List your childhood model collection

[kluge]

Inspired by a sister thread here's an opportunity to excercise memory from childhood years.

My collection was (mostly airfix, matchbox, revel, frog) hanging from my bedroom ceiling or in a display cabinet in the cellar ! I started very young inspired by Finningley At Home Days and the ATC. I stopped making them at age 15 having discovered girls and motorcycles !

All now sadly donated by my Mum to the kids in the neighborhood - I was gutted.
Anyhow here goes:

1/72 scale

British:
Fury, Bulldog, Gladiator, Tiger Moth, Lancaster, Wellington, Halifax, Mosquito x 2, Spitfire, Hurricane, Defiant, Kittyhawk, Walrus, Beaufighter, Lysander, Blenheim, Sunderland, Tempest, Sea Fury x 2, Firefly, Meteor, Vampire, Hornet, EE Lightning, Buccanear, Vulcan, Jet Provost T3, Jaguar GR1 x 2, Hawk, Gnat, Harrier GR1, Phantom (FGR2), Tornado GR1, SHAR FRS1, Hunter x 3, C-130, Westland Whirlwind helicopter, Bloodhound missile.

US:
Ford trimotor, B29, B24, B17, P38, P40, P47, P51, Brewster Buffalo, Dauntless, Hellcat, Helldiver, P80, Starfire, Skyraider, Couger, Banshee, Vought Cutlass, A5, A7, F86, F5E, F104, F111, F15, F18. Sikorsky Skycrane.

German: Fokker Triplane, Dornier217, HE 111, JU87 x 2, JU88, JU188, Bf109, Bf110, ME163, ME262, FW189, FW190, Henschel Hs 123

Japanese:
Zero
Val

Italian:
Fiat G91

French:
SPAD
Dassault Super Mystere
Dassault Mirage IV

Russian:
I-16, Mig15, Mig21, Mig23, Mig25

1/48 Scale:
F104, Spitfire

1/32 Scale:
Mosquito (revel kit - wonderful)

1/24 Sale:
Bf 109

Ships:
Golden Hind
HMS Victory
HMS Cossack
HMS Warspite
HMS Devonshire
Bismark

Tanks:
US Betty amphib
Panzer
Sherman (1/48)
Churchill
RAF WW2 Ambulance
Stalin tank.

Other:
2001 Space Liner, Lunar lander, Space 1999 Hawk, Captain Scarlet Angel Interceptor

KeiKraft balsa flying models: DH Chipmunk, Sopwith Camel, Spitfire, Albatross DV, large span glider, self designed/built Bleriot XI using Chipmunk wings after winding up the prop too much and collapsing the Chippie fuselage !


Wow - I've amazed myself ! And I still had time to play sports, learn the trumpet, ride pushbikes, do a morning paper round, homework and the ATC.

Golden times pre internet and career !

[LowNSlow]

Mmmm time to look back 40 odd years.....
UK
Halifax (Airfix NP-C painted as NP-F Friday 13th cos my dad was flight engineer in both but F had better nose art)
Hurricane
Spitfire
Auster AOP9
Whitley
Wellington
Gnat
Lightning (English Electric)
Anson
Lancaster
Defiant
Beaufighter
Mosquito
Chipmunk
Sunderland

US
Catalina
Hercules (cos I went to Lyneham with the ATC)
Liberator
Fortress
Thunderbolt
Mustang
Lightning (Lockheed)
Airacobra
P-40B/D Warhawk/Tomahawk
Bronco


German
Me 109D/E/F/G
Me 110
Me 410
Me 262
Ju 52
Ju 87
Ju 88
Fw 190A/D
Fw 189
Feisler Storch

Italian
Cr42
SM73

Japanese
Zero
Emily
Betty

Russian
Yak 3
Yak 9
Ilyushin Il-2
Petlyakov Pe-2

Where did that memory burp come from? :confused: Oh no, I AM an anorak :8 :{ DILIGAF :E

[sillytwistedboy]

Blimey! You blokes must have received a lot more pocket money than I did!

[denis555]

Happy days indeed!

I remember when our local Woolworths devoted at least half an aisle to Airfix models. I blame the artwork on the boxes for being so evocative and tempting my shiney shillings out of my hand for a Sunderland, JU 52 or whatever.

Unfortunatley I would make them up and play for a few weeks until the undercarridge got broken, then use them to zoom around my bedroom in endless dogfights and imaginary scrapes but after a month props, turrets tailplanes got broken off until they made their last landing in the dustbin.

I wish I had been tidy enough to string them from the ceiling ( but that would have made them a tempting target for my brothers catapult...

[Akrotiri bad boy]

Two major aircraft accidents in my back garden:

Air France Airbus hijacked in transit over shed; hole cut in fuselage; tissue stuffed inside and soaked in lighter fuel; aircraft crashed in flames narrowly missing a packed gnome school.

US Navy PB4Y Catalina, (with nose weights added so it stood up on its trike undercarriage), sank without trace whilst attempting a waterborne landing. Last known position approximately 16" from garage side of fish pond.

As for air dropping my brothers hamster from a C130: you'll never make it stick, it was in international airspace between gardens and a UK court will have no jurisdiction.:}

[Guest 112233]

Planes (Airfix & Revell)

Spitfire, Defiant (bet there were not too many of them), Westland Whirlwind fighter (A rare one too ) Ciamproni fighter, Blackwidow , Beaufighter, German equiv Henshel with big cannon, P39,P40, Mustang, Corsair, Wildcat, Helcat, Dauntlas Dive bomber, Me262, He111, Pflatz flying pencil fighter, Phantom the F4U, Voodo , Mig 15, Il 28. and last but not least Fokker Triplane Tiny Model bright red.

Ships

Bismark, Prince Eugen, Gneisenau (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_SMS_Gneisenau.html) (only revell Model),Scharnhorst, Graf Spee , Tirpitz , HMS Hood , HMS Suffolk & HMS Ajax

Lots of those plastic soldiers too,

CAT III

[treadigraph]

Having entirely forgotten the models I made (and destroyed) in my formative years, I am afraid to report that I am now definitely experiencing a second childhood... It all began a few years ago with the purchase of a 1/48 Catalina (yes it is bloody big!) as a planned decoration hanging from the bathroom ceiling. :O

A few of my favourite prop fighters followed and somehow expanded into a stash of around 200 1/48 plastic, resin and white metal (ah, LDM!) kits ranging from a Fournier RF-4 to B-29 in size, with the odd foray into 1/72 (Connies, DC-6, KC-97, etc), 1/32 (gliders and a Tigger Moth). :confused:

What possessed me I don't know; at the current rate of production, I need around 150 years of continued existence on the planet. It is quite therapeutic though and an excellent antidote to mice and keyboards, DIY and the other usual spare time activities. I hope I am little more careful about building them these days - one thing though; I still manage to get the odd liquid poly fingerprint preserved in the plastic... Sandpaper is such a useful tool! :}

[LowNSlow]

Sillytwistedboy. I must have taken 3-4 years to build up the collection with donations from multiple aunties, uncles used to top up the pocket money and payments for fun jobs like whitewashing the house in summertime :eek:. I still had enough left over for the occasional pack of Woodbines or No.6 when I could afford them!!

Last nights excess has released a few more brain cells in the RAM:

Westland Whirlwind helicopter
Westland Whirlwind twin
Westland Scout
Tiger Moth
Camel
Pfalz
Albatross
Fokker DR1

Bismark
HMS Hood
HMS Victory
HMS Devonshire(?? County Class Destroyer anyway).

Most of my collection went like Dali's floppy clocks after they were used as a display in the ATC Open Day and were brought home in the boot of the Flt Liuetenant's Vauxhall Viva Mk1. It was August, it was hot, Airfix kits are not very heatproof...... They made great targets for my Webly Mk3 .22 air rifle though. My dad was picking bits of plastic out of rose beds for years afterwards! Much more fun than a PlayStation!!

[BEagle]

Ah - the days of popping in to Woolie's to see what the latest Airfix offering was. 4 weeks pocket money to buy a 2/- poly bag with a kit inside - then hoping that there was enough Britfix 77 and Humbrol enamel at home which hadn't gone off....

Trying to get the division between the camouflage and 'duck egg blue' underside just right with carefully applied sellotape.

Then trying to get the 'transfers' to slide into the right place...

And, own up everyone, who didn't send off one of those 'Nature of Complaints' slips to Haldane Place to blag some more pieces.....:=

We also had a 'real' hobby shop in Ilminster, 'Hurlstones'. An Aladdin's cave of Hornby Dublo, Dinky toys, Airfix, Frog, Revell, Aurora, Keil Kraft, Veron, Mercury....and bikes. All crammed into a shop which would doubtless cause the Health and Safety people to have palpitations these days - and we were sold dangerous chemicals (diesel fuel, cellulose dope etc) and Swann-Norton craft knives at the age of about 12 without anyone worrying about us killing eachother.....

Time for a lie down, I fear.....:hmm:

[Mr_Grubby]

treaders.

You are not the only one to have had a second childhood.

A few years back I started to buy up old and rare kits to make when I retired.
Got about a hundred stashed away in the loft. Some goodies, Frog Shackleton, some Russian kits of Trident, B727, allsorts.

So I have been retired now for 6 years. How many have I built ?

None.

Too busy. Don't know how I fitted in work once.

Clint.

[RampTramp]

I'm impressed at the recall on this thread, all I can manage is that there were about 60 strung from my ceiling at one time, mostly Airfix but a couple of odd ones that do stick in the mind; Douglas SkyKnight & a 1/48 Spitfire with SAAF markings.

Also memories of the local bike/model shop with the pervading aroma of roll up tobacco that the brown overall coat wearing proprietor always smoked mixed with puncture repair glue and bike chain oil.

Ah, happy days.

I restarted a few years ago, concentrating on 1/48 thinking the bits would be bigger for these fading eyes & pudgy fingers, and then I discovered after market detailing accessories & that was when I bought the illuminated magnifying glass! Still can't do much about the half ham hands though.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

And, own up everyone, who didn't send off one of those 'Nature of Complaints' slips to Haldane Place to blag some more pieces

Ah yes. My dad banned me from doing that. He said that the numbers on the complaint slip would identify the packer who would then get into trouble. Dad used to build real aeroplanes (well him and some other blokes), so he used to worry about such things.

[Akrotiri bad boy]

I've a nice little book here in Bad Boy House full of Airfix artwork and photo's of old kits. The book's title is "Airfix:Celebrating 50Years.......", by Arthur Ward (ISBN 0-00-716370-3); in a nutshell the book charts the fortunes of Airfix. One tale concerning box artwork and political correctness explains the removal of explosions, flames, and tracer bullets from the box lids. I suppose ultimately that's what led to the spate of artwork that depicted completed models sitting on sets of drawings.

