I have long been a fan of the magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor”. Back in my school years I was into aircraft and rocket modeling and made kites. Small-scale mechanization also attracted me. I dreamed of some kind of tractor, especially when I had to dig the garden by the house by hand. After graduating from the institute, Read more…
The prototype of this slot-car model (for how to build a simple home or school track for model-car racing, see “M-K” No. 3, 2025.) was the Cummins Diesel Special racing car, a participant in the 500-mile race of 1952 on the track in Indianapolis (Indiana, USA). In the early days of the automobile industry, racing Read more…
According to the “table of ranks,” the Gran Turismo class covers comfortable, high-speed cars in a sporting style, intended for long-distance travel on motorways. Soviet industry never produced anything of the kind, and there were almost no high-speed roads at the time. Even so, such cars were built by amateur designers to individual projects (and Read more…
Travel enthusiasts have many devices for cooking hot food in camping conditions (primus stoves, blowtorches, portable stoves, etc.). Their operation requires a supply of liquid fuel or firewood. The former is unsafe to store, and firewood is hard to find in the mountains or in treeless steppe. For climbers and tourists, hunters and anglers, I Read more…
Did you ever, as a child, send toy cars down a slope, competing with friends over whose would roll faster? Now this pastime is taken seriously by perfectly grown-up people. The event is called “Valve Cover Racing.” A valve cover is a part of an internal combustion engine that closes the valvetrain to protect its Read more…
When building country cottages or garages on a homestead, you often need to screen bulk construction materials, soil, or garden earth. For this, a special fixture is used — a so-called vibrating screen (grizzly). Its classic version — a frame with a mesh set on trestles — is very bulky and low-productivity. I tried to Read more…
We have already described the construction of a sailboat and a vessel powered by a rubber motor, using PET soda bottles (see “M-K” No. 5 and 8 for 2024). We suggest adding to the “bottle fleet” a catamaran model with a rotor wind drive. It has long been observed that if a rotating cylinder is Read more…
While making Eskimo anti-sun glasses (see “M-K” No. 4-2025), I delved into studying the culture and traditions of Arctic peoples. Nomadic conditions and the harsh climate left their mark on every area of their life and activity. Nothing superfluous — only what is needed! Dwellings, clothing, tools, and household items are all very functional and Read more…
Soil cultivation with electric tillers is nothing new. Especially for owners of summer cottages, gardens and vegetable plots (see, for example, “M-K” 3’83, 11’90). And when prices keep rising, when using walk-behind tractors (not to mention scarce mini-tractors) sometimes becomes economically impractical, electric helpers on small land plots are, so to speak, beyond competition. Convenient Read more…
“The saw grew white-hot from the work!” wrote V. Mayakovsky in his poem “Who to Be?” Meanwhile, heating of a cutting tool first of all means that it has gone dull. In this case a carpenter, as in the old days, takes a three-square file (a triangular file, in modern terminology) and sharpens the teeth Read more…
