The Little World

I’ll say this now, at the risk of a haunting tonight – my father had some strange ideas. Not strange as in socially strange or religiously strange – his were more mechanically strange. They were generally a result of a problem that had to be solved, no fancy equipment at hand, and the availability of a pad of yellow paper and a pencil. Father was well pre-computer but knew his way around a drafting table.

Here are my recent engineering solutions for non-engineers:

a. Stein’s Painting Handle:

Far too often I have tried to grasp a part or a model for detail painting and ruined previous work with solvent-covered fingers or an unstable grip that let go just at the wrong time. Enter the Painting Handle.

Made up of a Stein’s Plane Support and a rubber band, it gently wraps the fuselage of a model to allow you a complete grip of work as you paint the details. No fingers go near the model. It can be supplemented with foam or paper towels at the part that touches the paintwork. The other advantage is when you are spray painting, your hands are out of the paint blast.

b. Stein’s Wing Squisher

Developed from the bench-mounted Wing Vice, the Wing Squisher lets you have the plane on its side at convenient height under the strong light. A third hand for gluing or painting. Cost: $ 0.00.

c. Stein’s Window Wonders

The separate window panes favoured by the pesky European model kit companies have two things in common; they are either too big or too small. The large ones need trimming before they will push into the window openings and the small ones need support when they are in there – otherwise they just fall straight into the interior and rattle around forever. The glue that retains them – Micro Kleer  – is wonderful as long as the plastic window is in position long enough for it to set.

So here’s the drum: cut match sticks in half and wrap a small amount of double-sided tape around their middle. Position this in the centre of the window pane. Then daub glue on the forward and rear edge of the window frame and ease the pane in. Press it flat with a matchstick. The wooden support will prevent it going too far in as it sets and then can be peeled off later.

Here’s the result next day:

Father woulda been proud.