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20 Years of "In the Interim"

In the Interim, Volume 5 (1980-1981)

VOLUME 5:1 (November, 1980)

IN THE INTERIM...

As The Scale Cabinetmaker enters its fifth year of publication, it continues to be a vast amount of fun to edit. Yet there is one facet of the business with which I shall never be entirely comfortable: writing Christmas greetings in late August. Of course there are those among my friends who might contend that that is preferable to receiving their holiday greetings in February (which has been the case on several past occasions). As you read this in late November there may be snow outside your window, but as I write the temperature is 90° and the thought of decking the halls (Fa La La La La) is almost beyond the reach of the mind and spirit. Almost but not quite, for beside me on the desk are the November cover photos of the Christmas kitchen setting with its rich and festive array of yuletime treats. It bears that unique and special flair which informs which informs us that it could have sprung from no other imagination than that of its inimitable creator, Judee Williamson. No other talent in the hobby can create a more joyful setting, and it persuades me that Spruce Run Mountain beyond my office window is dusted with its first snow of the season .... and that it is time indeed to extend to all of you our warmest greetings for the holidays. One gift beyond measure is the slow return to health of Jim Johnstone, whose excellent series on finishing was interrupted last summer by illness. He picks up the cudgels again in this issue with the first of two articles in that series on “Coloring” and it is good to have him back. He is part of a very special group of people whose constant efforts and enthusiasm have made the editing of TSC a great pleasure: Harriet & Jim Jedlicka, Pete Westcott, Bob & Pat Turner, Don & Cindy Massie, Madelyn & Jim Cook, Bill & Kathy Sevebeck, Marie Heuer, John Murphy and a host of others. They make every part of the year (even August) a bit like Christmas. And if you are considering a gift for your miniature estate, why not park a new 1937 Cord (1/12 scale) in the driveway. Bill Postman's article on the AMT auto kit may seem to be a bit of a departure from TSC's normal range of content. But it deals with a topic, working with plastics, which has been missing from past issues and to which we hope to devote more space in the future. And, having always wanted a Cord, this is a Christmas opportunity to indulge that whim. Once again ..... our best wishes to you! .....Jim & Helen Dorsett

VOLUME 5:2 (February, 1981)

IN THE INTERIM...

A few weeks ago Don Massie returned from a visit to his boyhood home in Staunton, Virginia with a treasure trove: stacks of old Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, Science and Mechanics, and Popular Science magazines dating from the early 1930's into the late 1960's. Since their arrival in the office we have been having a hard time getting anything done. Nothing whets the appetite of an inveterate, dyed-in-the-wool tinkerer more than the information in some of those old how-to magazines. In addition to the sheer fun of browsing through them, no source offers so quick a recap of popular taste and activity than a few decades worth of such publications. As we scanned their content since the early 1930's we noticed a decided shift in focus that occurred in the late 1940's and early 1950's. In the earlier issues there was no end to plans and ideas for every conceivable project: tool making and use, model building, full sized cabinetmaking, jig saws made from sewing machine heads and lathes from automotive connecting rods, AC/DC radio receivers, models of everything from a Grecian Trireme to a P-40 fighter, production turning on a wood lathe and on and on. The projects seem without limit ... or at least until after WWII. Then you notice an increasing amount of space being devoted to “ready-to-run”, pre-assembled goods as the economy recovered from years of depression and war induced scarcity. After that you have to hunt harder in the magazines for ideas on how to make and use tools, or how to build something. The subtle change from production to consumption is complete by the 1960's and even though the content continues to entice the interests of the tinkerer the message is more often “how to use the things you bought” than “how to make the things you want.” I must admit that I am an incurable tool-consumer whose dreams always outstrip the limits of budget. But even at that I find myself drawn back to the content of the 1930's and 40's by an uncontrollable urge to build the trireme or to do some nickel-plating without electricity (as instructed by one 1938 article). As long-time readers of TSC will note (i.e., we've been around long enough to begin referring to “long-time readers”), that mirrors an editorial preference which has and will continue to put its stamp on the type of content found in the journal. While there is an amazingly diverse array of new products in the hobby for the miniaturist to consume, TSC's consuming interest will continue to be “how-to”: content for the tinkerer. Perhaps as the current economic trends continue to revive some of the earmarks of the pre-WWII world, the tinkerer in all of us will reappear. If that happens, TSC will be there to bid you welcome. ..... Jim Dorsett

VOLUME 5:3 (May, 1981)

IN THE INTERIM...

