1949 kit

[Brudda]

This is a kit I bought yesterday at the Fremont model contest. Before plastic. I’ve never seen one. Never going to build it , bought it just to add to the collection. 

[Classicgas]

Wood? 

[Motor City]

9 hours ago, Brudda said:

This is a kit I bought yesterday at the Fremont model contest. Before plastic. I’ve never seen one. Never going to build it , bought it just to add to the collection. 

 

 

 

 

I think this is the complete set:

1900 Packard runabout

1902 Franklin roadster

1903 Rambler runabout

1903 Cadillac touring

1903 Ford A touring

1904 Oldsmobile curved-dash runabout

1906 Columbia electric

1906 Locomobile

1909 Ford T touring

1909 Stanley Steamer touring

1910 International Harvester

1910 Ford T roadster

1911 Brush delivery truck

1911 Buick roadster

1911 Maxwell roadster

1913 Mercer raceabout

1914 Regal colonial coupe

1914 Stutz Bearcat

[Brudda]

8 hours ago, Classicgas said:

Wood? 

Yes, wood and brass sheets. 

[Daddyfink]

18 hours ago, Classicgas said:

Wood? 

And if I remember correctly, the only plastic is the wheels. 

Like my old friend Skip used to say, it comes with wheels and permission to build it! 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Pretty cool find.

I Remember the days when a "kit" was essentially a block of wood and a picture of what the final result was supposed to look like.  

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Wild

[68shortfleet]

Would you like more of them to add to your wooden collection.

[Brian Austin]

That was the state of the art for the model hobby.  Kind of a step up over scratchbuilding. Model railroad rolling stock kits comprised of wood and metal can still be found.  A book on model railroading published in the '50s described the attitude many old-timers had against the new-fangled injection molded plastic kits.  A couple of model-car club friends of mine grew up with the son of a guy who produced what we might term "mixed media" kits in 1:24 of horse-drawn fire apparatus in his basement.  They were comprised chiefly of rough-cut wood pieces, but also included components made from a variety of materials such as cast plaster, rubber, and metal with plastic wheels.  These kits were made in the late 1940's by William H. Low, as part of his Will-O-Line.  I extensively photographed the four unbuilt examples my friends had.  I have seen built-ups and they do look nice.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Brian Austin

[Brian Austin]

Amoskeag steam fire pumper from the Will-O-Line kits.  Note the packet of small parts.  There is text printed on it that suggests these used to be WWII-surplus rations wrappers.

[Brian Austin]

Someone should re-pop these in resin.

😛

[Richard Bartrop]

It looks like you could transfer most of the patterns to sheet styrene.

[Bugatti Fan]

Well known modeller, the late Rex Hays over here in the UK started to produce car kits in wood and metal in 1/32nd scale. I can remember a Type 59 Bugatti being done but do not know of any others he produced.

[Mark]

Scratch building using wood was still considered somewhat "mainstream" in the mid/late Sixties.   The short-lived (but still great) Rod & Custom Models magazine included articles by Phil Jensen, as did Car Model.  The R&C articles included scratching a Bugatti with a wood body and engine, and wheels made from cardstock sealed with shellac.  The only items taken from a kit were the tires.  Right after Jensen completed the build, Monogram's kit of the exact same Bugatti came out.  The Car Model articles mainly centered around heavy trucks, building cabs not offered in any of the then new 1/25 scale heavy truck kits.  Even if you aren't inclined to try to build anything like that, the articles are a good read, as they give you an idea of what was and wasn't available back then.

[doorsovdoon]

I used to love building wooden kits, though the ones I used to build were out of matchsticks. Sounds like a hobby from a hundred years ago, I think they're still sold today. The kit had paper templates in the shape of the vehicle and you would glue matchsticks to them and glue all the panels together! Anyone remember them or built one? Loads of fun they were.

Edited December 6, 2023 by doorsovdoon

[Big John]

Check out Frank Schaeffer's Old 16 Locomobile build at f1Ford48 Great build of this wooden kit.