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In the Interim

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In the Interim (1976-2005)

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20 Years of "In the Interim"

In the Interim, Volume 4, 1979-1980

VOLUME 4:1 (November, 1979)

IN THE INTERIM...

Christmas is a wonderfully natural time for men to become involved in the miniatures hobby. It offers the perfect cover for someone who finds it difficult to state openly that he is building a “dollhouse” (while his friends are swapping tales of their different hobbies from HO locomotives to speckled trout that didn't get away). Ten will get you twenty that should the topic arise down at the barber shop, he will admit with a decent display of reluctance that he has agreed to build his daughter (or grand-daughter, wife, mother, mother-in-law) a dollhouse “for Christmas”. And there you have it! Instant legitimation! Once he is beyond that initial tinge of chagrin and immersed in the mounting challenge of building a miniature house the fascination of scale modeling takes command. The many facets of the hobby begin to unfold: architectural design and detail, interior decoration, cabinetmaking, electricity, metal work, et al. And that's the last you hear down at the barbershop of “a dollhouse for my daughter”. I ought to know. In 1961 I agreed to help my wife build a dollhouse ... for Christmas ... for our daughter. Several additional bits of information have been added to our “staff” listing on the inside cover of TSC. In August I was pleased to give recognition (belatedly) to the continuing contributions to the journal's content from a couple of the most inventive ingenious miniaturists that I know: Jim & Harriet Jedlicka. If I were to list them in the “staff credits” according to their own self-designation (and as a measure of the sheer pleasure they receive from and bring to the hobby), it would read: “Jim & Harriet, Sorcerer's Apprentices”; but in a more prosaic vein, it only reads “contributors”. And with some measure of pride, the credits also read “Helen Dorsett, IMA, Associate Editor” following her selection in August as an “International Miniatures Artist” at the N.A.M.E. 1979 National Houseparty in Boston. Christmas and miniatures seem to go well together. Once you get beyond the questions of what to give and to whom which tend to make this holiday a festival of consumption, it is a season of the heart: of fond memories, warm relationships, and the enrichment of life. And miniatures share some of that. Once you get beyond the questions of who possesses what, this hobby is a means by which we recreate the emotional ties we feel to our past and is a vehicle by which good friendships and enjoyable activity are added to our present. This season and to some extent this hobby touch something that is very basic in our lives. And for that reason, we extend our warmest greeting and best wishes to you.

..... Jim Dorsett

VOLUME 4:2 (February, 1980)

IN THE INTERIM...

In a conversation with a new TSC subscriber several weeks ago, I was introduced to a new category of miniaturist. George Wisler of Toledo describes himself as an “airplane miniaturist”. I immediately assume that he is a scale modeler whose particular passion is the building of very small airplane models, and that raised the question in my mind of why in the world he has subscribed to TSC. But before I could put that “why” into words, he went on to explain. As an executive whose business requires long hours of airline travel to the furthest borders of the nation, he uses a portion of his travel time as an opportunity to build miniatures, carrying whatever is required for his current project along with him. While I have spoken with many subscribers who enjoy the hobby because it can be carried with relative ease in their semi-annual travels between summer and winter residences, this is the first time that I have found miniatures properly described as a “briefcase” hobby. I wish that I had spoken with him earlier. For his example would have served me well on a return flight from the N.A.M.E. Regional houseparty in San Jose. Without a modeling project to occupy my time, I browsed through some of the magazines in the onboard rack. Somewhere between Denver and Des Moines (or in the span of time it might have taken to carve a set of cabriole legs, had I been so prepared) I stumbled across an intriguing quotation in Saturday Review. Characterizing the materials included in The Day The Bubble Burst, a history of the 1929 Wall Street crash, reviewer Ted Morgan wrote: “All that (the authors) are capable of is submerging the reader in trivia. They subscribe to the belief that all facts are equally interesting, and their book reminds one of those paintings by primitive artists who ignore perspective and clutter their canvases with tiny figures who seem to be stepping over one another.” For an editor, sorting out ideas for publication, that is an arresting image. All facts are not of equal interest to the scale modeler ... but which should be printed? In this issue I believe we have introduced several features which avoid the merely trivial. Madelyn Cook introduces a new regular column in TSC, “Master of Disguise”, through which she will tell us how to snatch victory from the threat of defeat, i.e., by suggesting how to cover the glitches which always manage to creep into a modeling project. (Its the equivalent of “When you fall down while dancing, get up gracefully and they'll think its a new step.”) Doris Victor brings her expertise as a teacher of beginners workshops to the “Beginners Workbench”, and Jim Johnstone introduces some different wrinkles in the area of tool use. And none of this is “trivia”. Having settled that question in my own mind, I think that I'll start loading my briefcase with some modeling materials for my next plane flight. ..... Jim Dorsett

VOLUME 4:3 (May, 1980)

IN THE INTERIM...

