This model, model, model world! Zigzags of our time
- Let's get started! Said the walrus, perching on a coastal stone. - It's time to talk about many things; shoes, ships, wax seals, cabbage and kings.
O.Henry. Kings and cabbage
O.Henry. Kings and cabbage
Large-scale modeling today. Why such a funny epigraph to an article on model art? Yes, because it is the whole world in the world. And one can talk about it endlessly in the same way, and there also have their own kings, wax seals (what about without them, if we are talking about ships in bottles ?!), and the ships themselves, of course.
In the comments on past material, I was asked to find photos of my old models. Alas! I made them on a film camera. Therefore, the slides faded, and the film generally became completely unusable. But something still managed to be restored. Therefore, today photos will be “just a mix”, as an example of everything that I once did. And we will start here with this model, very unusual, made back in the 1982 year. Then I represented her at the All-Union Toy Competition, and everyone really liked her there, but ... was declared as “Tom Sawyer Steamboat”. As a result, one boss said: “Why should we advertise the steamboat of some American bully ?!” And “the topic was closed!” And the whole model is made entirely of polystyrene. Moreover, of the two models of steamers "Oxidan", which we bought from the company "Heller". Two steamboats - because there are two pipes and a polystyrene deficit. But the case was made entirely by the vacuum form method itself from the “gasket” for the refrigerator. Then the model attracted the staff of the museum stories the city of Kuibyshev and got there. The fact is that it was precisely the "American" ships that sailed along the Volga. Here you can’t erase a word from a song ... For a long time it was exhibited there, but then it turned yellow from time to time and, most likely, was disposed of.
“Write about paper models”
... Readers are asking VO and why not write? Moreover, modern materials, paints and - most importantly, printed sets of paper models today are so perfect that they allow you to create truly amazing quality models. However, in the previous article there were their photos. But ... I’ll say right away: I don’t know how to do such things. And never did! “And then what do you have to do with such models?” - a legitimate question may arise, and so that it does not arise, the answer will be this: paper models are different. For example, I have always been interested not so much in models for myself as in others, for example, for children. So that they would buy them, and I would get money for it. For example, in the 80 years of the last century, in the magazine “Family and School”, the last glossy page of the cover was often given to the development of a simple model, and it was precisely my developments that were printed there regularly. What were these models? An English kogg with a very beautiful emblem sail with lilies and leopards and two castles on the bow and stern, the ship of ancient Crete with some strange decoration on the bow platform ... That is, what fit into the cover format and did not require special details. But the models turned out beautiful, bright and elegant - the most childish.
And now we’ll look at such models. There were faded photos, and they are in front of you. The models depicted on them are not for professionals, they are for children. But who said that our children should not have the best? Simple, by their strength, psychology, but interesting.
Pie from the island of Bili Bili. Such was her painted in his diary by Miklouho-Maclay. And here is her paper model.
Chinese junky. Open the magazine “Lefty” No. 1 for the 2007 year, and there you will find its sweeps and you can assemble such a model from them.
If you look into the “Lefty” No. 5 for the 2006 year, then you will find this: French battle kogg.
And so it looks already being assembled!
And finally, this. Japanese castle. Assembly instruction, still without numbering.
And this is it in assembled form. Handsomely. A little primitive, but for the children's perception of the very "that." That's just the roof should be different. But this is a "working assembly", so the color is not so important.
Then my wife began to master the plastic. The material was in the letter g ... but it was, at least that. So she sculpted figures from him, cooked them or baked them, and gave them to me to paint. All of them imitate a little porcelain or clay painting, but they looked very elegant indeed. And for 1982 of the year it was something at all. When the journal Science and Life wrote about them, they literally bombarded me with letters. And all that splendor was left was a lady in a silver dress ...
