Connections: Bruce MacRae to Brick Price to Railroad Modeler

Scale Modeler, March 1974

Late August to early September this year is more or less the 50th anniversary of when I got seriously interested in model building. I look back at the period from August 1972 to sometime in the spring or early summer of 1974 as the time when my interest in all things related to model building gelled into a lifelong pursuit. There were many periods, often years long, when the only expression of that interest was buying a model building magazine or two, but the interest persisted.

I still have many of the hobby magazines I bought at that time and have been looking through them again; this time with an adult’s critical eye instead of a boy’s unbridled enthusiasm. I don’t want to get all weepy and nostalgic as no good will come of that, but I do want to try to understand myself and my immersion in that time better. 

Around the end of that period, maybe in February or March of 1974, I bought an issue of Scale Modeler magazine, which was also published by the same company who published Railroad Modeler, Challenge Publications. Buying it was a bit of a risk because there was a No War Comics edict in my house, and that issue of SM clearly had a painting of two warplanes on the cover. Even so, it wasn’t those two planes that made me take the risk of having the $1.50 magazine confiscated, but the extensive set of photographs of a diorama built by a gentleman named Bruce MacRae. They appeared in an article called The Wine Tasters. It spanned 8 pages, and included 9 large black-and-white photos as well as a double page spread of 3 equally large colour photos. I was fascinated by the diorama, and had to buy the magazine to study the diorama at my leisure instead of under the accusatory eye of the smoke shop owner where I bought my comics and magazines.

Railroad Modeler, December 1974

I’m still impressed by that diorama. I think the reason is the high level of animation in the figures and vehicles, coupled with strong story telling all throughout the scene. The models are also excellent, but that wasn’t the main attraction. I’m usually blasé about military subjects no matter how great the modelling, but this one was - and still is - compelling. 

So, I wondered who is Bruce MacRae? A little bit of internet searching informed me that he is a professional model builder, and at one time worked for the legendary modeller for movies (Star Trek: The Motion Picture being one of the more famous), tv shows, and NASA, Brick Price. Mr. Price featured a number of photos of MacRae’s work in his 1981 book, The Model-Building Handbook, which, as well as a train, has a photo of a scene from a MacRae diorama on its cover.

Over at Memory Alpha there are entries for Brick Price’s company, WonderWorks, Inc. (founded in late 1977 as Brick Price Movie Miniatures according to the site) and Bruce MacRae, who is noted to have worked for Price’s company in 1979. WonderWorks still exists.

I learned with the Tom Daniel surprise that if a famous model maker lived in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s, it might pay to see if they were ever published in Canoga Park based Railroad Modeler magazine. Bruce MacRae’s work had appeared in one of RM’s sister publications, so I wondered if he or Brick Price ever had anything published in RM?

Railroad Modeler, February 1975

I haven’t found anything yet for Bruce MacRae, but so far I have found two articles by Brick Price:

Economy Log Hog, December 1974 (how to convert a Far East Distributors 2-6-0T into a logging locomotive)

Jack O’Vall’s Machine Shop, February 1975 (kitbashing an AHM Weekly Herald into a locomotive repair facility / machine shop / Ford dealership / gas station complex)

I don’t see any mention of these articles at the WonderWorks website, although the Memory Alpha article notes Mr. Price published extensively in International Modeler magazine, and those IM articles were instrumental in getting him noticed in the movie and tv business.

These 1974 and 1975 articles predate the founding of WonderWorks by 2 or 3 years, so maybe Mr. Price still had time for model railroading in the early to mid ‘70s. The 1975 article notes he was building a 3’ x 12’ HO scale narrow gauge layout.

Hopefully there are more interesting surprises still to come. The search continues.