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We have all held a model tool in our hands at one time or another. So I thought it might be fun to share with you how it came about and how it's now part of product. I have a few really good modeling buddies that I pal around with. One such friend is Tom Buesgen. Tom and I go way back and by chance, re-met at a model car meeting ages ago. We re-met because in the course of our friendship, I borrowed Tom's drag racing photo albums and spotted a picture he took of me years prior. |
To alert and introduce customers to the inclusion and purpsoe of the Model Tool, this care and handling document was created by the talented FM collateral design department. Upon seeing the picture, I recall talking to him when he took the shot of me with the race car I posed with. One Saturday afternoon we had got together in one of our basements for a "fun" model session. These were just show and bull sessions that involved lunch, dinner and beverage. During one of these sessions, Tom had trouble opening a hood on a model. He coined the terms, "ham-hocken" and "sausage fingers", as well as a few choice expletives. The voices in my head started to talk and said a "tool" would be just the ticket for Ham Hocken Buesgen. During a shopping trip with my wife, I spotted a nail cuticle tool as we were checking out in the drug store line. It was one of those non-chain super stores that had all kinds of stuff in the check out isle. I picked up the clear tool which had a red flexible, baloney cut, soft tipped end. It was all of 25 cents. It came home with me. I took it to a few model meetings and it garnered the attention of similarly pudgy fingered afflicted modelers. Even picked up a few of the "tools" for fellow modelers. Fate dealt me a unique hand when I landed the job at FM. It was a dream job and certainly a pleasure to go to every day. At meetings I noticed people looking at cars, breaking nails, chipping paint and just plain fumbling with the functional aspects of the model. Lynda Resnick chipped the front hood edge of Frank Sinatra concept model with her nail, not realizing that the hood opened from the cowl. Tom's face popped into my mind and during the right moment, I suggested the use of a tool. I was asked what I had in mind so I drew a very quick, sketch of the tool. The idea seemed to gain traction and I was asked to go forward with some formal ideas and sketches. |