Mr. Tom Sanders to the Rescue

Saturday, December 22, 2017
Overcast with snow
-4 C  24.8 F

Mr. Tom Sanders to the Rescue

Please click here to visit this superb craftsman's website

    I was surprised this past Wednesday to receive an e-mail from Mr. Tom Sanders. For those who don't know who this great craftsperson is, please do a search on this blog for Mr. Tom Sanders, and you should be able to find several posts on this man.

In Tom's Own Words:

" I can give a little more info on the Beech 18 conversion. The challenge actually began when a past client asked me to convert one into a DC-3 which was not intense as all I did was change the single fin to one similar to The Douglas DC-3 (Canuck or "DAK") and replace the props. In doing so I started a parallel speculative project taking the same toy airplane and creating a Lockheed 12 (similar to the one in the movie Casablanca). If actually finished that one and accepted an offer for it."

"The toy should up in some blogs and websites with a number of inquiries trickling in about modifying the toy into other famous types. One in particular was this request to re-configure the toy into the Beech 18 "Twin Beech"

First stage was to recreate the tail assembly and put it into the correct location higher on the fuselage. I added a fairing so that the fuselage and stabilizer had a smooth transition. In addition, I also tapered the wings to fit the scale outline. Generally the toy would have been an easy modification for Wyandotte to convert into the B-18."

Next came filling in the underside of the wings where the nacelle would have been. 

This was accomplished by epoxying two large tapered wood dowels in place 

and using a combination of JB Weld and plastic filler to make the appropriate contours.

" also cut and soldered belly pans on the bottom of the fuselage to add to the 3D appearance.

The toy took on a completely different appearance compared to the stock Wyandotte Toy."

"Once the new landing gear was created and installed, I moved to creating a better set of engine 

cowlings which were copper end plugs for plumbing. These get center bored first. 

With the wood dowel now inside the engine cowling, I had many options for configuring the prop assemblies. 

In the end, it was decided to hand make the props from sheet aluminum stamped into a camber to connect the model to its roots as a toy. II also added those decals I printed of a Pratt and Whitney wasp "Junior"."

"The client did request cargo doors on the port side. Wisely he understood that the added surgery 

would be quite costly and if the airplane was to be hung "airborne" the doors would not be open. 

Instead we opted to at least add the outlines as that was still a unique feature on the airplane he flew."

And as they say, "a picture is worth a 1000 words. You can see how much 

detail Tom puts into designing and creating his fantastic creations.

Need I say more?

Well, Christmas is approaching. 

So may everyone who reads my blog have

a very Merry Christmas,

And a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Another Fine Restoration by Tom Sanders

Saturday, April 22, 2017
Overcast
8 C  46 F

Another Fine Restoration 

by Mr. Tom Sanders

Recently, I was fortunate enough to have hearted from Mr. Tom Sanders . Tom 

specializes in  creating and modifying old toys into customized finished models for his clients.

If you search my blog for "Tom Sanders", or Mr. Tom Sanders, you will find the many exemplary 

pieces of work that he has done in the near-distant past.

In Tom's own words:

Stacey et al,

"Another unique application. This time its to fix a wounded bird. I purchased this woeful Wyandotte Twin Engine Transport a few weeks back. It had suffered through a "stabilizer-ectomy" years ago when someone removed the two stabilizers. it was also missing its Fin, Propellers and the stock "panted" landing gear. Still, it is 1930's steel and worth making whole again. Years ago I had an interview with a past employee of Wyandotte All Metal Products, Inc. at an antique show in Michigan. He was the same gentleman that sold me that Wyandotte toy airplane Sirius "convertible". He related that Wyandotte had many concepts and plans to add to their toy line but WW2 and lost market shares dwindled the hopes for many of these concepts. One in particular was the idea of producing the Wyandotte Twin Engine Transport with a new stabilizer with twin fins that were popular on Lockheed airliners and the Beechcraft B-18 "Twin Beech" airplanes. Their goal was to come close to the airplane used as the get-away vehicle in the movie Casablanca.   

This airplane that I purchased pretty much fit the bill and so I proceeded to modify the airplane into a Lockheed 10a ala' Casablanca."

"Once again, another list of tasks-

1) remove the lead paint and inspect the steel and cust surfaces.

2) Cut, stamp and bend the stabilizer/fins combo piece and solder in place.

3) Remove the tail wheel (the wood wheel was saved for a future resto)

4) Cut and solder two steel plates under the stabilizer to allow the body lines to continue aft.

5) create a new tail wheel assembly featuring a wheel with an aluminum hub and rubber tire.

