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A warm and heartfelt welcome to yet another Classic kit Britmodeller Group Build. This time we are honouring one of histories true legends of Plastic kit construction - FROG (Flies Right Off the Ground). This Group build will be running for just over four months (01 June to 20 October), so there’s plenty of time to jump onboard and build that classic Frog kit thats been lurking in your stash for ages. Here’s a quick note on the GB rules, however as always - if in doubt, check with the GB hosts first! What is eligible: 1. Any kit that was originally designed and issued by ‘Frog’. 2. Any kit that was boxed by ‘Frog’, however designed by another manufacturer (these are mainly Hasegawa kits from the late 60’s). 3. Any kit that can trace it’s original history to a ‘Frog’ mould (commonly called “Frog Spawn”) - these are mainly Novo, Novo Export, Chematic, Revell, Modelcraft, Eastern Express, Donetsk Factory, Gomix, ZTS Plastyk, Ark Models, AMT etc. 4. Any kit that has been reworked by a new manufacturer, however has clear evidence that it was ‘copied’ from an original ‘Frog’ mould - some Academy kits fall into this category. 5. In summary, any kit that at one point or another carried a FROG ‘F’ number - Scalemates can help you here. 6. Your kits can be built straight OOB or you can go to town with as many After Market products you so desire. 7. Modifications to the basic kit is allowed, however please use the majority of the kits main parts during the construction phase. 8. A WIP thread must accompany each build and once complete you can showcase your efforts by placing up to five photos in the GB Gallery. 9. Due to the vast volume of entries anticipated, an end of GB vote to determine an overall winner is unlikely to occur. In the hosts eyes, all GB entrants are winners so we should all be happy with that. 10. Feel free to encourage your fellow FROG modellers along the way by leaving as many nice comments and hitting the ‘Like’ emoji frequently! Special Addendum: Given the age / antiquity of the very earliest kits produced by FROG and the fact that there may be no available examples still below 25% assembly, a refurbishment build involving some of the constituent parts will be considered acceptable.  The intention of the Classic Group Build is to stroll down memory lane and perhaps take a second look at some of these pioneering plastic kits from yesteryear. Although we certainly have a preference to showcase original Frog produced kits, we have opened the eligible criteria just enough to encourage as many modellers to join in as possible. These Classic GB’s are always great, so please stay within the rules, don’t take things too seriously and (as always) have a lot of FUN. Please feel free to ask any questions to @JOCKNEY, @Rabbit Leader or @vppelt68 should further clarification be required. I would like to use the Group Build banner below please feel free, it's now regulation size, and if you can read it without glasses you are either telling fibs or very lucky ! Cheers and happy FROG modelling, Pat, Dave & V-P.

This FROG Trailblazers kit of Spirit of St, Louis is a recent completion. It was built as it comes with some added extra details like the flying control cables and fuel tank vent pipes, I also replaced the kit static pipe with some brass tubing. It was painted with Tamiya's Silver Leaf from a rattle can and the doped fabric areas received a couple of coats of acrylic matt varnish. How best to replicate the engine turning on the nose panels in 1/72 scale caused some head scratching, in the end I decided to go with dots of chrome using a Molotov pen, and this was coated with satin varnish to tone down the effect. The decals are from the kit and performed really well considering their age. Ryan NYP Spirit of St Louis FROG F166 - 1/72

This FROG Trail Blazers boxing of Charles Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis is going to be my second entry to the group build and here are the photos of the box and its contents. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr and a final shot of the parts that have broken away from the sprues and the decals. by John L, on Flickr With no plans for any extras, other than maybe some scratch building, this will be a quick out of box build.

Having completely gone overboard with GB fever, I thought I could put in this small kit of the General Aircraft Hotspur II Glider - no engines so must be simple! I have been extremely impressed with all the builds going on in the 'Trainers' GB currently in progress with all the yellow paintwork so I thought I might cover two GB's with one kit and build this for the Frog Squad GB as well. If I'm to make it, I can't start until 1st June and need to finish by the 9th, having started my other two kits in order first. I don't really know anything about gliders so here is a new arena in which I will need to to study up. Lovely yellow and black colour scheme on this one. I'm going to send away for that modelling knife.... Look at that fantastic yellow plastic! I must find a way of preserving some of that. The original crew appears to be missing so I have brought in a couple of trainees from a Novo Tupolev SB-2 Katyuska which I am using for spares. At least they came from a Frog mould. Must try to get those transfers out into a bit of sunlight to clear the yellowing. Only 5 Gold Tokens this time.

