The beginning…

I eventually got hired and learned my first lesson and the most important one. Early on I had no idea how to make a model, yet use the correct tools and procedure.  I remember using a carpet knife with thick blades to cut out flat paper boards. Pressing hard and over cutting the rectangular pencil marks drawn on the  board was probably not the best idea. It was an accident waiting to happen.

In the back room off to the right of the entry of the studio was the room that housed all the power tools from Sears. A couple of table saws, drill press, vise, and painting booth. My experienced friends  were laughing having a great time cutting parts from Plexiglas and wood. I was in the other room trying to learn to cut paper. Paper is used loosely meaning paper products such as foam core, mat board, museum boards and basically learning how to handle the exacto knife properly.
Even though Plexiglas and wood were exotic materials it took much more time to make models out of these materials because they took much more time to cut, power tools were needed. Joining parts often use solvents that smelled and clamps needed to hold parts together while drying.  Coloring often required spray painting or mixing your own paints that led to more problems of where to paint.

All those reasons made me focus on making paper models.  Paper models would teach me patience as I learned to control the exacto blade while I learned HOW to put a model together. Paper models are easy to cut, easy to glue and easy to color. This is what I focused on and became a great model maker who learned how to put something together quickly and how to make it look good!