Super (Small) Models

Hey all, Ernie here with a piece from resident enthusiast David Buck, who is enthused about building things at small sizes. Read on to see his scale-model insights.

Today in Tedium: From classic cars, aircraft and starships to movie vehicles and beyond, scale modeling has long been a popular hobby in the United States. As a child, I participated in several 4-H courses based on model craft and I even won first prize for one of mine at the county fair one year for a Revell snap-together Jeep I built for the course. While it may not be as popular today, scale modeling impacted an entire generation and left its mark on our pop culture. Today’s Tedium is all about plastic scale models, their cultural legacy and a spotlight some of the companies who made them an American tradition. Hey, at least it’s not stamp collecting. — David @ Tedium

Rat Fink, built and painted by the author

Scale modeling has been around a long time, but only in the 20th century did it become a major consumer hobby

Throughout history, scale models have been used to represent everything from troop formations to the prototypes of the great inventors and beyond. They’re still heavily used in architecture and occasionally in films, but gone are the days when one could walk into a hobby shop and find walls lined with plastic scale models or see one as the centerpiece of a science fiction television program.

During the 1930s and 1940s, prior to Revell pioneering the use of plastics to create their own model kits, most models were made of wood. Ships in bottles had already been around since the 1700s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that plastic models became popular. By 1956, popular Boy Scouts magazine Boys Life said 80% of boys would become builders of scale models. Around the same time Revell was just learning to use injected molded plastic to create their model kits, something interesting was happening more than halfway across the country in Chicago. Two former employees of a company called Comet Kits decided to break away and form their own model company. Monogram was established in 1945, primarily focused on selling balsa wood plane kits. As Revell entered the plastic car market, so, too did Monogram. What followed were decades of competition, until Revell merged with Monogram in 1986. In 2007, the company was acquired by Hobbico, but continued releasing models under the Revell name until early this year, when Hobbico filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Despite this, Revell Germany lives on, continuing to produce model kits under the Revell name.

Two other companies—Aluminum Model Toys (AMT) and Model Products Corporation (MPC) came along in 1948 and 1963 respectively—comprising the original “Big Four” model companies. They all competed with each other over the years until one by one, they were merged and eventually acquired by Round 2, LLC—a company that routinely re-releases kits from the days of models past.

A fraction of the author’s unbuilt collection. All of the “big four” companies are represented.

Aside from the “Big Four” American companies, the Korea-based Academy and Italy’s Italeri were both founded in the 1960s, competing in the global market along with my personal favorite company Japan’s Tamiya, who originally made those wooden models we mentioned a few paragraphs ago in the 1940s. That is, until they also transitioned into plastic models in 1959.

A motorized Tamiya kit. Via the author.

Today, the name Tamiya is synonymous with high quality model kits. Known predominantly for military vehicles, they also sell car and motorized kits, in addition to their fantastic paints and primer.

When it comes to scale models, the devil is in the details

Back in the United States, Revell prided itself on high quality, accurate models and, in 1961, that very dedication raised some concern from a nervous Navy Vice Admiral. Per the Jun. 30, 1961 issue of LIFE Magazine, a Polaris submarine kit made by the company was so realistic that Vice Admiral Hyman Rickover felt the kit was a national security risk. Why? Because he felt the detailed parts were basically giving away submarine construction information to the Russians. This proved to be untrue, however, as Glaser found all the information used to create the kit from publicly available sources.

While it seems the glory days of scale modeling drove—or, perhaps flew—into the sunset long ago, there was a time when building 1/24, 1/48 and 1/72 scale replicas of cars, planes, military vehicles and rockets was once among the most popular hobbies in the United States. Not only that, but hobbying was big business in the 1960s, generating over $100,000,000 in sales through the early 1960s.

In that decade alone, the hobby took off among the general population, with kits ranging from realistic depictions of modern day vehicles to models based on television programs and futurist predictions. But scale model building wasn’t seen as a mere hobby—it had practical applications across a variety of fields. As the December 1960 issue of Popular Mechanics put it:

Strict attention to detail has made models important to the aviation industry, and many modifications have resulted from tests of models, saving a great deal of expense in plane production. Electronic engineers are using miniature planes to test guidance systems, and the time may come a time when there will be kits for the construction of planes that can be guided electronically.

The magazine goes on to mention miniatures of an atomic reactor being used to educate school children about the peaceful uses of atomic energy and educating children in Ghana about aviation via scale models of planes.

In the American auto industry, AMT made promotional model cars—pre-built scale models car salesmen would use to drum up consumer interest in a vehicle and demonstrate the look/feel of a vehicle.

18 years later, Popular Mechanics chose to revisit the subject in a longer feature, this time discussing more of the positive effects the hobby has on model builders and the constant desire to achieve the best tracks results with a variety of painting/finishing methods. It also features tips and tricks for building the perfect model!

As time marched on, the magazine would continue to cover the hobby here and there and scale models continued to capture the public imagination through movies and TV shows like Thunderbirds and Star Trek.

Under representing the Federation in style! Via the author.

Where no kid has gone before

In 1966, a brand new science fiction television show called Star Trek arrived on NBC. You know the premise, the crew and the ship. You may also be aware of the pop culture phenomenon Star Trek became with its five spinoff series, the extended book universe, video games, filk songs, toys and most recently RPG. But before all of that, before the movies and the conventions, there were the scale models.

In the late 1960s, AMT acquired the Star Trek license and produced numerous kits based on the property. The original kit is perhaps the most built—or at least purchased—of those kits. It has a long and fascinating history, which the site Cult TV Man breaks down wonderfully at their site.

Per Pocket Books’ The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, the various Trek kits had another purpose in a later iteration of the show—as cannon fodder.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season four episode “Way of the Warrior” features several AMT/ERTL kits in the ending battle sequence, being blown into cosmic dust. Though CGI has overtaken traditional effects in most modern shows, it’s fun to say I recognized that inimitable AMT kit style from almost a light year away.