Jim!

And, allow me to be the first {at least in the U.S. } to shout out a hearty "Welcome!" to our new Forum leader Mike Kirchoff.
If Jim has picked you for this job, I don't doubt you are well qualified and equipped for the task ahead.
As one of the people here who induldge in a bit of "scratching", I'm glad to see a more proper place to hang my hat

Congrats Jim, you've done it again, as usual.

warm regards,

Tread

Jeremy, Mark and Gordon, thank you very much for the kind words following Jim's terrific introduction! I plan on spending a few hours at "work" today writing something a bit more eloquent, but I could not resist a quick note thanking you guys! I appreciate the support a great deal!

Very humbly,
Mike

Very good news for lots of us and I guess particularly for BARV who appears to be unable to build otherwise than from scratch for the great benefit of the ARV and engineer vehicles lovers :-)

Will the forum deal with full scratch only or scratch mods only will apply too ?

Long live this new forum
Olivier

Oliver,
Great question and suffice it to say I absolutely do not want to place any restrictions on what we accomplish on this forum. So anything goes as far as I'm concerned regarding what we define as "scratchbuilt". Those advanced modelers out there, like BARV for example, have obviously taken the scratchbuilding art to another level. But it is not an unattainable level for the rest of us as once you understand the basic fundamental skills, scratchbuilding is merely a series of processes. Conversely, you have to start somewhere. So alot of my emphasis will be on the neophyte scratchbuilder - the one who has yet to undertake a major project and is content with attempting his own rudimentary tank interior, enhancing a cockpit, or simply adding stowage to his Sherman. We will not discriminate here .... this should be a learning/teaching/sharing experience for anybody who wants to become involved.
Whew! So Oliver, to answer your question ..... anything from scratchbuilt ammo boxes, embellishing stock cockpits to full-blown totally scratchbuilt subjects are fair game!

Mike

I saw the hammer as I was heading to bed last night
Good deal there was a lot of 'buzz' over getting that section. Glad to see that members 'wants' are helping guide the site.

Well done and welcome.

OH! ---
---First the campaign gets shunted to Model Geek ---now BANISHMENT and EXILED to MG
WHY????----cause we take up too much space and don't build "OOB "or "Bang -bangs " ?????
CASTIGATED ----because we like our "BEASTIES"
VICTIMISED ---- because we do "OFF -the-WALL " wierdies
CRITICISED----- because we are not "UNDERSTOOD"
PULVERISED ---BECAUSE We create "HARMONY FROM HAVOC"
DEMORALISED -----NEVER ----We will fight with every plastic weapon we can make --and remain VICTORIOUS !!!!

**AND FINALY**
WELCOME TO THE "MAD HOUSE" MIKE------from (may I say)all of the "Darkside" --glad to have you aboard ---we WILL be good --for a little while................ :-) :-) :-) :-)
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

Whoa, BARV. Steve, I admire the zeal! Woo hoo!

Mike, I look forward to posting a lot on Scrachbuilding Forums, I'm glad it came to be and with you at the lead, I expect a very good example to be set. Welcome.
Besides, if Tread and BARV are this excited, I gotta perk up!

Good luck!
Cuhail

dernit..............I'm locking myself in the basement tonight................. get some scratchin' done...LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ya know, Matt. I keep hearing you're gonna do that, but, I haven't seen anything in a while.
Get to it, son!
:-)

Cuhail

Well, When a Buddy asks for help redoing a bathroom...... BE SURE to ask exactly what the plans are first...LOLOL I spent 2 days trying to straighten out Electrical & Plumbing that make Tim Taylor look good!!!!
Lickily I have a 75# box of Plumbing parts for just that reason...LOL

Congratulations Mike. I may not post anything to the scratchbuild forum but I do watch and read hoping to improve my skills.

Welcome Mike - and nice to know there is a separate focus for Scratchbuilding efforts now on the Network.

I feel so at home...

Gunnie

....ya know, I'm just lovin' this already Mike.

This idea of a specific Scratcher's Forum has been brought up in the past, and I must admit to not really being sure of precisely what gyrations the proposal went thru until it's eventual end.
Irregardless, just seeing some of the voices popping up on this announcement thread is quite literally warming my 'cockles'. Not only are we hearing the voices of such esteemed members such as barv, ti, matt, jazza, Gunny, bison126, slodder, and Cuhail, but I am finally getting the persoanl opportunity to hear our own famous and cherished GunTruck's voice added to the cheers.............how cool is that??

My dear Mr. Kirchoff, you have indeed conjured up the attentions of some pretty talented miniaturist's out there. People whose talents I have admired for some time now.....and hopefully people whose talents I can continue to enjoy both thru the conduit of Armorama's newly added Scratchbuilder's" Forum, and thru the efforts of the site's newly chosen ramrod......drumthumper.

Best wishes....

Tread.

Man, you guys sure know how to make a fella feel welcome!!! I truly appreciate the support.
First, I'd like to thank Jim Starkweather for giving us the opportunity to establish our little niche in the hobby via this forum. As strongly as I feel about scratchbuilding, I feel even more so about sharing and learning new methods and techniques. I know from visiting this site on a regular basis some of you guys have the same philosophy. That's exactly what we need to continue to tap into, for eveyone's benefit. There are some extremely talented modelers frequenting this forum, so my hope is that they continue to share their excellent work.
What I would like to see in this forum is simply whatever you guys decide! I really have no pre-conceived agenda or laundry list of goals, other than making the sharing and learning experience as positive and as much fun as possible!
Now this might sound a bit mundane and cliche, but let me grab my guitar and lead us all in a version of Kumbaya around the campfire ... Seriously, if you guys could take the time to drop me a PM and introduce yourselves we can start getting acquainted. Let me know what currently interests you and perhaps toss in an idea regarding what you would like to get from the forum.
I personally have scheduled a few tank and cockpit interior master patterns to design in the near future and, if the interest is there, I see nothing wrong with sharing that process in the forum, from start to finish .... kind of a build-along, as it were. My hope is that by doing so some of you will become inspired to attempt your own interior - seeing that it really isn't rocket science, or at the very least be able to glean a new technique or idea.
That being said I am always available. I love cussing and discussing scratchbuilding and am anxious to help answer any questions or concerns. You can contact me anytime at [email protected] or PM me!
Finally, I want this forum to be comfortable for everybody, regardless of skill level. We all have so much to learn! Please don't feel intimidated just because you might be just starting out. Basic skills are learned quite easily and before you know it, with the support of your friends here, you'll soon be amazed at the progress you've made! All it takes is that first step ....

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now,
Mike

Nice to see you took the suggestion and stepped up to the plate. :-)

Hey, what do you know, someone actually listened to me. Congrats and good luck.

Robin,
Didn't you know, when you talk EVERYBODY listens! Thanks for the support, buddy. BTW, I still have that Bradley interior half-done!

Later,
Mike

What a wonderfull and excellent part of this wonderful site -as some of you know I spend a lot of my time scratch building large and small figurines but have been scratchbuilding since I was 16 (tried to make my own K guns for an SAS jeep and when I finished they brought out the thing at TAMIYA grrrrrr-
I am also a scratch builder in Model railways as my scale On30 used to be the domain of scratchbuilders- So welcome to this mad house MIke
you may see a few of my madder creations posted here. But I always learn from you other in how to approach design and turn that to a 3 dimension Miniature
Ian - The Dwarf maker

Fianlly a place where GIZMLOGY will be hailed sought in the highest plane! (and the lowest tank!) Though I try to incorporate some scratchbuilding in everything I do these days, I must admit mine will nearly always have a prop and wings. Ok 99.9% of the time...