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Jim Dorsett wrote the "In The Interim" column, which he described as cross between a journal entry, a snapshot, and a letter to friends," in every issue of The Scale Cabinetmaker. It provided him with a place to discuss the goings-on with Dorsett Publicatitons, and later with the restoration of the Christiansburg Station. As Dorsett Publications begins yet another phase, we will be adding new interim columns, but for now the original "In the Interim" columns are reprinted below. In The Beginning...With a somewhat more cautious optimism than that of the fellow who, having fallen from atop a sixty story building, shouts as he passes the 50th floor. "So far, so good!': we look back over the past six months with a mixture of satisfaction and amazement. What began as the subject of late-evening conversation in March has become, through many more late evenings, an idea with some substance attached: Vol. I, No. 1 of The Scale Cabinetmaker. We have discovered that threading the passagesof the publishing world labyrinth without suffering any terminal encounters with the Minotaur is no small trick. Having been in miniatures long enough to know that any doubts were groundless. we still wondered whether there would be enough ideas to suntain the content of just one issue (let alone the many that might follow). As ideas piled up, that shadow was soon erased. Would there be any need for the journal? The strong encouragement of many old and new acquaintances in the hobby dispelled that fear. Caye MaeLaren, in her inimitable fashion, nu,ged us along . As did Jim Doyle. The idea received its first positive reaction fron a miniatures club in Norfolk, Va. from which club came Mitzi Van Horn to contribute one of our first articles. And so it has gone for six months. In that initial period of life for TSC, Helen has busied herself with kits, carvings, and furniture plans and contruction articles; Kathy has built a room for an article and the cover, in addition to a feature intemiew; and Bill has concermed himself with the centerfold on measurement. 'And. between bouts with post and beam comtruction, photography and the dark-room, and the typewriter and blue pencils, I have done the myriad small things which lead an editor to imagine that he is being nibbled to death by gold fish. Finally. I invite and encourage your responses to what we are doing (or neglecting to do). If The Scale Cahinetmaker enjoys a long life, as I hope it will, it will be because you have had a hand in our content.
IN THE INTERIM ........ There used to be a rule in the old Saturday Evening Post that no indecent or off-color material would be printed. However, at one point the rule was slightly bent when the Post ran Katherine Bush’s serial “Red Headed Woman.” The first installment ended with the heroine and her boss having dinner in the heroine’s apartment; the second began with breakfast at the same site. The Post was deluged with letters from indignant readers to which the editor, George Horace Lorimer, replied, “The post cannot he responsible for what the characters in its serials do between installments.” Last October, as a series of production and printing problems forced the postponement of the publication date for three weeks, subscribers to TSC 1:1 were remarkably patient with us and gracious in their letters of inquiry. As we struggled “between installments” to overcome the difficulties, what Henry David Thoreau once wrote seemed to apply to us, that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet dispair.” Between installments a number of things have been going on which threaten to increase your impatience before your copy of TSC 1:3 arrives in the mail (April 1977). The spring issue will carry a multipart feature on caning miniatures. Four caning projects have been under development since last October: a small, square stool for beginners, a Victorian side chair and a modern Chinese bed for the more experienced modeler, and an Empire couch for the advanced craftsman. Add to that list articles focused on lathes and woodturning, several kit modifications, chair stenciling, and the third part of the house project and I believe that TSC I:3 will be an issue that will have you doublechecking your mailbox. .......J im Dorsett
On Museums and Miniatures... Why display a photo of a museum room on the cover of a miniaturist's journal? To deceive or to misrepresent the content of the journal? No; rather it underscores the prime source of the content of scale modeling: the entire universe of memorable houses and their furnishings. In the first issue of TSC, I wrote that "the history of prototypes is the first form of scale modeling experienced by most miniaturists" and I contended that a growth in that awareness parallels the developments of skills in the craft. The ultimate expression of such dual growth occurs when the model is patterned directly from the prototype. The cover of this issue of TSC and the lead article by Bill Sevebeck illustrate the unbreakable bond between the historical object and the best miniature craftsmanship. Crisscross Hall, or Christ's Cross, is one of ten period rooms displayed in a significant and remarkable museum, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). located on the restored site of the old Moravian settlement of Salem in Winston-Salem, N.C. The rooms span a period of one hundred and f i f t y years and range in their furnishings from Jacobean to Federal. Each room in MESDA is original, not a simulation: located by the Museum, disassembled, and carefully reconstructed in the Museum. The Hall from Christ's Cross was the main living area in a cruciform shaped, brick house built in Kent County, Virginia about 1690 and is the earliest room displayed in the Museum. As is true throughout the Museum, the furnishings are all of southern origin. The earliest known southern piece is a court cupboard, c. 1640; other furnishings include a paneled back chair (c. 1680-1710). a wainscot chest (c. 1700), two Carver side chairs (c. 1700), and a walnut gateleg table (c. 1690). Last fall, I asked Bill