Howdy, all…
Set the Wayback Machine. The date: July, 1982. The place: Warrick Custom Hobbies, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
The summer was winding down. I had graduated high school in early June, and we went north for a few weeks to celebrate and visit family. This was my one and only (so far) visit to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, and I literally could have spent a week there alone--as it was, we went twice because one of the other places were wanted to visit was closed. I must have taken a hundred pictures with my new 110 Instamatic. Yeah, I have no idea where any of those photos went. To this day, I haven’t been able to find any of them…
A week or so after we got home, I went to my recently-discovered hobby haven to look at the latest kits. On my previous visit several months before, I had previously spied a few kits that I might want to bring home with me. So, I grabbed the car keys and set out.
I strolled around—I was only beginning to discover the depth of merchandise housed within the store. There wasn't anything in the stacks that grabbed me on that day (I know, right?), so I went to the magazine rack and started looking at the books. The first to call to me was Sheperd Paine’s How to Build Dioramas. Having pored over his diorama sheets from the Monogram kits for a few years, I decided that I probably should pick this up. Back in the day, it was only about 9 dollars American, about the same as one of the Otaki kits of the day. Next to it was Hints and Tips for Plastic Modelers. I flipped through it, and there was quite a lot of information packed into the book. Four bucks—yeah, I can swing it. Then, as I turned the rack, a magazine cover caught my attention:
Image: Kalmbach Publishing
I gave the magazine a quick once-over, verified that I had the extra two and a quarter (plus the 4% for Governor Bob Graham), and took my finds to the counter. The guy at the counter—who had previously saved me from buying a Nichimo Avenger, noting it was nothing more than a re-box of the Marusan 1/50 scale kit, itself a poor copy of the Monogram kit—told me he liked the new magazine, and thought I would, too. I settled my tab--so much for that $20 bill--and drove home.
When I opened the magazine at the house, the following words greeted me:
Image: Kalmbach Publishing
As I scanned the articles, I noticed the editorial in action. Unlike the previous scale modeling magazines I had read in which the articles were text-driven with a few shots (mostly in black and white) of the completed models, the articles in this magazine actually took time to show me what the process looked like. There were detail drawings. Color references. Notes about where to find the stuff they used to build the models. Also unlike the other magazines, the history of the prototypes was mercifully brief—a paragraph or two, tops, but the meat of the article was the model and how the builder made it look that way.
At the time, I was still an airplane geek—sure, I built a few tanks and ships, and more than a few cars—but I found myself reading and re-reading all the articles in the issue. The scratchbuilt 1/76th scale Abrams captivated me—I thought the Abrams was a neat-looking vehicle, and the MERDC color schemes (which I found quite attractive) were just coming into vogue, and were certainly more interesting that straight green. But the color scheme was only the tip of the iceberg—the way Steve Zaloga wrote the article was almost begging me to try to do the same. All along the way, he made it sound like any modeler could do this, and he did it without treating the lesser skilled modelers like imbeciles or idiots. The tone was advanced, but the undertones were inviting everybody to give it a try.
The only article of a subject in my area of interest was Ernie Pazmany’s Fw-190 conversion, and I certainly learned a great deal from his model. The same holds for Richard Stazak’s vacuum-form kit article—I had only seen one vac kit to date back then, and I wondered how you built it. Now I knew. And, true to Bob Hayden’s word, I managed to take something away from every article in the issue, even though I didn’t build armor, or Navy jets, or space ships, or boxed dioramas.
I must have read and re-read that copy a dozen times before I decided that I needed to subscribe. I had to scrounge for the twelve bucks (introductory rate, IIRC—the ad in the first “real” issue said $15) for eight issues, or two years, but to me, it was well worth the price. Twelve dollars would have bought a nice model kit and the paint it needed, but I could buy them any time. As I matured (ha!), I reasoned that it was like the parable about men, fishing, and eating. I could have bought a model that kept me busy for a few days—and yeah, I would have learned something, I’m sure—or I could buy the magazine that would teach me how to build better models for years to come. I would still subscribe to that other magazine, but it paled in comparison to FSM.
Of the early issues, I remember most of the articles, simply because I read them over and over, extracting as much knowledge as I could from each page and every image. To this day, I can still remember the sense of amazement I experienced when I read Boh Boksanski's article on combining a vacuum formed and injection molded kit into a fabulous model of an airplane I had only read snippets about (the B-50D) that was painted with...dope? Pactra Silvaire Aluminum dope? Yep. Dope. Wow.
Or Mike Dario's conversion of a vacuum-formed F-89D to the earlier cannon-nosed F-89C, painted with what to me seemed to be a strange concoction of Floquil's Crystal Cote, Dio-Sol, and Pactra Silver. I would later rely on the recipe and alter it to come up with a home brewed acrylic metal finish paint many years later, a recipe I used until Vallejo's Metal Colors made their debut.
My all-time #1 modeling article of all time is still Bob Steinbrunn's cockpit detailing article from the October (Fall) 1983 issue. My original copy of that issue became so shop-worn and dog-eared that when I found a mint condition copy in the late 1990's, I snapped it up.
To give you an indication of how much I ate this stuff up, my first copy of Shep Paine's book on dioramas that I bought with that Test Issue of FSM was likewise (as they say around here) "slap wore out" by 1984 or 1985...I finally bought a new copy, as well as the Second Edition, in 2000.
I would go off to college shortly after I read that first “Test” issue, but I would look forward to reading the new issues when I would go home for the occasional weekend. Since it was a quarterly back in the day, and since I wasn’t at the house but three or four times a semester, the wait wasn’t too horrible. And once the new issue arrived, I was off to read it from cover to cover, several times.
