Modeling Spoken Here
Bob Hunt Aeromodeling Editor
"The point is that our hobby has changed."
I've been extremely blessed to have known many excellent model-builders. From these talented people I've learned to take sheets and blocks of balsa wood, bits of plywood and wire, and scraps of tissue, and glue and transform them into mostly successful model airplanes.
Because I listened to their suggestions and read and absorbed their published works, I became probably a better-than-average model-builder. Still, as I mentioned in the December editorial about competition, building is a journey—not a destination.
I've often mentioned and credited my father as a great model-building influence, and that's certainly true; enough, he started me on the proper path of patience and craftsmanship. But there were many others who added considerably to my arsenal of building skills.
Among them are practitioners of all types of models. For some reason, however, I can credit Free Flight model builders with an inordinate amount of influence. There is just something about that type of modeling in particular that seems to breed exceptional craftsmen.
In early 1975 I picked up a copy of the then-new Model Builder magazine and was stunned by the model depicted on the cover. It was a one-inch-to-the-foot Rubber Scale model of the Polish Wlga. It was mesmerizing!
There were actually two shots of the Wlga on that cover, one taken from a three-quarter front view and one from a rear angle. I knew it was a model, but my mind seemed to want to believe that it was a full-scale airplane that was somehow shrunk to model size.
That was perhaps the first time I encountered what I'll call "magic" in model-building—the possibility of capturing the true spirit of an airplane in a miniature replica. I quickly flipped to the table of contents to see what page the story about the Wlga was on.
Also, there was not a construction feature presented on that model, but there was a three-page story that did a bit about the model's innovative features and its builder, Don Typond.
I'd heard about Don and his incredible modeling talent, but this was my first look at a sample of his work. (If you want to read that article, it was in the January 1975 Model Builder.) A copy of that issue is in the AMA museum library. Article reprints are available for $3 from the library.
Not too long after that, I was fortunate enough to meet and come to know Don as a friend.
I learned many things about model-building from Don, but the main thing I learned was a deeper perception of that aforementioned spirit and the realization that I had, or could develop, the ability to instill some of that magic into my models.
Don, as I quickly learned, was interested in all types of modeling and all types of airplanes. He has had articles published about Control Line (CL) models and is an expert in Radio Control (RC) construction techniques, with many how-to type articles to his credit.
I could go on about Don's gifts for several pages, but you get the idea; this is a very special person with very special talents and, more importantly, the ability to express to others how they can realize their own hidden talents.
In a recent conversation with Don, we discussed why model-building seems to be on the decline. We share many thoughts on the reasons for this decline, but Don has some interesting perspectives on the subject that I thought warranted a forum.
So, without further fanfare, here's Don!
"Why am I writing a guest editorial here in Bob Hunt's space? It goes back a couple of weeks and about 60 years.
"Bob Hunt and I are old friends. Although neither of us started in the hobby far enough back to truly be called old-timers—that appellation being more or less reserved for the now-ancient geezers who were throwing models into the air in the 1930s—we do go back to another time.
"The old-timers Bob and I had a couple of weeks ago was the old-modelers' lament about the proliferation of ARFs and the accompanying de-emphasis on model building in our beloved hobby.
"It was prompted by a discussion I'd been having with Mike Cook, another old modeler, about the 'Builder of the Model' (commonly called BOM) role in AMA-sanctioned competition, and how it no longer seems to be relevant, enforceable, or, by some, desired.
"I don't know exactly when the rule was written, but two things come to mind. I'm willing to bet it was written at the time when there were a lot of Junior-age members flying and competing and one intent was to prevent a kid from unfairly winning a contest with an airplane built by his father or older brother.
"The other intent was to encourage the modeler to involve himself as much in building the model as in flying it.
"Back then, building was considered to be not just a necessary part of, but the essence of the hobby. We called the hobby 'model building' and ourselves 'model builders.' Flying the model was just part of the logical progression because we had selected airplanes as our subject.
"Heck, if we didn't want to fly them, we would have built display models or cars and boats.
"There were basically two types of model airplanes: solid models and flying models. Many model builders specialized in 'solids': scale models carved from balsa or hardwood blocks, meant to resemble full-scale airplanes and displayed proudly in a cabinet or on a shelf.
"The solid-builders I knew were also guys who enjoyed doing the research that allowed them to build their models as accurate as possible. The model was the thing and the closest they got to flying was to hang them from the ceiling.
"The term 'flying models' typically described stick-and-tissue rubber-powered models—usually something of a compromise between scale accuracy and flying ability.
"Also included in the flying category were gliders thrown by hand or towed up like kites and released; free-flying models powered by gasoline engines, and engine-powered models flown in circles at the ends of wires that were used to make them climb, dive, and loop.
"What all the models had in common was that we built them. And what most of us builders had in common was an interest in airplanes and aviation.
"As a modeler growing up during World War II it was a fascinating time. The newspapers and movie news reels were full of images of combat airplanes, and I began carving solid models very soon after Pearl Harbor at the age of seven.
"From the outset I made a mental (and emotional) connection between the full-scale airplanes and my models.
"When I saw so many pictures of P-40s, I built a P-40. When I rode my bicycle to Floyd Bennett Field—the Naval Air Station in Brooklyn where I lived—and saw Wildcats and Hellcats, I built Wildcats and Hellcats.
"For four years I must have built dozens of solid and flying models of warplanes, and also jeeps, battleships, and a foot-long carved-backed LST with doors that opened and a tank inside! Boy, was I proud of that one.
"Then, after the war I saw my first civilian airplanes. There was only one general aviation airport in Brooklyn, and it wasn't really an airport; it was a dock with a lone Piper J-3 on floats tied to it.
"So I never became to hang out around airplanes the way Bob Hunt did, living out in the boonies. But as the aircraft industry transitioned back to civilian production, there was an airplane show in an exhibition hall right in the middle of Manhattan.
"My father and I shopped and we drove under actually, and I saw, and was actually able to touch, a Luscombe Silvaire, a Republic Seabee, a Colonial Skimmer, a Commonwealth Trimmer, a North American Navion, etc.
"And every exhibitor handed out free photo posters and I collected as many as I could and taped them all to my bedroom walls, and I began building models of civilian airplanes.
"'Oh that J3 floatplane? Unknown to my parents, I rode my bike down to Mill Basin and bought my first-ever airplane ride in the front seat of that yellow Cub when I was 12—15 minutes for three hard-earned bucks. Later I built a model of it too. And later still I added a seaplane rating to my ticket; completing the circle, as it were.'
"'What's the point of all this woolgathering? Why am I telling about my childhood? Do you care? The point is that our hobby has changed. The building part has taken a back seat (or has fallen completely out of the car and is lying there like roadkill) to the flying part.
"'The AMA itself, in its solicitation for the Walk of Fame outside the administration building in Muncie, now refers to our activity as "sport" and the participants as "sport aviation pilots."
"'It's not called a hobby anymore. We are not called model builders any more. And the name of the now-labeled "sport aviation pilots" have little knowledge of, or interest in, full-scale aviation.
"'Should they have? Is it necessary to give a hoot about the full-scale ones in order to cut knife-edge slices out of the sky with a preposterously overpowered and outrageously maneuverable "model"?'
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