Another heritage group build!!! For me, the biggest problem with these GBs is deciding how to build the kit. Do you build it OOB in the same way as you would have done back in the day? Do you build it OOB with all your current skills (in my case that can sometimes end up looking like the previous choice! ) Or do you improve the kit and build it to the highest standards you can achieve using aftermarket bits and pieces that were never even thought of when the kit was originally issued? For this one, I'm going to choose the latter - sort of. I always loved FROG's full colour painting instructions The kit is apparently very accurate, shapewise. However, the fuselage is an empty shell. You can see strainght through from the intakes to the exhausts. The open undercarriage bays provide a lot of light to aid the view. So I shall be using some Neomega resin sets to deal with that issue. They are designed for the now-obsolete Airfix kit but I see no reason why they shouldn't fit the FROG one. I will be building the box top scheme, complete with four Martels. However, I'll be using most of the markings from an Xtradecal sheet intended for the forthcoming Airfix kit. The FROG decal sheet will provide serials. Looking forward to this one!

Found over the weekend, this kit had been previously started before I got it. As there is a Finnish version available it would be just plain rude not to dedicate it to my mate and our Co-host V-P @vppelt68 Pictures below Goodness only knows if I'll get a chance to finish it but fingers crossed ! cheers Pat

Hello, dear friends and colleagues! Let me present my yet another model Blackburn Shark Mk.II by Eastern Express. This kit is the repack of the "old school" Frog model. The kit offers wide choice of varieties – with floats, on wheeled chassis, with folded wing or in-flight configuration – and leaves you rather pleasantly impressed. For its time the model seems quite respectable and can be transformed into a perfect replica if you give it a certain effort. As far as I know, this model of Shark aircraft hasn’t got any alternatives nowadays. The main drawbacks are the following: horrible engine which you must change undoubtedly, empty cockpit (though this feature is characteristic for all models of that time) and wrong number of ribs on the wings which can be seen while imitating the sagging of canvas. I managed to deal with the first two problems but the last one was resolved only partially – I didn’t have neither energy nor desire to remake the whole wing. The model has been made out of the box and materials at hand such as plastic sheets, wire of different gauge, fishing line, cotton buds tubes, hand-made sprues. From aftermarket I used only the Вrengun sight for the tail gun. The model was totally rejointed, riveted, remade the engine, added a cockpit interior, detailed the wings and fuselage. Cross-bracings and aerials are made of fishing line, guns – of wire and a drawn cotton buds tube, navigation lights – of drawn colourful party picks. All in all, the building produced positive impression and turned out to be useful experience for me. Colouring – enamel and acrylic paints Revell, Humbrol and Tamiya, lacquers Tamiya. I tried to highlight the sagging of canvas with paints and some graphite chips, so part of ribs and primary wing structures are merely hand-drawn. Accentuation of jointing – Tamiya panel line wash, oil paints. Toning – oil and water-color pencils. So, nothing out of the ordinary. Decals from the kit turned out to be of very high quality in spite of their age. I liked working with them, they are thin, very good to attach and don’t flake while masking. The result is the torpedo bomber 820 Naval Squadron K8471/652 from HMS Courageous air group as in 1937. Pleasant viewing! Thanks for watching!

