Good old days

[Keith Spriggs]

         Anybody remember stuff like this?

[Bill Adair]

    

Some of us thought that die cutting was the cat's meow, which it was when compared to print wood.

I do remember spending hours finishing those incomplete die cuts,  by carefully tracing around them with a number 11 Xacto blade. Then the crushed edges were usually so rough, that it took hours more of sanding to smooth them out. 

I'm sure that some of my final airfoil sections, were way thinner than the designer intended, but quarter inch thick cap strips were just too hard to bend!

Can you imagine, what the next fifty years of kit improvements will bring? 

Bill

[Chuck Feldman]

Sure looks familiar. Probably a Dumas/Veco Chief rib.

[Phil Coopy]

Looks like it's from a Bud Nosen kit after A&A started to produce them.

Phil

[Andrew Borgogna]

There is a reason we all called it "die crushing".  When it comes to quality kits, "these are the good old days".  Sounds like a song from my miss spent youth.
Andy

[Charlie Pate]

I believe ,if my memory is accurate,that Mike Pratt allowed as how silk screen printing was was more
expensive than die cutting , but modelers wanted screening because with a little more work, you got a better
component to use(Magnum kit).Agreed!
I remember as a kid spending endless hours ,Or was it days. using half a doubled edge razor blade to cut out
parts for the comet kits.Good ole days!
Now we have laser cut parts,as clean as a jig saw puzzle part. Just put in the proper place;Course I never was very good at jig saw puzzles either. I certainly would like to try the lazer way though.
Maybe these are the good old days.

[Keith Spriggs]

Sure looks familiar. Probably a Dumas/Veco Chief rib.

I had no idea what it was, but I am sure you are right. I have material stored in an old Veco Chief box. I have had it around for 35-40 years. I really don't remember how I happen to have it, but I know I never built one. Possibly I got it when I bought all of someones equipment.
I remember cutting out parts for the old Comet kits with a single edge razor blade. I never had an Exacto till I was grown.

[Bill Adair]

"I have material stored in an old Veco Chief box. I have had it around for 35-40 years."

Gad, it must be contagious!! 

I have one of those as well, and also never built a Chief.

Most likely picked it up at a swap meet, full off something I knew I had to have, but most likely never used. 

Bill

[L0U CRANE]

Ty,

Of course it is a VECO or DUMAS die-crush from a Bob Palmer design - Smoothie, Chief, Warrior, Brave, etc.

The "dirtee comeek boook" plans that came with those showed what to do with those round holes at 60% chord. There were these 1/8 square strips in the kit box, remember? Shove them through the holes in the ribs, and they came to a sort of agreement about a shape between round and square, and acted as aft auxiliary spars.

That was sort of a Bob Palmer hallmark.

I did that, because the plans showed and described doing it. It still makes sense - some added stiffness at near no added weight.

[john e. holliday]

Not as much gluing surface if placed at the surface of the rib.  It was amazing that in the day that Veco, Sterling and others were considered top of the line.  Still can't beleive that I built the Thunderbird in less than a week and another week to finish.  Have fun,  DOC Holliday

[Keith Spriggs]

Not only that I had to walk to school in the snow. Of course the snow only came up to my ankles and the school was right across the street. 

And uphill both ways?

Totally off topic, but your statement reminds me of the story about the two kids that were up in a barn loft looking out a the barnyard. One of them said I wonder how deep that manure is? I would like to jump out. The other one said yesterday it just came up to my ankles. The first kid jumped and went in clear over his head. When he got out he said, "I thought you said you just went in to your ankles". His buddy said I did I landed on my head.

Sorry Robert and Bill  don't hit me.

[Charlie Pate]

The Brave and the Warrior cost more to produce than the Squaw, due to the shaped leading edge.
They couldn,t charge more for the Warrior than the Squaw ,because the Squaw was supposed to be a higher tech
(little sister to the chief) !

When the first T Bird came out it listed for 9.95.
As I was too young to rob liquor stores then, I figured Id never get one;but I did and was pleased with the
 results.
Even as a kid I didn,t think the sq. stringers in the round hole was a good engineering move from a strength
standpoint: Of course I didn,t know about production cost either

[Chris McMillin]

         Anybody remember stuff like this?

Yeah,
But I wasn't allowed as a kid to ever let one look like that! I was instructed by the guy that bought all of my kits to sand the back side of the sheet with a block until some cuts ware showing, then flip it and sand the front for a while too. Then carefully cut the die cuts all the way through, then remove the part.
This made two things happen, obviously the sheet was thinner and smoother, and the part had some edges that weren't like a sponge. They actually had definition.
I have just helped my 11 year old build two old Sterling kits from the box (well, kind of) and it really is easier to draw your own and cut out the parts with a saw and a knife!
Chris...

[Jim Morris]

Oh, you mean they arent suppose to look like that?