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A NOSTALGIC TRIBUTE TO FROG MODEL KITS


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I see there are still lots of FROG fans here. Looking back through the past few posts I can say I still have an intact decal sheet for the FROG issue of the Neptune. I was quite happy to see this appear at the time as I had not long before seen the real Dutch Neppy 215 at a show down in Culdrose. Around 1970 or 71. So I could build the kit of a type that had impressed me at the show as it was the very first Neppy I had seen in the flesh!

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On 11/03/2017 at 8:26 PM, adey m said:

1/72 FROG de Havilland Venom FB. 4  ( 1955-1962)

 

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Unrestored 1/72 FROG de Havilland Venom FB.4 offered to me by a member of our model club.

Ooh.. Didn't know Frog had ever done a Venom.  Never seen one for sale.  As no other mainstream manufacturers have deigned to gift us with a kit of the type I should imagine these cost a pretty penny.  Interesting markings.  Sort of like 2 Squadron, sort of not. 

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Hi there Meatbox

 

one day I may do a rework on this Venom like I did on the Hunter F1..........only problem with this one though is the canopy seems to be welded on........but if I can get it off in one piece I will hollow out the cockpit and add detail.............also must remove those massive rivets from the WOODEN ? nose....

 

regards,  Adrian

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It's very moving topic for me. In the '80s on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain ex-FROG kits produced in Soviet Union were the only quite easily available models of the non-Eastern planes. It still doesn't mean that these were sold in the normal shops - no! We were buing them from people who have been traveling to Soviet Union and bringing the kits half-legally, which then were sold on the big Saturday flea-market on one of the Warsaw sport stadiums.

The first I've got was a Hellcat. Then there were many. We loved them. Nowadays it is hard to belive, but Soviet censorship forbad to sell them under the real rotten western names, so the boxes had generic names like "torpedo plane" for Swordfish or "night fighter" for the Black Widow or there were no boxes at all... Sometimes people who were able to recognise the real types were respected and even had some discounts from sellers.

 

I had and built really many, and still have some unbuilt. The most remembered are - that first Hellcat, Swordfish, Tempest, Beaufighter, Blenheim, Lysander, Boston, Venegance, Vampire, Widow, Lockheed Lightning, big and beautiful Lancaster with Tallboy bomb, Spirit of St.Louis, Westland Wallace, that experimental Bristol with single engine and looooong wings...

 

I have built some of them lately, with my son. These are made of solid thick plastic and are good for children. Some I still have.

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Brilliant collection of Frog kits, Always have very fond memories of their kits.

My first real attempt at trying to paint a model proper, was a Frog Meteor F6, not sure, Airfix gloss paint, made on kitchen table, 1970, glue and gloss does not work, lesson learnt, but liked how decals went on better, came in horrible blue plastic.

second kit might be the Spitfire and V1, really upset me at the time that Spitfire had five blade prop.

Frog kits always be about, and have their own style , I have about 10 in the stash, and are classified as fun projects.

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Fascinating thread Adrian, thank you. Some Frog kits were produced here in NZ in the late 1960s. Two which I recall clearly are the Beaver and another which I have not seen mentioned in this thread, the Short Sealand. They were nicely produced in silver plastic, but out of my pocket money range. I do recall seeing Sea Vixens on display in a Wellington NZ shop just at the point of Frog's demise; they were expensive by the standards of the time, and took ages to sell. This was in the early 1970s, and the shop still exists (though it has moved up the road) which may set some kind of record for model shop longevity. I did buy the Sea Fury and build it in 1972 or so. Thanks again for the thread.

 

Richard in NZ

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1 hour ago, rholland said:

Fascinating thread Adrian, thank you. Some Frog kits were produced here in NZ in the late 1960s. Two which I recall clearly are the Beaver and another which I have not seen mentioned in this thread, the Short Sealand. They were nicely produced in silver plastic, but out of my pocket money range. I do recall seeing Sea Vixens on display in a Wellington NZ shop just at the point of Frog's demise; they were expensive by the standards of the time, and took ages to sell. This was in the early 1970s, and the shop still exists (though it has moved up the road) which may set some kind of record for model shop longevity. I did buy the Sea Fury and build it in 1972 or so. Thanks again for the thread.