Sevebeck to visit MESDA for the purpose of selecting from among its holdings a piece for scale reproduction which would express the optimum in the scale cabinetmaker's craft. He selected the gateleg table from Crisscross Hall. I asked that his treatment of the construction should give no quarter to the lesser talents of the majority of us in the lobby; he responded with an article in which the closest tolerance is given serious consideration. I asked that he treat the piece of furniture as it now appears in Crisscross; he responded with a miniature in which 287 years of shrinkage, warp, and wear have been painstakingly replicated. If it is a piece which only the journeyman peers of Bill Sevebeck in miniature crafts will attempt, yet it offers the rest of us an opportunity to learn from as well as to enjoy the outcome of his work. The Scale Cabinetmaker is indebted to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and its Director, Frank L. Horton, for the splendid cooperation and encouragement given to us in preparing this issue. From offering extraordinary access to their collection to the provision of the cover photograph, we are in the Museum's debt. A visit there is a feast for the mind and spirit that no miniaturist should be denied. James H. Dorsett, Editor
IN THE INTERIM..... Sixteen months ago, when TSC was just an idea, we set some goals for ourselves. In summary, they were to publish a miniatures journal whose quality of content on the scale modeling of miniatures from prototype would earn public acceptance. To the extent that The Scale Cabinetmaker has enjoyed some measure of acceptance and trust, it is due in some part to the unanticipated generosity of others. We have been welcomed openly and genuinely by the editors of sister publications in the miniatures hobby. Individuals, private and commercial, have been willing to risk their reputations on our performance by distributing our flyers to their friends,. customers, and clubs. We have been encouraged by enthusiastic letters from readers who liked what we have tried to do, and by the gentleness of letters from readers who wished for good reason to take us to task for our mistakes. We have discovered the willingness by artists and craftspeople in the hobby to share their skills with others. So, if we have moved at all toward the approximation of our goals in the past year, we have many to thank. Editors live under the constant threat of accepting credit for the talents of others. I am no exception. The first volume of TSC would not exist were it not for the constant talents of some very special people: the high skill and technical know-how of Bill Sevebeck; the great enthusiasm and wide-ranging interests of Kathy Sevebeck (who. with this issue, assumes a new responsibility for needlework content in TSC); the drafting ability of Larry Keen, whose work has appeared in every issue. With this fourth issue, we welcome in addition the artistic touch of Bob Turner and the photo talent of Don Massie to the journal. However, beyond the efforts of all of the rest of us. TSC would not exist without the prodigious and kaleidoscopic creativity and modeling skill of the Associate Editor, Helen Dorsett. Her stamp on our content speaks for itself over the past year: two secretary kit modifications, Wegner chair, slaw bed, Parsons tables, Victorian settee and factory chairs, roundabout chair, caned furniture. experiments with natural dyes and fabric block printing, techniques for cutting and carving Queen Anne and Victorian cabriole legs, modification of Seven kit kitchen pieces, furnishings for a Victorian parlor, photographic room settings, complete furnishings for the Whitman house. And these were only the things that have been published. The truth of the matter is that, if I have written a lot of copy in the first year of TSC, I have had a very great deal to write about. ..... Jim Dorsett
IN THE INTERIM.... What happens to the letters you write to us at TSC? The only thing that doesn’t happen to them is filing in the round file (wastebasket). As time allows, I respond directly to as many as I can. But whether answered directly or not, all letters are read, sorted, and saved for future reference. They carry a wealth of information and suggestions of which some can be given an immediate response in TSC and others become pot-boilers for future changes: a directory of sources for 1” scale wood; how to dress and edge sand case piece parts; basic case piece construction; a glossary of terms used in TSC: an annual binder for each volume of four issues; Russian punch techniques; soft metal casting; ete. This issue of TSC reflects several changes suggested by our file of letters. The “To Err Is Human” page, listing corrections of copy in past issues, has been printed on a loose leaf. It can be cut up and added to the appropriate issues without mutilating your current TSC. And a new “Letters to the Editor” column has been added as well. On some occasions we will use the column to print and respond to the views and opinions of our readers. Now and then, when your letters have focused on a particular topic, the “Letters” page will appear as a short article on that topic. For example, in this issue we have taken up the cudgels on behalf of scale measurement and the use of an architect’s scale. Something else begins with this issue: the regular appearance of needlework projects under the guidance of needlework editor Kathy Sevebeck. She is launching this with the first articles in a four-issue series on miniature rugs. In addition to the rug in this issue by Kay Sobers, future pieces by Kathy, Doreen Sennett, Barbara Cosgrove, Susan Pasco, and others will appear. Kicking off the series, Kathy haa written an introductory article on needlepoint which is aimed at the beginner. Some of you will find it to be too elementary to suit your needs. As a beginner in needlework (who, Like most of our male readers, has a knowledge of needlework that is limited to having been sent off to college some years ago with instructions on how to sew on buttons and darn socks), I have read the introductory articles and resolved