Henry James wrote in The Art of Fiction that experience is constituted in part by “the power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implications of things, (and) to judge the whole piece by the pattern.” If that is so (and for whatever good it does me in future) the past few months have provided us with an experience which we hope will never again be reflected in the late delivery of your copy of TSC. Goodness knows, the February issue was late! As you waited with more patience than I could have expected in the third week of the month, we hurried to get the journal from the printer and into the mail. And we wondered about our power to guess the unseen from the seen. In the For Whatever It's Worth Department this is what had happened. Last summer after experiencing previous delays in the delivery of TSC to its readers (delays almost always the result of waiting for someone to do our typesetting), we decided to install our own photo-typesetting system. After months of wading through stacks of specifications and flocks of salesmen we ordered the equipment to be delivered October 1. That was in James' terms “the seen”. And that date would have afforded plenty of time to make the transition and get TSC 4:2 put together with time to spare. The “unseen” was the ultimate delivery of the equipment on December 15. By that time, the printer was nervous, Bob Turner was looking a bit strained, and I had lapsed into brooding silence. Then with all that marvelous geare in place (but totally unfamiliar with it's finer point) we plunged into a non-stop assault on the February layout. It was “Katy bar the door” time! I do recall emerging from one marathon session at the keyboard on Dec. 23rd and asking Helen what she wanted for Christmas. By that time what we both wanted was plain: to get the issue off the press at leasts sometime during February. Now, with greater confidence in which keys to punch in order to avoid the reversed quotation marks and missing apostrophes of the February issue, we are beginning to anticipate with pleasure “the implications of things”. With the journal almost back on schedule again I have an inkling of hope that in some dim future you might just have your TSC on the first day of the publication month. But then ... with a wary eye on the unseen ... I've been wrong before. Several things are missing from this issue: the Shop Manual and Product Reviews. But they'll be back. We felt the space would be better used in this issue to launch such key features as Jim Johnstone's series on finishing, a set of workbench alternatives to the problem of disk sanding, and the first of several articles by the Rankings on bashing a blank house shell. And I am delighted to share with you on the cover one view of Madelyn Cook's “Collectors Room”. One other thing is missing: a promised article on making one-flute molding cutters. But it too will be there in August. But then ... I've been wrong before. .....Jim Dorsett

VOLUME 4:4 (August, 1980)

IN THE INTERIM...

All of us have a hobby horse we ride at least occasionally, a special topic to which we return over and over again until all of our friends begin to look the other way or cross to the other side of the street when we approach. One of my hobby horses which has been around for at least as long as we have published TSC (four years with this issue!) is a scale measuring instrument made especially for the inch-to-the-foot miniatures craft. What I have wanted is a scale rule similar to the one we used in model railroading for years. It is stainless steel with absolutely true edges for use in marking and cutting stripwood. Its ends are a true 90° so it can be used as a try-square in a pinch. But its greatest virtues for the model rail craftsman are the scales themselves: O gauge (1/4” to the foot) along one edge and HO scale (3.5 mm to the foot) along the other. There, marching along each edge in precise order, are all the marks that make the model railroader's life a lot easier: 3 HO scale inches, 6 HO scale inches, 9 inches, 1 foot, 2 feet and so forth up to 87 feet along the length of the instrument. Now to the miniatures craftsman, who has learned to live without a scale ruler simply because the problem of converting fractions in 1/12th scale is messy but not impossible, the scale rule may seem to offer only a marginal advantage. But for the HO modeler, confronted by the fact that the fraction of a full-sized inch that is nearest to 12 HO scale inches is 17/128ths, the virtues of the HO scale rule are immediately apparent. In any case as long time readers of TSC can confirm, I have been riding my hobby horse for quite a while. The first issue of TSC (1:1, Oct. 1976) led with an editorial essay that addressed the issue, Why Scale?. From the outset, most of the furniture patterns in TSC, drawn in a scale of 1”:1', have been dimensioned in feet and inches, much in the same manner as they would be for the craftsman building a full-sized piece of furniture. These dimensions, of course, assume that the scale modeler will use a scale rule marked off in a scale of an inch to the foot. On several occasions I have written explanations of a precision instrument which fits that bill, i.e., the architect's scale, even though it has some admitted shortcomings. And a year ago TSC collaborated with Clare-Bell Brass in distributing a laminated plastic 1” scale rule to its readers. We have taken note of some 1” scale rules that have been available to miniaturists but which lack the precision and general utility of our now ancient HO steel rules. Whenever possible we have goaded and prodded those who we felt might be in a position to manufacture such an instrument into undertaking the venture. And in the meantime we have continued to try to explain ourselves to those TSC readers who inquire about “why you continue to dimension your drawings in non-scale measures?” (Response? Use an architect's scale!) I now promise that I will climb down off that hobby horse and ride it no longer. My friends can now venture a conversation with me without fear of being harangued about the need for a stainless steel 1” scale rule, and those who have avoided me can stop crossing the street at the risk of their lives. Why? Such a scale rule now exists! (While I may jeopardize this journals' attempt to deal dispassionately, objectively and fairly with miniatures products and their manufacturers, I cannot conceal my enthusiasm for a product that will allow me to climb down off that hobby horse.) Introduced this summer, the New England Hobby Supply Miniature Scale Rule (a name almost as long as the instrument itself) brings to the craft the same precision, durability and utility that the General HO Scale Rule has brought to the model rail hobby for so many years. My enthusiasm would be just as full if the instrument read The Thomkins Falls Mustard Plaster Company Miniature Scale Rule; it isn't a matter of who has supplied this need but that the need has been met which is of importance to TSC. So, my hobby horse (which as it is said “has been rode hard and put up wet”) can be turned out to pasture. Now, regarding the need for a wider range of hobby materials (woods, metals, plastics, etc.) that have been manufactured in 1” scale thicknesses.......... ..... Jim Dorsett

 

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