Hello to all. I've been off and on modeling thru the years. Nothing serious. My biggest achievement was probably having a complete collection of the old "Weird-ohs" models. (wish I had them now) I began a few during the VN fiasco but it all came to an abrupt halt when they stopped us from purchasing or storing the glue.
My interest was rekindled when my grandsons wondered if we could construct a few cars in my woodshop. I was building kaleidoscopes and custom furniture at the time and the idea sounded promising. Over the next few years we made some pretty nice cars. Most of these early projects wound up on the shelves inthe spare bedroom at my daughters' house. Visits are rare due to the miles involved but when we do stay there I get to look at all my mistakes from 20 years ago.
My health went downhill about 15 years ago. Before they replaced my right hip I built a 20' by 40' shop. My wife then took the garage where my shop had been and turned it into a quilting shop while I pondered what I would need when my hip-op healed. I had some $$$ in my shop account so I bought a new tablesaw, lathe and house vac system. The two grandsons helped me place it all in the center of the floor after promising to help me post-hip. Unfortunately the hip didn't cooperate. It's a looong story but suffice it to say I am now on the fourth (and last) hip. My new shop collected junk for a few years.
I finally got it useable with the help of a teenage son of a friend. We wired it and then installed the new and old tools. I began again with furniture but the heavy stuff caused me problems. I tried making custom boxes and some odd toys. One day I found a plan for a few cars. They looked pretty easy so I looked at their layouts and then made my own using guidelines from magazines and catalogs.
Over the last four or five years I've done over twenty from a 32' Ford to an old 30ish style Marquette. I give them to relatives and friends. I've been told they could sell for a fair amount but $$$ always messes things up. I've been retired from my day job since the last month of the 1900's. I use domestic and exotic hardwoods to create these. The only manufactured parts I use are the toothpicks used for spokes.
I really look forward to learning from this site. I have a few things I wanted to focus on, the main being how to accurately construct plans using photos, proportional dividers, a micrometer and a few other tools.
I will attempt to put a pic or two here but I'm fairly computer illiterate so be patient with me. I hate these blasted things. I'm not on Facebook, Twitter or any of the social raves of the younger set. I've been known to use the same mail box I've employed for the last forty+ years to communicate. Don't even get me started on the GPS units used by every one including my wife.
Don't want to run too long here so I will try to post a pic before heading to my shop.
Take care-
Normonster
couldn't figure out how to post image from my computer. I'm not on a photo
site