Technique for modeling on magazine pages

Still from the film "Stagecoach" (1939). This happened to them, and quite often. And that means there may well be a person who wants to imagine all this as a diorama on his desk (or in a cabinet behind glass!) and rejoice, looking at the fruits of his skilled hands. But where can you find plans for such a stagecoach?

“…to give intelligence to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young…”
Book of Proverbs of Solomon, 1:4

Stories about sources of information for creativity. Before the invention of the Internet, people got serious information about scientific and technical achievements from magazines. Some were popular, some were specialized, but in any case, it was a magazine, not a newspaper. Although they also published news science and technology. But since they were intended for a broad mass audience, their content was appropriate. But magazines - yes, they provided more professional text in all senses, and the "pictures" (drawings and photographs) there were very interesting.

Let's go back in time today and see what information could be gleaned from... mass-market foreign magazines of the last century, aimed, however, at the appropriate audience, that is, people interested in technology and creativity. We will show what interesting homemade products readers of magazines like "Popular Mechanics" could make with their own hands. That is, we will talk about the development of technical creativity "there". After all, everything is learned through comparison. In our country, technical creativity was given a lot of attention on the pages of magazines like "Young Technician", "Modeler-Constructor", "Levsha". And a lot of relevant books were also published. And how did things stand with this "there"? Was there something similar there?

We open the magazine "Popular Mechanics" of the 40-50s of the last century, and there, for example, it tells about the so-called "Flettner rotor", an original device that allows using the force of the wind to rotate the propeller of a ship. It is also called a turbosail, and for the first time on a ship this invention of the German engineer Anton Flettner was used back in 1924 on the schooner "Bukau". The appearance of the ship was more than original, but it sailed, and quite successfully.

Rotary schooner "Bukau"

How to make a model with a "Flettner rotor"?

It was a three-masted schooner, which was refitted with two 13-meter-high "sails". Thanks to this, the "Bukau" could move at an angle of 25 degrees to the headwind, which is impossible in principle for classic sailing ships. The ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean, proving that such a design has potential for development. After this, the rotary dry cargo ship "Barbara" was built, on which three 17-meter cylinders were installed. Operation showed that such a design did not provide any special benefits. The cylinders had to be rotated using an engine, that is, the ship still consumed fuel, although it was a sailing ship.

Today, they are trying to equip tankers with "Flettner rotors", which gives up to 35% savings in fuel used for their movement. One of these tankers during the refitting

Well, in the case of the model, everything is simple: the wind rotates the turbosail, and from it the rotation is transmitted to the propeller. Subsequently, exactly the same model was recommended for construction in the magazine "Modelist-Constructor".

The same magazine offered lovers of antiquity to make a model of an ancient Greek trireme…

"Banks" for rowers and oars. It was because of their abundance that I never liked the trireme model. Alas, laziness is present in the character of many...

"A land yacht" that is as easy as pie to make. And for some reason they made it with a star on the sail. By the way, in my book "From Everything That's at Hand" I described a similar ice yacht with a hull made of... a toothbrush case. Naturally, "one that has fallen into disrepair." It was impossible to write differently in 1987

A ship model has always been a very tempting object for the application of creative forces, both for children and adults. And now Popular Mechanics has placed two such models on its pages: one simpler and the other more complex.

A very simple wooden boat

And this dry cargo ship is already a real model!

How could we do without a Viking ship? No way!

Some of the homemade products were clearly experimental in nature and were clearly designed to develop the technical skills of the DIYers. For example, among them was this “slap-slap” – a boat without a propeller, moving due to horizontal blows of the “tail”, that is, by analogy with whales. Later, a story about this mover in its application to a model of a cargo barge appeared in the magazine “Young Technician”

Each nation has always had its own historically established and therefore favorite type of transport. In England and the USA, such transport was the stagecoach. And, of course, its model was proposed for production by the magazine "Popular Mechanics" back in 1946. "Stagecoach" is a cult film of 1939, "Pride and Prejudice" (1995), and, of course, "Our Man from Boulevard des Capucines" (1987) could not do without this type of transport. The January issue of "Popular Mechanics" published several articles at once on how to make its model.

Everything is shown in great detail. Take it and do it, and the homemade product will be very beautiful!

In my opinion, making wheels the way it is written here is quite labor-intensive. It is easier to cut out two rings from thick paper and glue radially diverging spokes - toothpick sticks - onto one. One end is glued to the rim ring, the other to the hub circle. Then the second ring and the second circle are glued onto them. Then the rim itself is made of thin paper tape. Empty spaces between the spokes (if you are nervous about their presence!) are filled with a mixture of PVA glue and sawdust. Then the wheel is painted red, the rim is “metallic”, and that’s it - the wheel can be put on your carriage

Here is a very interesting model of a helicopter. Its propeller is spun by an engine with a propeller on its blade. For quite a long time, helicopter models of this type were very popular among modelers, but then, just like single-blade systems, they faded away, unable to stand the test of time.