to needlepoint a rug. (After all, if ex-professional football lineman, Rosie Greer, can needlepoint. so can I.) If the more advanced craftsman is feeling neglected by our inclusion of introductory materials for beginners, I invite them to turn to the Empire couch in this issue. This lovely meridienne by Helen Dorsett with stretch your skills (and perhaps your nerves) to their limits. In addition, Bill Sevebeck (in the Shop Manual). has turned to some more advanced techniques in lathe work. It is a pleasure to welcome several old acquaintances to this issue of TSC as advertisers: the catalogs from Walther’s and James Bliss. Some of you who have built scale model railroads or ships need no introduction to these prime sources of builder’s materials. All will find them to be treasure lodes of information on tools, materials, and techniques. For example, are you looking for some turned hail posts to dre5 US a Queen Anne or Chippendale highboy? Try the lovely brass handline stanchions (turned and predrilled) from the ship’s fittings section in the Bliss catalog or some cast and drilled locomotive handrail standotfs from Walther’s. I know that it is a cliche, but gold is where you find it. One last comment before space runs out. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the value of our insistence on listing the “full” dimensions of a piece on our plans is reflected in the report that Constance Rusk of Halifax, N.S. is building the Whitman house in 1/2” sale from the dimensions on our plans. That is a model that I would like to see! .....Jim Dorsett. Editor
IN THE INTERIM..... Scarcely a week goes by when we do not receive at least one request by the sponsors of a miniatures show to list their event in the forthcoming issues of TSC. These requests present us with something of a dilemma; for while we do not wish to ignore the importance of such shows to the growth of the hobby, we have no space allocated in TSC for such a listing! There are several reasons for the absence of an “events calendar.” While important to the hobby and the miniaturist (both collectors and craftsmen). such shows are primarily aimed at the collector in miniatures rather than the scale modeler. And the content of TSC is focused on the scale modeling segment of the hobby. We also assume that most of our readers subcribe as well to one or more of the other nationally-distributed periodicals in the field (Nutshell News, Small Talke, NAME Gazette, Miniature Collector, etc.), all of which do carry such a calendar of events. What we do carry as a regular put of our content is the “Workshop Directory”: a free listing of shops and individuals who offer scheduled classes and workshop in the miniatures craft. We would like all of our readers to be aware of these opportunities for help in the hobby, even though only a small fraction of the readership may reside in the immediate vicinity of such workshops. We have not been able to attend as many miniatures shows during the past year as we would like. However. one show that we did attend and which we heartily commend to others in the hobby was the Miniature Fair and Trade Show (October 8-9,1977), sponsored by the Midwest Miniature Trade Association. It brought together a fine blend of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and hohbiests in what was one of the most comprehensive and excellently planned events that we have attended. My con(patu1ations to the MMTA and to show manager Marlene Mayer. I have the highest regard for the Mayers (Marlene and husband Pete) who managed the show for MMTA and on behalf of Medi-Check: a nonprofit organization which provides bracelets that identify the critical medical conditions of the wearer. Medi-Check, which raises funds through the management of miniature shows. was founded by Pete in 1965, the same year in which the Mayer’s infant daughter died following an allergic reaction to an antibiotic. This issue of TSC introduces a product review section which we expect will remain as a regular feature of the journal. In addition, the letters column takes a calculated leap into an issue which tends to generate more heat than light: rights and copying in the miniatures field. It is not my intention to fan any flames or to open a forum. However, we have been asked where we stand on the issue, and I have tried to make our position clear. .....James Dorsett, Editor
IN THE INTERIM..... In the process of printing and binding any publication. a few less-than-perfect copies sometimes result. While the record of The Scale Cabinetmaker is reasonably good in this regard, there is always the chance of a slip-up. In the assembly and binding state, a blank or misprinted page slips into the stack, "signatures" get out of sequence or are perhaps omitted, resulting i scrambled paging. If any reader should receive an imperfect copy of TSC, I would appreciate its return so that we may replace it with a good one. Some readers have written me during the past year to chide us over our failure to print a promised article on stencilling. Well...chide no more! Shirley and Jim Hillhouse have redeemed my promise in a fashion that makes the wait worthwhile. The usual standard of TSC of "modelling from a full-scale prototype" shares space in this following issues with its counterpoint. The wonderfully imaginative staff of Miniature Maker's Workshop begins building a shadow-box bedroom in this issue in a manner that focuses on the inventive use of materials and techniques rather than on the exact reproduction of a particular room. Jim and Harreit Jedlicka have entered the first of several articles on lighting and wiring. A future issue of TSC will explore their approach to "scale" lighting, i.e., achieving the intensity and distrubution of lighting in a room that reflects the differences between light sources (from candles to incadescent bulbs). Harry Whalon's mastery of the use of color and technique, explored through an interview with Kathy Sevebeck, offers a further invitation to me to try needlepointing a rug. If the genius of the true miniatures craftsman lies in the capacity to adapt materials and techniques to the requirements of scale reduction, then Harry Whalon's mastery of canvas and thread (so harmouniously displayed in the Thorne Rooms) should invite us all to the improvement of our skills. Finally, Bill Sevebeck and Helen Dorset6t begin the exploration of some shopskills in this issue that shoud be part of every modeler's workbench repertory. Bill beghins a series on building and using a shaper table, and Helen starts to explore the A-B-C's of scale modeling through the scratch-building of a modern end table and assembly of a scientific models library cabinet. Looking ahead, the summer and fall issues of TSC will carry a two-part series on how to detail and finish a kit house shell, using materials that are commercially available. So I believe that this and the following issues of TSC should provide a lot of fun for all of us. .....James Dorsett, Editor