 

Richard in NZ

Short Sealand!?  That's another type I had no idea Frog had ever kitted.  I wonder what they go for these days.  I suppose it's one of those kits one doesn't actually build, if you can find one that is. 

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I posted some scans of a 1958 (I think) FROG leaflet here....

 

My ancient Meteor F8 is here.....

 

Absolutely correct that FROG's choice of subjects opened up new horizons for a 10 year old - seeing the He 219 in the catalogue made my jaw drop!

 

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On 16/03/2017 at 09:08, Meatbox8 said:

Short Sealand!?  That's another type I had no idea Frog had ever kitted.  I wonder what they go for these days.  I suppose it's one of those kits one doesn't actually build, if you can find one that is. 

 

Here you are Meatbox................

 

Image result for FROG Sealand

 

Image result for FROG SealandImage result for FROG Sealand

 

cheers,  Adrian

 

 

Edited by adey m
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On 16/03/2017 at 12:59, bryanm said:

I posted some scans of a 1958 (I think) FROG leaflet here....

 

My ancient Meteor F8 is here.....

 

Absolutely correct that FROG's choice of subjects opened up new horizons for a 10 year old - seeing the He 219 in the catalogue made my jaw drop!

 

Absolutely correct that FROG's choice of subjects opened up new horizons for a 10 year old - seeing the He 219 in the catalogue made my jaw drop!

 

It was so much the same for me too bryan when I first saw the FROG He219 in the Alderton Post Office window.

 

I could not believe that this futuristic looking aircraft was a Heinkel............I was only nine at the time and I thought Heinkels were just bombers.

 

The He 219 box art was the most exciting I had seen in the shop window.

 

 

 

Image result for FROG He219Image result for FROG He219

 

Image

 

Image

A Revell issued FROG He 219 featured on the Airfix Tribute Forum

 

In 1971 we moved up to Whitby in North Yorkshire and I discovered that the West Parade Post Office which was only a short cycle ride from home sold FROG kits.

 

It must have been about October 1971 and I made a quick and cold journey to the Post Office to buy the FROG Heinkel 219 which I had seen in the window.

 

I started building it straight away, straight from the box, it had a retractable undercarriage and working flying surfaces, but it was a determined tail sitter.

 

It was moulded in a smooth grey plastic with the usual very basic FROG cockpit, two lifeless frogmen sat back to back on the FROG utility chairs on a floor........I had no idea then that the crew would have really been sat on ejector seats.

 

But the overall shape and sinister look of the aircraft had been captured well.

 

I had some old AIRFIX paints so I painted a green and brown mottle over the grey plastic.

 

I loved the box art so much that I still have it today.

 

cheers,  Adrian

 

 

Edited by adey m
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Here are some more extracts from my copy of FROG Model Aircraft 1932-1976.................................

 

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The Rovex-Triang factory at Margate in 1966 where the FROG kits were manufactured.

 

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1973 advertisements for the FROG Heinkel 162 and Blackburn Buccaneer.

 

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New FROG kits for 1963.

 

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Selection of the various FROG packaging and presentation.

 

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1964 advertisement for the 1/144 scale FROG VC-10.

 

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The three FROG models that could be installed with the Spin a Prop motors.

 

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More and more details and kits, and box arts

This post is becoming really dramatic

I love it.

I can remember a lot of Frog models I have built, but here in France, they were

sold under the name Tri-ang, I don't know why, and this name had for me no sense.

There were models I liked very much, but also some others which were a real disappointment

for instance the first Javelin and Sea Vixen with their totally wrong rounded noses and also a lot

of little aircraft, fighters which did not have any holed wheel wells but only a flush surface.

Yes we can say, I liked some Frog models very much, but as we say in France:"Il y a à boire et à manger"

(You get to eat and to drink) . That is to say that sometimes the better was not very far from the worst.

I wish to everybody a very nice week end.

Cheers. Polo.

 

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I never knew Frog produced such a vast range, or what I had missed out on by being just that little bit to young. 

So many great companies and household names have disappeared since the seventies, such a waste.  

Until a few years ago I even thought Frog was a French company.