Anyhow, it's a "topshelf" publication so to avoid embarrassment you might want to slip it inside another publication whilst you pay for it:8

[Centaurus]

My first model was a plastic FROG Miles Magister which I was given in 1940. . During the war years I played with small dinky toy Spits, Hurricanes and Tempests. Built mud hangars among the flowers in the back garden at Tonbridge in Kent and hid Spits there as my next door mate (we were both around 9 years old) "flew" his German types from the front garden along the adjoining walk way to the back garden where I picked up my mud streaked Spits and Hurris and we joined in mortal combat.

How my Spits could ever get airborne with mud caking the wings remains a mystery to this day. In 1939, my mother gave me a Dinky toy Maya and Mercury combination flying boat. Like a fool I took this wonderful aeroplane set to school to show off. Some bastard stole it. It meant a lot to me as my Mum died a few weeks after giving it to me while she lay in Lenham Sanitorium where TB got her. She was only 33 years old.

[S'land]

Like Ramp Tramp I am impressed with the recall on this thread. The best that I can manage is that I did prize my Kiel-Kraft Lysander, an Airfix spitfire, Lancaster and a couple flying boats. I also had a few ships, including a plastic Cutty Sark.

I also had some Matchbox and Corgi models. I remember the 4.5 Litre supercharged Bently, a Land Rover and a Sea Vixen.

I know that there were others, but cannot remember what they were.

[Lee Norberg]

Used to have a Lockheed "Connie" that had moving props when you ran the wheels on the floor accompanied by a high whine.

Lee Norberg
Oakdale, NY USA:ok:

[BEagle]

My first ever was a Frog 'Comet' series Douglas Skynight which my father built for me - it was midnite blue with US Marines markings.

Then came a Frog Venom FB5 whist we were on holiday in Cornwall near St Merryn - and by then the bug had really bitten!

My pride and joy was an Airfix Lancaster - it lasted several years and needed various repairs by the time it met its maker.....courtesy of a BSA Meteor .22, I regret to say.

I used to make several 'hybrids' - my 3-engined Anson with Stuka wheel spats had a Hunter pilot friend of my father somewhat confused at first. But he said I should send it to the Air Ministry as the 'Annie' always needed more power!

'Locate and cement'....those immortal Airfix words!

[sillytwistedboy]

I had a Frog model aeroplane which flew. I don't think it was based on any existing aircraft and it was rubber band powered. You held it in a fixture in the box in which came to wind the band and then flew it - briefly! Someone told me a long time ago that FROG was an acronym for "Flies Right Off the Ground". Don't know if it was true.

[jh5speed]

I'm just starting now, where my father started with me 35 years ago! My son is 7 and we have - just today - gone to get a kit 'for the holidays'. He (we) chose a P38 Lightning - I mentioned to him that one had recently been found on Harlech beach (any news anyone?) and he was immediately interested as we are familar with that part of Wales.

I think the first kit I made a reasonable job of, was the Airfix Draken. I then seemed to concentrate on German WW2 acft, until tackling the HP Hampden (which I still have in my loft) and the Short Stirling (which was heartlessly disposed of in a house move 10 years ago) - a very nice kit.

I still have several unmade kits from way back - but I'm reluctant to start them - they sort of deserve to stay unmade (does anyone else have this problem?)

A few years ago, in a modelling renaissance, I started a vac-form Airspeed Ambassador (Welsh Models). I've got so far but stalled. It 'only' needs painting and decals. Also, a Glencoe Viscount awaits - perhaps a Dad and Son job at the kitchen table ....

[folkyphil]

Slightly off-thread...

The LARGEST model I ever owned was a "helicopter" made for me by my father. It was actually a Triang tricycle with rotating blades shaft-driven from the rear sprocket!
On my inaugural "flight" down the garden path I decapitated all of the brussels sprouts growing on one side of the path. Suffice to say that by the following day the helicopter was back to being a trike once again!

[ARCHIE1]

My schoolboy Dinky Toys included an Airspeed Envoy, 2 x Hawker Tempests, a Gloster Meteor and a BOAC Comet 1. No need to rely on my very old memory either: they are all sitting there, worn down to base metal maybe but still ready to scramble from the shelf above this laptop. Further down the flight line are more recent Corgi models of old props of my acquaintance - DC3, Connie, Brit and Viscount. And right at the end a small but immaculate VC10 CMk1, XR 808 in Air Support Command livery, spotted in a model shop in Sydney last year - a long way from home but then Shiny Ten usually were!

[Crusher1]

Had loads of them hanging from the ceiling, including a B47 that I put electric motors in to power the props and a Concorde painted in Court Line orange(!).

I guess the Fairey Delta and Fairey Battle I had were a bit on the rare side, wish I'd kept hold of them.

[Centaurus]

My old Uncle Alf was a member of the Royal Observer Corps in 1939-42. He was 56 then. They had a post on a small hill at Cranbrook in Kent and as I was his 8 year old nephew I was allowed to help with spotting Jerry aircraft due to my good eye sight. At the Observer post we had binoculars and a .303 rifle with which my uncle would blast at low flying Jerries (well only a couple flew low enough to be shot at). One day my Uncle was seen carving an aeroplane out of wood but he told me it was very secret and not to open my mouth.

In fact it was a Mosquito - and aircraft that was just coming on line with the RAF as far as recall. It was a beautiful model made in one piece of wood. The only problem was that the model's fuselage was square and not oval shaped like the real thing. Then, when the Mosquito became more or less "official" with the Observer Corps (in other words silhouette identification cards), I was permitted to show it off at school. Meanwhile it was kept under cover until then.

[VfrpilotPB/2]

Ok you big kids, all put your hands up if you managed your first ever kit without gluey fingerprints all over the outside and wings were you had been holding em.

My first ever was a small MIG(like the Korean war type) I had a doting set of Grandparents and Aunties who seemed to get these kits for me every weekend, kept me busy and quiet most dark evenings, then I discovered Humbrol paint with a tiny set of brushes I would paint the pilots and instrument panels and all sorts of other things before assembly. God this thread will have me admitting to raiding the neighbours orchard before too long!

Only stabbed myself once with the craft Knife, after that I kept the digits out of the way!!

Peter R-B

[alC]

I used to fly a Dinky Javelin (or Hunter) to infants school, stopping to refuel on the way.

My first love, sorry model was a 1/72 Spirit of St.Louis. Part built, it had been thrown away. A friendly dustman gave it to me.

As a nipper I built Airfix's Lancaster and painted it in one day. Took much longer to get the paint off my hands.

I've got about fifteen years worth on my shelf, some of them built with the help of my kids.
Still have some catching up to do. Vulcan (of course) Victor, Harriers etc waiting in the wings. (pun intended)


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/amcr055/shed.jpg

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Lots I can't remember! A lot of the Airfix range - Spit, Catalina, Bristol Freighter, Stuka, Tiger Moth, Whirlwind (aeroplane and helo), Comet (racer), Comet (4b), BAC1-11, 707, VC10, Trident, Wellington, Vanguard. Loads more.

Non-Airfix Vulcan, 617 Lanc, Saab Drakken, Viscount... etc

But, now, a lovely approx 1/72 varnished white metal Chipmunk on a wooden stand that sits on the telly; no idea where I got it but it's superb. Also 3 Airfix ones in the colours of 2 of the ones I've flown (G-BARS at Chester, G-BCSL that I part own), the later in original dark blue, and later red.

A couple of small Concorde models we got when we flew on G-BOAD in 1999.

A real gem - a 'Space Models' Concorde model. Big but lovely.... originally these cost £200 from BA, but I got one now the BA shop is selling them at less than £50! (Commemorative 'Union Flag' Model - 1:100 Scale - Buy cheaper online with BA High Life Shop (http://www.highlifeshop.com/p-116-commemorative-union-flag-model-1100-scale.aspx)). A superb model at a bargain price.

Corgi 'Falklands Vulcan', purchased at a 'G-VFWE' event at Abingdon and flown home in the Chippy.

A Cessna 150 in the livery of the one I first soloed in.

'Gemini Jets' Trident 3b G-AWZK and DC10-30 G-DMCA, aeroplanes (together with Concorde G-BOAC and the Avro RJX) I work on as a guide at Manchester (OK, the DC10 is now just a forward section - the real one, not the model!).

And that's just the aeroplanes!

SSD

[kluge]

Per BEagles Haldane Place comment - guilty !! The 2inch square little return slip. Ouch. I have a vision of a kindly person chuckling whilst collecting these from "repeat offenders" who were probably their best customers !

Whilst not making them now, I do confess that if I ever see a model shop it is very difficult for me not to go in and have a browse. Memsab just rolls her eyes and says "yes dear".
Don't see many of the old names now though. Only the Japanese brands.

I do have one left in storage that was given to me as a dubious trophy. A 1/72nd scale Pitts Special in correct colour scheme mounted on a plaque in suitable pose celebrating my first and hopefully last ground loop in 1993 !

[Stationair8]

The joy of spending a wet afternoon, school holidays etc building Airfix, Frog, Revell, matchbox or Hasegawa models. Many a happy hour spent assembly the beloved kits to the best of one's ability.

Started with the might Airfix Series1 in the plastic bag and the fantastic Roy Cross artwork on the header cards, then progressed into the boxed kits of series 2 etc, then went over to the Frog kits, Revell likewise and then came the first of the flash new Matchbox kits and finally a few of the newly released Hasegawa kits.

In Australia in the mid 1970's Frog had a promotion, and if you took in three box lids from Frog to the local toy/hobby shop they gave you a free 1/32 scale kit of your choice, I got a Grumman Hellcat and was as flash as a rat with a gold tooth. It was the flashest kit a 10 year old could get his grubby little paint stained fingers on. Thankfully the old man came to the rescue and helped with assembly and painting.

Likewise in the early 1980's Matchbox run a modelling promotion, you had to buy and build a Matchbox kit and then the local newsagent/toy/hobby shop would judge it and give you a trophy and a kit of the HP/400 to go into the next stage of the competition. My sister had given me the 1/32nd scale Tiger Moth so I entered that and won and went through to the next stage and built the Handley Page 400 Bomber, but it got lost in tranist and that was the last we ever saw of it.

Airfix
Bristol Superfreighter
Britten Norman Islander
Corsair
Scottish Bulldog
Cessna 02-A
Cessna Bird Dog
C-47 Gunship
DH Chipmunk
DH Heron
DH Mosquito
DH Tiger Moth
Harvard converted into a Wirraway
HS125 Dominie
Lockheed Hudson
Me 262
Mig 21
Wellington
Widgeon Flying Boat

Frog
Bristol Beaughfighter
DH Comet Racer
DH Vampire
Fairy Delta
Fairy Gannet
Grumman Hellcat
P-61 Black Widow
Westland Wessex

Hasegawa
Japanese aircraft on floats

Matchbox
Lysander
1/32 Tiger Moth

Monogram
Cessna 180 Sportsman

Revell
Catalina Flying Boat
ME109
Hurricane
Spitfire
Mustang 1/72 and 1/48

Frog had some odd ball kits including a Westland Wapati and Fairey Delta.