IN THE INTERIM..... Whatever demographers may make of the fact that one out of every five American households moves its residence across a county line every year. I am quite certain what it means to me as a publsher. It means that a given proportion ofTSC subscribers will change thelir address each year. And, if given the opportunity through a timely "change of address" card, we will bend every effort to pursue your shifting residence wlth a current issue of TSC: from Garden Grove to Goshen. Allentown to Enumclaw. or fmm a house on one street to an apartment around the comer. We will even arrange to regularly rotate the mailing addresses of "snowbirds" who spend half the year seeking out the sun and the other half avoiding it. And when we slip-up (as does occur when a finger hits the wrong typewriter key), we will rectify our mistake by sending out a replacement for your lost or misdirected copy of TSC. I shrink from the thought that anyone who wishes to recelve TSC should miss a single copy. Throughout the past two years, we haw sent without question replacements to anyone whose original copy went astray for whatever reason. And we will continue to do so. . .with one exception, henceforth.. If you should move, but fail to notify us at least fifteen days before the first day of the next publication month (i.e., the first day of Feb., May, Aug., Nov.), we will mail your TSC to your last known address. Its inglorious fate (if you have failed as well to guarantee forwarding postage for your second class mail) is to have its label tom off and to be dumped unceremoniously into the trash. (Perish the thoughtl) The label is then returned to us for a fee, belatedly correcting our knowledge of your whereabouts. At that point. your problem is with the postal service, not with us. In short, no replacements except at the single issue price ($3.75). Goodness knows. it is much easier for both d us when a change of address notice is received in time. A new publication with an interesting angle has recently appeared on the scene: Maison Mini Miniature Magazine, edited by Sylvia Maniscalco in the Netherlands. For those travelling overseas and those who wish they could, This new quarterly serves as a guide to andt through some of Europe's premier miniatures collections under the hand of such knowledgeable folk as Clementine Kutt-schrutter. TSC's travels this fall will be somewhat less ambitious, ie., to the 7th Annual Philladelphia Show and the MMTA Show in Chicago. Several of the many places we would like to be, but will not, are the Miniature Maker's Sociiety in White Plains and the St. Louis Miniature Exhibition '78 (both in September. But someone has to stay home to record the changes of address. .....James Dorsett, Editor
I would like to make a corduroy sports jacket but I am frightened by sewing machines and clothing patterns. It isn't simply the swirling bobbin, dancing needle, and the flashing tensioner that give me pause. The confusing array of attachments that promise to button-hole or embroider also pub me off. But most of all, I suppose, my aversion to sewing machines is linked to the subconscious vision of permanently stitching my fingers into an overcast seam. And that horror is only compounded by the prospect of attempting to make sense out of a sports jacket pattern. In brief, the how-to-world of McCall's, Vogue, and Simplicity is a confusing maze whose terms are strange and whose procedures are intimidating. So, I shall continue to harbor visions of a cord jacket, while knowing that the probability of it ever becoming reality ranks with the reality of "the emperor's new clothes." Of course, I could pressure Helen to make the jacket, but she is too busy designing and building miniatures for TSC. Given this tug of war between the jacket and my feelings about sewing machines, I can share some sense of kinship with those TSC readers whose desire to build miniatures is frustrated by their feelings about the tools and techniques of the craft. Our mailbag continues to turn up letters from erstwhile scale modelers who wish to build miniatures and may even have a set of power and hand tools, but who have never cut their first piece of wood for fear of cutting their finger as well. A significant number would like to have furniture patterns that handle and behave like dress patterns, ie.. just lay them over a sheet of wood and cut on the solid line. .But woodworking tools require a different set of skills, and fumlture patterns are geared to the characteristics of wood and metal and. thus. are necessarily different from clothing patterns. So the tools remain in their boxes and the plans in the journal continue unused. Finally, the vision of making miniatures fades and, unfortunately, the TSC subscription is dropped. It is a now familiar pattern which we have learned to recognize after two years of building a readership. Underlying the expressed fear of using the miniaturist's tools, I suspect, is the unwritten cultural dictim that "women sew and men build furniture." I am certain that my sports jacket is to some degree held ransom by my fear of being identified as a man who sews (as much as by the thought of stabbing my finger with a needle). But the thought nags at me; making the jacket might be fun! There might be the same satisfaction in finally achieving a straight seam as in turning a pair of duplicate spindles on the lathe. ("Where did you buy that gorgeious jacket?," my friends would ask; "I made it," I would reply in an off-hand fashion!) Making miniatures is fun. But the "Walter Mitty," the dreamer, in all of us will never find that out. For the pleasure of the hobby is locked within the willingness to read a furniture pattern and measure a piece of wood. Then with heart in throat, you pick up a saw and make a cut, or you chuck the stock into a lathe for the first time and apply the chisel or file to the spinning workpiece. (Where did you buy that gorgeous miniature?," your friends would ask; "I made it," you would reply in an off hand fashion.) .....Jim Dorsett