Yep, its me again! My last Frog kit from the stash, a Revell boxing of the Ar 234 Blitz with options to make the B, C, C2 versions, one including a V1 doodlebug. Another great Frog kit from my childhood, and a VFM kit with all those options. At this point i am not sure which version to build. Preferences anybody??? Thanks for looking, Cheers Greg

Hi! An rather late entry I am afraid. But I join in with an kit that is already for most parts are assembled and painted - my Frog Sea Fury. It started life as an "comparison build" with the Airfix 1/72 Sea Fury and the idea was to build them straight OOB. The "rule" was make it simple and without time consuming work. When comparing the two kits during the build it was soon clear that the old Frog kit was the better one of the pair. So the work on the Airfix kit stopped and the work continued on the Frog kit. The fit was good with no filler at all. I just sanded of the the fuselage and wings to get the "smoth look" of the Se Fury seen on pictures where panel lines almost not can bee seen. On the picture the Sea Fury is painted in Humbrol 90 Beigegreen (sky) and Tamiya AS-4 Greyviolet (extra dark sea Grey). The spinner and the canopy is just loose on the fuselage. The prop was made up of five propellerblades that had an nice fit inside of the spinner. "Most of work" was done on the big cooler intake on left side that had some kind of strange shape. On the picture the two sinkmarks in front of the cockpit can be seen. As this build was intended to be an quick end simple comparison build I didn't want to hide them with filler. I wanted to keep the real look of the Frog kit. And with that maybe do another comparison build with the Trumpeter Sea Fury. It's sad that the mould for the Frog Sea Fury is missing and probably destroyed... Cheers / André

Frog F4 1/72 with homemade decals, this was the first civil jet engined aircraft in the world and used by Gloster as a demonstrator. Later converted into two-seater G-AKPK Steve

Frog F4 1/72 with extended nacelles used to test reheat, with homemade decals Steve

Hi folk's,the madness continues over in the Frog GB,my latest efforts are the Hellcat and Corsair,usual script build'em like we used to back when they were the latest thing hopefully without fogged up canopies and fingerprints in the paintwork.The Corsair is 100% kosher including the original decals,Hellcat's hadn't worn well so replaced the roundels saved the codes.Many thanks for looking Oh and for our "younger" members Frog went bust way back in the seventies so these kits are all over 40 year old boxings!

WW139 as aboard Ark Royal in the mid 1950s This Sea Venom was the second one delivered to the Royal Navy (the aircraft now preserved at the FAA Museum being the first) and served until 1961. The old Frog kit had its challenges but was a simple and enjoyable build. Just a few extras I added; the strakes in the intakes and some cockpit detail that you can barely see. I also used a vac-form canopy very kindly donated by @perdu that I cut to display open. I was pleasantly surprised by the decals, I thought they might break up but they were fine.

Greetings Frog Fans! Here is the first of my three entries to the GB. Its the Kannone Vogel Stuka, which has long been a favourite of mine. I will try and add some basic details to the interior as i go along but it will mostly be OOTB as i have triple booked myself with GBs this year: Tiger GB; D-Day GB, and this one! Its going to be a busy old time, but hopefully an enjoyable one....pics Tanks for looking, cheers Greg

Hello again! My second entry for the GB is the Dornier Arrow. This is a Matchbox issue but Scalemates confirmed that it is the Frog parts from 1974. One of the great Frog esoteric subjects it was never actually used in combat as a nightfighter (i think) but the two seater certainly did exist as a trainer version. Cheers Greg

Hello everyone... Well I'm happy to say this one is done. As I mentioned in my build log this is a tribute to Lieutenant D.H.J.Owen (R.N.). While i was looking for some answers during the build process i found my aircraft XV348 was a part of 237 OCU. It was lost in a crash on 31/10/1977. The plane had left Bødø Norway for the U.K. and struck power-lines shortly after takeoff. The back seater survived the pilot did not.  This was my first ever build of a Frog kit, it was a pretty bare bones kit. I was able to scratch the wheel bays and build a cockpit. I have an Airfix Data-link pod given to me by one member for the Martel's. I am using an A/M pitot for the kit given to me another member. And finally i modified one of the Martel's to a T.V. guided variant. I hope the Buccaneer meets your expectations. I used this photo from Canberra kid as the basis of my model. This build is Dedicated to Lieutenant D.H.J. Owen (RN). R.I.P. ... Questions, comments, or thoughts ? If you're curious here is the build log link. Dennis

I know there's already a Vimy but hopefully there's room for the Alcock and Brown one? Don't expect instant progress, still working on Frogs Wellington which needs to advance a bit more before getting stuck into this one. Looking forward to the rigging!

