Vintage model making has always interested me and this week a friend sent me a link to a fascinating blog post about Ted Vanner, model boat builder in the early part of the last century.
We tend to think of travelling with models and taking part in events around the country as a relatively modern thing but Ted and his fellow members of the Victoria Park Model Steam Boat Club got around a lot, including a trip to Paris. All this by train or horse drawn conveyance of course.
Proper modelling too, with strips of tin being soldered using an iron heated up over a gas flame! Makes the sort of thing we do look very easy indeed!
Phil, my Granddad was a founding member of Victoria Model Steamboat Club when he was quite young. I'm sure you know it's the oldest model boat club in the world.
ReplyDeleteAlas, I have nothing of his from the period, but the club still possess a steam tug he made which used to be used to pull a dinghy round to rescue models that had died out on the lake. They still have tethered hydroplanes there, but not the biggest class any more, thanks to the local council spoiling peoples' fun as ever.
Tethered hydroplanes are basically floating misslies aren't they? I know someone who sails one and I'm not sure I would want to be around when he's using it. At the very least I'd want someone else to check the bit of string attaching it to the pole...
ReplyDeleteHi Phil I am The Secretary of the Victoria Model Steamboat Club you mention above and really wish you would not publish inflammatory words like "misslies" - which sounds like the correct spelling "Missiles" and bits of string attached to the pole... even in jest when you have no clue of how they run and the years of safety that are applied. For the record it is the hydroplane members who decide what size hydro run safely at Victoria and nothing to do with the Council and we have no knowledge of the steam tug or dinghy referred to above. Regards
ReplyDeleteKeith Reynolds Hon Secretary Victoria Model Steamboat Club.
It was meant in jest - the question mark might have given you a clue.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that there are incredible safety precautions applied to the sport, there would have to be as these are some serious bits of equipment.
I'm not sure why you think I would think that the council decided on the specifications of the equipment though, I doubt very much they would know anything about it, other than rely on the skills and knowledge of the builders.