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Old 07-25-2017, 03:17 PM
PeterAlway PeterAlway is offline
Intermediate Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 89
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chas Russell
I have a copy of Alway's "Scale Model Rocketry" published in 1990. My copy has a blue cover with an Astrobee 1500 launch on the cover and is 160 pages of goodness. It appears to have some of the techniques for building models (and Dutch Boy paints reference), scale data like in Rockets of the World, but only three of the plans that mwtoelle mentioned (D-Region Tomahawk, V-2, and Aerobee 150A).
Perhaps Peter will give us some history on the various publications. I suppose I can go through the various magazines from '90-'94 when I get time.

Chas


OK, here's the history. Back in the 80's, I first got involved with an NAR section, HUVARS. I discovered that there wasn't much scale modeling going on at the time, and I noticed that people in the club were impressed with my meager scale attempts. We had an old-fashioned typewritten, photocopied newsletter, and I drew up some scale plans. One book I owned, the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of space had a gorgeous full-page photo of the Saturn I SA-5, and I became obsessed. I wrote off to NASA using my physics department address (I was a grad student at the time) and they send me a set of 10 or 11 full-sized blueprints for a 1/48 scale model of the Saturn I. I turned them into a scale data article for the newsletter, and I was hooked. Later I located a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan who had worked on sounding rockets (V-2 and Aerobee) who had been ordered to dispose of a huge collection of files, and I snarfed up what I could. I also discovered a collection of NASA Technical Notes at the U of M library.

From all of those materials, I began to churn out lots of scale data drawings, and at about that time I discovered MacDraw II software at my day job. I was making drawings faster than our newsletter (T Minus 5) could publish them, and I was getting a lot of positive feedback from readers. By 1989 or 1990, I had a few dozen unpublished drawings, and had gotten lots of photos from NASA and NASM during trips to DC. So our newsletter editor, Mark O'Brien (who no longer flies rockets), and I decided to put together "The HUVARS Guide to Scale Model Rocketry."

The project grew from a collection of drawings to a 128-page (as I recall) book, "Scale Model Rocketry," with data for something like 45 or so rockets. That was the blue-covered spiral-bound book with the Astrobee 1500 on the cover. I also added some basic modeling tips and four model plans. Mark took care of the layout and working with the printer. We printed 600 copies, not really expecting to make our money back, but they actually sold out relatively quickly.

Once the book was out, I started to get offers of help from modelers around the country, and around the world, offering additional scale data. Within a few years, I had expanded it to nearly 400 pages, with over 100 rockets. That was the first edition of "Rockets of the World: A Modeler's Guide," the big black book with the Saturn V on the cover. That edition came in a soft-cover version with a wire binding as well as a hard-cover edition.

My next project, in the early 90's, was to revise and enlarge the modeling tips part of "Scale Model Rocketry," and a bunch more model plans. That was "The Art of Scale Model Rocketry," with a red cover and a photo of my 1/69 scale Saturn I (the same photo actually appeared once on the cover of "Sport Rocketry" or "American Spacemodeling" once. This is the book being discussed here.

Peter Alway
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