IN THE INTERIM..... At some time during the cycle of the season. every individual and group has an appointed time for takng stock. Harvests end, business years are concluded. New Year resolutions are inscribed on tablets of irresolution. anniversaries are celebrated and in myriad ways we measure off and mark the intervals of life. One would suppose that the time for reminiscence and reckoning for The Scale Cabinetmaker would be in early fall, the anniversary of our first issue in 1976.Actually not; the time for weighing and retrospective is February and March; the time when, six months before an issue first appeared, we began to seriously explore the possibility of something called TSC. What should its focus be? Within the range of interests in the miniatures hobby, for whom would it be intended? Would there be a formula, a recipe that would determine the balance of content in every issue. ie., so many pages for furniture. for houses. for needlework, for tools. for electricity. etc.? After three years the questions are still the same, and to some degree the issues of TSC which have appeared have formed in summary our tentative, but changing, answers. We decided at the outset that TSC would be for the scale modeling miniaturist. While collecting and modeling are not mutually exclusive categories, there is a difference between building and possessing a miniature to the extent that for the scale modeler building becomes an end rather than a means. But as a doer's publication we wished to explore more than the obvious mechanics of "gluing A to B" while at the same time presenting a number of A's and B's to be glued. With the name "Cabinetmaker" we characterized our primary focus but in retrospect that is somewhat misleading, for the hobby is much broader in its interests than furniture alone. So the joumal has been wider ranging than its name implies. We wanted the publication to have enough latitude for its content that it would not be shackled by a necessary format for every issue. More than anything else we wanted TSC to be a joumal of ideas relating to miniature building rather than solely a how-to joumal. So in this issue while there is no lack of consuuction material in end tables. kits, houses. wiring. quilts and other do-it materials, Bill explores the application of a constant ratio to the sliding fence on a thickenessing planer; the Jedlickas delve into the uses of resistance in electrical circuits. Pete Westcott begins a series in which he achieves some uncommon interior effects with some common materials. and Helen digs into her knowledge of periods and styles to produce an oak Mission davenport/billiard table that is unusual and fun to build. Over the past year, we have incorporated more needlework content than some have desired as an expression ofTSC ssupport of Kathy's desire to give full, not partial, effort to the subject of miniature rugs. Visually, Bob Turner's hand has been increasingly evident in experimenting with ways of making the journal more attractive, visually interesting, and easily readable. So, if TSC in retrospect is still in the process of haltingly seeking better answers to its initial questions, we have the feeling that in two and a half years we have at least managed to avoid the commentary attributed to Tallulah Bankhead on a Maeterlinck play: "There is less there than meets the eye." (Jim Dorsett)
IN THE INTERIM... A good friend, whose acquaintance spans a number of years stretching back to my Montana boyhood, was fond of saying (when the occasion called for it at the dinner table) “My gastronomic satiety admonishes me that I have reached that state of deglutition consistent with dietary integrity” instead of simply stating “No more helpings, please; I'm full”. It was a marvelous phrase, delivered with the gravity of a judgement from the bench: a phrase that cast a line into the full depth of the language in search of its terms. It was a memorable phrase except that no one could understand it. So, smiling as though every syllable had motivated the action, someone would pass him the potatoes and gravy. There can be little doubt that I enjoy a well-turned phrase. But in TSC the phrases and words must convey meaning. So it is always disturbing to heart that the journal's content is too difficult for the beginner. In part, that criticism comes from those to whom the common terms of the cabinetmaker's shop are a mystery: butt, mortise, rabbet, chamfer, rip, scroll cut, tenon, dado, and many others. At one point we considered appending a short dictionary to each issue of TSC. While that might be nice, it wouldn't be very useful; these terms are really action words, each implying a procedure to be used rather than a static definition. Therefore, beginning in this issue as a regular feature in the journal, we have launched “THE BEGINNER'S WORKBENCH”. This first “Workbench” article is typical of the type of material we have planned for future issues: articles that pause to explain the meaning of terms and to help the reader visualize the steps necessary to achieve a particular procedure. Sometimes, we will compose the article around the construction of a particular piece of furniture, as was done with a bookcase in this issue. But the central purpose of the article in this issue is not the construction of a bookcase, but rather the