6) Create a new main gear system that also features wheels with aluminum hubs and rubber tires.

7) Paint the airplane using a period style Lockheed lightning bolt (for their Electra models) 

8) Install a Pair of Sandman Overhaul retro-fit prop kits.

That pretty much sums up the project. Interesting that it sold within 17 hours after I started my Buy-It-Now Auction to an ex Beech 18 pilot."

This customized restoration is another example of the fine work that Tom does through his company- Sandman Overhaul.

If you go to the web address below, you can see many examples of the fine work that Tom has done for his clients. It's certainly great to see what can be created with old toys to bring them 

"back to life".

So that's it for this Saturday. April has been a near-record for rainfall here in Quebec. Several of the cities around Montreal, Quebec have been inundated with rising levels of river water that have caused flooding. Hopefully, May will be a much better month, and the waters will abate.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.coim

Tom Sanders Helps Out

Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Overcast
9 C 48F

Tom Sanders Helps Out

   My previous post was about Christopher Ferrone and his creativity with restoring old toys into new ones "with a twist". In that post, Christopher took 2 old toys from the 1930's and metamorphosed (changed) them into one. The new model , a combination of the 2 toys appeared to actually resemble a toy from the 1930's.

   In today's post, Mr. Tom Sanders wrote me and presented a nice airplane that he restored.  In Tom's case, he creates marvellous models from old toys, but  on a commercial basis (he is commissioned to create them). In the example below, he custom-made a base plate that holds a Wyandotte China Clipper airplane (to represent) a  Martin M-130 China Clipper at the time.

Above: Tom Sanders' trademark logo

Some information about Pan-Am.

Please click here to visit Wikipedia's fine article on Pan-Am
(If the link doesn't work, type in the words "Wikipedia" and Pan-Am to visit the exact page of reference)

Pan-Am was the largest American passenger aircraft company in the USA from 1927-1991.

The company was created in 1927 and started to fly between Key West (Florida) and Havana (Cuba). This route was highly successful, and eventually led to the airplane expanding into South-America. Having been financially strong, the Pan-Am was able to purchase less-successful  South American companies to expand its' South-American Business. Most of the South American business was on the west coast of South America. Example of key cities were Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Santiago (Chile), and Caracas (Venezuela) Also included were Mexico City (Mexico.) The airline also earned added revenue (Money) by having won the rights to carry mail (airmail) between America and the South American routes. Many of the airplanes were what were called "flying boats) that were capable of taking off and landing in the water.

The Pan-Am Logo

*Image courtesy of Wikipedia

A Sikorsky S-42 Airplane

*Image courtesy of Wikipedia

As you can see in the poster below, the route of Pan-Am was quite exotic. It's quite amazing how relatively inexpensive (to 2017 prices) the cost of flying to South-America was at the time. Of course, the buying power of a 1941 US Dollar was quite different from a 2017 American Dollar.

A Pan-Am 1941 Itinerary (Route) 

*Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Stacey,

Hope you are doing well and the Blog is rolling along. I will send you a couple of projects to consider.  This first is unique project. The owner is a collector of Pan Am artifacts from the Flying Boat era. He acquired a model stand some years ago that was missing its original model of the Martin M-130 China Clipper. We had some dealings earlier this year and contacted me with an unusual request, would I consider rebuilding a Wyandotte Pressed Steel Toy Clipper into a model?  Interesting thought as there are a few people making nice cast models. The reason is that he absolutely wanted a period produced model and those are as rare as hen's teeth!!

Part I 

(Creating the new model)

Below are the modifications that Tom initiated to meet the requirements of the client. You can see the extensive work that Tom did to create a wonderful model for his client/

There were a great number of modifications needed to make this work. Here is a partial list-

1) Rear wheel was removed and the belly pan modified to accept the fixture's "saddle" mount.

2) Wings were relocated 1/2 further aft and lowered by 1/2"

3) Tailing edge of the wing was tapered to match the M-130

4) Four new struts were created and soldered to the bottom of the wing. The sponsons both have new receptor holes for the bottom pins of the struts.

5) The main landing gear system was removed, the struts folded back up into the sponsons and gaps filled with solder then sanded smooth.

6) Brass plates were soldered to the bottoms of the sponsons to eliminate the hollowed-out effect.

7) New props, engine fronts/shafts (pop rivets!) and cowlings (brass tubes with aluminum inserts) were crafted and installed.

8) the tail assembly was soldered and bend-over tangs were removed.

9) More windows were added to the cockpit area (cut, grind, sand)

10) Two-tone silver and black paint to match prototype.

