Scratchbuilding Advice

[Sumpter250]

This past year, my good friend Allan Gartner has asked me to do my first ever scratchbuilding project. I'ma skeer'd of this one having never done it before. I ask all you mighty gurus for your advice on how to get this thing rolling. It will be a "centerpiece" of sorts as it will sit atop a mountain scene overlooking the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
1. I have done the obligatory Google thing and found a couple of useful pictures and info...where else do you search for information?
2. Are there other resources for materials besides limited offerings of the LHS?
3. Does anyone know of a kit available that is similar to the picture below I should buy and could kitbash into the hotel?
4. Should I invest in any specialty tools to make life easier?
I hesitate to accept this mission as I may self-destruct in 5 seconds once I jump in....but I figure I will attempt scratchbuilding sooner or later, so now is as good a time as any. Looking forward to what you all have to say.....

Q, 1. First, ask Allan if he wants an exact size model, or one "selectively compressed". If compression is to be used, work up drawings, it's no longer scratchbuilding a "Prototype" model.
Q, 2. Ask your local Hobby shop owner if they can order anything they don't carry in stock.
Q, 3. I have to go with scratchbuild....you might find that you'd have to have two or more kits for a bash, and the materials for scratch would be less expensive. There's also the labor in "unmaking" the kit, and re-arranging the parts,
and cleaning up the "joints" etc.
Q, 4. Only if the need arises for a tool you don't already have.
Look at scratchbuilding as simply building a kit, except, you have to first make the "kit parts". You might find cast metal, or plastic, windows and doors that could be used, as well as other details. Get them, before starting on the walls, decks, roofs, etc.
As ship modelers are often quoted as saying, " one does not build a ship model, one builds models of parts of a ship, and then assembles them into a " model ship ".
If you are going to build windows? Make a jig to aid assembly, and insure that each window is the same as the last. Railings, doors, and any other "multiple" pieces, the same way.
If you start by thinking ( except, you have to first make the "kit parts" ), and build a part at a time, it really is no harder than building a "craftsman" kit.
Scratchbuilding is not a bad discipline to acquire. Once there, your own layout can become a truly distinctive "place", having exactly the "character" you want it to have, be that freelance based on a "location appearance", or of a specific place on a specific railroad.
.......and, no, I am no guru, just another model builder, May fortune favor you.