Then went scan models in the annex to “Young Technician” - “Lefty”. There were a Chinese junka, a Venetian galeas, then something else. There were a lot of things ... But the main thing that distinguished my models from others was ... a simplified underwater part of the hull. After all, what did many “paper modelers" strive for? So that the paper accurately bends along the profile of the frames, but this is very difficult to achieve. It is possible to make “boards” and sheathe a dragkar, kogg, but to reproduce smooth contours of the same galleon will fail. Again, “boards” will be needed. Well, children don’t need it. They need a blooper and swam! And so that the top is beautiful, and the bottom is under water, who sees it ?! And so I came up with a model case ... from a sheet of thick paper folded in half.
Assembly scheme of the Venetian galeas. When assembled, it made a very strong impression, and already looked afloat simply wonderful.
Cut, fold in half, glue the ends, strengthen them with strips of cardboard, then bend the walls to the sides and depending on the profile of the upper edge you get a triangular cross-section with death. Only at the junior the body should not be like that, well, then she and the junior! It remains to glue the deck and ... the model is essentially ready. Remains ballast and body coating with waterproof varnish! Well, all sorts of prettiness - castles on the bow and stern, masts, sails. It makes no sense to write in more detail, all of this was described in my books “From Everything That Is at Hand”, “For Those Who Like Handicrafts” and “When the Lessons Are Done”. There’s nothing in them, ranging from an Indian canoe to a Norman sailboat with two masts. Best with this technology are short and pot-bellied vessels — kuggs and cooters, galleons and sakolevs, kochi pomors and Novgorod boats, in a word there are tons of all kinds of original, beautiful and unusual little boats.
Mediterranean fishing sakoleva. Selected for its "pot-bellied" and unusual sailing weapons. I wanted to see how it floats, won't it roll over? At the top right, so to speak, the official “profile” of her body is the contours of the frames. But her feed is shown at the bottom left. But the body contours themselves are the same. Just a triangle and that’s it. And yet, - he swam perfectly! The ballast was from a paraffin embedded shot. First, the body was painted and varnished. Then shot was filled through the hatch and paraffin was poured.
It is interesting that for some reason ship models made using this technology are especially like ... by women. Well, they don’t know that the underwater part of the ship should be “chubby”. For them, the main thing is that it even exists. And so they look exclusively at add-ons!
Of course, our sergo1914 (Sergey) would contemptuously turn away from such models, and even the underwater part of their body can terrify any knowledgeable person, however, they swim and look very pretty. Children are delighted with them, but this is the most important thing! They will become older - they will find out what the law of Archimedes teaches.
This photo I already gave, but from a different angle. Again - the only thing left of the collection in the 100 BTT models, both branded and homemade! But on the other hand ... all this helped us to live well in the 90s, which many recall with such horror. And I learned about the same default of 1998 of the year only three days later, when I came to change the bucks for rubles ... That's why I always appreciated and appreciate everything made by hand. It can always be sold. Here for ideas, especially in Russia, people so far are not used to paying good money!
And now about the development. On the basis of such simplified scans here, you can make a series of cheap models for children, and you can call your own company “Home-made products for school and for students”. After all, every year the “teachers” demand “crafts” to the school. And the parents (mostly them poor) do it ... what they don’t do! It is believed that "children did with their parents." Ha ha ha They can’t do complicated homemade products. They are hand-clasped! And this is not their fault, it is their misfortune. And the simplest ones - they are not interested in doing either! And here ... simple and affordable, and even deliberately doing poorly will not work, but it is clear that ... "the child worked." I tested on the whole class, I set up experiments for four years ... Here you have the developments, which are ready in essence - the raft "genga" from the novel by Jules Verne and the movie "Generals of the sand pits" (the children don’t need to, there’s "sex" there), the raft " Kon-Tiki ”(very good for both children and adults!), Nonparel raft - there was an article about it here in VO, find and look, the Viking ship, the Argo ship, the Indian canoe ...
Very indicative ship. "Argo" by Tim Severin. I made it in Anapa during a vacation in the 1991 year. I managed to make this photo from the faded old slide. Should have been included in my next book, “Models for Every Taste” (Enlightenment Publishing House). But ... we come home in August, and there they broadcast Swan Lake on TV ... And that’s it, this book never came out. They scattered the set because of ... "circumstances." Well, at least they paid the penalty. And now look - paper, the simplest body described above, but the model is floating and looks great on the water!
