Decided to sort out the summer shed workshop today as it was getting a bit buried and it was impossible to get even near the workbench ! the job proved more labour intensive than I first imagined and it was mid-day before I cleared even underneath,the junk and rubbish had certainly mounted up and I have a trailerful of junk awaiting going to the tip,funny how as modellers we squirrel things away thinking that they could get used one day ? the wood stash will need to be thinned out tomorrow,I use one of those large dustbins and just throw in offcuts as I go along,problem is that the small pieces are floating on the top with the more useful bits buried underneath,several cups of tea later I attacked the paint department,shaking and opening lids to find some that had dried up and others with Humbrol logos on from the early sixties ! as a mixture of cellulose & enamel mingled in the air the pile of tins was getting bigger in the trash bin department that was,then a pile of different sized paintbrushes some of which had seen better days,not that I am short of brushes anyway as every visit to a shop that sells them I usually make a purchase just in case I should run out on a bank holiday at midnight.The biggest job was the model graveyard ie a big box of undercarriages,bits and pieces of tails,dozens of broken cowlings and scores of fittings some still attached to the main parts,this is the section that slows you down as you try and remember how that model bit the dust and is now but a distant memory,the 'Well it could come in handy one day' syndrome had obviously hit this department badly and as the object of the lesson was to make some working space in the bin they had to go,they gave me pleasure building them,flying them and eventually the model either crashed or got flown so much that it was oil soaked anyway,does all of this sound familiar ? well all across the land modellers must have a clear-out one day and make way for new creations,after all it was doubtful if any of those bits would ever find there way into new models again and now I can access my bandsaw and sander once again where the heaps of rubbish were building up,it just makes me realise how many different tools and materials we all use in our model building,and above all the hundreds of happy hours spent building our creations. :great:
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Ditto Barry, You just wrote my script. Bonus was that I rediscovered a little Norvel engine, brand-new-in-the-box, that I`d forgotten I had bought 3 years ago ! Still looking for vintage decals, must be getting close. Mystery...how do the well packed plastic model biplanes break their struts having been un-touched for a year or four in the top of a cupboard that is never opened. Maybe Gremlins do exist ! -
Ditto Barry' date=' You just wrote my script. Bonus was that I rediscovered a little Norvel engine, brand-new-in-the-box, that I`d forgotten I had bought 3 years ago ! Still looking for vintage decals, must be getting close. Mystery...how do the well packed plastic model biplanes break their struts having been un-touched for a year or four in the top of a cupboard that is never opened. Maybe Gremlins do exist ![/quote']*** Duncan,plastic seems to vary a lot in quality these days and seems in some cases to degrade rather quickly,normally as the oil content dries out over the years the material becomes very brittle and looses its elastisity,remember the recent case of re-cycled plastic used to make servo cases in Tawain,the slightest bump and stress cracks appeared,many people got caught out with them.Could be that the struts being so thin degraded despite even being carefully stored,I have the same problem with propellers which always seem to part company from the hubs and virtually impossible to repair properly.
I doubt whether there will be many antique plastic items left for future collectors after another 100 years plus ? some of my earliest wooden solid models are still extant despite a bit of cracking paint which all adds to their character.
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Yes Barry, you have described my shed too.
I recently found a brand new speed controller that I knew I bought ages ago but never knew what happened to it as I wanted it to go in my speed boat...was clearing some boxes out and there it was inside one of them....Put away in a safe place...so safe I had forgotten where I had put it.
As for the model graveyard...yes I have a box of bits like that too...mostly engines still on mounts and undercarriages......and yes I do have projects lined up for them.
I sorted out all my old paints ages ago but no doubt I will have to go through them all again soon.
Regards.......MarkComment
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