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Hello there! I have been for the most part, sifting through all the interesting threads and postings of this site, very inspiring, with nothing as of yet to share. I have been involved with models my whole life. I built everything I could when I was a boy, and from the age of 19 -38, I was the manager of what was the best of the scale model shops in California. Paul Freiler's Historical Models. Changing times, economies, and the movement of industries out of California, doomed our shop and many others. I then for a very short time made movie models, then to Northrop, for an even shorter time ,doing presentation models, and finally, into the concept car field, were a model is 1 : 1. I pride myself on researching our hobby and maybe I can contribute in this way? Many of us have probably had to defend our enthusiasm for models with our families, or others. Models and model making is a very old occupation. Model ships, miniature architecture, miniature everything! prototype everything! artists study models, ... Everything that has been made, was probably first made as a model! Even today very little ever goes from computer screen to production without a model being made. Google, Apple, SONY, Chrysler, HONDA, Dodge, Paramount, they all prefer having something to hold, or walk around, or sit in. With some industries model making is still part of the process. Art directors, Designers and Engineers depend on model makers to give their visions substance. Enough said?
What about our past? Who went before us that we might be on the brink of forgetting? Some pioneers: Harold Pratley, wrote one of the first books on scratch building model cars, and many magazine articles with 3 view plans.
Rex Hays, was a journalist covering the racing scene, who also created models to be used as trophies, wrote about modelling, wrote a very good book about making models, and was approached by his home town to produce a model for presentation to the Queen of England, then to be asked by Jaguar to make a model of the, at that time, Le Mans winning D Type, for Prince Charles. This he did in record time, when they, Jaguar, provided him, Hays, with a D Type in his drive way the next day! Mr. Hays preceded Mr. Wingrove as a modeler, working for the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.
Henri Baigent, pronounced Henry, another Englishman, wrote articles, a machinist modeler, made his own camera, to document his work, vulcanized his own tyres, was in part or whole the developer of Slot-Cars! And, is the only model maker whose work received a three page spread in Playboy with an article written by Sterling Moss! His son has created a web site to honor his father's life.
Well that takes us up to the end of the fifties, and into the sixties. But there are three more modelers to remember, Manual Olive Sans, of Barcelona, Michele Conti of Turin, both who produced fabulous models for another thirty years. (More on them later?) And one American. A television actor, Don Oreck. Find a copy of MODEL CAR SCIENCE, Sept. 1965, and you'll see a 1/8th scale Watson Roadster, that's perfect! He also did a Type 35 Bugatti that is equally beautiful. (He used a Unimat SL lathe when they were new!)
From the formative years, have I missed someone? -I'm sure I have. Ever heard of John Hagerty, of Cohasset, Mass.?
And there are many one time master-pieces, and some times models, industrial models are actually the work of several people, pattern maker, machinist, sheet metal, composites, surfacer, and painter. Its a very interesting field and it has a legacy.
What do you think? Who do you want to remember?
QUOTE 
!! I love the Type 59's wheels but I can't imagine tackling them in any scale smaller than an eighth. . . . I know that several have; Wingroves 1/15, Pulido 1/10, but my eyes are not that good, nor my machining ability. -Again HAPPY NEW YEAR!! -Don
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