General Model Making: My Fathers Eyes, I Haven't!

My Fathers eyes as Eric Clapton once sung. Well I dont have them but boy I wish I did, model making would be so much easier and I could get things done a lot quicker and to a darn sight better standard.

So how come I never picked up this talent? I was 7 years old when ill health forced my father to retire from his employment as an architectural model maker for the GLC (or Greater London Council as it was) and he never recovered enough to regain the patients or the temperament needed.

A piece of my late fathers work, which piece I'm not sure but he was part of the team to construct this beautiful architectural model of the 1951 Festival of Britain.

I think patients and temperament are the keywords here and I'm no gene expert but I seem to lack either! I'm not sure if this is down to the passing on of the perfection gene or me just trying to hard to go by the standards set before me!

Something I have noticed though, through the wonders of the modern library, aka the internet. Professional model makers are adept at just about everything they put their hand to. In my fathers case mechanics, brick laying, carpentry, general construction, design and manufacture.

Design and manufacture are again keywords and these elements seem to elude me, no matter how much I plan and normally end up with everything going cock. Take one of my current projects, yes one. A new but not so (more on that later) OO gauge railway in the stages of the baseboard build. So far I have made 7 boards, all has been going well until one fatal measurement steps in.

A prime example of an idiot at work, Alignment and bolt holes for one of my OO gauge model railway baseboards.

My old woodwork teacher once said I have the woodworking skills of a monkey, he wasn't far wrong with that statement. Luckily it's not that bad as it's the dowel hole, so the cross member just needs filling and sanding but it's the kind of thing that would normally put me off, make me say bugger it and loose interest at warp speed. "Patients and temperament", I just dont seem to have it.

As I said, this is easily fixable and the time of year means that this particular project is now on hold until late Autumn anyway, as I move outside to my G Scale/Gauge 1 railway in the garden (more about that later too), so no hammer of frustration here!

So, my fathers eyes. Definitely not.