How do you cope with aging?

I forgot to mention that the magnifier portion of these flip up. So when I need regular reader magnification I can flip up the magnifier without having to take off the headgear. They work great.

Now that I am 78 years young I still like the 1/72 and 1/35 scale but I have found that taking a break from the plastic building can have its rewards, thus I went back to balsa/paper planes and relearned old skills that adapt to the plastic stuff.

Steve Hoeger

California

For me the eyes are the problem because I love 1/72 scale, so it just gets harder and harder to see little parts up close. My eyes are degrading differently so simple magnifiers do not work well for me.

At my last eye exam I asked my optometrist if he could make me a special pair of glasses with a focal point about 6 inches off the tip of my nose. He said, “No problem.” So I got the glasses—What a difference they made! Also, ask your optometrist and pick out the biggest frames for good viewing.

Richard A. Mahrer, M.D.

San Jose, Calif.

Coping with age and the restrictions it poses by limiting all of our anatomical systems is a real challenge. I am 91 years old and still modeling aircraft in 1/32 scale. Among other problems, macular degeneration recently took my left eye — but I'm still practicing medicine! For years I made 1/32 scale kits and also started 1/32 scale balsa models (no kits — just pictures or drawings) since that scale is larger, I have over 150 balsa models which are unavailable in kits!

As you well know, kit parts have escalated into the hundreds (most of which can't be seen — at least by me!). So rather than tackling a new kit with 1,500 parts, my models have 30 ­– 40 parts including pilot figures. They look good to me even if my vision is impaired. I use simple tools and a very bright light and only occasionally try a 1/32 scale classic kit, which combines patience with profanity often causing my faithful dog to shake her head and walk out!

So my secret to keep building is to make larger solid balsa models which are unique and taking it very slowly!

Bob Packard

Vero Beach, Fla.

Yeah Mark, I've had age-related issues, too.  I'm 85 but have pretty much solved them. 

To start, I purchased a goose-neck lamp with 3 fluorescent bulbs. Each lamp is 9 watts, 5000 degrees Kelvin (that's equivalent to sunlight). They last about 10,000 hours so you don't have to keep buying them. Then I bought an OptiVisor with a No. 5 lens. Those 2 things pretty much solved the eye problem.

I do have arthritis, but for the most part it doesn't affect my modeling. I have a problem with patience, but a drink of vodka tonic usually fixes that.

Alfie Edwards

Orcas Island, Wash.

I was ushered into my dad’s flying school at 13 as a belly wiper and a windshield polisher. My dad had me solo 16 and I later taught my boys to fly. After college ­-- TWA A&E, USAF, NON SCHED IN Africa, and 20 years flying Boeings for Braniff,  I retired to Orcas Island 95 miles north northwest of Seattle. My wife was a stewardess and we both flew high school kids to Vietnam in the late 1960s.

I was raised with a prop in my mouth and enjoyed the trip. I started with balsa and tissue models and got back into plastics and radio-controlled aircraft in the 1990s. I suffered a 100 kt ground breaker on a BMW in 70 and got bent up a bit, flew for another eight years and opted out.

I lost a leg from a staph infection and my left hand is crippled from a stroke. Most of the residual stuff is working, but I would have been in a deep mental downer if my wife, kids, and my obsession with model building had not buoyed me. Best therapy for a grumpy battered New Yorker.

I have a hospital bed near the kitchen and bathroom with my model factory right next to the TV. I'm good for four to six hours in my electric wheelchair and build every day. I milk my left hand some, but it works well enough. I have a cluttered but efficient work area and my building is quite a bit slower than it used to be, but also quite a bit better.

I usually make the IPMS contest in Seattle and the one in Burnaby, Canada, plus one at a local hobby shop most years. I am mobile and active and building and creating is a boon to my survival. I turn 80 in October and have decided to live so I can finish my stash of unbuilt kits.

Al Patterson

Umiujaq, Quebec, Canada

I am a 50-year-old modeler who got slowed down with a combination of chronic pain and morphine taking things over on me. Although my wife continued to let me buy, and my collection is large enough to stock a hobby store now, as time progressed I beat the morphine only to be looking at Parkinson's Disease and that takes concentration to keep hands steady and I have been drawing and painting to help that.

This spring I'm expecting to need new glasses. I found that I have rapidly aggressive cataracts in both eyes, a bit of a kick, but as I am still lacking a permanent workshop my focus has changed to a shack that my father-in-law built that we expect to be receiving soon and then I can focus on finishing it and preparing it for winter. I plan to outfit it with cabinets and such so I will have a place to work on my hobbies with my children, once my eyes are fixed.