Also had a model that BP produced of the Vickers Vimy and sold that through their service stations to celebrate 50th anniversary of the flight across the Atlantic.

And of course those might 1/24 Airfix superkits they were just so far out of pocket money range in those days, they were just a dream.

In Australia we seemed to miss out on a lot of the Airfix releases, and took years for some of the kits to be available here, but that didn't stop you looking through the outdated catalogues.

At one stage after purchasing the Hudson, I found one of the tailplane's missing, so we had to send off the little slip to England and wait and wait and wait, in the end dad painted and put on the decals while we waited for six weeks. A mail box has never opened and checked so many times in six weeks by one small boy!

Also became a member of the Airfix Modellers Club, I read about in the English comics and applied but they wouldn't enroll you as a member if you lived outside the UK. Club president Dick Emery sent a letter and gave me the official badge and few other bits and pieces.

[Stationair8]

A couple of more models from the past:

Matchbox
Spitfire
Gladiator
Dornier Skyservant
Hawker Fury

Airfix
Shorts Skyvan
Thunderstreak

Not to mention the beloved Dinky Toys including Beech Baron, Stuka, SeaKing Helicopter with astronaut module, Zero.

[Lower Hangar]

Aaaaah- Airfix 1/72nd - many happy memories - I used to hang them from threads pinned to the roof of my bedroom - not many compared with some of the entries here - also quite a few Revell - that lovely Humbrol silver paint on e.g F100 - what a shape that was - then finishing off with the decals floating in a saucer of water - happy memories

[S'land]

All this talk of the memories of the joys of modelling make me want to pop into the local town's model shop and buy/build a model for old times sake. Looks as though my second childhood is creeping up on me, even if my family claim that I have not left the first one behind yet.

[D120A]

The plastic ones went into the bin, as I recall, when mum decided that no human being could any longer see them for dust.

Kept the Dinky ones though, like ARCHIE1, an Air France Viscount, two Gloster Javelins, two Hunters, a Swift (given much later to a boss who had flown them, and survived), a Meteor and a BOAC Comet 1.

Found a use for the latter, too: the Comet 1 fatigue test exhibit in the Farnborough Air Sciences Museum originally had next to it a totally inappropriate model (oval windows) of a Comet 4. It now has my Dinky Comet 1, complete with very square windows. :ok:

Never throw anything away...

[chiglet]

Centaurus....
My first model was a plastic FROG Miles Magister which I was given in 1940.
No it WASN'T.It was an acetate [I think] model...which if you still have it, I will give you £100 for same.....:ok: worth God knows how much now.
I remember the Airfix Spitfire...with bombs:(
Lindberg Spit Mk8
Aurora "Pilot Figure"...striding across the Globe.
Eagle 1/96 scale Spits/Me[Bf]109s
Somebody did a 1/144 scale CV440, P149 etc
I still have [in boxes] a Frog Scimitar, Hunter, F84 Thunderjet, Fairey Gannet, VS Attacker, Gloster Meteor Mk4, DH Hornet etc.....
Me, grow up? Naaahhh
watp,iktch

[ghostrider1]

I had a B52 with a 5 foot wingspan, It was my pride and joy as a 12 year old. Not sure what make it was but I had painted it matt black undersides with 2 tone green on the top - Vietnam era style.

My dad strung it up from the ceiling and there it stood for 3 years until 1 sunday morning the wood gave out and it crashed and burned on my brothers head at 3am.

Oh the scream ! - I can hear it now.

[Mr_Grubby]

aIC

Great picture on post number 25.

Any chance you can list them all shelf by shelf, left to right !!

Got most of them. But a few can't quite see !!

C.:ok:

[kluge]

Lemme 'ave a go. Can't resist the challenge. L To R

1st shelf:
Tiger Moth, PBY Catalina, Buccanear, Mosquito, Anson

2nd Shelf:
unknown behind (Hurricane possibly), Fiesler Storch, Scimitar, unknown infront, F18, F14, Gloster Whittle, Harvard, Phantom FGR2, Hawker Fury, unknown behind, Fokker D7, Meteor, Sopwith Camel, Eurofighter Typhoon.

3rd Shelf:
Hudson, ME262, Fairey Battle, Hurricane, Spit (possibly Mark IX), P51, JU87, P51, Tempest, DH Comet racer, FW190, P40, F16, Henschel HS123

4th Shelf:
C47, Wildcat, Halifax, Huey, F86, Lancaster, Tornado F3, unknown behind, HP400, Jaguar (partially assembled), Beaufighter, Sunderland.

:8 :8 :8

[Stevemcmli]

Very fond memories of building Airfix 1/72 scale aircraft - Fairey Rotodyne anyone? The Airfix magazine and Profiles were essential for the pedantic kit builder. The Airfix company was resurrected after thier financial failure and can today be found at Plastic Scale Models The Official Airfix Website (http://www.airfix.com/).

Confession- I still have forty or fifty kits in my loft for when I "retire" or am too decrepit to drive spam cans around.

Votes for favourite Airfix box art - mine's the HP Halifax circa 1968, second place the Junker Ju88 again circa 1968

[denis555]

Votes for favourite Airfix box art - mine's the HP Halifax circa 1968, second place the Junker Ju88 again circa 1968


I can't remeber a bad one! But two that stick in my mind is the Airfix B-17 and the HP Halifax - oops there goes another 15 shillings each!

My trouble was I was so keen to play with them ( I never left them on a shelf for display ) that I rushed the construction.

Perspex panels got the dreaded 'glue fingerprint' props and turrets got too much glue and stuck and too much glue sometimes 'melted' delicate undercarridge parts.- Happy days.

[Stationair8]

I purchased this book a few years ago, Airfix Celebrating 50 Years of the Greatest Plastic Kits in the World. Still available in some bookshops or e-bay, a very enjoyable read and certainly covers lots of Airfix history and what could have been etc.

Airfix were asked to tone down the artwork of Roy Cross by the politically correct nazi's, and they couldn't show people being shot, no Nazi decals etc

Likewise Airfix also considered producing a1/24th Mosquito and Gloster Gladiator in the mid 1970's. The 1/24th scale Mossie is going to be released late 2008.

[kluge]

1/24 Mossie - that'll be huge. Could probably launch two hamsters in that.

Gotta have that one hung up in the office.

Regression starting.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

chiglet. I think the Acetate ones were the early Frog Penguin models. My first train set was by Rovex and the Princess Elizabeth body and the coach bodies were acetate. The coach bodies warped amazingly with age and became so banana shaped that the roof would pop off.

As I remember it, my very first kit was a 2 bob Airfix Spitfire in duck egg blue plastic. Humbrol only did gloss paint in those days and Woolworths sold the kits but not the paint.

[Argonautical]

Too many to list but I do remember an odd ball kit.

It was a 1:48 F-86 Sabre which came with a small electric motor that you had to fit inside the fuselage before glueing them together. The motor, when switched on, spun a metal thing against another metal thing which made a whining noise supposedly like a jet engine.

Eventually it went the way all the others went....shot down by an ace with his trusty Webley Mark III.

Also had most of the Dinky models and remember that if you slightly turned the wings of the Javelin up, it used to glide really well in the swimming pool.

[parabellum]

Going back to 1954 - A KeilKraft Stinson flying model, difficult for a first time event but did it, didn't realise that the 2/6d for the kit did not cover enough balsa cement, tissue paper, any rubber lubricant, dowel, dope etc. etc. as the instructions unrolled, "Now get, Now take etc." from thin air, obviously. Moved on to KeilKraft Mig15 but no Jetex, then did some swaps and got a Jetex 50 so built a Gloster Javelin, launched from parents bedroom window and entirely burnt out before reaching the ground! Never had an urge for airfix or that outfit that marketed solid, non-flying balsa models. Moved to a generic, huge wing span, huge prop, yards of elastic flew well several times then the elastic broke so cut off the single main undercarriage and converted to a toe-line glider. Launched on a particularly good day and despite my manual, on the ground , rudder input it flew majestically away, probable over Portsmouth, the South coast and parts of France, never seen again!

I now have a kit that cost in excess of GBP100.00 for a P38, that will be a work in progress for my wife and self, a real labour of love. A much smaller kit of an ME109 and another couple of generics that I will build with my neighbours son who has now reached that age.

Does anyone remember "Pre-tensioning" rubber? Seem to remember taking many, many loops, propeller to rear, winding them up a lot and then letting them go and entwine themselves to about the required length, does that ring a bell with anyone?

[boogie-nicey]

Memory land indeed , ahhhh lovely stuff .... :p
Now let's see or should I say remember what I had hanging off the ceiling. (Almost all were Airfix with some Revel and other misc. Japanese ones thrown in too).

Flying Fortress
Boston Light/Medium Bomber
Mustang
Boeing 747
Boeing 727
Airbus A300
Concord
DC-10
Boeing 707 (very minature though probably the smallest scale there was, could easily fit it into the pocket :ooh:)
Phantom II
Sabre fighter
Lockheed Lightening
Spitfire (of course)
Wellington Bomber
ME-109 (I think not 100% about that one)
Skyhawk A4
Tornado F3
Tomcat F14
Corsair F8
Beaufighter
Dornier something or another "the flying pencil" one (whoops)
Lockheed Starfighter
StrikeMaster
Folland Gnat (red arrows livery and colours)
French Caravelle
Mirage III


Crocodile tank
Leopard A4 main battle tank
Panzer III
Panther (Panzer IV) tank

Bismark
Schanhorst
Graf Spee
Prince of Wales
Enterprise Aircraft Carrier

Sorry for the spelling mistakes :O

[DILLIGAFF]

I still have some unmade kits up in the loft. Airfix Bristol Freighter, DH104 Comet, VC10, Vanguard are ones that I can remember .The Bricky Freighter was purchased after seeing it in the window of a faded old model shop somewhere in the suburbs of Sydney Oz back in the early 80s. They had about half a dozen of them, should have bought the bloody lot.
D

[diesel addict]

Absolutely !

Only last night I was cording-up twelve strands of 3/16" to fit snugly between prop-hook and rear peg.

The only difference from my youth is to use light silicone grease instead of castor oil or green soap/glycerine as rubber lubricant.

Sarcastic comments regarding rubber, lubrication and hanky-panky will be treated with the utter disdain they deserve.

803, 804, 805, bang........