A submarine with automatic control. Well, this was clearly a model for aces!

November 1944. Ship's souvenir cannon

But this is not just a piece of a ship's side, but also a piece of the deck and a ship's carronade gun made by Penza modeler Yu. Pivkin, the company "Major Models". A masterpiece, what can I say, as is the armored car "Zaamurets". Only the cannonballs, in my opinion, are too "shiny". They should be turned into "cast iron" ones...

The story about the ship cannon-souvenir appeared in our country, which is not surprising. What is surprising is that it first appeared in the magazine... "Kostyor"!

Our story would be incomplete without mentioning the books on technical creativity that were published in our country at the same time, telling how to make various homemade products, some of them very complex. It is clear that they were intended “mainly” for them to be done in clubs at regional stations of young technicians in large cities, where there were appropriate machines and materials. Even in 1977, such a thing could not be made in a club in a rural school, well, perhaps, a water mill. But it was there, and if desired, at least someone could use the recommendations of these books!

Here they are – these books from a time so distant from us!

Comments

[avia12005]

Many fathers also created models of airplanes, ships, tanks, and machine guns for their sons. Mostly, from wood. And some who had the opportunity cast aluminum models based on the models they made. Personally, my dad made a T-34, ISU-152 (he fought on them), Pe-2, Il-4, TB-3, MiG-3, I-16, PPSh machine gun, and even a Degtyarev machine gun from wood. In the childhood of the 60s, many boys had something to brag about.

Unfortunately, the theme of such family creativity has not yet been revealed and studied. So another direction opens up for Vyacheslav Olegovich, and there is a wish to do it if possible)))

[kalibr]

Quote: avia12005

another direction is opening up, and there is a wish to take up this if possible)))

Thanks for the idea. But the photos will be a bit of a problem.

[kalibr]

Quote: avia12005

As children in the 60s, many boys had something to brag about.

I had a homemade rifle with a bolt made from a bolt, a terrible-looking Maxim machine gun, but it was good for the game, a couple of homemade pistols and a revolver with a rotating cylinder - watching "The Magnificent Seven". There were two swords, two shields, two axes and a poleaxe. How my friends and I didn't kill or maim each other with all this, I can't imagine.

[Captain45]

Quote: kalibr

I had a homemade rifle with a bolt made from a bolt, a terrible-looking Maxim machine gun, but it was good for the game, a couple of homemade pistols and a revolver with a rotating cylinder - watching "The Magnificent Seven". There were two swords, two shields, two axes and a poleaxe.

You had a pretty good arsenal, I remember in the 3rd grade, when we fought the Germans, I had a PPSh with a disk and a TT, my partner also had a TT, and the "German" had a "Schmeisser" against us. Dad once watched our war and armed us, of wood, true, but with a very similar weapon , and then, against the Whites, I went out with a Mauser on my shoulder strap in a wooden holster. Well, my dad was a wood expert, once, with a shoemaker's knife, distracted from hemming felt boots, in about 30 minutes he made a deer and a sled from a thin wooden plank... There was a childhood, interesting, and useful for hands. I remember on my birthday in the 6th grade they gave me a book "Self-made items for a schoolchild", what wasn't there , even a rocket on a gunpowder engine, according to the proposed composition of gunpowder, made independently. Instead of weights, metal coins of 1 kopeck, 2 kopecks were used for weighing.

[kalibr]

Quote: Captain45

rocket with a gunpowder engine,

We did it in grades 8-9 in the chemistry club at school for launch on April 12!

[Rodez]

Quote: Captain45

rocket on a gunpowder engine, according to the proposed composition of gunpowder, made independently

I didn't find any saltpeter at the time... I found a "recipe" for an engine from film, made it for starters... and what a disappointment, only smoke and no jet thrust - as it turned out, it was no longer flammable :))

[Rodez]

Quote: kalibr

a homemade rifle with a bolt action made from a bolt, a terrible-looking Maxim machine gun, but it was good for the game, a couple of homemade pistols and a revolver with a rotating cylinder - watching "The Magnificent Seven"

it was like looking into a mirror... true "the rifle shot staples made of aluminum wire on a rubber band (but very accurately up to 10m, what on a paper target, three newspaper sheets pierced, what on skin during battles and ambushes), covered with shells, so that it looked like a Winnetou rifle, the same 2 pistols, but loaded from the muzzle and this is what inspired me to a revolver, and not westerns, if you load, then 6 shots at once :)
I noticed a book about homemade steam engines... oh, I didn't have one of those, I drew/built them myself, based on historical sketches from literature... matches, to the misfortune of all kinds of travelers, were a favorite building material, and sulfur was used in pistols and revolvers, why let good things go to waste!
thanks, you stirred up the gunpowder in the powder flasks :)

