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.

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.

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?

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

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

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........

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...

"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.

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:

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.

To parabellum
 

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

Many thanks Diesel, all faithfully recorded:ok:

Mr Grubby...
 

..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.

aIC.

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

Grubby.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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'!

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