Edited by old thumper
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2 hours ago, old thumper said:

I never knew Frog produced such a vast range, or what I had missed out on by being just that little bit to young. 

So many great companies and household names have disappeared since the seventies, such a waste.  

Until a few years ago I even thought Frog was a French company.

Old Thumper

IIRC you said you were 9 in 1977 (or similar), I was 11 then,   so you must have been unlucky, as there were lots of Frog kits about in the late 70s cheap, I know, I  bought a load....

 

A grub about in the stash revealed a Boston/Havoc I picked up visiting relatives in Stoke in 77 or 78,  it was never built as I'd been seduced by 1/48th by then,  which seemed rather exotic,  a shop in Stoke had  most of Monogram kits which were not widely available.

I have a few more old Frog kits stashed,  funny thing is I was a 'lapsed modeller'  from 1982 to 2010, but as a pack rat I hung onto them.

 

Given these days I spend more time on here procrastinating than build maybe I should do that Boston....

Amazingly the decals look OK given the kit has spent 30 + years in a loft, then a shed..  

 

I'm now trying to remember what Frog kits I built.

IN the era when I actually happily built kits and didn't worry...

P-51 A,  He 162, Spitfire II, Spitfire XIV w V-1, Blenheim I, La-7 

(I  still have the remains of some of these in the shed,... )

 

I know I had a Vengeance when I was 5 or 6,  which I didn't build, I that was the one I filled the wheel halves with glue, and wondered why they went soggy.

They spent sometime  in grandparents fridge but they never rehardened...I assume the kit was quietly ditched.

I had a He219 at that young age , but can't  remember if it was Frog or  Revell.

 

I was about 8 before I could build a kit unaided that got finished and was not utter garbage, ie complete, in the specified colours, with decals in roughly the right places.   

I have dim memories age 7 ish of trying to build an Airfix Firefly with copydex :fraidnot: 

(and i picked one up at the last Avaition bookshop sale  too as I never did get another one)

 

At that age I was certainly seduced by box art.  I think the Vengeance was got as I liked the box  art...and the roundels

144935-10189-pristine.jpg

 

Box art, even now I WANT this....

 

A little story,  end  of 2015 I was at the Aviation Bookshop in Tunbridge  Wells, 25% off sale  weekend, I was looking round the shop in a daze, (it only  sells books on Aircraft, and some kits....)  and  I got chatting to an elderly gent,   he  wasn't a modeller but said he had done painting  of planes,  but now did ships.

a few minutes later another customer talked to this chap, and  asked something about Airfix art, so I asked "excuse me who are you" to find out I was talking to Roy Cross....

Which  allowed me to point at him and go "It's all  your  fault!" ( with a smile of course.)

I did chat a bit, he  was very pleasant,  he seemed a little disappointed  that he wasn't as well  know for his sailing ships, but I pointed out that his box art had  touched and inspired thousands as it had been so widely seen.

 

Damn, that Vengeance art is good....  

 

the later boxing is not nearly so dramatic

162156-12155-pristine.jpg

 

cheers

T

 

 

 

 

Edited by Troy Smith
additions, Spelling
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6 hours ago, polo1112 said:

I can remember a lot of Frog models I have built, but here in France, they were

sold under the name Tri-ang, I don't know why, and this name had for me no sense.

 

Well, Polo, it was an effort to avoid giving an entirely unintentional insult to the French customer. The name 'Frog' (which stands for 'Flies Right Off Ground' as Adey said earlier) can also be a slightly insulting slang term to call a French person: a rough equivalent would be a French company marketing a product called 'Rosbif' in the UK!

 

TriAng, as the parent company, decided the safest course to avoid problems was to market the kits under their own name.

 

6 hours ago, polo1112 said:

for instance the first Javelin and Sea Vixen with their totally wrong rounded noses

 

The 'Sea Vixen' you mention - was it the original DH-110 kit? That one indeed had a rounded nose but it was an accurate representation of the DH-110 prototype as-built. The later 1970's Frog Sea Vixen was reasonably representative of the production aircraft.