exploration of hand tool and power tool techniques which are part of the craft of scale cabinetry. How do you measure, mark and cut a sheet of material? What is a rabbet or a dado, what do they look like, where do you use them, and how do you go about cutting them? In this and future “Workbench” articles, TSC will focus on basic terms and techniques in the craft. But it will not be the type of cut-and-paste” information which will have to be discarded or left behind as the beginner moves to a more advanced level of work in the craft. We will assume that the term “beginner” refers to someone who is beginning to learn the craft of scale cabinetry, not someone who wishes to discover an easier alternative to that craft in the gluing together of bangles, baubles, blocks, and beads. That is an alternative we will leave to other publications. But we do hope to avoid speaking in terms of “my gastronomic satiety” as well. I'm certain that you will continue to let us knw when we have missed ... or hit ... the mark. .....Jim Dorsett
IN THE INTERIM... While the winters in Virginia are never quite so long and tedious as they were in Montana (where the two seasons of the year are said to be winter and August), by early April I am usually in agreement with Christopher Morley that “April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go.” Cabin fever does that to you, and by April I tend to think Go.But unlike Robert Lewis Stevenson who said that he traveled for travel's sake and that the great affair was just to move, I seldom seem to synchronize the urge to Go with the ability to break away from TSC's deadlines whenever the spirit moves me. So we are more apt to sandwich trips to miniature shows and meetings in between publishing deadlines. After the February issue had been survived, it was an April trip to the Yankee Miniatures Show and some dealer training seminars in Connecticut that broke the travel drought. With the May issue in the mail, we managed to satisfy our wanderlust with a weekend at the N.A.M.E June meeting in Ashland, Virginia (taking Pete Westcott's Georgian room box for TSC along for company. Throughout the summer we have quelled the urge to roam very far from the typewriter and workbench, although the Westcott room box (apparently a more seasoned traveler than we) kept right on going after the cover photo was shot in June. It is spending the summer in the new museum at Models and Miniatures in San Jose, California (1375 S. Bascom), where the Scalemasters are in the process of assembling displays of miniatures and model railroads. The partially completed museum contains materials from both amateur and professional modelers, including an extensive model train layout, a village area with room for 12 houses, and a paneled room box wall with space for as many as 24 miniature displays. This growing display, open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays this summer, is one that I would like to see. And I intend to. For in September, after this issue of TSC has followed its successors out of our mail room, we intend to catch up with Pete's Georgian room in San Jose when we attend the NAME N-2 Houseparty on September 28-30th. That will be TSC's first jaunt to a west coast miniatures meeting, and we hope to meet many TSC readers and scale modelers while there. So come by the Dorsett Publications booth during the show .... to talk miniatures, scale modeling tools and techniques, and your ideas for TSC articles. The only thing we will sell at the show is the idea that nothing is quite so much fun as building miniatures. And that really isn't such a bad idea. Withanother winter approaching, and with odd/even days facing us all at the gas pump, scale modeling is a good reason for staying home .... until April. .....Jim Dorsett
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
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
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
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
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
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) 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
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
VOLUME 6:1 (November, 1981) Author Jan Struther wrote in Mrs. Miniver that she “saw every personal relationship as intersecting circles”. She did not add that we are often quite unaware of the extent to which our lives have overlapped. So it has been with ourselves, the scale modeling fraternity and Jim Doyle, the founder and spark of Northeastern Scale Models. In these overlapping spheres is a thumbnail sketch of how our lives expand and a brief insight into why TSC exists. In 1963, when Helen was in the process of putting together the text and drawings for the first Cabinetmaker's Guide, a list of sources for 1” scale materials was not as easy to come by as it is now that the hobby has surfaced and grown. So we did what was most natural for ex-model railroaders; we listed Jim Doyle and Northeastern Scale Models. Since 1947, Northeastern had been a standard source of brass and other hardwoods in the hobby (including a carefully managed, but long since depleted, supply of WWI gunstock walnut), and Jim's designs for HO railroad kits and wooden structural shapes had set a standard of excellence in the field. Through the 1960's miniaturists, using that first pattern book, began writing to Jim for materials from his model railroad catalog that could be adapted to 1” scale uses. A decade later in a 1975 interview printed in Craft, Model & Hobby Industry Magazine he was asked what prompted him to expand his already successful line of scale modeling woods into the miniatures field. His reply was characteristically generous but straightforward. It all began, he said, with the people who began writing to NESM for materials as the result of a pattern book published by a woman out in Missouri (where we lived at that time). Jim later told us that at first he thought that it wouldn't last, that you would eventually go away and leave him to concentrate on materials for model ships and railroads. But you