[treadigraph]

An odd recollection is me putting an Airfix Trident together when I ws about 12 or 13 and my sister was listening to Dark Side of the Moon which she had just brought... Often when I play the album these days I'm transported back 30 years or more, painting the BA blue belly (very poorly, I'm sure, I hadn't heard of masking tape in those days) and sticking in the clear window strips. If I brought the kit these days (I'm stick to piston types, apart from the odd glider!) I'd want a BEA scheme...

Cor, I've just remembered the cheat-lines on those 1/144 kits, how you had to put the decals in place, let them dry and knock out the window rebates with a plastic punch, then stick the windows in and join the fuselage halves.

The after market parts and decals available these days is bewildering - I brought a few cockpit sets and so on before deciding that it's all far too complicated so I generally build straight out of the box (have you seen the Eduard etched brass frets with tiny little levers, etc - one careless cut and the part is away to the next county - must cut on tape!).

But if anyone knows where I can purchase an out of production 1/48 two seat Sea Fury conversion kit I'll be yer friend for ever. Got outbid on Ebay... Trumpeter have just released a 1/48 Sea Fury FB.11, perhaps they'll do a TT.20 next...

[parabellum]

"Only last night I was cording-up twelve strands of 3/16" to fit snugly between prop-hook and rear peg."

So those are the dynamics are they Diesel? 12 strands of 3.16" suitably lubricated etc. Before you start how much longer are the strands than prop to peg? 1/4 more, 1/3 etc. ? (It is about 52 years since I did it last!).

Regards,
PB.

[Shazz-zaam]

Brings back fond memories. I had many Airfix models in the 70's, My first one was 1/72 F4U-1D Corsair, followed by a Hellcat and Wildcat. The plastic was already a Navy blue, so no painting was necessary.
Endless hours of fun pretending the coffee table was an aircraft carrier.
With the hot aussie summers, I used to put the models in front of the evaporative cooler, watch the props spin and dream.
Many models were to follow,Spitfire, Hurricane, BF 109 ,B17 the usual collection. Always had a preference for props, had F-86,& 747, but they were just a little dull.
Eventually graduated to flying models,first Balsa model was the FW 190 rubber powered, can't remember the manufacturer, but it flew nicely. I do remember using a lot of band-aids as the plastic prop was sharp and would cut your finger as you wound it up.
Also had the Cox flying models, control line, PT-19, Stuka and the Corsair.
I'm glad I had such supportive parents, use to run the engines in the garage, it was deafening. Corrogated iron roof amplifying the unmuffled roar. Walk out in a haze of smoke.
Eventually discovered girls, found out they are much more interesting to spend time and money on.:ok:

[D120A]

Ah, the Kiel Kraft Auster, the last balsa/tissue model I ever built. It was superb, and I lovingly tied it down on to the carrier panel behind the saddle on my bike, and pedalled off to the park to fly it.

Unfortunately, my energetic pedalling caused the airflow over the wings to generate rather more lift than their structural strength. About 200 yards from the house, there was a sharp crack and the wings clapped hands above the fuselage, as if in mock applause at my aeronautical stupidity.

I learned about angle of attack from that. :rolleyes:

A couple of weeks of repair, re-build, re-cover, re-dope etc. and I was ready to try again. Cunningly mounted on the bike carrier, this time with blocks to give the model zero angle of attack, and the bike ridden in the most gingerly fashion to the park, all was well until I cycled through the park gate. Unfortunately, the posts of the park gate were some 2 inches closer together than the wingspan of said precious model, and there was an interesting noise of smashing balsa and scrunching doped tissue as each post neatly reduced the aspect ratio of the wing.

I learned about "don't assume, check" from that. :hmm: Fifty years in the business later, I reckon that lesson was cheap at the price.

[diesel addict]

Total of 11 yards of strip.

Make up as six strands 66" long ( 12 strand equivalent 33").

When wound with 130 cording turns and doubled over the resulting 'rope' of 12 strands is 27" between hooks - but his will slacken off as the motor runs-in and will have to be adjusted as required.

The upper practical limit seems to be about 50% over length - say a 45" motor roped for 30" between hooks.

Not usually used on motors under about an ounce.

More than 16 strands of !/4" can induce hernias during winding.

Cheers

da

[parabellum]

Many thanks Diesel, all faithfully recorded:ok:

[alC]

..here goes.

Top shelf. L-R. Tiger Moth, Catalina, Buccaneer, Mosquito and Anson.

Next shelf. L-R. Siskin, (behind Storch.), Hunter, (behind Chipmunk), F18, F14,
Whittle jet, Harvard, Phantom, Northrop F5, (behind Hart),
Meteor, (behind Fokker D7), Sopwith Camel and Eurofighter/Typhoon.

Next shelf. L-R. Hudson, Me262, Fairy Battle, Hurricane, Spitfire, Mustang, JU87, Mustang, THE Typhoon, Comet DH88, FW190, P40, F16 and Henshel.

Next shelf. L-R. Dakota, Brewster Buffalo, Halifax, UH-1, F86, Lancaster, Tornado F3, Heyford, Jaguar, (incomplete), Beaufighter and Sunderland.

Anyone else got any photos of their treasures? Love to see some of the old Dinkys. al.

[Mr_Grubby]

aIC.

Brill. Thanks. :ok::ok::ok:

Grubby.

[fleigle]

Great thread, :D:D:D the old brain box is going full steam.
In no particular order, Airfix;
Spit., Hurricane, Meteor, Mossie, Lanc, Whirlwind, Walrus, Bf109, Bf110,
Atomic cannon, etc
I used to really make them carefully and lube the "rotaty" parts with vaseline. My paint jobs were good too.
Dinky;
Vulcan, Meteor, Javelin, and all of the army vehicles (my brother still has those I think).
KeilKraft;
Spit., Luscombe Silvaire, and that really cheap, generic single sided one piece balsa press-out "generic Cessna"... lots of those!!
We had a great model shop in Newcastle, called...The Model Shop, on Blenheim Street?, anyhow it was a 5 minute walk from the bus station.
f

And I still have my Triang 00 trains and rolling stock.

[kluge]

What I didn't anticipate from starting this thread is the memory recall reminding me of other models that I built and subsequently forgot - "how come I didn't remember" that sort of thing.

Again collected over years, presents from relatives etc........bizzare.

Another bizzare thing, I was at the Indian Airforce museum in Delhi yesterday (accompanied the Memsab on a business trip) - up very close to a Mig 25 and Mig 23 on static display and remembering making the very same models - specifically the folding ventral fin on the Mig 23 and strange undercarriage design.
And yes the Mig 25 engines are huge.

[BEagle]

fleigle, I don't think that the 'Atomic Cannon' was Airfix? I had one in 1962/3 and I'm sure it was made by Renwal?

[RETDPI]

Yes the 'Atomic Cannon" certainly wasnt Airfix. IIRC it was 1/35th scale or thereabouts from a U.S.A. manufacturer (Revell -Renwall?)who did a whole load of vehicles ,including "Ontos". Huge ,with lots of working bits and far too expensive for me to get beyond pressing my nose up against the shop window in the late 50's.
Mind you, for rich young masters like Beags................

P.S. Just checked - it was 1/40th Renwall.

[BEagle]

Actually it was my (only) Christmas present that year, Redders!

I also had the 'Twin Forty' from Renwal - but never could save enough pocket money for their 'Ontos'!

[RETDPI]

:{:{:{:{:{:{:{:}

[Evanelpus]

Back in the early '70's, me and my mate Nigel had just about every one of the 1/144th scale Airfix Airliners going. We painted them in 'real' airline c/s by hand - remember this was in the days before endless decals became available, even if they were, they were beyond our means.

Both of us used to have an airport built in our bedrooms with buildings, taxiways, the works. I'll always remember the day he had just finished an El Al 747, it took him ages to paint it. I took it on a flight to my house. We used to ride our bikes and hold the plane at the same time. I think you're already guessing where this is going....you are right.

I was cruising down the hill on the final approach to my house and this poxy cat shot out from nowhere causing me to have a fatal stall in flight. I hit the deck (still holding Nige's pride and joy in one hand) only for the bike to trap the fingers of the other hand causing me to release the model. I watched in slow motion as the bike flipped over my head and landed straight on the 747, smashing it into many pieces.

After I was patched up, the next day the accident and investigations department (Nige, he had taken on a new role) inspected the scene. Amongst the blood and skin fibres on the ground, he retreived an exhaust cone from No4 engine, and an undercarriage door. All of the bits were taken to his hangar (his homework desk next to his airport) and they were meticulously put together in a bid to determine the cause of the accident.

He came to the conclusion that it was pilot error, bloody typical! After a thorough investigation, I was banned from 'flying' (well, with his models anyway) for 2 weeks.

[kluge]

Reminds me of how the pride of my fleet, HMS Victory was destroyed.

A birthday present from my much older brother on break from University, in which he also built and painted it (some gift eh), Victory sat on my bedroom chest of drawers in full rig and bunting with afore listed multiple aircraft flypasts suspended from the ceiling.

After the usual ruff and tumble & plastic "sword fencing practice" with big bro, the chase through the house probably the result of me wacking him with a plastic Saracen sword (I think I was 8 yo at the time but could have been older :E) run up the stairs with him trying to return the wacking with a frisbee - running into my bedroom, big bro launches frisbee, I duck famously and Victory gets the full broadside - far more damage sustained than ever the Frogs could have delivered at Trafalgar. Masts, cannon, rigging everywhere, major hull damage causing severe list to stbd.

Totally wrecked - provided parts for future creative projects but alas Victory with its copper painted hull was no more.

[fleigle]

"Atomic Cannon"
Bugger, it must have been a Revel 'coz I ain't never heard of Renwal !!
As you say, stuff is disappearing out of the noggin !

When I was REALLY young a mate had a Frog 'plane, all shiny, real aluminium, could it have been a Mustang (P-51) ???...help?

I've still got the tug that my dad built for me out of Model Maker plans, the ones that were included, not ordered.

[WALSue]

Ah this brings back memories of when I was a kid sleeping under Aifix models haphazardly dangling off the ceiling with a drawing pin and thread. Great till they fell off in the early hours of the morning.

I always seemed to have several of the same model (Harriers and Spitfires mostly I seem to remember) in my mind it was better to have an entire squadron.
That, and it took thousands of attempts to get those bloody decals on!

[denis555]

This great thread only reminds me of all the models I 'bungled' over the years in a feverish attempt to build them quickly.

Like the time an Uncle bought me ... eight years old at the time... a BAC 1-11, but he didn't include the paint.

So I rummaged around in my Dad's shed and ended up painting it gold.

Looked good until the paint started rubbing off...:ugh:

[RETDPI]

When I was REALLY young a mate had a Frog 'plane, all shiny, real aluminium, could it have been a Mustang (P-51) ???...help?

