I've used sprue and other kit remnants as detail parts...have to get some pics of my Ocali Outfitters diorama posted here...anyway, it's almost a subcategory of kitbashing IMO. But scratchbuilding details has to be the ultimate in originality, even when making something as plain as a crate or barrel.
You get the pride of workmanship and being able to say "I made it". What impresses me perhaps even more are the real freaks, uh, afficionados, who can scratchbuild a loco in brass right down to the wheels and every last bolt, even making their own screws! (except for the motor, wire and light bulbs or LEDs, of course).(Quote)
This "freak " is almost guilty as charged, however the only time I made my own wheels was for a Galloping Goose type thing & I have never made my own screws for the brass locos I have built.
In fact I am at a standstill on a USRA 2-8-2 that I am in the middle of , following a MR magazine atricle of the 80s that called for making your own crankpins for the drivers because I am unwilling to pay a couple of hundred dollars for the jewelers tap & die plate needed to make said crankpins.
I also "cheat" in that the 4 Climax , 4-6-2 Pacific , Western Maryland Shay, & Heisler I did all have Precision Scale or Kemtron whistles, bells, smoke box fronts ( except the 4-6-2) , headlights, compressors, stacks
& a few other cast parts on them.
I did build my own Transmissions for the Shay , Heisler, Goose & the Climaxes , actually a different design for Each of the 4 Climax, that mostly because as I would get one transmission working, I could see a different & perhaps better way it could have been done.
The Climax Locos were my first effort & would have never come to pass if Cliff Grandt had not been willing to spend a few hours over several phone calls to help me figure out the gear train for them & suggesting which of the gears he produced might be suitable to make the thing work.
The 4-6-2 Pacific was built exactly as per a construction article in a
40's or 50's series of articles in Model Railroader by Mel Thornburgh ( sp?) except that unlike Mel , I used Power Tools , he had NONE --not even an electric drill, he used an eggbeater type hand drill & files to turn his parts that required machining, I am fortunate enought to have both a drill press & a Unimat.
I am still contamplating if I want to build what was called a "Kitchen Table Locomotive" several of which were featured in atricles published During WW II . These were engines in which , because of war time metal shortages, the boiler, frame & most of the superstructure were made of wood, they turned out surprisingly well & attractive. I have the construction detals for one that the boiler was made from a six inch piece sawed off a shovel handle from the guys work place!!