Hi :
Awk ! I Had to clean a section of the workbench I haven't gotten to for a looong time . What did I find? Well , let's see.A TAMIYA etch brass tool for screw guards . A Tamiya tool for some little gizmo on the Fletcher bridges ( or did I make that ?) Then It got really funny , Keel Clamps for a model I don't remember .The tools included were more fun than the model sometimes . Did You ever get a sailing ship model with what looks like a super stretched needle threader ? Where'd that one come from ? Who Knows ?
Now , down in a very dark corner were four , ,Yep four of those Heller rigging tools .(the ones that ,if you use them correctly give you a chance to do it like the big boys do !) Now I got to thinking as I went through the drawers of a long lost little grey cabinet with plastic drawers ( I know , we all got them ) Well this one had slipped behind the table top and gotten caught by the tabletop and just hung there for gosh who knows how long .
Inside one of the drawers was a form for bending wire to rig a tugboat model . Then there was this real weird one that took up a whole drawer with it's pieces .then it dawned on me .My Gosh ! This was a dihedral tool for one of the early larger plastic and wood airplane models I built ,centuries ago , it seems. I guess I figured I would find further use down the line .
That brings me back to the Heller kits .Did you know ,in one iteration of the , Titanic research ship , La Suroi , they did for years , that they used to give you a brick ? Yup , it was there to clamp the rails to ( way overlarge ) use it to bend those rail under hot water to shape them properly ? Who Knew ? There have been many such little gems included in kits of all types .Do you still use any of yours ?
here's one for you aircraft guys .In some areas of the country they gave you a landing gear jig to use with the F-111 kit by AURORA ? Yep , little gem made a great stand when all those little plastic pins holdng the gear together ( It was operable) gave out from to many landings and takeoffs ? The tool was for aligning the pieces in full gear down position , so you wouldn't get glue in the wrong place .
Yes, they are funny and yes , they were weird .Now , if all the ship model companies (wood and plastic ) would just give us a cheap but reliable tool for tracing waterlines and bootstripes on the darned hull !