What does it take to see the world in miniature? For model builders, a passion for the craft and a keen eye for detail are key to bringing imagination to life. Despite working on the small scale, this hobby requires a wide array of skills ranging from the technical to the creative, not to mention the time spent researching materials, history, and construction techniques. Here, we get some insight into the different realms of four local model builders as they share how their craft is a gift that keeps on giving.
David Holsinger
Notable composer Dr. David Holsinger also boasts an impressive hobby: model trains. Over the past 25 years, he has built, torn down, and rebuilt five different layouts, each stocked with fun, personalized details, which he shares often with his grandkids, friends, and students.
What piqued your interest in trains?
I grew up in a small town in north central Missouri. The main Santa Fe and Wabash lines between St. Louis and Kansas City ran right through the middle of my little farm community. On those four tracks, over 85 trains a day barreled through town. From my upstairs bedroom window, I watched as those freights and passenger trains of the ‘50s and early ‘60s roared across the countryside just a half mile from my house, so my fascination with railroads started long ago.
Tell us about some of your favorite pieces you’ve built.
One thing I really enjoy is actually the natural scenery. The present layout contains 2,400+ trees. A number of years ago, I concentrated on farmland and built over 8,000 individual corn stalks from toothpicks, Elmer’s glue, and chopped up raffia ribbon. Of course, it’s also fun building up mountains and hillsides with paper mâché over chicken wire forms.
Are there any interesting elements you’ve incorporated in your models?
The main namesake on my layout is my wife. The town is called Nonaville, the grain elevators are part of the Nona County Cooperative, and I also have a Nona County diamond mine. There are some tongue-in-cheek references including the Hoffa Cement Plant, the Soylent Red Snack Food Factory, and the Acme Building – exclusive distributor to Wile E. Coyote. Unlike many club layouts I have visited around the country, I draw the line at adding dinosaurs in the woods!
What have you learned through this hobby?
My “hobby” is actually another facet to my vocation. In Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Creativity,” he discovered that almost all creative people formulate their ideas in a controlled environment, incubate those ideas in activities not normally associated with their projects, and return to that controlled environment to complete their task.
I am a composer. As it were, I sit at my computer selectively adding “small dots” to a larger expanse. A number of times, when mentally blocked, I might move to my trains and begin building some small item on my layout. Literally, I am still thinking in the context of creating “small” on larger expanse. My mindset has not really changed, and that activity is the incubation factor that stimulates the answer to my musical problem. And in my return to the controlled environment of my computer, I may solve the creative problem that I had earlier encountered.
Ken Oliver
Machine shop owner Ken Oliver – known fondly by some as “Mr. Wizard” – has long been the go-to guy for all things machine repair, from plane parts to antique cars. As if that weren’t enough, he took up the hobby of steam engine model making around 1970 and has made around 40 models to date. These stationary engines would have steam-powered boats, factories, and other utilities in their heyday around the turn of the 20th century.
What piqued your interest in steam engines?
After I graduated from Kirkman Technical High School, I started my career in the machine shop business. I worked at Ortmeier Machine Company for 18 years, and then I started my own shop, which was a pretty progressive thing for years and years. A man had come in at Ortmeier one day wanting to build a steam engine, and I got acquainted with him. I started at that time building an engine, mostly under his direction telling me what to look for and how to get into it. After that, it kind of just snowballed on me. I just enjoyed building them.
What goes into the making of a steam engine?
I see something I like and I’ll acquire some kind of a blueprint or a picture, and then I build the engine off of it. I started out doing casting sets of stationary steam engines, and then later on in life I decided those were too expensive, so I started just building off the print. Having the machine tools here, I can make all these up in my shop.
How does building engines connect with other aspects of your life?
It teaches you patience and hones your skills if you’re doing some real fine work. You know, these things are small, and the bolt sizes are miniature. If I can make one of these engines run precisely, then it bleeds over into when I do a job for someone. That precision is right there with me all the time.
What is one of your favorite models that you’ve built?
I acquired a set of castings from an outfit in England. It’s a beam-type engine, which has an arm that sits over the top of the engine that operates it. It was a very, very difficult engine to build. First of all, it was all in metric, so it had to be converted, and the parts were extremely small. It’s a pretty engine, and it’s a complicated engine, but it came out beautifully. The engine it’s based on actually still exists in a college over in England.
What is your favorite aspect of the craft?
When I start into one, it’s the creation of taking a raw piece of material, cutting all the shavings away from it, and building it up from the base. With the cranks and the cylinders and the rods and the gearing and all that – just a piece at the time, and it turns into a living thing, nearly. To me, they’re just like a fine-tuned instrument.