What is a beginner in miniatures model building? I have always had the feeling that the term should be defined by intent as well as by skill. I know that feeling has been translated into the type of material appearing in TSC. To be sure, the beginner may well be someone who has never before held a hobby knife in hand or puzzled over a set of building plans. But defining the beginner by the absence of skills is a bit negative. As increasing numbers of miniaturists turn to building, my own view of a beginner is guided to some degree by an aphorism from the Epistles of Horace: “He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning.” Our beginnings are always a matter of translating our intentions into something done, and regardless of how long we have been active in scale modeling we are always approaching some point of beginning. When I pick up a modeling knife for the first time and with straight edge held firmly on a sheet of wood determine to cut a straight line and square edge, I have made a beginning. In a lifetime as a scale modeler, I have always preferred to work in wood and brass rather than plastics. Yet some magnificent work is done in sheet and molded plastics and by turning my interest toward those mediums I am a beginner again. What brings all of this to mind is that this issue of TSC is in large part, if not entirely, a beginner's issue, starting with the room setting by Helen Dorsett on the cover. A number of readers have asked how the room settings, which appear on our covers, are made (often assuming that such settings are beyond the grasp of a beginner). So what we have done in the short “cover story” is turn the setting around and inside out to let you see that it is no big deal, even for the beginner. If you can cut some square stock into lengths, glue the pieces into a framework and cover the face of it with illustration board, you can make a room setting. All you have to do basically is measure, cut and glue. It's really a matter of intent, not skill. Of course, this issue continues the series of classroom-tested “Beginner's Workbench” articles by Marie Heuer. Here TSC's point of view introduces a contrast with what is usually thought of as materials for a beginner, i.e., a series of trace-on, undimensioned outline drawings. While such cut-outs are a quick way to achieve a result, it is our view that measurement and marking as well as cutting are basic skills in scale modeling. So while we may show you what the part looks like with an outline drawing,k we also give you the scale dimensions. And believe it or not, as you blanch at the beauty and complexity of th drawings, John Reppert's Eastlake Secretary is a beginner's piece ... if level of skill is the measure of beginner. It requires basically the same skills as are required to build Marie's chest of drawers: measurement, marking, cutting and gluing butt-joint pieces. The difference is that the secretary has a lot more parts to be cut and glued. As the author readily admits, the piece can be made using more advanced techniques, skills and tools with an improvement in results. Yet the author's aim is for the beginner to build the piece; it is really a matter of intent, not skill. If at first glance that may seem impossible to you, then pick up a scale, a knife and a piece of wood and follow John through the first step. As with Alice in Wonderland, you may surprise yourself with the truth in the White Queen's assertion: Just take a deep breath and you can believe anything. I frequently believe six impossible things before breakfast. Then for me and the other beginners there are articles on plastic kit building and working with sheet styrene and acrylic by Bill Postman and John Murphy. And finally Madelyn Cook departs from her past discussions of “how to hide the glitches” and takes up the cudgels on behalf of the beginner in all of us in the hobby. Once again, I think, the basic point she is making has more to do with intent than skill. I hasten to add that I don't mean to understate the importance of skills and technique. TSC devotes too much effort and space to the goal of promoting such skills for that misunderstanding to exist. But technique accompanies our intentions, and when you get those two things together you begin to discover the fun and satisfactions in the hobby. In that regard we are all only beginners. .....Jim Dorsett

VOLUME 5:4 (August, 1981)

IN THE INTERIM...