Could this have been the ready to fly rubber powered thing called IIRC "The Mark V fighter" or somesuch. It had a geared prop and one wound it up in its box with a crank I think.
Again - far too expensive for a prole like me to aspire to.




Try Beags.

[JW411]

For me it was a passion for Dinky aeroplanes. I went to jumble sales with my pocket money and ended up with 30 or 40 of them. I remember the Ensign (two off), the Ju-90 (two off), the Singapore, the Mercury/Maia combination, Amiot 360, Battle, DC-3 etc etc.

My mates and I also discovered a fantastic junk shop that had the old black recognition models left over from the war. They were made of bakelite or wood and I had quite a few including the C-46 Commando and the B-26 Invader. I also remember having a Japanese Betty, Helen and Mavis flying boat.

[Dop]

What a load of old saddoes!

I used to be into making kits when I was a lad, Airfix ruled supreme of course, but I also had some Revell kits and one or two Tamiya. Mostly aeroplanes, but some ships, and cars, and tanks as well.
At one point I took it quite seriously too - had a craft knife to cut the pieces off the sprues, and used a liquid glue you brushed onto the edges rather than the polystyrene cement in a tube. The worst were the figures where all the belts and straps had to be cut out of a sheet of thin plastic and put on. That was fiddly as anything.
I have some old slides where to use up a film I shot pictures of some of my collection. I might dig them out, scan them in and post them..

I guess that makes me an old saddo too!:ok:

[S'land]

I guess that makes me an old saddo too!

It seems that we all end up as "saddos" so one might as well enjoy the experience. At least we all had childhoods that involved being somewhat creative, and maybe educational. I know that when I made a model or bought/was given a Dinky Toy, Corgi, Matchbox model I wanted to know as much about it as possible. This meant going to the library to "research" the subject aircraft, ship, car, etc. I also used to ask adults about the models and what the originals had been like to fly, sail or drive.

[diesel addict]

It was indeed the Mark V Fighter - I have one on the desk as I type this, The box is awful tatty, and the airframe ia a trifle "distressed" but I popped a loop of 3/16" into it and actually dared to fly it one the one calm evening this summer - it flew, not epecially well, but it took off from an 8' x 4' hardboard aerodrome and landed about thirty yards away.
Flies, Rises Off Ground = FROG - and it did......

[RETDPI]

Diesel A . Long forgot that meaning of "FROG."

Any chance of you posting a piccie of the beast?

Now we wait for those guys who flew all those Cox -with starter spring -powered plastic control-liners.
"Stuka (with dropping bomb )" etc.



I expect Beags had the set.

[MReyn24050]

This was the one I think:-
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c67/sabamel/frog_mark_V.jpg

[BEagle]

Redders, are you personal friends with Father Christmas, or what?

I did indeed have a Cox C/L model (and only one) - in fact it was a Christmas present. It was a PT-19 with Babe-Bee .049 glowplug engine. Complete with spring starter.

Its maiden flight wasn't too successful and, like many little lads of that period, the design flaw of the PT-19 resulted in my .049 suffering a badly bent needle valve. Fortunately my father, being a chartered engineer, was able to fix that and also to design a modification to avoid it happening again - a slot cut out of the fuselage - and the PT-19 was soon flying again. Including inside a hangar at Merryfield.

Cox reed valve engines were nothing like as powerful as the Tee Dee .049 I later owned. In fact as an admirer of L M Cox engineering, I now have a collection of 'BNIB' Tee Dees with only 2 to go for the full set. I have the ..010, .020, .049, .051, .05R/C, .09, .10R/C and Special .15 Mk 2. So just the Tee Dee .15 and Special .15 still to find.

At least we all had childhoods that involved being somewhat creative, and maybe educational.

How very true!

[Stationair8]

Perhaps we could launch a class action against Cox, for damaged fingers and various cuts associated with bloody blue and yellow plastic PT-19.

A few more Airfix models from childhood,
DH Beaver,
Beagle B206,
Wildcat,
Corsair,
Hercules.

[kluge]

HHmmm - I discovered all about electrical cable sizing and voltage/amp loading trying to start a glow plug engine as a kid. Having unscrewed the cylinder head and connecting a battery I couldn't see a glow. Therefore a bigger battery was required.

Took out my Dad's car battery and wired up the leads. All of a sudden the plastic coating on the wire leads went up in smoke....poof.

That lesson taught me a lot when it came to designing and rewiring the AC/DC circuits on my yacht some thirty years later.

.......I still have plans to build a pulse jet engine...now that would be fun - at a distance.

[BEagle]

Yes, the effect on glowplugs was often interesting!

In those days you had a choice between v. expensive 1.5v dry batteries and 2v wet accumulators. Cox used 1.5v plugs, so would often burn out if a 2v source was used without 'dropper cables'.... Many hours spent poking pins into Cox plugs trying to coax them back to life!

Record Super Nitrex fuel with 30% nitro (if you could find it) gave a little more performance to the Babe Bee - and considerably more to the Tee Dee .049. The PT-19 had rather pointless variable downthrust adjusted by moving the engine against the elastic bands which held it in. I tried retrofitting my Tee Dee to the PT-19 with a radial tank mount; the firewall I made wasn't up to the job and the whole thing came apart in flight!

That lesson taught me a lot.....

A very good point! I reckon we all learned a lot of useful skills during our aeromodelling days!

[kluge]

Still does ....... I built the spruce wing ribs for a two place rag and tube a/c a couple of years ago in between jobs. Aero modelling on a somewhat larger scale but with still the same sense of accomplishment. All stems from making airfix kits.


Ah the joys (and smells) of nitro methane.......

[denis555]

This link may take you down Boxart memory lane (apologies if it doesn't work as you may need to be a MSN Boxart group member )

BOX-ART (http://groups.msn.com/BOXART/airfixbolsas2.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=31922)

Enjoy!

[denis555]

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r214/Paul_Bradley/boxart/airfix_hs125.jpg

[bobward]

Folks it's been great reading this threda as, till then, I thought I was the only 55ish bloke on the planet with a loft full of unmade kits. Like most of you, they've been bought with the idea that, I'll build them when I retire. Sad to say, the eyesight is going now (maybe what they told us as teenagers was actually true!)

I think I've several hundred boxes up there. I tell the wife that this is my recycling effort, as theye are actually insulating the house.....

I do build them from time to time. At my current rate of progress I'll need to live about 400 years to finish them all off.

Just in case anyone gives ou earache about this hobby, try this - I read it in a moel magazine a year or so ago. Think about all the people in the country with dogs. These people take Rover for a walk a couple of times a day and happily pick up hand fulls of dog poo - and you think I'm weird making model kits??

[TheChitterneFlyer]

At the tender age of nine years I recall building a balsa wood somethingoranother that was powered by one of those Jetex engines. After three months of my mother complaining about wood shavings, dust, and the smell of shellac... it flew for the first and only time. It was a fantastic flight, but the whole thing went up in flames. The engine was still burning (and thrusting) after it departed the aeroplane. Forty six years later, and retired from flying the real thing, I'm considering trying it all again.

PS: I still have the scar on my hand from where I was burned by trying to handle the Jetex carcass shortly after an engine test burn... the engine being held in the jaws of a pair of pliers! I somehow doubt that kids of today would be allowed to purchase anything even remotely similar to Jetex pellets!

TCF

[Jetex Jim]

TheChitterneFlyer
PS: I still have the scar on my hand from where I was burned by trying to handle the Jetex carcass shortly after an engine test burn... the engine being held in the jaws of a pair of pliers! I somehow doubt that kids of today would be allowed to purchase anything even remotely similar to Jetex pellets!


That does seem a little incompatible with modern health and safety thinking. And I happen to know that real ICI manufactured Jetex manufacture ceased about 50 years ago, although there have been various relaunch (in the marketing sense) attempts.

Today the closest you'll get to an authentic Jetex experience is via the Czech made Rapier units. These and suitable kits can be sourced from
SAMS Models Section F. Motors. Rubber, Co2, Electric (http://www.samsmodels.com/acatalog/Section_F._Motors._Rubber__Co2__Electric.html)

Scroll down the page and you'll see something called Jet-X, avoid.
Scroll past it to Rapier...

See elsewhere on the site for various stick and tissue types, including
http://www.samsmodels.com/acatalog/g333-me-163.jpg


Then a trip to Cosford, or the Deutsche Museum in Munich to view the fullsize, just to get the details right, doncha know...

[parabellum]

Many memories there, TheChitterneFlyer! . Having bought many KeilKraft kits, at around two shillings and sixpence and discovered that they never included sufficient balsa cement in that tiny yellow tube, that there was no where near enough tissue paper provided or rubber elastic and no rubber lubrication, that no tissue paste was provided , nor dope, either clear or coloured, I became determined to do it properly, full on, for once. I worked weekends on a local farm and earned one shilling and three pence an hour so, in no time at all, I had the funds to go flat out and build a proper flying model with everything it said on the plan.

I bought the Gloster Javelin and spent hours making it, used both clear and coloured dope, as recommended! I now had a Jetex 50 and fuel and fuse!!! Came the great day I fired up and launched from my parents bedroom window, it went straight up into a stall and started falling, about now the protective paper used above the engine burst into flame, (Asbestos paper, as recommended, simply not obtainable). Shortly after that the whole thing went down in a ball but the engine survived.
I worked it out later that I had lost seven shillings and sixpence, which in 1955 was a lot of money!

[alC]

Remember the ear-wax coloured capsule of glue that came with those early Airfix kits?
And the smell of that bottled paint. Lovely.

No wonder I was a "happy" child. al.

[kluge]

denis555 - amazing. Thx for that posting.

That trip brought back further memories of models that I had collected but forgot about eg the Stalin tank. Amazing. Also interesting to look through the Heller and Frog lists. I recall a lovely Heller 1/72nd Vampire I had - very detailed with French Navy markings.

Is there a similar list for the Matchbox series that you are aware of ?

[Stationair8]

Likewise many thanks for that link dennis555, brought back many memories.

Something those box lids and header cards you could almost feel yourself behind the controls.

Used to love the old tubes of Airfix glue, cut the top off and then find a pin to stop it running everywhere and hopefully next time you wanted to use the glue it hadn't dried up. Anyone remember that lemon scented glue that became available in the mid 70's, to be family friendly to the other people living in the household.

We bought a young friend a model kit for Christmas several years back, but his mother told us that she didn't approve of her 10 year old son, using dangerous things such as glue, paint or a knife so they hid it from the kid!

[denis555]

Is there a similar list for the Matchbox series that you are aware of ?


Sorry kluge but I can't find a Matchbox site - glad you enjoyed the Airfix one though.

