The Philosophical Musings of Teach Yourself Modelcraft

Back when I was in high school I borrowed the book Teach Yourself Modelcraft from the library quite a number of times. I can't remember what the attraction was, other than just feeding my addiction for reading every book on model making that I could find, so when I saw a copy for sale online at a reasonable price I bought it.

It was written by H. S. Coleman, the editor of Modelcraft Magazine, and published by English Universities Press in 1952. I didn't realize it was that old at the time, and I'm surprised our school library had a copy in the mid-'70s. 

Back then all I was interested in was model building techniques, so I likely skipped what I then considered the fluffy parts and focused on mining whatever techniques I could find. These days, with these older books, my approach is the opposite. Oh, the book presents techniques, but it is equally full of what I'd call philosophical musings, practical encouragement, and pleasant parables. Here's one for male readers who might be concerned that modelcraft isn't sufficiently macho or socially acceptable:

It is one of the strange perversities of human nature that men like, in the choice of their side-interests, to adopt some occupation which, for some obscure reason, belongs to the category that is labelled "manly" or "sporting". The idea seldom occurs to these good people that the terms themselves are entirely arbitrary ones, having arisen from a class of people whose judgement is by no means omniscient.

That sounds rather modern and applicable to many situations.

My copy doesn't have the distinctive dust jacket of the Teach Yourself Books series, but it's in good condition. I think my father owned a copy of Teach Yourself Algebra, or maybe it was the one on geometry. It was something mathematical, as I remember that classic cover design on his book shelf.

I leave you with a musing from Mr. Coleman on The Value of Odd Moments:

As for the actual shortage of time in a busy life, it must be said that it is amazing what can be done in the way of model construction in the most haphazard odd moments. Many of the most artistic examples now in existence have been brought into being during a spare ten minutes here and an odd half-hour there. Actually this is one of the most attractive attributes of the craft. A piece of work can be started, can be left lying on the work-bench for a week, and then can be returned to at any moment. Model making is the ideal occupation for broken time, and will adequately fill up many an odd moment that would otherwise be swallowed up in idleness or reading stale news in the paper.

Or stale 'news' on the internet.