1/72 Havoc from WWII "Grace Airplanes" kit

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

As part of my garage clearing and stash organising (260-odd, if you are wondering), I came across some old-old models of my Dad's, from WWII.

Here's a "Grace Airplanes" kit, including "everything you need to build the model", including paint, bamboo, and pins:



You even get spare wood!



Here's a Hudson:



I also have an "Airlines" kit. This seems to be a bit more basic, shown here next to the new Airfix Defiant to show that things have progressed a leetle bit:



Not a scrap of balsa in sight! Presumably it was all going into 1:1 Mosquitoes at the time.

Paint of the day was based on a cellulose dope formula:



One of them was even liquid! The brown, after a lot of stirring, came out quite well:



Although then, as now, nobody quite agreed about Sky:



My Dad had got quite a long way through a Havoc build:



So I thought I would continue it in keeping with the spirit of the build. It was going to need crew - these fellows are carved from a lollipop stick. Any similarity to Captain Pugwash characters is accidental!



Although the plunge-formed canopies from the time (on the right) are still very usable, I made a new plug from balsa to fit the model better and vac-formed some new ones (on the left):



Detail was limited to a pair of Brownings, from wood and pins:



I painted the whole airframe black from a tube of acrylic and applied the decals. The fuselage decals went on perfectly! I knew I was going to have trouble when the wing and tail decals started drifting into pieces on the sheet. I applied them by placing my thumb on the decal and pulling the paper out from underneath. I teased the various broken bits back into position and touched up the missing bits. I am unable to say how well they conformed into panel lines...

A coat of matt varnish and done! It was quite nostalgic to take part in a posthumous joint build, so here's to my Dad:





Thanks for looking,
Adrian

[S5 modeller]

Well done, a nice legacy build.

Amazing how basic those old kits were, and we moan about slightly ill fitting plastic parts.

A fitting tribute to your dad.

Matt

[old thumper]

It turned out very well. I have only ever seen this type of kit after being made, so it is very interesting for me to see the original box and unmade parts.

[TonyTiger66]

It looks superb. A lovely vintage look to it and very nicely finished after many decades. Wonder if you're tempted to build the others?

Lovely tribute to your dad,

Tony

[markjames68]

First class bit of nostalgia!!

[Darby]

I think we've become spoilt over the years.

[wyverns4]

Nice legacy build!Though the three part spinner for the Defiant looks a bit scary!

Christian, exiled to africa

[malpaso]

Cool. I have a Grace B17 to build. I only identified the make after a couple of years by the style of the writing on it. I also have another makers Whirlwind kit as well as several built "solids" to restore, including some Skybirds.

At one time I had possibly the only known Frog Penguin Series 9 Dakota (in the world!) but passed it on to the chap running frogpenguin_dot_com. Frog made wood kits for three months in the winter 1945/46 so the whole wooden series 9 is pretty rare.

It's good fun working on the wooden models, gives a great sense of achievement even if the shape and detail are a bit old-fashioned.

Cheers

Will

[AdrianMF]

Thanks all for the comments. It was indeed a different world in those days, and the paint was a *lot* smellier!

I have kept the unmade Boston kit and a couple of paint pots for pure nostalgia. I won't be making any more of them as the wood is quite knotty and hard to carve. I simply can't justify the effort of finishing them to an acceptable standard when I have so many other pressing and/or enjoyable demands on my time. And the original objective was to de-clutter the garage!

That said, I do have a "shelf of doom" scratch-built Fairey Long Range Monoplane (thread in this forum if you are interested) in balsa wood that I intend to resume when I get a moment this year.

And Will, good luck with your B-17! I think you can take a slice of the credit for Airfix announcing their new-tool Fortress!

Thanks,

Adrian

[59North]

So extremely interesting and educational... The old paints; wooden models; I never knew about this. Thanks to your dad for preserving these, and thanks to your efforts in restoration and presentation.

[gbondoni]

Wow... the completed kit looks amazing, and such a nice tribute to your dad!

[Stew Dapple]

That was a fascinating insight into a bygone age Adrian, thank you - the end result was quite impressive too, I'm sure your Dad would have approved

Cheers,

Stew

[old thumper]

I am sure that a WW2 related museum would like them if you no longer want them.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

:wow: :wow:

That build is so cool, on so many levels.....Just fantastic!