didn't! So he turned his broad talents and exacting skills to supplying those needs. By the time of his death late last spring he had designed and produced the now familiar NESM array of precision materials for the miniatures hobby. We met Jim Doyle only once. Yet when he heard, six years ago, that we were considering the improbable venture of launching a scale modeler's journal in the miniatures field, our phone rang. It was the first of a succession of very long and invariably late phone conversations with him. Through those we learned to recognize a person with a passionate devotion to scale modeling, a broad-ranging curiosity, exacting standards, outstanding skills and candid, forthright opinions. (He once called to tell me that the ink in his newly arrived issue of TSC stank ... and to suggest a remedy ... and he was right! When TSC was still a fledgling, struggling to survive the consequences of inexperience, he volunteered to help announce its existence with a small form in all NESM sample boxes and orders (as many of you know). It was an offer which exacted no favor and demanded no commercial advantage, reflecting only his strong commitment to scale modeling. Jim Doyle ... sailplane designer/builder/flyer, environmentalist whose interests ranged from cataloging the birds in his yard to preserving endangered African species, photographer, precision tool maker, consummate scale modeling craftsman, critic whose standards often eluded our grasp without discouraging our reach. We in scale modeling are all beneficiaries in having shared the days of our overlapping years with him. In designing the Reader Survey form which was mailed out with the last issue, we had hoped to invite your responses without imposing too much on your time. But we did leave an open end on the questions, welcoming your further comments on the journal and its content. I have been overwhelmed by your response and pleased with the large number of you who invested considerable time and effort in explaining both your criticisms and commendations of the journal. In the next issue I hope to publish an article, summarizing the information you have given us. And as we plan ahead, taking your views into account, I hope that you and TSC will share the benefits of your efforts. On November 24, 1981 at 8 p.m., Helen and I will participate with Judee Williamson and Bill Robertson in presenting an hour and a half program, Miniatures in the Making, at the Smithsonian Institution in D.C.: one of a series of presentations in a six week long Smithsonian Resident Associates program titled The Big Wide World of Miniatures. If you're in the neighborhood, stop in. .....Jim Dorsett
VOLUME 6:2 (February, 1982) For several enjoyable and enlivening days last fall, Susanne Russo visited the TSC offices to work out the text and photographic details for the first in two basic carving articles for the Journal. (Actually, it sounds more impressive to say “offices” but actually it's really an old farm house on a hill above Sinking Creek in Giles County, Virginia.) During a non-stop weekend of hot-stove-league discussions, she and Helen turned to the question of designing your own miniatures, rather than reproducing existing pieces. When Helen was a student at the Chicago Art Institute several years ago (“several” being the sort of cautious term husbands tend to use when referring to age), a standard type of assignment was to produce a drawing or painting “in the manner of” some well known artist. From that grew a decision to do what Susanne has introduced in this issue of TSC with the second of her articles on basic carving with an X-Acto knife: a serpentine table done “in the manner of” a rococo French piece. As she notes, it is the sort of thing that gives room in the hobby for those with an artistic bent. The cover photo on this issue, displaying the bedroom set produced by Madelyn Cook in her completed kit-bashing series, Kits & Pieces, is born of the same impulse. The preliminary report on last summer's Reader Survey has been included in this issue. While it may not provide any surprises and may risk telling you more about TSC readers than you ever wanted to know, it does underscore the fact that scale modelers and builders are a bit different in their approach to the hobby than are the main body of miniaturists. One result that I hope will become evident over the course of the next year will be additional content (e.g., beginner's tool and technique article) in those areas you have requested. Speaking of tools, one change is of note in the content of the inside front page. Jim Jedlicka, whose tool and technique articles have instructed us all for several years, has agreed to serve as TSC's Tool Editor. In so doing, he brings years of tool experience and expertise to the service of TSC readers. I am delighted (as one who can easily get into that subject area beyond my depth) to pass that responsibility on to Jim. Readers and authors with questions or articles regarding tools and their use will be passed along to him in the future. Also in this issue is a center-fold project that has been in the works since last spring. At long last we have produced an Index to the first five volumes of TSC. As you will note it is primarily intended as a technical index, directing you to sources of information on projects, tools, techniques and other workbench concerns. I am indebted to Meg Dorsett who carried out the preliminary work on the index last summer, getting me untracked, and to the computer which stacked all the rocks in their proper order! I knew that I could no longer avoid the task when in response to reader inquiries I could no longer keep track of what had been published in TSC or when. So one can view the index as an act of self-preservation. But I hope you find it to be useful as well. .....Jim Dorsett