The glue stories got my mind racing - did anyone else get a kit and feverishly hunted for the glue finding that it had dried up - then tried to cut the tube in half desperatley trying to extract something in order to quickly get the kit built?

That was me all over - rush, rush rush :}

[treadigraph]

his mother told us that she didn't approve of her 10 year old son, using dangerous things such as glue, paint or a knife so they hid it from the kid!

Blimey, does she take him outside in a fluorescent tabard? :}

Seriously, glue, paint and scissors/knives were a staple part of my childhood from about primary school onwards and I've no recollection of any of my classmates inflicting serious damage to themselves or each other. Pairs of dividers in maths, now that's different - and drawing pins, carefully left on Titt Minor's chair... I've carved myself regularly with a Stanley knife doing DIY but I don't think I ever did using a craft knife when I was knee high to a Dagling Primary. I believe the Humbrol style enamel paints are considerably cleaned up compared with thirty years ago and there's always acrylic.

Good on yer Stationair 8, I think it's great to give kids models to build rather than DVD games and all that nonsense and I wish I'd done that for my nephews at Christmas. Tell her she is stifling his creative instincts and ability to learn life skills! (Can you tell I haven't got kids!)

[Code 100]

What a great thread!

Yes, like bobward my loft is full of kits, some still shrink wrapped. I cannot go past Dominoes toy + hobby shop in Leicester without having a look. When you see a kit on sale that you made at the age of 8 it brings the memories flooding back (I'm now 43).

Now entering my 4th childhood, my attention has now turned to a 1950's railway layout. Will I ever want to grow up! - NO.

[Stationair8]

Yes, I had a little chuckle to myself about mother being overprotective of her beloved GenerationY.

Nothing like having ones fingers covered in Airfix glue, razor nicks or Humbrol paint.

Gees couldn't a little tin of Humbrol paint go along away especially if you hadn't changed out of your Sunday best, like mum said to do before painting that model. New pair of pyjamas(Coles of course)on for a spot of modelling before bed, Airfix Scottish Bulldog and a tin of Red Humbrol paint and a slip of the finger's and oh dear we dropped the newly painted model on the new pyjamas and their was red paint from head to toe, no modelling privileges for a while!

[Groundgripper]

Gosh, this brings back lots of memories, or it would do if the material holding the brain cells hadn't turned porous and let them all leak away! Solid balsa models of the Gloster Javelin, T33, and SNCASE Baroudeur complete with launching trolley. I seem to remember that I gave up with the wing of the Javelin after wearing my fingers down to the bone trying to sand it to the right aerofoil section - well, it looked OK suspended from the bedroom ceiling! Flying models of the DeH Comet (24 inch wingspan) and Canberra (21 inch) never got further than gliding flight out of my bedroom window - I didn't have a Jetex 100 motor and the Jetex 50 was woefully underpowered for the job. Mind you, the amount of paint I used, especially on the Comet to get the right BOAC paint scheme, and the amount of ballast needed to trim them both for flight probably ensured that the Jetex 100 wouldn't have been much better!

Blimey, I've found the photos, taken on my trusty Brownie 127 and home processed! Date - mid-fifties, I think.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g18/chrismaxbrown/models002.jpg

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g18/chrismaxbrown/models001.jpg

Needless to say, both models finally succumbed to the breaker's match; being large they produced quite a good blaze.

I had the Frog Mark 5 fighter as well, I seem to remember it flew quite well

for a while

:hmm:

I've still got models of HMS Victory and HMS Ark Royal, both with hulls carved from solid. They're displayed in the corner cabinet in the sitting room (wife must have been impressed with the standard of work!) It took me three years to get up the courage to do the Victory - the rigging diagram was a nightmare for a young lad!

A few months ago I found a box of old models and decided that they were beyond economic repair so with considerable regret I chucked them. They included the Airfix Concorde (Air France colours) and an Aer Lingus F27.

I think I'll get myself one of those Space Models Concordes (keep Brian Pugsley comfortable in his retirement); I've got some birthday money kept hidden from my wife's shopping fund!:E

Nown where's that Revell JF90/EFA kit gone?

[TiffyFGR4]

Wow, alot of very nice & interesting posts here :)

I used to make alot of model aircraft when I was younger, I used to buy all sorts, but not just model aircraft, I had tanks, ships, formual 1 cars, Le man racing cars, touringcars....Just about everything & anything I fancied. :)

My first model, not a kit, but a 'Matchbox' model....Well a toy, it was a little Harrier, I think a GR1? I got that for my 4th or 5th birthday, that was my pride & joy, took it everywhere with me....Until I lost it, oooooo how I cried. Then later in life, I started saving up my pocket money & started buying cheap airfix kits, then when I got my first job, started getting even more kits, but only for a couple of year, I got fed up with buying them. I used to buy, say for example, a few Harriers at a time & paint them in different colours, squadron markings etc. I done that with every RAF aircraft, so you can imagine how many I had, it got to a point where I had no where else to put them, so, end result, giving them away....Which hurt a bit.

One of the last model kits I bought was the 1/48 scale single seat Eurofighter Typhoon by Revell. A very nice kit, great attention to detail, made it look all used & worn in RAF markings, (like real RAFaircraft, I always think they look dirty, well used, which just gives them character, I think). But I always thought, on that kit, that the canopy looked too big, too tall on the aircraft......Maybe it was just me.

One of the best kits I ever had, was the 1/48 scale EE Lightning F-2A/F-6 by Airfix. I had one of each in different RAF marks, markings & colours. That was my favourite I think. Gave those away too, wishing now I kept at least one of them. But I'm thinking about getting one more, making it & have it to admire.

Now, I don't make kits anymore, I spend my time tuning, selling, fixing, modernizing guitars for a living, and of course playing them for a hobby & maybe playing for a living one day. But on pay day, I guess I should start saving up model kits again, but instead, flying off to Dubai & visiting my girlfriend/soulmate & bringing her back to Newcastle & just....Hanging around.......As you do :E

And whenI used to make model aircraft, I always made them look dirty etc. I think most of you might agree, they just look alot better like that :)

Ta-ta

[barit1]

I built a couple - both static and flying models. The static ones I recall were a white pine P-80 (before redesignation to F-80), a plastic DGA-4 "Mike", and a plastic P-51D with clear fuselage panels so the Merlin, tanks, radios etc. were visible.

Also had a cheap controlline trainer - with a cranky .049 glow plug engine that was really difficult to start. Also several scratch-built rubber-power planes - one with the fuselage made of a thin balsa sheet roll-formed into a tube; a true monocoque fuselage.

I also made a small hand-launched flying wing glider that I launched from the roof on a few occasions!

But I had an older cousin who got into very early radio control (late 40s or early 50s). Windup rubber escapement giving rudder control only (neutral, hard left, neutral, hard right...) He later went on to restore fullscale biplanes and won several trophies.

[Jetex Jim]

Groundgripper very nice pics.

Take a look at :
http://www.jetex.org.uk/Video/comet.wmv
for a video of a Jetex powered Comet flying at Old warden.

[S'land]

Nice video. I see that the Comet landed on the same "landing strip" as so many of mine did. I feel sure that I thought that real aircraft should also land in trees.

[Jetex Jim]

Hi S'land.
You may have found these already, but if not here's a few more
New Page 1 (http://www.jetex.org.uk/videos.htm)


Groundgripper,
being a Lancastrian I trust that are familair with Arthur Garnett Model supplies at Colne. Worth a trip just to see all the beautifully painted plastic models in the shop.

[Groundgripper]

Thanks JJ.

That video takes me back a few, no, make that many, years. From the way the owner was shaking his hand it would seem that he picked the aircraft up by the hot bit.

Bet he lit the fuse with his fag, as well!

I've still got a Jetex racing car and helicopter somewhere - never could get the latter to perform and the local park keeper wasn't too keen on it either, even well before the days of health and safety!:E

Anyone else remember the Schoolboys Exhibition (?) at Earls Court Olympia in the early fifties? Essential annual visit (mind you, me dad used to enjoy it as much as I did). I've also got a meta fuel powered boat from that era.

GG

Sorry, slight thread drift.:O

[Stationair8]

Always had a soft spot for the Frog kits, must have been because of the paint schemes shown on the header cards or boxes. They also seem to produce some odd ball kits like the Fairey Delta, Westland Wappiti, DH Hornet and Fairey Barracuda. Didn't they go bankrupt in the early 1970's and the moulds got sold to a Russian company.

Anyone have any websites or links to Frog kits

[treadigraph]

Didn't they go bankrupt in the early 1970's and the moulds got sold to a Russian company.


Yes, that was Novo. My local toy shop used to sell their kits and eventually when the shop closed down sold the remaining stock off really cheaply. I can recall buying a quite a few 1/72 Wessii, Proctors and I think either Skuas or Barracudas for about 5p or 10p each when I was about 14 or 15. If only I hadn't binned them a couple of years later... Oh and a Gannet or two.

[Groundgripper]

being a Lancastrian I trust that are familair with Arthur Garnett Model supplies at Colne. Worth a trip just to see all the beautifully painted plastic models in the shop.

I don't know that shop in Colne, JJ, must go and take a look some time.

Many moons ago, the Company for which I worked was involved in the promotion of the Osprey to the Army Air Corps and I was delegated to go and man the stand at the Middle Wallop show for which we had been promised a big model of the aircraft.

Four days before the show started we found out that we weren't getting the model................

Panic!!

Then the boss man said "you make models, here's a kit for you, find someone else to make this other one - see you at the weekend!".........

Personal panic - times two!!

We decided that my model would be 'wheels down', his would be 'wheels up' (which latter involved me 'borrowing' a stand from our selection of models in the Sales Presentation Room, the model being held in place by the surreptitious application of Blu-Tack!). Next few nights the two of us burned the midnight oil and I went down to Hampshire with the paint still wet on both models, I applied the decals after breakfast on the morning the show started.

I was completely amazed that no-one apparently noticed, during the entire show, that these were not professionally produced - even someone very high up (so to speak) in the Army Air Corps complemented us on them. (Actually, said Staff Officer was quite uncomplimentary about the Osprey itself, but then had the cheek to bring his wife along next day and tell her what a clever system it was:eek:).Because it was a trade show everyone assumed that they had been built professionally and had cost the company a small fortune. Just as well they didn't take too close a look!

Isn't it marvellous what you can do with a couple of £7.95 Revell 1/48th scale kits and a bit of bullsh1t! Must have been the high point of my modelling career - doesn't take much to please me.:O

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g18/chrismaxbrown/Osprey.jpg

The poor old thing looks a bit dusty now, but it's on the shelf with all the others (including the Concorde model that's just arrived from the BA shop).

GG

[Jetex Jim]

Then the boss man said "you make models, here's a kit for you, find someone else to make this other one - see you at the weekend!".........



