1960's Hi-Tech Plastic Modeling

redleg12

Remember the little tube of glue in the Revell S kits.

I can recall that for a time, some (I want to say Revell and mid-late 70's) kits came with little soft plastic bulbs of cement.  Most Japanese kits of the period came with little tubes of cement. If it had working (motorised) parts, it would often also come with a little tube of grease.

My first airbrush (I want to say mid-late 70's) was by Humbrol and resembled the Badger 250, but it had a rotating cam around the air nozzle which set a stop position for the (single action) trigger, giving you a rudimentary control over the pressure.

Tankbuilder: Congrats on the Vacuform. Never had one in my "yoot" ( ref: movie "my cousin Vinny").

I recall some kits with glue but the "tubes" were very small, and I believe the kits were Japanese (Tamiya?)  - a Shinden being one kit.

The only wood kits I built were Guillow.

Especially those great WWI biplane kits!

Tankbuilder - Congrats on the vac-u-form....great stuff and great memories....

Remember the little tube of glue in the Revell S kits.

Rounds Complete!!

This is for redleg and spru-ce goose . Hey we are dating ourselves aren,t we ?I still remember ,Betcha DON will too. the glue in model plane kits. Think now , way back when you could get a solid wood plane model and in the box was a little envelope of funny looking powder , when you added water you had your casein glue ! They still used this glue when they started started putting plastic(oh,gosh ,what will they think of next , All plastic airplane models??) props and wings in the kits . By the way I just recently purchased a MATTEL VAC-U-FORM. In the ORIGINAL BOX with ALL the ORIGINAL PARTS including the paints. Price , well are you all reading this sitting down .$25.00 ! Yup ! that,s all. Now I can make small vacuformed vents and other stuff for my ship models ! Hey , catchya later     tankerbuilder

redleg12

Yep....god I feel old reading this....all so true...single edge blades....Duco cement...Pactra paint.....

also remember.....contact cement......the Matel Wood Working shop and Vacuform....both great Xmas gifts

Times were simpler

Rounds Complete!!

I still use the Mattel machine for sanding small items.

Still very handy.

Yep....god I feel old reading this....all so true...single edge blades....Duco cement...Pactra paint.....

also remember.....contact cement......the Matel Wood Working shop and Vacuform....both great Xmas gifts

Times were simpler

Rounds Complete!!

I remember swiping my moms finger nail polish for the 'trick ' colors that were'nt available in model paints way back then. Man did I just date myself.

OH ! I wish ya,ll wouldn,t do things like this.Now I have to get my two cents (or is that four cents with inflation?) When I started modeling there wasn,t  to much available in plastic . Of course the adults thought I should be able to use DUCO cement on everything . Remember that stuff ? Well, it worked great on wood , but , it was terrible on plastic . I did my first plastic model probably about 58 years ago.I still remember my first X-ACTO knife. I got it for CHRISTMAS one year along with a mixed pack of TESTORS little bottles of gloss paint too . That was all for the FIRST large plastic model I ever got . The model . Well , do you remember PYRO ? they did a large ROBERT E.LEE and her racing counterpart .  I got the counterpart . My folks made me promise I would be careful and they went to FLORIDA for  vacation . The first night I cut my thumb to the bone ! So much for that. I never told them either ! I wanted more of those fantastic tools they had at my LHA . I finally got my airbrush. Yep , thirty years later ! It was my first BADGER . It still works too ! Now for the DREMEL . I wanted one so bad . My MOM used to be a dog groomer . They used DREMELS to do the dogs toenails ! MOM gave me one that started acting up . I found out that it needed Brushes. I bought some and I am still using it along with the third generation version and a rechargeable one .Gosh , How did I go all those years without this tool ?  When I think back to razor blades (single edge) and watercolor paint brushes coupled with PACTRA  (it dries with NO brushmarks) That is what it said on the bottle ! Now , we have acrylics (which I still don,t like) (there,s no standard between companies !) Oh well , can I have the simpler times back ? Nope, guess not !