Several weeks ago at a Miniatures trade show, one of TSC's subscribers asked me where the title for this column originated. It that is a cause of puzzlement, the answer lies in the following paragraph, published five and a half years ago in TSC 1:2. “There used to be a rule in the old SatEvPost that no off-color material would be printed. However, at one point the rule was slightly bent when the Post ran Katherine Bush's serial “Red Headed Woman”. The first installment ended with the heroine and her boss having dinner in the heroine's apartment; the second began with breakfast at the same sit. The Post was deluged with letters from indignant readers to which the editor, George Horace Lorimer, replied: The Post cannot be responsible for what the characters in its serials do between installments.” So, what the Interim column is intended to do is give you some idea about what has been going on in the minds and at the workbench of editors during the interim between installments of the journal, but without going into very much detail. Obviously, one thing that has been going on in our minds is modeling in half in scale. With the publication of the new Vol. 8 in the Guide series of pattern books, this one containing 61 half inch furniture patterns, there is little doubt that we have been thinking about this scale for some time. And this issue of TSC also contains for the first time plans for a 1/2” piece: a Federal bed step to go with a kit four-poster bed from Bauder-Pine, Ltd. Neither of these developments means that TSC has abandoned its primary focus on the principal scale used in the hobby, one inch to the foot. But it does recognize that scale modeling can and is being done in a range of scales that allow for varying degrees of detail and require differing degrees of skill. While designing half inch scale pieces we have found that, beyond the plans, there is very little the scale modeler needs in tools and materials that is not already either on the workbench or available in the one inch materials stocked by a local miniatures shop. You'll use a lot more 1/32, 3/64 and 1/16 inch stock, but that's about the only change. The impact of a new scale on miniatures suppliers and dealers is more pronounced when it comes to “ready-to-run” materials for the collector. During a time when the economic tide is ebbing and high interest rates seriously threaten any enterprise which must finance a new inventory (1/2”) that parallels one already in place (1”), the strains are real and severe! So the emergence of assembled, half inch miniatures may be at an understandably slow pace. But for the scale modeler, the tools and materials are already available; they have been all along. In future issues TSC will continue to publish a few half inch scale patterns, all of them contributing to the eventual completion of furnished room settings which will incorporate both kit and scratch-built pieces. Anyhow ... half inch is one thing that has been going “In the Interim.” Between installments we have also added Susanne Russo's name to TSC's list of regular contributors. Those who have read her past articles in TSC, seen the high quality of her workmanship or have been engaged by her imagination can look forward to future articles as Susanne delves into a range of useful skills and techniques in the craft. First among these will be an article on how to produce the type of drawing which will result in the exquisite quality of photo etched brasses found in this issue's Product Review section. Also in the works are reviews of some power tools which we feel will be of interest to scale modelers, a Norwegian bride's chest from the Hillhouses, a Morris chair, a clothes wringer from John Gray, a round, mahogany extension table (with operating extension mechanism), a chest on frame some interesting accessories ... and ... and ... that's what goes on In The Interim. .....Jim Dorsett
During a life-time of residential moves, I've never become quite accustomed to being the “new kid on the block.” But, as the children and wives of many other civil engineers can attest by their own experiences, that recurring role seems to be as inevitable a fate as death and taxes. The echoing nightmare in my family was that of the moving van backing up to the door before the packing of the household had begun. To a limited extent that specter has been revived again over the past several months as this issue of TSC was being put together. For Dorsett Publications has moved. Since its inception in 1976, TSC's workshop, clerical, editorial, warehousing and shipping activities have all coexisted as increasingly space-hungry inhabitants of the Dorsett household in a large, old country house near Pembroke, Virginia. The composition and layout office has been located 30 miles away in Christiansburg. But as with the camel's nose in the tent we have found that our co-inhabitants have demanded and seized a progressively larger portion of what we had originally thought to be an inexhaustible amount of available space. At last the point was reached when something had to give. It was becoming increasingly difficult to tell where TSC stopped and where we began. (Every scale modeling family comes to the belief that sawdust, filtering through the house from the workbench, is the proper binder for a meatloaf in the kitchen, but the journal's activities had pushed that expectation to ridiculous lengths! So this summer we evicted our pushy tenant. TSC and Dorsett Publications now occupy a suite of offices on Main Street in Christiansburg. The address and office phone number are listed elsewhere on this page.) For a while I'm sure that some confusion will trail in the wake of the move. The Pembroke Post Office address will continue to serve TSC in addition to the new street address in Christiansburg. However, I expect that over the coming months phone calls will continue to cause some problems. (The Christiansburg number will serve during office hours, 9 a.m. To 4 p.m., and the Pembroke number for the remainder of the time.) While all moves tend to be a bit messy until each piece of furniture has found its proper place, work on this and the November issue of TSC has continued with only a brief interruption. And out in Pembroke, while we are wondering what to do with all that space, I suspect that I'll miss the sawdust in the meatloaf. .....Jim Dorsett
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