What makes a model maker?

My uncle in the mid-'30s

I've been leisurely reading my way through some old issues of The Model Craftsman from the '30s and scans of The Model Builder from the '70s and '80s. This kind of trip is always a pleasure, but this time I'm again brought around to the thought lurking in the back of my mind that I'm only a 'real' model maker if I can successfully build a stick-and-tissue, rubber band powered, free-flying model airplane - and by successful I mean it looks good and flies well. I don't think I've ever been successful on those terms. And to drive the point home to me, most recently I parked the Pietenpol Air Camper project last summer when I got to the covering stage.

Look at that photo I recently found. There's my uncle of 1940s Winnipeg railroad photos fame with a stick-and-tissue flying model - one of several of these sorts of photos I've uncovered during my family photo scanning. I suspect he built those things, not just held them up for a photo. He died long before I was old enough to form any solid memories of him, so all this is inference from ancient images. 

Anyway, all this has got me thinking I should get back to the Air Camper to see if I can at least discover why I have mental blocks about stick-and-tissue flyers.

September 1971

In the early and mid '80s I used to pick up The Model Builder magazine when I could find it on newsstands. I particularly liked the free flight balsa builds by Walt Mooney. I didn't build any, but I admired his articles and drawings. When I discovered that Digitek Books was selling a collection of scans of the entire print run I bought a set.

One surprising thing was the first issue was dated September / October 1971, and September 1971 was also the date on the first issue of Railroad Modeler. And both were published out of the Los Angeles area: MB from Santa Anna, and RM from Canoga Park. Interesting coincidences. However, both had different objectives: The most prominent feature of The MODEL BUILDER will be up-to-the-minute news according to MB's editor, and Our main theme with RAILROAD MODELER will be to show you how to enjoy model railroading with the products available in your hobby shop according to RM's editor. Yes, and both editors referred to their respective magazines in all-caps - I guess that was the convention. Given these coincidences, I'm looking forward to whatever lies ahead.

HO scale Piper J-3 Cub

I thought I’d be starting on a new layout about this time, but things have gotten a little chaotic, so I thought I’d drift a bit and just build and write whatever struck my fancy. I had a laser cut wood kit of a Piper J-3 Cub in HO scale by Osborn Model Kits  I bought at a train show a year or two ago sitting on my shelf, so I thought I’d give it a go.

The Cub is one of my favourite airplanes, and when I started the kit I pulled this old issue of Model Builder from February '83 out for inspiration. I love model building magazines that have few words on their covers. That cover painting is by Mr. Bob Benjamin and there's a short note in from Bill Northrop's workbench about the plane and painting.

While I was feeling all nostalgic, I thumbed through this issue of Model Airplane News from January '83. Turns out there is a great article inside by Clyde P. Matteson and Bob Tyhurst about building 1/96 scale solid model airplanes.

The article explains how to build some amazing fine-scale 1/96 model airplanes from scratch. The article mentions 1/96 scale was chosen because many model airplane plans were available in 1/48 scale, and they could easily be made smaller by reducing them by 50% on a photocopier; hence, 1/96 and not, say, 1/87.

This little Cub model isn’t fine scale, but it’s quite handsome when done. I found it a little tricky to build and I’d say it isn’t for absolute beginners, but if you’ve got a couple of simple laser cut kits under your belt, you should be fine.

I won't explain how to build it - the instructions are good. 

Although I will say that fumble-fingers me managed to break the landing gear and an engine cylinder-head and the engine cowling during assembly, but more-or-less fixed them. No doubt because the components are crisp and could be glued back together without too much trouble. 

I used good old acrylic paint on this model. The decals are self-stick items. They don't look too bad. Overall, a pleasant little project and a nice, brief trip down memory lane.