pugdog
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Sep 3, 2005, 2:12 PM
Post #1 of 1
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Matchitecture kits
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I have been looking at the match stick models for some time. Matchitecture has had some kts out for awhile.
I was tempted to buy about $75 worth of them at the last visit to a franchise hobby store. I got a firetruck, a train, and a bag of extra wood. I went on-line and downloaded the free "wagon" (British English for a railroad car) blueprints and have been working on them.
I like working in miniature wood, which is what attracted me first to model railroading, and then to dollhouses.
I tried to make a piece using the supplied wood, but it was *horrible* When finished, (or partially so), the piece looked very bad, IMHO. The wood was not uniform, and even with sanding, the pieces didn't match up properly, and it looked very irregular. The wood is balsa, or a very cheesy other type of wood. It's not the same type of wood matchsticks were made from, or if it was, the matchsticks are of a better quality! I have a box of matches I bought a few years ago for my grill, that are better.
SO, I went out and got 3/32 x 3/32 strip bass wood to work with.
I thought about cutting it into the match-stick length units, then figured WHY!!!
When working with short units, like a match stick, you need to combine them to make longer units, and it provides a "cute" look to the project, but if you are starting out with 24" units, you can cut them to length as you need, without gaps or joins.
So, I'm working on this plan, with strip wood, and I'm liking it. I have not gotten far enough to start assembling anything, but I'm up to the 3rd page of the plans after a few nights of work.
Also, while I do like their fast-drying glue and the tubes they come in, the cutter is a real bomb. It's so overbuilt to be safe, as to be unusable.
I don't use a pencil to mark my strips, but rather use the edge of a razor blade to mark where the full cut should be made. And, unless you have a good, directional light, you can't see that in the cutter. The solution, is my NorthEast Shortline "Chopper" I have in my stash of tools from years back. I'm sure they are still available (They were up to the II and III when I bought this one).
The included strip cutter is almost safe enough for a careful 6 yearold, but should be more than safe enough for the average 10+ builder. While you can touch the blade in the up position (that's how it's changed) it's virtually impossible to even TRY to get your finger under it when cutting. It's possible -- heck, nothing is totally fool proof -- but very, very, hard and improbable.
My real interest in posting this message, is to find out if anyone else is working with this sort of wood kit, either matchitecture or another brand (there are some UK-based kits, it seems), or if people are using stripwood rather than the included sticks -- or have some other source of supplies.
I'm also interested in buying any old plans and blueprints for wood kits you might have finished, started and never finished, or have laying around.
I'll be posting some pictures later, either here, or on one of the woodworking sites that will be attached to this one.
Because there is such a learning curve (more like a "Block" for people to get started with this sort of kit, despite all good intentions, we are considering setting up workshops to teach basic techniques of using stripwood for model building, and for starting that dollhouse kit.
I really like this sort of modeling, and it's really "building" :) You start with simple wood shapes, and end up with some awesome structures!
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