Chad Melton
Leave preconceived notions of model race cars at the door when it comes to Chad Melton’s custom-built remote control (RC) vehicles. These models can reach up to speeds over 100 miles per hour or tackle rocky terrain, and you might notice a miniature driver in the passenger seat as they crawl by.
What piqued your interest in RC models?
As a kid growing up in Memphis there was an indoor dirt track where my dad would take me and my older brother to watch RC car racing. This sparked my interest and led to my first purchase of a Tamiya Lunchbox monster truck style RC van. From just playing around as a kid it then developed into competitive RC car racing. As I got older I started developing a strong interest in speed run cars. Today, I am still into speed runs as well as scale RC building and competition crawling.
What is one of your favorite models that you’ve built?
Each car is different and comes with new creativity which makes it hard to name a favorite. The first car I built that was a 100-mile-per-hour car stands out. Over the years building hundreds of different cars, boats, and helicopters, there are many good memories of the process. Seeing an idea come to light and then watching something you built race or compete is a unique feeling. It’s very intricate, time consuming, and more than just buying an RC car off a shelf. RC builders spend so much time on each detail and are dedicated to their builds.
Are there any interesting elements you’ve incorporated in your models?
I’ve worked with paint and fabrication specialists across the entire country on customizing pieces to a level beyond my own abilities. Be it adding custom carpets, speaker systems, or a unique paint scheme, each car I’ve built has something special about it. Many of the more non-racing vehicles have small touches that you would see related to the actual vehicle. I built a custom scale Ford Bronco that had a sleeping bag, canoe, and camping gear in the back. Many builders also sometimes add skeleton or scale drivers in the vehicles. If a piece is being built for racing, these items are sometimes left out to keep the weight down. Having real transmissions, axles, bead lock rims, true nitro engines – just to name a few – makes these cars so interesting.
How has RC model building connected you with others?
I’ve met so many great people through RC car racing and competitions. Battlefield RC hobby shop is the local hub where we get together and work on our next builds. We’ve traveled together to national competitions across the U.S. Also, there are several groups that get together locally with their crawlers at the Ocoee. Sharing this experience with my dad is still something we talk about and enjoy today. I’ve even built an RC car for one of my dogs and she knows it is her car. She loves to chase it around our yard.
Rick Harrison
If you can name it, there’s a good chance Rick Harrison has built a model of it – buildings, cars, airplanes, historical dioramas, set designs, and most recently, custom dolls for kids with disabilities as part of The Doll for All project. With over 50 years of fabrication technology experience under his belt, Rick strikes a balance between practicality and fun in the diverse projects he undertakes.
What piqued your interest in model building?
One of the things that I was able to do, even when I was a kid, was read blueprints. I just understood what they were trying to explain. My father was an engineer and was the president of Georgia Tech from 1957-69, so I grew up watching all those projects they had, which was really amazing. One day when I was about four, I’d gone with my mother to the grocery store, and it snowed about four inches in the parking area around the town square. The grocery store was on the far side, and my father was complaining, “Why don’t they make the store closer?” So I went out in the snow and started stomping out a city, trying to see how you could make the grocery store better, what’s the next busiest shop, and where to put parking, etc. Basically, that was a model.
How has model building changed over time?
The early model kits, you pretty much just made up models with what you had at home until after World War II, when there were businesses set up to make different kits. They started making these wooden ones, and then the plastic versions came out in the 1950s when they started getting injection molding. Finally, they transitioned into the modern versions with the ailerons working on the planes, the full interiors, and so on. Now, with 3D printing and laser cutting technology, that’s changed it some, but you still have to be able to visualize the project first. Where experience comes in is knowing what material to make it out of and how to finish it. The Doll for All models are similar to action figures.
What inspired the technology behind these poseable toy dolls?
The most articulated figure made was a Spiderman that was about 20 inches tall. It was a failure as a toy because it was really heavy for a character that was supposed to be able to climb walls. But the hand they made was a masterpiece – every joint worked. I saw it in the store when it came out and I was just astounded at it. I also have a doll from 1909 called the Schoenhut doll, which wasn’t as articulated as that, but had elbows, knees, ankles, hands that would move, and a head that could turn. They had springs in the joints that created friction so the doll could even stand on one leg and pose. I thought that was amazing.
What’s the secret to making models lifelike?
I once won a contest with a model Sherman tank. All these guys were talking about the different ways you can replicate the rocks and the trees going by and the grass it’s crawling over. But I had my godson over, and we just went out and played with the model. By the time we played with it and got dirt on it, I stuck it in the exhibit just for fun. When I won the exhibit, they asked, “What did you use for the dirt?” I just used dirt!
