Cleveland Modelmaking News & Practical Hobbies

[Oceaneer99]

Jeff,

Those scans from Cleveland Modelmaking News & Practical Hobbies are pretty neat!  Was that a magazine or an annual? 

Garet

[JeffH]

Garet,

Cleveland Modelmaking News & Practical Hobbies was a publication produced by the same outfit that made Cleveland model kits in the 1930's.
The scanned drawings came from the one issue I have (Volume 2, Number 7) which I found in a used bookstore about 20 years ago.  The link below should take you to a website which has more information on the magazine:

http://www.collectair.com/kitannex5.html

Apparently Volume 2, Number 7 was the last issue they put out.  The magazine is packed with plans and articles on model building, and I scanned and posted all the solid model plans that appeared in that issue.

Jeff

[spider web]

Jeff,
Thanks for your Cleveland model's work.

I downloaded and printed out a few of these prints to recreate some of my memories.   What a marvelous find for me in reliving history.  Starting in early 2009, I will build and post some of these models just for fun.
I remember clearly breaking my dad's old double edge razor blades in order to cut out the parts.  What a challenge it was to cut out the balsa parts right on the line and across the hard grained spots in the sheet.  The sting of "Testor's" cement as it got into the tiny cuts in one's fingers, not to mention the fun it was in removing the dried glue from you fingers with your teeth !   The smell of the dope and the challenges of painting on a  smooth coat.

The X-Acto knife was invented during WWII for field surgeons.

Not many people know that all these plans were drawn by hand and inked.  Given the printing technology of the day, most of the prints were done by letter press.

Today, I use my PhotoShop CS2 in manipulating and printing out the drawings.
I work in convenience scale, that is any size that's easy to build given my big two thumbs!    For my scratch built railroad stuff, I work 3/8" to the foot.
In either case, I'm not a rivet counter.   

I'm still trying to get the DC-2 print

Merry Christmas from the Spider

[tycobb9999]

Spider, you know Cleveland still sells plans, and the DC-2 is in their lineup, right?

Scott

[cliff strachan]

Thank's again, Spider for the memories of "removing the cement from your fingers with your teeth." And the cuts from the Gillette blades. And trying to apply a bandaid to your finger. And the radio playing great tunes while this was all going on.

But did you ever use one of those long ladies' hairpins borrowed from mom then affixed to the side of your work bench as a makeshift vice as suggested in Popular Mechanics?

Cliff

[Oceaneer99]

I'm probably from a later generation, but was taught the hobby by my dad, so my techniques were pretty antique and your stories sound familiar.  I did use the Gillette blades, sometimes but not always snapped in half. One Christmas, my brother and I received an #11 X-Acto knife handle and a larger handle with a razor saw, which really upgraded our tool kit.  We used to scavenge our pins from the floors of dressing rooms, so we had a motley assortment.  At one point, our family was in temporary quarters during a military move, and my brother and I walked to a hobby shop and bought balsa and tissue models.  We then went around the neighborhood, sawing some pieces of pallets with a Swiss Army Knife saw to make sanding blocks, finding some foam insulation blowing though a field that we used to back up some corrugated cardboard for a building board.  We had almost no furniture, so we would work on the floor.  I remember I build most of my model, though never ended up covering it with tissue.

We did use two of those ladies hairpins to attach our model rocket ignition system to a lantern battery.

Garet

[Oceaneer99]

I now have Vol 1, No. 6 (1933) of "Cleveland Modelmaking News & Practical Hobbies", which has a number of solid airplane plans, and one flying model, in it.  Interestingly, they talk about controversy regarding their new 1/8"-scale (1/96) airplane plans (this issue has 8 of them). Vol 1, no. 4 had 6 plans, while vol 1, no 5 had 11, they mention on one page in my issue.  They say that they are going to 3/16-inch scale (1/64) in Vol 1, No. 7.

There is also an article about ship scales by Captain E. Armitage McCann, whose ship models may be found in Popular Science of the time.

Garet