Kitbashing

There are a lot of different terms to get to grips with when you enter the world of modelling - scratchbuilding, upcycling, zenithal highlighting, drybrushing, trashbashing, objets trouvé, greeblies etc. On this blog we'll be looking at all of these terms and more. 

We've already seen some great examples of upcycling by Ptolemy Elrington and David Kemp. I will also mention Jessica Harrison who finds charity/thrift shop sculptures and turns them into horror figures or adds tattoos. And then there's the late Click Mort (Christopher Robert Doran) who became famous for his 'recapitated' charity shop figures, created by swapping heads and limbs. 

 

We've also explored trashbashing - making sculptures purely from garbage - with work by Studson Studios and Scratch Bashing. 

Incidentally, scratchbashing is a portmanteau word that describes the combination of two techniques: scratchbuilding - making something (usually something familiar like a lightsabre or famous spaceship) completely from scratch; and trashbashing which means making things entirely from garbage. Scratchbashing may involve using parts of existing toys, making new pieces from wood, plastic, metal or even 3D printing, as well as utilising throwaway rubbish. 

But today we're looking at kitbashing - using model kits in ways not originally intended. It goes beyond modification - such as the zombie apocalypse scenarios of Laser Creation World. It's much more than that. 

Here's a great example - Pete the Wargamer's beautifully-made Necrofex Colossus from the Total War: Warhammer computer game. It uses parts from model kits such as a shipwreck and a trebuchet to create something very different from either:

   

And here's SciFi Crafts kitbashing a standard F18 fighter jet kit into a spaceship:

   

Just to complicate matters, some sculptures may involve elements of kitbashing, trashbashing and scratch building ... 

But, at the end of the day it's the final piece that matters, not the methods used.