Think Balsa Is Hard To Find Now?

[Dennis Leonhardi]

OK, no earth-shattering news here, just a trip down Memory Lane for those just a few years older than me …

Here's a snapshot of a Notice included with World War II Era Cleveland kits.  Trust me, you don't want to see the "crap" substituted for printwood.  Or, maybe you do!

Dennis

[frank mccune]

     Hi:

     What wood did they use in those old kits that had the printed parts? It looked and worked like it was maple or birch.  Tough to cut with a razor blade!

      Frank

[Trostle]

     Hi:

     What wood did they use in those old kits that had the printed parts? It looked and worked like it was maple or birch.  Tough to cut with a razor blade!

      Frank

What I remember, it was more like solid compressed cardboard (no corrugations).

Keith

[FLOYD CARTER]

The WWII Joe Ott rubber model kits had stiff card stock as fuselage formers.

Fuselage stringers, wing spars and outlines  came from a thin piece of soft wood (poplar, basswood?) That was stripped mostly, except for the last 1/4".

Covering material looked like gift wrap paper.

I actually built a couple of these.  Little else was available except for solid wood model kits.

[FLOYD CARTER]

Yes.  I had forgotten about Megow.  Megow was riding high before WWII.  Their "Ranger" free flight kit, designed by Matt Kania, kept them in business.

Comet kept busy during WWII with their 10-cent kit line.  Kit contents were surprising;  hardly anything in the box.  Colorful box art sold most of those kits.

Cleveland Model Supply was sort of active, although I'm not sure about their kits, since I never bought one.

Solid wood model kits were plentiful.  Not only airplanes, but tanks, cannon, machine guns, trucks.  All models in soft pine.

You could buy engines from O&R, but it required an application in writing, that the engine would be used for educational purposes. O&R put together a few of the .23 engines during their off-hours, using mostly parts on hand.
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Oh yes.  Forgot to add.  I'm 87 years old.  I was an 8 year-old model builder when WWII started.  Kept building models all during the war and , of course, after.  I was one who got a new O&R .23 for Xmas in 1944 (my parents signed the application for me)