Card Models as a Hobby
Posted by Ann Bellamy
on Sep 21, 2015
On September 21st, Dick Zoerb addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding building models as a hobby. Dick Zoerb is from Wisconsin and is big Patriots fan. He has been building models as a hobby for 75 years, his family included 3 Rotarians, a Paul Harris Fellow, and 2 Kiwanis. He was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1930 and joked that his mother had two turkeys. When he was young, he sent a dime and a box top to General Mills and got his first two plane models, and in his teens he was making models from balsa wood and tissue paper.
He spent 35 years in the family growing business and in 1987 moved to Nashua, becoming a rep for a horticultural supplies company selling to greenhouses. In 1987 he saw a radio controlled flying model of a plane at the Nashua Mall, and joined that club, building models up to 7’ across. His success rate was about 50% with 2 of them crashing on their maiden flights.
Five years ago he found a few models that had not been assembled, and he made copies and sold them. A buyer informed him of Fiddlersgreen.com where for $7.50 per month he could get 12 models to be printed on paper and cut out and constructed. He has made over 150 over time. The tools include scissors, glue, scoring tool, ruler, clamps, bbq skewers and coffee stirrers for reinforcement. What is not visible is the time and patience required.
He showed several models and passed around some instructions showing the amount of snips and time required for just one part of a plane. Nashua has a club of model makers, and he is the only one in the club who makes them from card stock, not kits. We all were able to look at the many interesting and intricate models that he brought with him to show.