Maybe I won't need the OptiVisor and magnifying glass, but I have them in the wings as I await eye surgery this Fall. Like many, I need a new body to keep up with all I want to do, but despite setbacks the will to keep going is most important and I have a lot waiting on me now. It’s just getting there. Right now I try to keep the hands and mind busy planning projects to do with the kits I have in my stash.

Ned Ricks

Gurnee, Ill.

Your column in the July 2016 edition was on a subject with which I am familiar. Like many modelers in our generation, I started early (in about 1956), took a break for college and beyond, and returned to the hobby in about 1995. In the 20 years or so since taking up my tools afresh, I have had to incorporate some coping techniques that aging seems to require.

The most noticeable aspect of my modeling space to any viewer is my many, many lights. Any lamp that is no longer in first line use in any other part of the house migrates to the basement and helps illuminate my hobby table.

When we have a build night at club meetings, one of the most seen tools is some sort of magnification device. One of the members of my IPMS chapter has fastened a bright mini-flashlight to his OptiVisor. I have had a visor for years, but the flashlight will be new.

A frequent comment by readers of your magazine returning to scale modeling is that the hobby has changed, a lot. I concur. However, the many details available through photo-etch require working with very small parts that I now consciously avoid. Not only must one be able to see them to work with those parts, but the tactile ability to manage their detaching, bending and placing is not my idea of fun any longer.

That having said, when our club had a monthly theme of ship models, I gave it a try. Oh, my! So many sprues of tiny plastic parts each of which is a candidate for being broken by fumbling hands or getting lost in the carpeting. Note to self - you did your duty, now go back to the comfort zone.

Thanks for your excellent magazine. I look forward to each issue arriving in my mail box.

George Blair,

San Antonio, Texas

Enjoyed your editorial on "Older & Wiser." As someone who just passed the mid-60s, I share your pain.

I was in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years, and I would buy kits and hold them for the day when I would have time to build them. I am embarrassed to say that I had over 4,000 unbuilt kits when I retired. Alas, I became a high school and junior college instructor after the military, and discovered I had even less building time than before. But I continued to buy kits that I would build "someday."

Now I am retired from both jobs and have finally begun to build my kits. I soon discovered that my treasured 1/72 scale kits had become almost too small to see, so I mainly build in 1/48 scale or larger. The good news is that I can see the model to work on it, but the bad news is that they scream for extra detail and make display space a premium.

I am getting very adept at using extra light and vision-enhancing devices to build my kits. I often get the feeling that the median age of those who practice our hobby is getting older at an alarming rate. I wish we could interest more young people in our great hobby

Jeremy Elliott

Nampa, Idaho

I don't consider myself "old," I just turned 42; however, parts of my body seem to disagree with that notion. To help get me through a longer session at the bench, I've got a decent chair, several adjustable lamps (looking to get better ones) and I finally broke down and got some cheap magnification lenses.

I don't wear prescription eyeglasses, but I've come to the realization that I just cannot see those darn tiny parts as easily as I used to. I think my staring at a computer screen for a minimum of 10 hours a day at work doesn’t help.

I can remember days when I first started modeling, that I would do just as you said, "lay out newspaper on the card table. At that time, small parts were no problem; I even remember using the sharp end of round toothpicks as paint brushes to pick out details on tiny parts. Nowadays, that can be done, just not to the detail I am used to. My hands aren’t as steady as they used to be.

I still love the hobby and have introduced my son to the craft. I will continue with my styrene addiction as long as I can, financially and physically.

Phil Cavendar

Columbia, S.C.

I read your article on “Older and wiser: How do we cope.” I found it dear to my heart.

In getting older I have found that seeing those small parts and actually attaching them, especially photo-etch parts, have given me a problem. To get the parts closer I came up with a workbench on my workbench. I call it my "Bench Buddy." This is one way I cope with age and still wanting to stay in this hobby.

Steve Kosiatek

Peru, Ind.

My problems are not representative of most others. I still see pretty good and my fingers still do what I tell them. My brain still works. My legs however don’t usually comply. I have Muscular Dystrophy, and with that, a lot of back pain.

So how do I cope?

For me, where there is a will, there is a way. Life is an exercise in adaptations. If you have a problem, adapt. I have to do this every day. Some days my will is pretty weak. But if I want to model, I adapt. I take more breaks. I make better jigs. I make better tools. In the end, I just learn how to do things differently.

I can’t build models as fast as I once did. But since when did life become a race. Currently I am building a model of an A-5B Vigilante that my dad helped to design at North American. I am about ¾ done. And I still have 30+ models to go. Aircraft, space ships, ships, cars, mostly. But time is not on our side.

I will learn and adapt. And finish the 30 models I have.