We had a lot of Vinyl records, and it seemed that no one ever put them back in their vinyls sleeves. Needless to say, I had a lot of high quality card stock available. The first all paper model I build was the Space Chariot from "Lost In Space". I had to "have me one of those".
I was a late 7 years old, and 7th of a family of 8, so I was left to my own means as my younger sister got all the attention, and me, well, I was just there. My younger sister and are are the closest people in my family.
My Mom was a seamstress, we had an apartment full of industrial sewing machines, some had 8 curved needles (Merrow Machines), and she had scissors so sharp and strong, you could just cut you finger off if it happened to be in the way. They were all marked "SWISS" on them, and she had them professionally sharpened.
They cut through that cardboard like you were cutting through tissue paper. I only realized how good they were when one time I tried a pair of "meh" scissors, and had to use two hands to cut. Making the frame was straight forward, but the glass, and the corners, all compound curves, was going to be a problem. The tracks seemed easy, straight pins,cut to length, bend the points 90 degrees for links, the head of the pins on the outside, and making the tracks seemed to me to just be a matter of looking through our encyclopedia and seeing 'Dat be how day do dat".
I made the seats, all the inside parts, and back then,, the early '60's", blister pack plastic was everywhere. We had an electric stove which was very handing for bending the plastic corners nicely, consisten low, but hot enough heat. The corners of the chassis was the first time I ever "water formed" paper. I finished the model, the bogey wheels, and tracks actually worked, I counted the number of links, and eyeballed the size. My Mom had pins with round heads on them all different colors, so I used them for control levers and knobs, not having any idea of what anything did. My older brother gave me a can of Silver Spray paint, he was a plastic model builder, and I have to admit, he expressed no interest in what i was doing. i finished the model, and played with it for around a week, then showed it to a friend of mine who lived on the 4th floor of the apartment building we lived in. An extremely multiracial tenament 16 building complex which eventually turned into a Ghetto, and is no longer there (Thank God).
This kid's Mom purchased him two plastic models every week. She was a single Mom and so afraid of him going out, that she kept him busy inside. He wanted that chariot, and wanted it bad. He offered me a "Big Daddy Rat Fink" model, painted perfectly, and the deal was made. My Mom marched me back up, feeling I may have ripped the kid off, as she knew the cost of models, and my friend's Mom called her son and said" Did you trade models with you friend?", and he said "Yes Momma", and she said if I had permission from my mother, then she was fine with anything we shared, deal done. We were friends for around a half year when she decided she was moving out of the complex, as she saw the writing on the wall, I heard her talking with my friend's Mom.
I have no idea of what his name is now, though I remember his face. My slightly older brother said, "You got taken", you Chariot was way better than that ugly weird model (he just didn't understand "Rat Fink". I told my brother, "No I didn't, I'm making another Chariot", which I did, and that one came out much better.
I won't count the 100's of gliders, as tossing them a very high 3rd floor, they would catch the wind, and I would never see them again.
(Long winded, sorry).
................."Time
held me (us)
green and dying.
Though I sang in my chains like the sea "
From my favorite poem by Dylan Thomas, "Fern Hill"
The model had no cockpit, and the ladders were 1 big box only.
