Price Check: Styrene vs. Wood

From a passer-by's point of view, it might seem that scratchbuilding is a cheaper endeavor than purchasing a kit.  After all, it's quite a sticker shock looking at craftsman kits whose prices reach into the $200's and $300's.  However, having done some scratchbuilding over the years, my general experience is that it tends to come out the same, or more, once you add in all the detailed parts, paint, decals, and tools.

The only scratchbuilt structure which has been any significant amount of cost savings was the El Gato Negro pool hall from several years ago, and the cost savings here could be attributed primarily too the walls being built from foamcore and spackle, and the roof from painted tissue paper.

When it comes to scratchbuilding, the choice of materials arises.  For larger scales, O and above, there is an additional concern, the under-structure and the superstructure.  As things get larger, the need to have a firm, rigid supporting structure arises.  Regardless, this choice of materials for the super structure often comes down to wood and styrene, with paper making a strong showing in 3rd, and cast plaster a runner up.  Plaststruct also sells ABS plastic materials as well, but somehow this has never worked out well for me except in specific structure detail cases.

Clever Models has taken paper scratchbuilding to an extreme, with all-paper superstructure type kits.  Many other models are starting to use colored printed paper to add a touch of texture or hard-to-paint to key areas of things.  I suspect this latter hybrid approach is going to have a strong showing in the years to come, particularly in areas that have traditionally been hard to reproduce in existing materials.

I was browsing the Evergreen Styrene website today and wondered, "What is the overall cost difference between styrene and wood when scratchbuilding an entire structure?"

When scratchbuilding a structure one will need both sheet and strip (dimensional) material.

Plain Sheet

It's tricky to price compare wood to styrene because Evergreen keeps a consistent price for each bag of sheets, but changes the quantity of sheets they give you.  To get around this I'm just going to, somewhat arbitrarily, pick 1/16" or 0.040 as a reference thickness on which to compare.

Evergreen sells 0.060" styrene for $4.19 for a 6"x12" sheet.  They have dealer packs and economy packs too.  The economy packs are $12.99 for 2 of 8"x21" sheets, or $0.038 per squared inch.

Mt. Albert Scale Lumber sells 1/16" basswood sheets 2 of 4"x12" for $4.95, or $0.051 per squared inch.

Midwest Products offers a bulk pack of 1/16" basswood sheet as well.  They offer 15 sheets 2" x 24" for $22.35, or $0.031 per squared inch.

Architectural Sheet

Evergreen sells architectural sheets (clapboard, board and baton, etc.) for $6.59 for a 6" x 12" sheet or $20.49 for a 12" x 24" sheet.  That's $0.071 per squared inch for sheet material (it's 2 cents cheaper per squared inch buying the large sheets).

Mt. Albert Scale Lumber also sells architectural sheets for $6.85 for 2x 4"x12" strips or $14.65 for 2x 6"x12".  That's $0.10 per squared inch.

Midwest also offers clapboard siding sheets.  It's $21.92* for 10 of 3"x24", or $0.030 per squared inch.

* = this was the current price on Amazon, which may or may not reflect indented retail and may or may not be more expensive because of the "free" Prime shipping.

Strip

Again, using 0.060" or 1/16" as a reference dimension.

Evergreen sells styrene strips in 14" and 24" lengths.  The smaller strip sizes like 0.010, 0.020, etc. aren't offered in the 24" length.  They sell 0.060x0.060 strips 10 for $3.59.  They also have an economy pack of 50 for $14.59.  That's $0.025 per linear inch.

Mt. Albert Scale Lumber sells basswood strips in 24" lengths.  They offer a pack 7 of 1/16 x 1/16 for $4.95, or $0.029 per linear inch.

Midwest products offers a bundle of 60 basswood strips for $17.40 of 1/16 x 1/16 x 24, which comes out to $0.012 per linear inch.

Applied

Let us say we're building an average size structure in O-scale.  It's a single story slapboard building, 10'x20' with a 45 degree (or so) peaked roof.  The size walls need 12.5 in² and the front/back walls need 9.375 in², meaning in total the structure will need about 44 in² of clapboard siding.  Let's say plain 0.040 sheet is used for the roof (25 in² more of plain sheet).  We'll use some square strip for the corners of the building and some thin strip for the eaves.  Let's say, 20 inches of strip material.

• Clapboard siding: 44 in²
• Roof: 25 in²
• Strip size #1: 10 in
• Strip size #2: 10 in

Raw Cost for Styrene: $3.12 + $0.92 + $0.50 = $4.54

Raw Cost for Basswood, Mt. Albert: $4.40 + $1.27 + $0.58 = $6.25

Raw Cost for Basswood, Midwest: $1.32 + $0.77 + $0.24 = $2.33

It should also be noted that the prices above represent the raw materials cost.  In reality one must buy a whole pack, regardless of if the rest of the pack is needed for not.  For example, in the case of Midwest, the basswood lots come in lots of 1440 linear inches and only 20 are needed for this project.  So while it might be the cheapest on the price of materials actually used, it certainly won't be the cheapest for the first few projects where each new dimensional strip size represents another $17 bundle.  Clearly, if there is a commitment to scratchbuilding and certain sizes are commonly used then the Midwest offers represent great economy.

Pack Cost for Styrene: $6.59 + $6.59 + $4.19 + $3.59 + $3.59 = $24.55

Pack Cost for Basswood, Mt. Albert: $6.85 + $4.96 + $4.95 + $4.95 = $21.71

Pack Cost for Basswood, Midwest: $21.92 + $22.35 + $17.40 + $17.40 = $79.07

The styrene comes out a bit more expensive because the sheet size width of 6" is just slightly too short to account for the peaked roof of the front and back, thus 2 sheets are required.  It's a quarter inch too short, so it might be possible to just fudge that extra space with solid sheet and not need an additional pack of clapboard.

Final Remarks

I must admit that I was a bit surprised by the results.  I had no idea the price of basswood varied so much between vendors.   The fact that Midwest sells in such a bulk size lends to their lower price.  Just casually glancing at the Midwest product lineup it also seems they have less sizes and target fractional sizes.  It would seem that if one were planning to "get into" scratchbuilding in basswood, making a large up-front investment in Midwest products would be a cost savings over several years.

For someone looking to have a more casual entry into scratchbuilding, the price difference between Evergreen styrene and Mt. Albert basswood seems to be somewhat of a wash.  It probably comes down to a difference in building style, whichever one a builder prefers cutting and gluing better.