 

best regards,

 

Kevin

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Image result for FROG Dh110Image result for FROG Dh110

 

 

Image result for FROG Dh110

 

Related image

 

Image result for FROG Dh110Image result for FROG Dh110

 

Here you are guys

 

the ' Sea Vixen ' which you refer to Polo was actually a de Havilland 110 which did have a rounded nose.

 

I am delighted that so many of us are enjoying this................

 

Edited by adey m
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Yes Adey you are right, the De Havilland 110 was not (yet?) a Sea Vixen.

I can remember, as a child, that this model was very tough and rather heavy.

It was built by my father.

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My childhood memories of the 1970s were also marked by FROG. Years later, I again decided to purchase a favorite box ("KingKit" is my helper)

Now, this pleases me and exhibit recalls me to the golden days.

pristine.jpg

canberra1.jpg

Canberra.jpg

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7 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Old Thumper

IIRC you said you were 9 in 1977 (or similar), I was 11 then,   so you must have been unlucky, as there were lots of Frog kits about in the late 70s cheap, I know, I  bought a load....

 

A grub about in the stash revealed a Boston/Havoc I picked up visiting relatives in Stoke in 77 or 78,  it was never built as I'd been seduced by 1/48th by then,  which seemed rather exotic,  a shop in Stoke had  most of Monogram kits which were not widely available.

 

I'm afraid I must join Old Thumper, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have no recollection of ever seeing a Frog kit, and I started making kits in the mid to late '50's. In fact, I didn't know they existed until I joined Britmodellers a year or two ago !

 

I do however remember Monogram kits in addition to the Airfix kits I knew and made. I can remember a friend of mine making a Monogram F4-U corsair probably in 1965 - 66, and though my memory does falter a bit, I recall it being a big model, so was probably in 1/48th.

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On 16.03.2017 at 00:32, GrzeM said:

It still doesn't mean that these were sold in the normal shops - no! We were buing them from people who have been traveling to Soviet Union and bringing the kits half-legally, which then were sold on the big Saturday flea-market on one of the Warsaw sport stadiums

This is an absolute truth, Grzegorz. I well remember the true deficit and limitations...but in the past (Thank goodness)

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10 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Old Thumper

IIRC you said you were 9 in 1977 (or similar), I was 11 then,   so you must have been unlucky, as there were lots of Frog kits about in the late 70s cheap, I know, I  bought a load....

 

 

Possibly it was a regional thing then, besides WH Smith and Woolies there were a few independent model shops that really ought to of had Frog kits. When I took up the hobby aged 9 or so I was mostly just looking at the blister pack Airfix kits, so maybe I just missed them.   

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may well be.

It's been making me think about all the places that used to sell kits,  especially the odd things that would turn up in newsagents is my main memory.

Toyshops were fairly consistent,  but newsagents used have oddities.

Maybe needs a new thread, where I used to buy models,  I grew up near, and then moved to Lewes in 1976, and I remember buying models in 4 newsagents, a sweet shop,  two toy shops, Woolies, and a shop that sold kits and fishing tackle. Oh,  and the  very  small Tesco  having a load  of Revell 1/32nd kits...(for  anyone  familiar with the town this is now where 'Bills' is)

 

I am now remembering buying a  Crown 1/144th Lancaster and B-24 on Sunday (which was a novelty) in a newsagent,  which also ended up with some Monogram  kits as well.

 

There was a toyshop in Newhaven, which had Revell,  and a newsagent that used to have some random kits,  older issues of kits,  again buying a Airfix  Avenger on a Sunday in 1976 come to mind

 

I got a set of 4 Revell fighters,  the only one that springs to mind is the Ki-61 with Green Shield stamps,  I think that how I got a Revell 1/32nd Spitfire.

 

When  I  was 11 i  used to  take trips to Brighton, which again had kits in various places, ...

I posted some memories on that here

http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__9920.aspx

 

Anyone want some photos of some  wrecked Frog kits from 'those days' ?   If so I'll have to  have a dig into the shed...

 

cheers

T

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8 hours ago, polo1112 said:

this model was very tough and rather heavy

 

That reminds me - some Frog kits of tricycle types had one or more lead discs included for nose-weight. The Gannet had two to avoid it being a 'tailsitter'.

 

As I recall, this had stopped by the mid-60s.

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