Carving out my Future

Its a long way from Star Wars, but published in 1963, this neat little book shows the growing interest in space modelling, as the space race began to accelerate. I first found it in the local library while I was at school back in the seventies and during that immensely long hot summer holiday, tried making a few models from it. Its interesting to note that the cover has plastic kits of the Stilletto and Revell Moonship, but the content doesn't relate to kits at all.

On the face of it, its pretty simple boy scout type crafting, balsa wood, craft knife and a lot of sanding, but some of the results are quite respectable

Its interesting to see some of the early representations of the newly proposed Saturn Rocket are still way off the mark and even the massive Nova launch vehicle gets a mention.

The bulk of the models are purely hypothetical, with nods towards Ehricke, Braun and Ley, and some are entirely fictional with play in mind.

I recall buying a pack of balsa wood from the local hobby shop and rather than following these particular plans, whittling out my own designs for various gliders and spaceships, which were (mostly) successfully launched out of the bedroom window!

This particular copy appeared on ebay recently and i was really pleased to be able to read it again and enjoy the memories of those heady summer holidays.