Through FSM, I learned of IPMS, and of local clubs. After I graduated and came home, I would spend more time at the hobby shop—doubtless looking to buy all those kits I had read about in FSM. I started to meet fellow modelers who said I should start going to the IPMS/Flight 19 meetings. I went to one in late 1989, and as the story goes, was a bit gun shy to bring anything, but I did—I had a Nichimo Ki-43 Oscar in 1/48th scale that I built a few years earlier. I had dipped my toes into weathering on that one—I used a Tamiya silver marker to check seams, and added a few patches here and there for good measure. I would swab the paint on with the paint marker, and then wipe off the excess with toilet tissue. When I applied my finish colors (Polly-S in those days), I let them dry for a few minutes, then used a tight roll of masking tape to pick off spots of color to reveal the silver underneath. I thought it was merely okay, but by the number of questions I got from the other guys you would have thought I had invented beer.
As I looked at the other models on display, I was impressed by the scope and quality of the work and it seemed like everybody was there to help each other. That was my kind of group, and I was a member from that night in 1989 until I moved away in 2001. For some odd reason, I got roped into serving as the club President from around 1993 until we moved.
A funny story about that first meeting—I knew the guys from the shop, and as I was socializing and meeting the rest of the gang, I bumped into an old high school friend. I hadn’t seen him in seven years, and had no idea he built models. He had, like me, been building since he was a kid. Without clubs, that’s pretty much what model building was in the day…a lone wolf hobby.
Between discovering FSM (and the Kalmbach books) and joining IPMS/Flight 19, I was on the way to being a better model builder. What I learned back then has become the foundation of the skills I use to this day. Further, and I’ve already discussed it, I met people who are friends to this day. For what can be a solitary pastime, that speaks volumes.
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One of the hobby manufacturers who was noted as introducing a line of paints matched to Federal Standards in Mr. Hayden’s editorial was none other than Testors, through their Model Master line. In fact, the ad inside the cover of the next issue was for Model Master products. In the nearly 40 years since then, the Model Master line was expanded to include the Metalizer products (bought from the originator), new colors, acrylic colors, brushes, blades, knives, tools, clear finishes, and a whole raft of modeling “stuff”.
Republic Powdered Metal (now RPM International) had acquired Testors a few years previous, along with Floquil/Polly-S, and were in the process of acquiring Pactra. They also owed or would eventually own Zinser, Bondo, and Rust-Oleum.
Testors got into the airbrush business in 1991 when they first marketed the Aztek airbrush as the “Model Master Airbrush”. I bought one, sight unseen, as soon as Warrick Hobbies could get them in stock, and I used it until the early 2000s. Aztek was a UK-based manufacturer of airbrushes and within a year of Testors marketing the Aztek, RPM (Testors parent company since the early 1980s) would buy Aztek and expand the line.
That 40-year run is coming to an end.
RPM has announced that all Pactra, Floquil, and Model Master Products have been discontinued. Apparently, they are contracting the line back to where it was in 1978—square bottle enamels, their original tube and liquid cements and putties, and the inexpensive brushes. It seems like several big steps backward, but apparently RPM had to answer to the shareholders, so they have moved the focus of their efforts to the craft scene.
There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this decision, but as I wrote on one of the online forums, there is nothing Testors made or marketed that you cannot obtain replacements for elsewhere. The bite comes when you will have to order it, since the local stores might not carry it.
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In related news, Revell has announced they will be marketing their paints and finishing materials in the U.S., including enamels, acrylics, and spray lacquers. They should be hitting the stores before the end of the year.
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The 2020 AMPS International Convention, initially planned for Harrisburg, PA in May and moved to Danbury, CT for late September, has been cancelled. Given the resurgence of COVID-19 in some states, and the quarantine orders several of the Northeastern Governors have enacted for folks traveling to their states, it came as no surprise that it, too, has been shelved.
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I have a few model-related research projects underway. One is fairly straightforward and will probably become an article on the F-4J(UK), the surplus U.S. Navy Phantoms purchased for the Royal Air Force and put into service by No. 74(F) Squadron in 1984.
The second project is more complicated. From the time I first saw one of the photographs of a 340th Bombardment Group B-25 buried under ash after the 1944 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, I wanted to recreate it in miniature. The sharper ones out there will see the problem right away: the lack of good, comprehensive documentation of the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces in Italy. It has been a bit of a hidden treasure hunt so far. The books that are out in the world are either rather dated (Kenneth Rust’s books date back to 1975), limited in scope, or are nothing more than picture books. The websites, too, are disjointed and scattered. I even sent one of the webmasters an e-mail suggesting that the various sites join forces, like the old Web Rings.
We’ll see how that pans out...
That's about all for now. Thanks for reading!
Stay safe and healthy!
Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.
Ah... I faithfully subscribed for over 20 years starting right after I saw the pilot issue that a friend showed me while I was stationed in Berlin.
For the first decade and a half FSM was outstanding, but then it slowly morphed from FINE Scale Modeler to AVERAGE Scale Modeler, establishing an almost annual publishing routine of the same beginner articles over and over and over - the annual "best glue" article, the "how to apply decals" article, the "airbrushing basics" article, the "decal setting solution comparison" article, and so on and so forth. Not only did it become boring, but it made you feel like a dupe for paying for a 'script and getting the same content year after year.
Oh well, I suppose nothing good (or great) lasts forever, and with the advent of the interweb, I don't suppose we'll ever see another dead-tree rag the likes of FSM in its early haydays. Too many opportunities for really good modelers to self-publish these days while controlling their content and message 100%.
FSM was good while it lasted, though.
Posted by: Mike Roof | 07/27/2020 at 11:09 PM