What did Phil Spector and Art Curren have in common?
One had a wall of sound and the other made miniature buildings from plastic walls.
What did Phil Spector and Art Curren not have in common?
One was heavily influenced by E. L. Moore and the other - it's pretty safe to say - wasn't.
Thank you E. L. Moore for the design and AHM or Tyco for the material.
Art Curren's conclusion to "Scratchbuilding" - with plastic kit walls in the June '77 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman
Galen hinted that had Art Curren participated in the plastic models conversation, he would have had a different, and more positive take on Bob Hegge's assertion that many builders are not too fond of plastic products :-) Mr. Curren is well known for using plastic kits of miniature buildings as parts for building more interesting structures of his own design - call it kit-mingling, kitbashing, or kit-scratching, take your pick.
For the longest time I thought Art Curren had always been a staffer at Model Railroader, but it turns out he didn't join the magazine until July 1978. Up until then he was also a prolific author over at Railroad Model Craftsman. I did some digging in RMC, and I think this list covers what he published there (please let me know if something is missing).
Jan '75: RMC / Dremel Kitbashing Award: Coal Bunker and Freight House
July '75: Color signs from black and white dry transfers
July '75: Color signs from black and white dry transfers
Oct '75: Walls of Ivy
Jan '76: Buildings on the bias
Apr '76: Detail parts from diesel shells
June '76: Watts in a naim
Nov '76: Back to nature for dead trees
Dec '76: Kitbashing Frenda Mill, Part 1
Jan '77: Kitbashing Frenda Mill, Part 2
Feb '77: A variety of vents
Apr '77: Building the buildings that aren't
June '77: "Scratchbuilding" - with plastic kit walls
Nov '77: A lot of industry in a small space
Feb '78: Frenda Mines II, III and IV (see also Don McFall's Friend of Frenda Mill in the same issue)
June '78: The Twin-Cities Concept
Sept '78: Griffin & Howe: An example of over-the-tracks space utilization.
Most notable to me was that June '77 story, "Scratchbuilding" - with plastic kit walls, as I think it does the best job of summarizing his philosophy that plastic kits of miniature buildings can be viewed as raw materials instead of just parts to assemble a predefined model: The walls of the aforementioned plastic kits (and many other plastic kits, too) are to me as much building material as are structural shapes, stripwood, sheetwood, plastic sheetstock, yardstick, or other commonly used materials.
And the plastic kits he says he found the most useful were those E. L. Moore kits produced by AHM and Tyco, especially the Ramsey Journal building, the Gruesom Casket company, and their derivatives, the firehouse and rooming house. He also mentioned uses for the Molasses Mine.
If you're a longtime reader here you know that in mainstream HO scale miniature building construction for model railroads, I think part of the lineage of the craft goes from Gil Mellé to E. L. Moore , then from E. L. Moore to Art Curren. Mr. Curren's direct use and appreciation in this article of E. L. Moore's work helps me think this chain of craftsmen is on the right track (although, nothing is proven, and I still need to think about who came before Gil Mellé, and who's after Art Curren).
I wonder if Art Curren wrote to E. L. Moore? I haven't seen any letters, but this might be one of those questions whose answer is lost to time.
[4 Oct Update: Added Mr. Curren's RMC / Dremel Kitbashing Award to the article list.]
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