It is included in the kit? Transparent packaging! A sheet of paper (or two, three sheets) with printed or printed parts, a skein of thread, sticks for barbecue for masts and oars. A bright seductive picture with the image of a finished homemade product and detailed step-by-step instructions. And ... that's it! And then in the advertisement you write why our homework will save your family, what torment and hassle, and that those who subscribe to all issues will receive a discount ... 50%. Naturally, your cost price should be at 10 rubles per set, but the selling price at 100 level ... and still it will be very divine.
And this was already done by one of “my children”. In the sense of students in the class in which my granddaughter studied, and where I had to conduct classes with them for three years. True, I did the trees myself.
According to this principle, I did: a three-day battleship on the 1 scale: 400, the Revenge galleon, all of the above models, the Arab dow, the Hispaniola brigantine, and even the monitor model and, in my opinion, his photo somehow even appeared here.
Favorite children's toy from paper "logs" rolled on a pencil! Catapult!!! Goes for 30 min, and then can "bullet" with rubber bands and stones. And it remained unpainted ... patience was not enough for anyone else to paint it.
But that's not all. Put ten “logs” of paper, a plastic teaspoon and a skein of thread in this bag, and it will be possible to make an active catapult in the Mongol-Tatar (or Sino-Japanese) style from this!
Models of the ship "St. Brendan, Tim Severin and the Malay Flying Pro, are a bit more complicated. There it is no longer used paper, but skewer sticks for barbecue, brown electrical tape, wire, as well as many multi-colored threads.
Especially for those who love paper models and masterfully work with it. Nobody ever produces such anti-aircraft guns on the chassis of British cars. And there are drawings on them. That is ... you take it, you develop the sweeps, since everything is simple there, and ... you start to print them! And to make mastery for an eye and put it on KAROPKA.RU to envy everyone - God himself ordered!
It is clear that you need to have a packer, that you need to print everything somewhere. But the cost will be very low - this is obvious. Here the main difficulty is to instill in our children, parents and schools (and they may well buy such sets for labor lessons!) That these sets must be bought. Here it’s even, perhaps, easier to go abroad, where they think about the development of children in a slightly different way than ours and where the schools themselves are somewhat richer, and supply these kits there. So in my practice it was already. For example, our company PTS did not sell a single “soldier” figure of the Penza fortress 1663 of the year in the city - she gave them to “the right people”, but they sold excellently abroad!
That is - yes, it will be an excellent production for a long time, but in order to untwist it, it takes time, effort and certain means. That is, you need to do this.
Models from ... crumb!
Again, modeling is good? And the fact that a person can change the source to no: choose a different scale and different materials. That is, the same model can be made of paper, wood, plastic and metal. And you can ... from bread crumb! Once I read that prisoners in prisons make figures of bread crumb, color them and this genre of prison creativity is even in some demand among amateurs. Suppose you want to make a unique company and do what no one supplies to the market. And here ... this is your stuff!
Another funny homemade work of those distant times. From a telecast on the Penza TV "For Children - Inventors." Amber cheese box was used, lugs - caterpillars from tanks factory "Spark", wheels - halves of Christmas balls. Inside the mechanism with gears and a flywheel. The wind is blowing - the machine is traveling. He doesn’t ride in the snow, he lacks strength. But on a flat floor in a strong wind she ran very briskly. Imagine a school tournament: “Wind Rider Race” ?! Children drag working ... vacuum cleaners working "for exhaust", and direct their pipes to the fans of these machines. You just need to think about how best to organize this. But it’s interesting, adversarial + excitement! And familiarity with the technique!