F333 Fairey Delta 2 1/72, WG774, SBAC Farnborough airshow 1957 'God awful Purple' (duplicate post from FROG squad gallery) Please find attached for your aural consumption, my attempt at the 1964 tooling of the record breaking aircraft, the Fairey Delta 2. When I embarked on this GB, got a couple of bagged kits from my father, but came across this beauty (albeit in a novo boxing). I was looking for decals as the Novo ones are notoriously bad, and came across the example I have modelled here. After a while discussing with @PeterB, I sorted some decals and paint out and started on the kit... there were less around 20 parts... this should be easy! How wrong was I you ask? Very 😂 WIP is here: More time was spent filling and sanding this brute than putting it together, but doesn't that make the end result all the more satisfying? Despite messing up the first coats of paint and having to sand down again I am pretty happy with my representation of this historic and classic aircraft. I think this has got me hooked on post-war British jets as I am eyeing up an SR53! Thanks for watching folks. Ash

I have been foolish enough to organise a Group Build for Frog kits (and their spin offs) here on BM. Whilst there are lots of people offering to build aircraft, I am very aware that Frog produced a number of car kits and would very much welcome anyone who has one to join the Group Build. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/663-frog-squad-gb/ kindest regards Pat

As a place marker should miracles happen and I finish my other 2 builds, I would like to build this one. It is still sealed in the bag and going by the number of prices written on it, very well travelled ! If anyone has any tips on mottling without an airbrush or what paint colours the 3 different greys might be, I'll be very grateful. cheers Pat

Fairey Delta 2 WG774 SBAC Show Farnborough, 1956 Old Frog kit rescribed plus a few rivets. Replacement canopy. Added undercarriage details. SNJ metal finish. Hand painted markings as carried at Farnborough 1956

I hope no one minds me getting some ancient kits out again - I love the GB experience and it looks like I may have the time to fit in a simple Wildcat build as a follow on to my (late) finish in the Pacific War GB. For that, I got a hold of some marvelous Battle of the Coral Sea decals and they included a set for a Wildcat so I was keen to use them as the style of paint schemes on the USN aircraft at that time really impressed me. Also, I've been impressed with the new tool Airfix Wildcat builds I've seen in this GB so far, so that has spurred me on to get my old kits built and move on to the new tools. Which kit to use though? I've got a choice between the original Airfix and Frog kits. Both look to be pretty simple but the Frog kit looks to have had more work put into the engine and undercarriage details. I fancy building both kits simultaneously and this is where I got the idea that I could do one as a USN version and the other as a British Martlet (I remember my Dad quoting the Martlet as one of his favourite aircraft so there may be some connection with him growing up and seeing some in WW2). I'll need to do some research on which types of Martlet lined up with which types of Wildcat etc. but that will be an interesting exercise too. (I'm also going to change my photo posting from Flickr to Imgur to see how that works out). Here is the Airfix kit I've got....brand new from 1964! Here is the Frog kit - lovely dark blue plastic. Here are those attractive USN decals..

Hello All, Just got back from 2 weeks away for work. When your buddy collects you for 13 days straight from the hotel at 0630 to take you to the lab and you choose your dinner after work on the basis of "what's still open?", there isn't much hotel room modelling going on. Today is my first day with free time for what seems like a long time. I went to the Southern Expo today and saw some cool stuff and made a couple of modest purchases, then came home in the snow and got to the bench. Choices, choices. I could take RFI pics of my Bristol Blenheim and 188, crack on with the rather horrible Tomy/Airfix Storch, pick something else up from the Shelf of Shame, or work on a Big Project I've been mulling over. All fine choices. nah. Something new. It has been bugging me for a long time. I haven't decided whether this is going to fly or not (I already know it's a really stupid idea) so I will post the first photo and sleep on it: Thanks for looking, Adrian

I did a build a while back that used up some spare new Airfix Beaufighter engines and an engineless Frog Beaufighter. Long story, WIP here. I finally got around to taking some better prictures today, and here they are: Thanks for looking, Adrian

Well I’ve got a Frog Beaufighter with no engines: ... and some Airfix bits... So what happens if you replace some of the old Frog bits with Shiny New Airfix ones? ...and scratch up some other Beaufighter details that you used up elsewhere? I wasn’t planning to start it, honest! Thanks for looking, Adrian