I started in 1968 and I remember a few milestones.  I remember the advent of Testors Blue Label liquid cement.  The stuff was thinner than water and you really had to be careful not to splatter it all over the room or get it in your eyes.  I also remember these really cheap little plastic clamps that lasted about 2 days before they fell apart.  I used to use a non-serrated steak knife because my folks wouldn't let me have a razor knife of any kind until I was about 13, I think my first may have been the little disposable Testors one.  I remember drooling over airbrushes in the display case at my LHS, but they cost a fortune (at least to a kid).  I pretty much did all my painting with a brush and either Testors white cap or Pactra.  Model Masters wasn't even out yet.  You had to buy your thinner in the small bottles too.  It was a lot more challenging back then because we didn't have a lot of the tools and supplies that we tend to take for granted nowadays.

Had the same type of  "air brush" consisting of two steel tubes hinged so that the two open ends met at a ninety degree angle.  You put one tube in the paint jar and blew in the other one.  The problem with this is you invariably got spit mixed in with the paint, not conducive to a good finish.  My Dad came up with a nifty solution by making a coupling to hook it up to a bicycle tire and using a small c-clamp as a valve.  When the tire ran low I just pumped it up with a tire pump.

I remember some of the artist friends my dad knew had Pasche air brushes but these cost over $10 which was a huge sum.  Especially when you could get a Monogram 1/72 B-29 for $1.75 and the little bottles of Testors enamels were 10 cents.  HEY, I just realized there's no "cent" sign on my computer keyboard.  Talk about inflation!

Did the same thing with the double edged razor blades too but my Dad came to the rescue again by drilling holes in the handles of a worn out  pliers and putting in a screw and  wing nut to put tension on the jaws to hold the blades.  IIRC #11 X-acto handles were $1.50 and blades were 15 cents each or the cost of a big huge model.  Used to buy AMT 1/24 car models for as low as 39 cents that included the paint. 

One of my favorite tools was a spring loaded clothes pin with the jaws reversed as a clamp (Still keep a bunch set up like this in my toolbox).  This was back in the late 60's and early 70's.

                                                                                             Pat.

When I started modeling about sixty five years ago, I never knew anyone who used an airbrush. Of course, flying models (balsa stick and tissue) were much more common than the (before plastic) shelf scale models.  And, hobby paints didn't yet come in spray cans, so we all brush-painted our stuff.

It was years of modeling with a pocket knife and double edged razor blade before I got an X-acto knife.  That was high tech!  I had been modeling almost fifteen years before I got a Dremel set- more high tech.

I made a little spray gun to put the finish on a car for the Fisher Body contest. It was like a perfume atomizer. I blew into it with a long piece of model airplane fuel line tubing.  Put on over sixty coats of blue model airplane dope on it (what I was used to finishing models with).

My first AB was a Binks single action, syphon feed.  I think it was around 1960.

Regards,  Rick

It's not a tool but I used to buy a magazine in the mid sixties that I believe was dedicated to car models but it might have had aircraft as well.  I am a little fuzzy on the details but I think it was published on news print style paper rather than glossy but I have no recollection of the name.

I do remember that they used to have contests, you would send in pictures of your build and they would publish the best.  I will never forget one entry, it was a yellow (well they said it was yellow, it was in black and white) Charger I think, that had been cut into a pie shape as a dragster.  The body could be lifted off to show, what was for me at the time incredible detail.  the reason I remember this so well is first, it was a heck of a model but second, it was the first time I had heard the term "airbrush".

My thoughts were "how in the world am I supposed to compete with a 22 year old adult with these fancy tools, when I  am only 11.

I hope that model still exists somewhere and maybe someone will remember the name of the magazine.       

When I was a little guy (early 70s), my dad had an airbrush that looked a lot like the el cheepo you can get from harbor freight for $10 or so. He never used it though, it was just one of those tools he had that sits over there. I'm sure all of us have some of those. I also remember the Dremel in a drill press, he still has that so it must be going on 40 years.

Other than that he had a bunch of old dental tools and the usual assortment of exactos, razor blades etc. He has always been more of a ship builder though with a lot of scratchbuilding. He used plastic kits mostly to steal detail bits from. It wasn't until I was an adult I figured out why a lot of the kits he bought me were missing parts.