A little history about how I got into model building, and my approach to the same.
I have had a lifelong interest in steam engines, and build my first one as a 12th grade science project, along with a boiler that was about 18" dia, 36" tall, vertical fire tube type with injector.
Life has been busy since 12th grade, and I always had the intention of getting back to building steam engines and boilers.
My dad got into the modeling hobby about 2001, and build a ludicrous number of model steam and hot air engines, and some full sized ones too.
My intention was always to get with dad and build some models too, but again it was not to be.
About 2002, I was working as an engineer at a large firm, and a very ambitions and rather ruthless junior engineer pulled some corporate political strings, pushed out the head of our department, took over, and then fired the entire department to "clean the slate" and install his own loyal people.
He lasted about a year at that business, and then quit and took "his people" with him to start his own firm.
I decided that the old adage "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" was something I had to adhere to, so in 2003 I started my own consulting engineering business, and have been running it as a one-man operation ever since.
While the last few years have been nothing short of brutal, and one man in his own firm has to wear a lot of hats (I am the janitor, secretary, financial planner, marketer, draftsman, designer, you name it, I do it), there are some redeeming things about working for yourself, such as the fact that I have been the "employee of the month" every single month going on 11 years now.
My dad died in 2006, and so I accumulated his machine tools and shop equipment.
Building models seemed rather rudimentary to me, after all, dad made so many, and made it look so easy.
But it was anything but rudimentary. I realized I was floundering in 2009 after getting the shop and equipment set up, so I discovered online model building forums, and began the process of learning how to machine engines from bar stock.
Several things became evident very quickly, which were 1. I sucked at machining. 2. Machining can be extremely tedious and boring for someone like me with a short attention span. 3. Machining engines from bar stock generally required machining anywhere from 50% to 90% of the metal off into chips which fall on the floor and fly in every direction, and have to be cleaned up daily.
I was bound and determined to make the brute-force method work for me, and so I drew a couple of my dad's engines in 2D CAD, and set about to build copies of them.
After a year or so of what seemed like banging my head against the wall, I decided there must be another way.