PArt II

(The finishing touched)

It's really great to see these old toys being restored and modified for collectors. In this case, the combination of the airplane model with the base plate of the world and focussing on North and South America. 

It's too bad that Pan-Am had to close down, because the airline had wonderful air routes for those who liked exotic places to visit at the time (and still today).

Thanks for dropping by,
and as always,
Have a great part of the day or night
wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman
toysearcher@gmail.com

Mr. Tom Sanders Continued: The Best of Two Worlds

Friday, January 15, 2016
Clear, windy, and cold

Mr. Tom Sanders Continued:

The Mix of Two Worlds

   Whenever I write a post, I always send an e-mail to the person or company that I am writing about. I let them know that their post is up, and that they should proofread it. I let the person inform me of any spelling or content errors, and if any content should be changed or removed.

   I did this for Mr. Tom Sanders' post yesterday, and he graciously wrote back and thanked me for the blog entry. However, what Tom also did was provide me with content for today's post.

   I forgot to mention that Tom just doesn't restore toys. He is an "artisan extraordinaire" when it comes to restoration, but his major forte (strength in French) is receiving custom requests from clients from all over the world.  What these clients do is ask Tom to create specify combinations of toys, written mementos, and add additional content to create either a wall decor or a tabletop item. As you will see below, he creates "works of art" for people who have had fond memories of times past., or just want to have a memento of where they might have worked in their past.

Below: 

Tootsietoy Prototype # 12 Lumber Truck with Tandem Trailer

Owner:  A Forestry Lumber Museum in Belgium

 Below:

Buffered and Lacquered Clipper

(Personal Collection)

Custom Wyandotte B-24 Prototype.

What Wyandotte almost produced!

(Very rare)

Below:

The Marx "Minutemen Project - Update:

This was a USAF (United States Air Force) Aerobatic team in the 1950's.

The project will include 5 Marx Sabre Jets and a Marx "C-54" support Aircraft

Aviation Scale Models Projects 

AN A.C.Rehberger cast metal model of the Boeing B-314 Pan Am Atlantic Clipper, 

of which it is only 1 of 10 known to exist. THe airplane came on a clock, but the client

wanted a more Art Deco look hinting of the Pan AM style.

Battle of Britain Project:

This will include a custom stand to display the artifacts and the airplane model.

All of the artifacts are from a squadron in the RAF (Royal Air Force) in 1940.

As you can see, Tom has been quite busy restoring toys, but simultaneously finding models that can be combined for people who have cherished memories of times gone past.

Tom's passion for his work is certainly exemplified with the work that he creates for his clientele who want to have memories of  long ago - the best of both worlds.

I certainly enjoyed writing this post, thanks to the material that Tom Sanders sent me. You can surely see Tom's passion for wanting to share his work band many talents with everyone. 

Thanks Tom, and continued success,

Stacey

Thanks for dropping by on this cold winter day,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

And of Course- Marvellous Restorations

Thursday, January 14, 2015
Overcast, cold, and some snow

And of Course,

Marvellous Restorations

    I wasn't looking to find Mr. Tom Sanders while I was browsing on ebay, but I did. I was looking for a toy that someone asked me to identify a few days ago, and I think I found the answer - it's a Wyandotte oil truck, and estimated to be worth anywhere from $ 30.00 - $ 70.00 depending on the condition.

   However, I happened upon a fine Wyandotte seaplane and the name of the store (on ebay  happened to be ohmyflyguy. Wait a minute, I said to myself, I think I know who that is. Sure enough, I did a search for toy restorations on my blog, and lo and behold, I had found Mr. Tom Sanders - an old friend from a while back who helped me with my blog.

Please click here to visit Mr. Tom Sanders' ebay store

Please click here to visit Tom Sanders' Website

I can tell you from my own experiences with toy restorations that Tom is an expert. He has knowledge, experience, patience, and of course skills. He make my work (check it out on my blog) look like elementary school quality!

The photo below is the same one as the one above. I just did a fast photo-edit to remove the orange colours. This also helps to present Tom's masterpiece in all of its splendor.

If you do a search for  "Wyandotte China Clipper", you will be able to see what these toys look like without a restoration.

Of course, the question many of you will have is why would anyone want to take an old toy and restore it or purchase it? The answer is subjective (personal). Some people prefer the "as is" condition, while others prefer restored. In the "real world"  of old cars, it used to be that old cars were more valuable restored. Nowadays, collectors are starting to purchased old cars in found condition- go figure!

As for Tom Sanders, he has lots of work  scheduled to both sell and restore old toys for collectors.

That's the way it is -some people like them old, and some people like them old but restored.

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com