MacAir,

you list was impressive and your're right by "todays" normal way of thinking you probably needed all that stuff..

Me I built my first kit with the following items:

Straight edge razor blades (got them from my dad)
1 x-acto knife #11 blade
small square (borrowed from dad
tite bond glue
1 6 oz fuel tank
4 wheels come two to a package and you need 3
3 rolls monokote
Iron (got from mom you know the one she does the clothes with)
fuel tubing
spinner
props
saw blade from hacksaw
straight edge (ruler that I had for school)
Pins (straight pins from moms sewing kit)
Sanding block pieces of sandpaper glued to scrap 2x4 and 2x2

list is probably not complete.

Maybe it was just me but as a kid I had the desire but not always the funds so I and many like me made due with what we had or could scrounge. Anybody else remember those planes and times as the best?

MacAir there seem to be several schools of thought regarding the minimum necessary tools for assembling models.

Believe me while your list of items is extensive and most likely made your Assembly process easier. Most items on your list can be considered luxuries.

With a little creativity and thought models can be assembled much more inexpensively then you seem to think. For example I made z bends with lineman pliers for years before I found that fancy 15.95 tool you're talking about. Model building is as much an expression of creativity and ingenuity as it is about cost and tools

Papa some costs are unavoidable others can be minimized or eliminated with some thought.


BTW Do a search for SPADs