Very nice job Groundgripper

[Chris Royle]

Storage always was / is / will be a problem with model aircraft.
I recall seeing a rather neat solution at a model show or similar a few years ago.
The post on this thread about a collection of 1/48th EE Lightnings prompted my memory.
The chap in question had built a collection of Lightnings (in every mark and squadron colour) as half models and had attached them to a vertical board. Looked very professional.
Anyone else recall seeing this?

[Stationair8]

Remember in the days before the "stealth aircraft" were officially recogonised in the USAF, some Japanese model company produced a Stealth Bomber/Fighter and released it prior to the first Gulf war.

It was almost an exact copy of the real thing, the Yanks must have been a little annoyed with school boys running around building a 1/72 scale version of their most classified weapon.

Anyone remember the mighty Airfix Dogfight Doubles from the 1970's?

[S'land]

Having seen a photograph in Jet Blast of a wind up model submarine has reminded me that when I was about six years old my parents bought me a clockwork RAF rescue launch. We were on holiday in Scarborough at the time the launch was in plastic with a clockwork motor. The rudder was brass, but the propeller was plastic.

Having "sailed" it for years it finally succumbed to rust in the engine department and a propeller that had been repaired so many times it was unrecognisable. It was consigned to the model shelf until my four year old sister (nine years younger than me) found it, called it silly and threw it down the well in the garden.

[RETDPI]

S'Land I remember that toy. White deck with a grey hull.There were IIRC two other variants of the same hull design with different labels e.g. Fire Boat???Anybody remember those funny Corgi jet models on some sort of a bendy pylon- (Vapour trails ?) Just couldn't see the point of them. Also were there any Dinky 1:200 scale diecasts after the Sea Vixen and the French Dinky Caravelle? It's my dotage -and I'm enjoying it. :)

[Hedgestumbler]

Frog kits - have a look at this site -
Welcome to the House of Frog (http://www.thestuarts.eclipse.co.uk/)
It's a delight. The plans for many of the smaller Frog kits have been scanned, and you can download them as PDFs. Nip down to the local model shop, get some light balsa, and get building. Keep the weight down, and you will have nice little fliers.

Another place to get the nostalgia going is "Small Flying Arts" :
SFA Forum (http://www.smallflyingarts.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl)
There's LOTS of people like me who are into reliving their youth - this forum is full of them. Lots of ex-industry people, and a few professional aerodynamicists as well.

[Fishtailed]

I had a number of Dinky 'planes, all jets exept for an Avro York. I inked in an airfield on the inside of our folding dining room table, witha runway, peri track and pan. They all went the way of my childhood, but now I have more than twice as many as I had then (second childhood?) Just recently picked up a second Javelin for £15, to add to my 2 Metiors, 5 Hunters, 2 Lightnings, a Swift, a Sea Vixen and 2 Shooting Stars.

[Stationair8]

One for the Australian enthusiasts a 1/32nd CAC Boomerang.
Due to be released in the next few months.

[233SQN]

Is there a similar list for the Matchbox series that you are aware of ? Sorry kluge but I can't find a Matchbox site - glad you enjoyed the Airfix one though.

try
The unofficial reference to vintage Matchbox kits (http://www.matchboxkits.org/)

and these may aslo be of interest too...

- The Airfix Tribute Forum - :: Index (http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/index.php)

The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum :: Index (http://gregers.7.forumer.com/index.php)

[Stationair8]

Thanks for Matchbox site!!

Got to love that EU late 70's political correctness, box art not to depict scenes of violence!!!

[TiffyFGR4]

Hello,

Has anyone seen or bought the TSR2 'Limited Edition', 1/48 scale model from Airfix? I seen it advertised in some magazine, (Air Forces Monthly I think it was?), but I haven't seen it in my local model shop, 'Modelzone', I asked if they'll have any in store anytime soon, the guy just said we should do, keep checking in. I haven't made any model kits for a long time now, been a few years, kinda lost interest in them but not aircraft in general, but I'd like to get the TSR2 & build it up. So, has anyone bought one? If so, is it a good model, well detailed, worth buying? =)

Many thanks.

[treadigraph]

Tiffy, just had a look at Hannant's website and they haven't got any in stock yet - "due third quarter 2008" which I guess still applies! You can pre-order it from them if you wish.

Regards

Treadders

[TiffyFGR4]

Thank you very much, treadigraph, that's very helpful, I'll check it out, many thanks. =)

Regards,
Wayne

Chris Royle,

"The post on this thread about a collection of 1/48th EE Lightnings prompted my memory.
The chap in question had built a collection of Lightnings (in every mark and squadron colour) as half models and had attached them to a vertical board. Looked very professional".

That was something I had in mind of doing with all my EE Lightnings, but never really got round to doing it, I just had them lined up side by side on a long shelf, I even had a couple of the first couple of mk's with the four gun configuration, looked very good. It'd be great if Airfix do an 'Prototype' model of the EE Lightning, because I believe one of the early prototypes had an "Experimental tailfin extention"? I remember reading something about that some time ago, weither it actually flew or not, I don't know? But it'd be a very nice model neverless.

And if I manage to get a TSR2, I'm gonna get a EE Lightning to go with it, they'll look great together. If I get them, I'll take some pictures of them & post them on here.

Hmmmm Some people think it's kinda odd when they see a death metal listening, 26 year old covered with piercings & tattoo's going into a model shop asking if they have any kits of a TSR2, but hey, we're all individuals, as they say on 'Life Of Brian'. hehe

Many thanks once again.

[treadigraph]

Love this! (http://www.brothers-brick.com/2008/09/14/ralphs-lego-fairey-swordfish-searches-for-a-lego-bismarck/)

[kluge]

233SQN

Well done for finding that Matchbox site. I haven't seen those box covers in nearly two decades.

Many thx

K

[modelman]

Like others here,I can always remember straining my neck at Woolies to see the latest Airfix release (no t'internet then).I think when they introduced the 1/24 range I nearly fainted with excitement (I was only 10 after all).
I saved hard from my grocery round ( same bike as Granville) and got the Spitfire and Hurricane but never did get the Fw190/Stuka/Me109.
I got a Keilkraft Luscombe Silvaire for passing my 11-plus (remember that one?).I lovingly crafted it and covered it in silk with numerous coats of blue and silver dope and fuel proofer.It had a Allbon Dart up front which ran great on the bench but would not go after it had been permanently entombed in the airframe.Was miles too heavy-looked pretty though..
Have recently rekindled some model building with some indoor/outdoor flying and plastic scale-guess is's in the blood forever.

Great thread-nowt wrong wiv a bit of nostalgia
MM

[tinpis]

Keil Kraft Ranger with ED 246 oiling the front bits
Most fun ever ...Vic Smeed Tomboy with DC Merlin :ok:
http://static.rcgroups.com/forums/attachments/1/4/9/2/4/t382490-152-thumb-Tomboy-1.jpg

[BEagle]

I had a control-line KeilKraft 'Talon' powered by the glow-plug version of the ED 2.46 'Racer'. Racer? Good job the trades description act wasn't around back then - it was an utter slug. But the Talon went MUCH better when I fitted my brand new Christmas present ,a PAW 19BR after first flushing the tank of Nitrex 15 and filling it with PowerPlus!

Still have the PAW 19BR!!

[Saab Dastard]

Ah, memories, memories!

Like Mr. Grubby I have "put down" some models for my retirement - mainly the Airfix 1/24th scale WW2 models:

Me109, Spitfires 1 & V, FW190, Hurricane, Stuka, Mustangs D & K. I also have enough Airfix motors for them all (good old ebay!).

Now I will have to acquire the Mosquito! I suspect that they will never get built, though.

I built a HUGE quantity of models over about a 10-12 year period (up to university), from warships to space models. One of my favourites was the Airfix B29. I loved that aeroplane.

My final interest was in the arms and armour of the Wehrmacht, and I had a huge collection of vehicles and weapons - some scratchbuilt or heavily modified - ranging from motorcycles to King Tigers, and nebelwerfers to railway mortars! All in 1/72 or 1/76 of course.

The best thing I ever discovered was liquid polystyrene cement! Bloody good for making models with, too :p

SD

[Glory]

I built my own airport and terminal building to go with my models. I'm very proud of it.

My slimy green and orange fleet consisted of:

111 BAC, Comet, Caravel, Vangard, 707, DC10 and 9, Tristar, 727 (stretched version I did myself!) 747 and Concord.

I also had tow trucks, a baggage handler and an old Bedford coach to take passengers too and from the terminal.

"Glory International Airways" first accident closed the airport for about an hour when a serious bout of ramp rage resulted in the nose wheel coming off the Vanguard. The airline took a further blow when my Mum unreasonably demanded the kitchen table back.

[S'land]

The airline took a further blow when my Mum unreasonably demanded the kitchen table back.

Mothers could be so unreasonable about the use of the kitchen table, as recall well from my modelling days. Mind you, at least I did not have that problem when I was building a transistor radio - Dad was helping me and said we could not be disturbed.

[kluge]

Ah yes - hardened globules of glue on mums baking board guaranteed a clip around the ear.
To be followed by another one if it was confirmed that my big brother wasn't the cause !!

The strangest looking aircraft model I built was a Vought Cutlass. Looking at pictures of the a/c recently I wonder what the designer was smoking at the time.

[Pontious a Pirate]

:D:D:D

Go to Britmodeller on these links

Fairey Swordfish, 1/48 Tamiya - Britmodeller.com (http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9771)

The Stringbag Diorama - Britmodeller.com (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10712&hl=Swordfish)

Amazing!!!!

Take the time to go through both posts and see the detail and care involved :)

If only I could even think about this sort of skill!!! :ok::ok::ok::ok:

[Glory]

S'land - that is really impressive!

If I upgrade the "fleet" I know who to send the Tender too :ok:

[Stationair8]

Anyone got one of those new 1/24th Airfix Mosquito's yet?

[vonbag]

My first kit ever was an Airfix Fiat CR42, 1:72 scale in green plastic. It was bought by my late father somewhere in 1971 - IIRC (was five years old) -, as a surprise (*). I recall I loved the picture of the airplane on the small box, but was puzzled by all those pieces of plastic on the (three ?) sprues inside. At those times I used to jump for happiness (wish I could still do it, if then they were not to lock me up ;-)).
Since I began with the wrong foot, to disconnet the two fuselage halves I just bent it more times until it detached, my father took over and built the model. Unfortunaterly it was lost years later.

I then distinctly remember the second was a bimotore, probably a Marauder, still 1:72, followed by a Vickers Wellington -- that I can never forget so nice looking it was --and later by a Boeing B29 (that really seemed to be very large), probably all Airfix.
My father properly disconnected the pieces and let me fit them, always saying: "use less glue!".

