Model making: Social distancing from the past

I and many of my friends spent our grade school years building scale models, most from kits but some from scratch. This was soon after World War II when relatives who fought in the war recounted their time in B17s or aboard warships. Naturally our models of choice were mostly from the “Big One.” Plastic models hadn’t debuted, so we worked with balsa and other wood, along with paper. Paper? The tissue-like paper served as the airplane’s aluminum shell. It was strung over thin strips of wood that formed the fuselage, wings and tail. The paper was then sprayed with water that tightened when it dried.

Balsa was used extensively. Take a block of balsa, put an outline of a section of the plane on the block and then carve or sandpaper the wood to shape. All this required the young builder to follow directions, which helped develop patience and discipline. It also provided history lessons. Building a model of the aircraft carrier Enterprise encouraged me to learn about the history of the ship. Wanting to learn more about a subject served me well when I grew up and became a wire service reporter. I found that history was a neglected niche in journalism, so I filled it by writing history stories, first for United Press International and later the Associated Press and now the San Mateo Daily Journal.

I developed an unusual hobby during my career. I built models of the ships and planes I wrote about. The Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien, still afloat in San Francisco Bay, was one of my favorites. The models are in my den, along with the articles I wrote about them. The O’Brien story led to building two models: the O’Brien itself and one of the Titanic. That’s because the O’Brien’s engine room stood in for the doomed liner’s engine room in the Oscar-winning 1997 film Titanic. There’s no way my fleet and squadron from the past can be regarded as outstanding, but, as a friend said, it’s probably “the best collection of both models and articles — at least on your block.”

For a truly impressive collection of the modelers’ art, visit the San Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City’s Courthouse Square, which, of course, like most public gathering places is closed for the duration. The museum’s “Ships of the World” models, which range from replicas of sailing ships to the destroyer USS The Sullivans, were the work of the late Charles Parsons of San Carlos.

The Hiller Museum in San Carlos has many models as well as a display case holding kits from the “pre-plastic era” mentioned earlier. The museum at San Francisco International Airport frequently has model displays. Two years ago, it exhibited nearly 300 planes from the Jim Lund scale model airplane collection that represented aircraft from the 1903 Wright Flyer to today’s airliners. Lund worked with plastic, wood, metal, wire, string and epoxy.

If you want to build a model, visit the J&M hobby shop in San Carlos. It’s closed now, of course, but just standing outside is worth the visit. Built in 1936, the building is a fine example of art moderne architecture. It has wraparound windows and railings that make it look like an ocean liner.

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.