Accompanying each subscriber's copy of this issue of TSC you will find an additional, loose sheet of paper: a brief survey form that I hope you will take the time to complete and mail back to me. The purpose of the form is to help us identify the type of people who read and use The Scale Cabinetmaker. Because we seldom get away from the salt mines to attend meetings and shows, our correspondence has become one of the few ways by which we can keep in touch with you, identify your interests in scale modeling and isolate your needs. Without that sort of regular contact we are never quite certain about who is reading TSC or why. So would you take a few minutes to do us the great favor of completing the brief form and returning it? Something that some of you may have noticed as you received the last two issues of TSC is the new computer label on the mailer. In part that label is a long-postponed response to one of you who wrote to me about your old, ditto-type labeling system: “How can anyone who puts together this quality of magazine put out such an awful label?” It's almost impossible to provide a cogent response to that ... for it was an awful label: often smudgy and difficult to read. But for the time being, it was affordable. However, it was a system which required the typing and manual filing, sorting and periodic counting of dual card sets. And when the file grew to three thousand or more entries that's a “lot of rocks to stack”, consuming increasing amounts of time that I would rather have spent at the workbench or typewriter. A second for the new label is the inevitable and looming introduction by the Postal Service of the nine-digit zip code (or what they benignly and winsomely call “Zip plus 4”). While it has been touted as a voluntary program at the outset, my suspicion is that the first group for which it will become an imperative is second class (magazine) mailers. And if it was beyond probability to keep in order a filing system based on the current five digits, the prospect of manually sorting and counting on nine is enough to make even the most foolhardy pause. We paused! After the pause we took a deep breath and installed a mini-computer, putting it into operation for the first time with the Spring issue. (It may not bring any of you an overwhelming sense of pleasure to know that you are now on one more computerized list, but you can take some comfort in the knowledge that it will not result in your receiving any additional junk mail. The list is only for TSC.) Computers do impose certain restrictions on those of us who tend toward verbosity, requiring that you stay within the parameters or limits imposed by the computer program. This point was enforced on me as I struggled to fit your names and addresses into the limited spaces allowed by the program. I'm afraid that in some cases it has resulted in a degree of miniaturization of names and addresses. Where your subscription is entered in both your name and that of your husband or wife, there was seldom room for both on the label. So I hope you'll forgive when I seem to have arbitrarily awarded custody of the journal to one or the other. If my decision causes you problems, let me know and I'll correct it ... just as long as the substitute fits the computer! Another frequent casualty (and one which is guaranteed to give pain to anyone who enjoys the feel and taste of the language) is the full unabbreviated place name. The names of places where TSC readers live are often marvelously descriptive, flavorful and long. But the computer with its implacable and heartless logic requires that Fig Garden Village becomes FIG GDN VLG, Palos Verdes Peninsula becomes PLS VRD PNSLA and Hartland Four Corners HRTLND 4 CORS. California and foreign place names are typically the hardest to fit in without such assault, as are Italian and Greek surnames. The computer and the PO both understand that sort of notation I guess, but if I live to be a hundred I'll not outlive the bad case of heartburn sufficient abbreviation gives me. The new system is not without virtue. I expect that it will result in fewer issues lost or misdirected in the mails and thus a lower level of frustration for you and me, and it will certainly allow me a bit more time away from the cardfile in favor of the workbench. Yet, however ingratiating those virtues may become, I'm afraid that there will always be one moment in each day when the machine and I seem destined to clash. When I turn it on to load the program, it insists on assaulting the King's English by creating a verb out of an adjective. It announces in blinking letters across the screen “Initializing”. And threaten as I may with my blue pencil, I cannot seem to force a correction. Well, the new label is evidence that TSC has “commenced”, “started”, “begun”, “initiated”, “undertaken”, “inaugurated” and “launched” something new ... but we haven't “initialized”. As this is being written (June 17th) the local post office has just bestowed upon us our new designation. Henceforth, I suppose that I should sign this column not “Jim Dorsett” but ..... ..... 24136-9754

 

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