After some practice, a couple of years later, I built all by myself a Dauntless (possibly a Baravelli kit) in blue plastic. It was fun also because my cousin had got the same kit as a present and we were building it together to see who finished first. He had used way too much glue, though, and after a few hours from completion his model became soft, the wings and the fuselage bent under its own little weight.

(*) = most gifts were not surprises, they were on request.

[VC10Conway]

Not sure whether I'll be able to remember the whole collection (it was the mid 70s we're talking about), but these were definitely amongst them:

Airfix 1/144 scale
Air France B747
Air France Caravelle
Air France Concorde
BEA Comet 4c
BEA HS Trident 1C (?)
Braniff B747 (Big Orange - painted by hand!)
British Airways B707 (Negus livery)
British Airways B737-200 (Negus livery)
British Airways Concorde (Negus livery)
British Airways L1011 Tristar (Negus livery)
British United/BUA BAC 1-11
KLM DC9
Lufthansa A300B
Lufthansa B727
Lufthansa B737
Monarch B707 (again painted by hand)
Pan Am B727
SAS DC10

I also had a few Revell 1:144 kits and some from more obscure manufacturers.

I also recall having spent years trying to find the Airfix 1:144 scale BOAC or BA VC10 model, but never did find one...

[Lightning Mate]

Off thread a bit, but guess what I have.

An unfinished 1/8 scale Sopwith Camel by Hasegawa. Huge and is not meant to be covered. The engine (Clerget) is a masterpiece. It went out of production ages ago (the kit).

LM

[S'land]

It went out of production ages ago (the kit).

Be fair Lightning Mate, so did the Sopwith Camel.

It sounds very interesting, any chance of a photograph?

[treadigraph]

Just remembered another kit which a friend has got stashed away for me (he acquired two and I've not got around to collecting mine yet!).

1/20 Nichimo Cessna 172 (http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal6/5201-5300/gal5222_Cessna172_Mustafa/00.shtm). From memory each of the metal cooling fins on the cylinders has to be individually positioned with spacers, etc, etc. Very, very detailed!

[kms901]

Reading this thread has inspired me to search the deepest reaches of my shed. And I found my 2 old Oliver Tiger Mk111's- does anybody fly control line any more ? I feel a model coming on, after a 25 year break.

[Stationair8]

The 1/20th Cessna 172, the stuff of dreams when your a nine year old kid!

I would have happily swapped my younger sister to get my hands on one of those kits in the 1970's.

That was the only thing wrong with the world in those day's not enough civilian model kits, but dad did purchase me a Cessna C337 Skymaster that was made in the late 1960's and then I found a Monogram C180 Sportsman in the local hobby shop.

[603DX]

Born just before WW2, collectible aircraft toys became pretty scarce when war broke out. My father was away in uniform contributing to the downfall of Hitler and Mussolini, and I had to look elsewhere for the three items in my meagre collection.

The first was a battered Dinky toy model of what hindsight now tells me was probably an Armstrong Whitworth Ensign, with much-chipped silver painted finish. Surviving examples, particularly if they still have the box, are likely to change hands for ridiculous sums, but to me it was priceless.

An industrious and friendly uncle, an ARP warden and cement supplier for airfield construction (so in a "Reserved Occupation", however much he volunteered for military service) had a wondrously well equipped shed and tool set. He made me a huge wooden model of a Vickers Wellington, with lovingly painted camouflage finish and RAF roundels, with two nails in the nose turret as guns. Almost as big as me, aged about 4.

In the summer of 1944 the V1 "doodlebug" flying bombs roared over our home in Maidstone, exciting for me, but deadly for others, and uncle made me one which made me envied at infant school among my peers.

Oh how I would love to still have those three treasured pieces now! My grandchildren would think them pretty tame compared to their Playstations etc., but they were better than gold dust to me. I think it's clear that my fascination with aviation started in those far-off days.

[rjtjrt]

603DX

Great post.
Great memories.

[ionagh]

I had a control-line KeilKraft 'Talon' powered by the glow-plug version of the ED 2.46 'Racer'. Racer? Good job the trades description act wasn't around back then - it was an utter slug.

There were some classically bad products then, I also remember the Frog "ultra high performance" 100 diesel. Skin and rice pudding come to mind....

I think the first reasonable engine I had was a Merco 35 and the first one to actually exceed my expectations was an HB61.

Various Keil Kraft, Veron, Frog aircraft came and went as well as a few scratchbuilt ones like a Beagle Airedale and assorted sailplanes.

Last one in that era was the Kavan Jet Ranger. Might have been the first RC helicopter kit? In any case everyone who bought the kit got the name and address and phone of the other buyers to compare notes.
There were no instructors let alone gyros and the collective/pitch/throttle mixing was all mechanical. :eek:

[diesel addict]

kms901

I have just put my Ollie Mk. III in a "Peacemaker".

Like many, it has suffered the usual Ollie crash damage and the carburetter is held on with a blob of skilfully? applied alumunium-filled epoxy.

Amalgam of George Aldrich and John Oliver - MAGIC!!!

On the other hand, if you wish to part with one/both???????????

[Tee Emm]

My old uncle in Kent was a member of the Royal Observer Corps and as a seven year old in 1939 I helped him spot friendly and enemy fighters and bombers over the next couple of years. My eye-sight was excellent - his wasn't - hence I was an unpaid volunteer. Over several days he worked on a strange twin engine wooden model and then closing the shed door he showed me his masterpiece made out of one piece wood - a de Havilland Mosquito. Wing span around 18 inches. He made the plans from Observer Corps aircraft identification silhouettes. The fuselage of the model was square - not oval - but that was the only fault. He swore me to secrecy as this was the new wonder bomber he said was made of balsa wood and still on the secret list. Well that was what he said and I believed him.

Twenty years later and when I was a pilot in the RAAF, I bought a wonderful plastic kit called the "Phantom Mustang" which had a working retractable undercarriage and propeller, using a tiny electric motor. The wings and fuselage were transparent. I enjoyed every minute of putting that Mustang together mainly because once upon a time I flew real Mustangs and thus the model took on a nostalgic meaning for me. Alas, my Phantom Mustang did not survive a domestic argument with my then wife as she became more irritable with each passing day that I would gaze at the model and quietly contemplate the good old days of hack, flick and zoom.

[BEagle]

The Monogram Phantom Mustang can still be found now and again on eBay - pricey though. Search either for 'Monogram Phantom Mustang' or 'Revell Phantom Mustang' - the kit was re-released under the Revell brand some years later.

I remember seeing the original at Hamley's one Christmas - whirling prop, retracting undercarriage etc etc!!

[wiggy]

In no particular order
Airfix range:
Lanc
Gnat
Spitfire
Zero
Beaufighter
Mosquito
Sunderland
Javelin
E.E. Lightning
P38 Lightning
Saturn V
SPAD(?)
and probably others I can't remember.

Now the family ditched most of those when I left home, but for some unknown reason, the only one I still have is .......
Fireball XL-5 ( manufacturer unknown)

[Dysag]

My favorite childhood model was a Monroe. Superbly put together.

Marilyn, that is.

[603DX]

Taking the cue from Dysag, in no particular order my favourite European models of childhood days were:


Loren (Sophia) in "Boy on a Dolphin"
Lollobrigida (Gina) in "Bread, Love and Dreams"
Mangano (Sylvana) in "Bitter Rice"
Ekberg (Anita) in "La Dolce Vita"
The Italian models were altogether of the finest quality, each with very efficient "area ruled" coke-bottle fuselages and elegantly proportioned undercarriages, although the single Swedish model with a double-decked superstructure had a remarkably fine empennage.:hmm:

[CharlieLimaX-Ray]

Dear Santa,
I know we are in the midst of the GFC, the global warming issue is on the agenda but I have been good all year, any chance that you could put a 1/24th scale Airfix Mosquito in my stocking?
Regards
CLX

[rjtjrt]

Is the 1:24 Mossie going to be available in limited numbers or is it expected to be produced and sold in sufficient numbers to supply demand (yes the price will moderate demand)?
CLX - where in Australia do you expect to be able to order one?

[cac_sabre]

My last 4 builds:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/sabrejet/fortescue6.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/sabrejet/bongo2-1.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/sabrejet/anl3.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/sabrejet/t1-1.jpg

[brakedwell]

My favorite childhood model was a Monroe. Superbly put together.

So was mine, but I also put these together!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/TigerMothGAIIZ.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/TigerMoth9206.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Tigerairborne.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/SpitfireV1.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/SpitfireV7.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/SpitfireV6.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/SpitfireV5.jpg[/IM]
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Mk19Anson26.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Mk19Anson2.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Mk19Ansonflying.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Harvard1.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Harvard4.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Harvard2.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/F-2.jpg[/IMG[IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Harvard1.jpg
[IMG]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/AusterJ6.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/Sukhoi26.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Model%20Collection/FeislerStorch.jpg

[kluge]

Talair - amazing to see that livery again. What a place !

It's hard to imagine the words "extreme" and "modelling" together.
This comes pretty close. Look at the attention to detail in some of these pictures. Enjoy.

Model Makers—Young C. Park (http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/park.htm)

[catbalu]

Hi guys. well i havnt finished growing up yet!! here is a video of my scratch built westland wessex YouTube - westland wessex has 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mbq-xh_GQ) CHEERS :ok:

[pigboat]

cac sabre, which F-27 is that, Revell or Airfix? You did a great job on it. Nice to see the port side of your DC-3. I commented on the fine finish on the starboard side over on Hyperscale. ;)

Here's my effort on two examples of the same model.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/Siddley-Hawker/ILZ4-1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/Siddley-Hawker/AAM1-1.jpg

And a rarity:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/Siddley-Hawker/IMG_0550.jpg

That's the Williams Brothers 1:72 C-46F that I modified to an E model by cutting away the greenhouse and adding a stepped windshield.

[CharlieLimaX-Ray]

I definitely won't be posting any photos of my models, after seeing the high quality work done by these guys!!!

CAC, the MMA and Talair decals did you print them?

[cac_sabre]

Yes the MMA TALAIR and AirNuigini Decals were all home made / designed and printed, send me a PM if you would like a copy of the image files or maybe I can even print you up some.

The F27 is the latest Airfix issue

pigboat some nice Canadian DC3s there! that C-46 certainly had me tossed.. never saw one like that!

Come o n CLX show them..its just a hobby

cheers
wall

[Leothelion]

Two of my friends had the Talon, one powered by a Enya 2.5 the other bloke used an AM 35. They flew them on 50 foot lines and they went very well, did allsorts, except vertical eights (chicken!).
The ED Racer diesel was a good engine, I'm surprised the glow version was a slug, ED had the habit of producing really good engines and really bad ones. The ED Bee was next to useless but the Hawk was a very good 1.5 and it looked nice!