[Dutchman Michel]

Before the invention of the Internet, people got serious information about scientific and technological achievements from magazines

The BBC had a good cycle of programmes on science and technology. For example, I remember several programmes about the American Mars exploration programme, which covered in detail the Viking 1 and Viking 2 flights. So there was a place to get information from

[kalibr]

Quote: Dutchman Michel

On BBC radio

Never listened to it, just like the Voice of America. At home there was a radio - a "black plate", but there was never a portable radio or a large table radio at home. That's just how it turned out...

[tatarin1972]

There was also a lot of educational stuff in the youth magazines, in "Young Technician", "Model Designer", I was involved in ship modeling, I took the drawings from the second magazine. Well, and for fun-

[Alexey RA]

Quote: tatarin1972

Well, and for fun-

He-he-he... the original "Chemistry for the curious. Basics of chemistry and entertaining experiments" in some places in fact was not far from this comic cover. "Poisons and explosives for the curious."

[Dmitry Ivanov_8]

In my childhood (90s) I made mostly models from Levsha, M-K. It is clear that it was impossible to cut out ready-made patterns, so carbon paper and felt-tip pens were used. Now it seems like another long-term construction project.

[kalibr]

Quote: Dmitry Ivanov_8

In my childhood (90s) I made mostly models from Levsha, M-K. It is clear that it was impossible to cut out ready-made patterns, so carbon paper and felt-tip pens were used. Now it seems like another long-term construction project.

Dear Dmitry! Throw this store-bought firewood into the stove. You deserve better!!! Let me teach you an excellent technology... and you will make an excellent galleon "Golden Hind" or "Saint Martin", and I will even supply you with a set of decals for the sails... You will not regret it...

[fiv]

We subscribed to the magazine "Maly Modelyazh" (Little Modeling), and the whole room was covered in glued paper models when we were kids.

[Umptek]

We also subscribed to it almost until adolescence, when it seemed there was no time for models. But I remember that besides the Polish Modelazh and Maly Modelazh, there were also some technical magazines with drawings for modeling and homemade products from the GDR, the Hungarian People's Republic (Hungary), I think there was another Bulgarian one. There was also some magazine in the Baltic republics.

[Edward Vashchenko]

Very interesting article

[Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov]

How to make a model with a "Flettner rotor"?

I downloaded a book from 26 about aircraft modeling, and there were drawings of a model of a rubber-powered airplane with a flatner rotor, this rotor was turned by another rubber-powered motor. A very unusual design, but I have not seen it anywhere else. The speed of response to new technology from a domestic author-developer is amazing.

[Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov]

Naturally, "having fallen into disrepair." It was impossible to write differently in 1987

That's right. Planned economy in action.
I remember how some kid asked the magazine "Young Technician" to publish drawings of equipment that could be made from matches. Such equipment regularly appeared in the news of modeling and attracted attention with its unusualness. So the editors of the magazine wrote off an angry sermon about such incorrect "modeling" in the following spirit - "what if this box of matches that you use ineptly to build a model is not enough for some geologist in the taiga and he dies, unable to make a fire!!!!"

[kalibr]

Quote: Ivan Ivanych Ivanov

and he will die, unable to start a fire!!!!"

I received a review of my first book from the "Prosveshchenie" magazine. "We should recommend accessible materials to children, but you recommend ice cream sticks. But Chukchi children don't have them!" I remember I was simply stunned. What stupid person wrote this? Chukchi children don't have many of the things that children in central Russia have, but why would they be so concerned about them? It was in 1985. Well, they could have written honestly - there are our own authors, and who are you? There is a nobody and no name - I would have understood. But no... they dragged the Chukchi into it. But when this same book of mine was published in 1987 by Polymya in Belarus - THIS same Chukchi editorial board invited me... to write the same book for them. And this was after my not very flattering response to their review. No - everything was forgotten and it immediately became tip-top. There were some mean people even back then. By the way, it's easier with this now. They write outright - "Your topic is unpopular among readers!" That is, get lost with it!

[cctv]

I registered specifically to say a huge thank you to Vyacheslav Olegovich for the book "For those who love to tinker".

I got it in 91 and read it through dozens of times. And not only by me - together with friends we made crafts from it. And even more inspired to do something of our own. It was the next step after Markusha's book "And I Myself" for a growing schoolchild.

Of course, "MK", ​​"Young Technician" with the supplement were also subscribed to while they were coming out. Until the happy childhood ended with the advent of capitalism.