By the way, about unique market offers. At one time, many turned to me with this: "Make me a company ...". For example, one person wanted to make bricks on an 1 scale: 35 from clay. And so that his surname (and his name was Woodpeckers) was beaten in her name. They came up with “Woodpekaz Brix”, that is, “Woodpeckers bricks”, and the emblem is a woodpecker on a brick pyramid. I don’t know how much this business went with him, but the emblem was good. Another wanted to make models from science fiction novels. The idea for the Japanese is great, but for Russia ... dubious. They suggested, “Aelita Models” and the picture: Elk and Gusev on a cactus field near the “egg”. They even made such a diorama on the scale of 1: 72, and sent it to the USA in the magazine “Fine Scale Modeler”. They admired, were very surprised that in the 1922 year in our USSR they wrote about flights to Mars, and promised to give an advertisement if we solve the issue of packaging. But we did not solve it! And then ... our trick was that the "eggs" were real. From turkey! But ... how to transport an empty shell overseas so that it does not crash? But you can make the same model of epoxy using the rubber whale method. Although such models are very amateur. But ... how did the new NF film come out, so you immediately make a “track” to it and then advertise in Japan in the Model Grafix magazine and in the USA in the Fine Scale Modeler and ... thousands of orders from around the world leave you a chance to even sleep. But money is being poured, poured, poured ...
It was a very good idea to do it on an 1 scale: 35 ... reeds under the Rush Models brand (“Reed Models”)! I still can’t understand how the author of this “invention” managed to ... “craft”, and on a solid scale. Indeed, on this scale, the stalk is thin, the inflorescence itself is only a little thicker, and he did it from wire, and the leaves from thin metal. We sold the party to Italy very well, but I don’t know how things went with this man himself.
A very interesting figure, which was sent to me from Japan in the early 90s. Depicts Ferdinand II of Tyrol in tournament armor from the Eagle Headset on a scale of 1:12 (150 mm) co-produced by Imai (Japan) and Imex (USA). Figures of this series were created and put into serial production in the first half of the 80s of the twentieth century. The Vienna leadership praised them armory the chambers where the armor itself is located. It seems that they are not being released now, but this is just good. You go to Vienna, negotiate with the leadership of the chamber, take and measure some of the very, most armor ... and put them into production! And there you sell in the store at the ward !!! There is a lot of everything in it, there are even plate knight gloves for 125 euros, but, alas, there are not enough beautiful collectible figures. Here there are photos of the same figure, with even greater quality: https://diorama.ru/gallery/figures/1509/photo6/. Although the face, it seems to me, is still better for my knight ... By the way, the figures are still ahead of us.
So the same thing with the crumb ... We take the finished model on the scale of 1: 35 or 1: 43, remove the forms from all the large parts and form the crumb crushed to the consistency of plasticine in them. And you start crusts on kvass and crackers for chicken broth! Press the crumb into the molds and leave to dry. Dry ones will shrink and the scale will change - there will be 1: 40 or 1: 48. Under the changed scale, you’re already doing your own “small things” from “white metal” and even ... Bristol white cardboard. Then all this is packed into separate nests of cardboard packaging and ... that's it! You’ve got a unique “prison” kit with a tank model. Such a model should be painted after the primer and non-water-based paints, that is, acrylic will not work. But such models look spectacular, there is something in them ... such. It’s a pity that not a single photo was preserved ... It is interesting that tanks with cast towers and hulls are best obtained in this technology. However, why so - it is clear!
But the most relevant occupation for today is, of course, “at home” and accessories for the “home”. And this is also a simulation. But there will still be a story about it ...
P.S. By the way, if one of the readers of VO wants to start producing paper models for children using simplified technology or go to work in school as the head of the technical modeling circle, then ... I have at least a dozen such developments that are left to bring to mind a little. I have no time to do this, but if someone expresses a desire to receive them, please contact. There is even an English steam armored vehicle from the Boer War with a wagon and a gun ...
P.S.S. Photographs of the Japanese castle, French kogg, dzhoni and pies with Bili-Bili - the work of Sozinov Vyacheslav, my colleague with whom we developed them for the magazine "Lefty". He also glued them according to our scans.
To be continued ...
Information