Bookvica

[SOVIET DIY ENTHUSIASTS] Modelist-konstruktor [i.e. Model Designer] No. 1–12 for 1979

Item #2810

Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 1979. 28x21 cm. In illustrated publisher’s wrappers, with cloth tape across spines of issues, that keep them together (made by previous owner). Outer covers with creases but repaired with scotch tape, corner of back cover lost and repaired with thin cardboard. Few small stains in No. 3. Otherwise very good and mostly clean pages.

Full-year run of 1979. The main late Soviet periodical aimed at model designers, DIY enthusiasts and amateur engineers.

The magazine “Iunyi modelist-konstruktor” [Young Model Designer] first appeared in 1962 and was published until 1966. In that year it gave way to “Model Designer” – a publication that remains active to the present day.

The magazine was intended both for organizing after-school clubs and for individual projects. A vast number of blueprints and technical drawings are accompanied by recommendations and instructions for building models. The issues include news about all-Union and all-Russian events, stories about inventions, and articles on well-known designers. Common sections of the magazine included: tourism, cybernetics and electronics, sports, history pages, tips for model designers, etc.

Mostly, the materials introduce how to construct a simple gyroplane, ice yacht, folding child's sled, skateboard, radio receiver and other vehicles and mechanical devices, as well as models of huge motor ships, airplanes and rockets, etc. In particular, it published descriptions and detailed blueprints of a “Karlsson’s propeller” – a device proposed for active implementation in the national economy, i.g. in expeditions of geologists. Such a device was actually built by students at the Mari Polytechnic University in 1967.

The edition contains plans for club activities. One of them offers club members to assemble a mini-car, receive driving instructions, and compete in precision driving events – over the course of seven sessions. As evidence of the advantages of those small cars, a letter was cited from a designer who had built one for his child. Moreover, these small, simplified vehicles long remained popular among amateur racers.

Worldcat doesn’t track issues of this year.

Price: $750.00