Making Models Is a Labor of Love, and It’s His Livelihood

Malcolm Wilson was one of those kids who grew up with an X-Acto knife in his hand. He was a gifted model-kit maker, one who actually finished the ship, airplane and car models he started.

As an adult, Wilson, 33, is just as busy making models, although now they eventually become full-size rides in theme parks throughout the country.

“It’s kind of funny, but I’m using a lot of the techniques I learned as a kid when I built models from kits,” said the 30-year Capistrano Beach resident who works for Theme Design in Irvine.

He is currently designing and building flying vehicles that resemble antiquated aircraft for a Coney Island theme park that will have a turn-of-the-century look.

“I enjoy designing models as much as I like making them,” he said. “I favor building models that fly, swim or do something.”

It is no wonder that Wilson has found happiness in his job.

“I really appreciate what I’ve got here, and they pay me to do it. What could be be better?” said Wilson, who earlier worked 15 years in the graphics field before changing careers to build models for theme parks.

Aside from work, he is now specializing in building old-time sailboat and ship models, many of them powered by modern-day, radio-controlled devices. He usually sails them in the harbor at Dana Point or at lakes.

“I learned how to sail when I was a kid and I continued to love it,” Wilson said, “but I don’t sit around and make boats all the time,” he said. “I like to get out there and sail them too. It’s a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.”

Wilson builds both model ships and radio-controlled airplanes, which he takes to deserted stretches of beach to fly them, another venture that harks back to his youth when he would sit in front of a television set and put kit planes together.

“Every time I go out and fly the planes, it seems about a half-dozen kids will show up to take a look and if someone looks confident I give him a shot at the controls,” said the San Clemente High School graduate and former Saddleback College and San Diego State University student. “That’s really part of the fun.”

What was more fun, he recalls, was finding out how to make models from kits.

“The hard part was starting the first ones and finishing them,” he said, noting that “the more I did the easier they became and the better they looked. The easy part is to quit. You just have to get over the hump.”

Although he has had a happy life making models, Wilson said he plans to build a full-size sailboat, “something I can use to get some exercise and get down on the water for a relaxing day.”

For heavier exercise he surfs, another of his childhood escapades.

However, building models is his mainstay.

“I don’t think I could live happily without building model boats and airplanes,” he said. “You just don’t spend a good part of your life making things and then give it up.”

Last Dec. 11, Pamela Ann Whishaw and Byron R. Hoffman, both of Newport Beach, discovered each other in a Laguna Beach art gallery and last Thursday the couple married in a private ceremony at the same gallery.

Attending were Whishaw’s children, Steve, 24, and Kimberly, and Hoffman’s children, Karen, 27, and Suzayn, 24.

After a private dinner party, the bride and groom and their four offspring boarded a jet plane for a week’s “funnymoon,” as the children called it, with stops in Lake Tahoe, Vancouver, Canada, and Sun Valley, Ida.

The second week, Hoffman, an Irvine land broker, and Whishaw, a marketing executive, went alone to Rancho Mirage for what they said would be a honeymoon.

Tom W. Thomson, president of the Orange County Fair, said drivers who show up with four or more people in their car at the July 11-22 fair will be allowed to park free of charge.

“We want to encourage car-pooling as much as possible to the annual Orange County Fair,” he said.

Drivers with less than four passengers in the car will pay the $3 parking fee, which is up from $2 last year.

Tom Flynn of Santa Ana will speak Saturday on “The Battle of Gettysburg” during the Fifth Annual West Coast Civil War Conference in Burbank.

Although Flynn has studied the Civil War throughout his life, he will get some helpful hints from Steve Madden of La Habra, who will attend the convention and who actually fought in the Civil War.

Well, almost.

Madden is one of a host of Orange County residents who fight in Civil War re-enactments on weekends at Fort Tejon.