Jump to content

A NOSTALGIC TRIBUTE TO FROG MODEL KITS


Recommended Posts

21 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Included in the kit was a small vial of cement. Does anybody here have one of these?

 

I wonder... It looks much like the usual Heller cement vial they included in their boxes until the early 80s.

Must be that the previous owner of the Frog P-61 put it in the box.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes malpaso, the AIRFIX Vigilante was a lovely and impressive kit.............I built one for my brother who received it as a Christmas present.........I admit I was slightly envious............

 

cheers, Adrian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

" Bloody hell......I'm trying to instruct a radio operator back here................"

 

  http://nofineline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PProctorCard1.jpg

 

Related image

 

Image result for frog percival proctor

 

Image result for frog percival proctor

 

Related image

 

Image result for frog percival proctor

 

Image result for frog percival proctor

 

 

 

Related image

 

Image result for FROG percival proctor

 

 

I am tempted to try and find one of these now...............

 

 

Edited by adey m
  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hasegawa kits that appeared in FROG boxes with FROG instructions and FROG decals.........................

 

Image result for FROG  F101 voodoo kitRelated imageImage result for FROG  F101 voodoo kit

 

Image result for FROG f101 voodoo

Image result for FROG  F101 voodoo kit

 

Image result for FROG Delta daggerImage result for FROG Delta dagger

Image result for hasegawa f102 delta dagger

 

Image result for FROG super sabreImage result for FROG super sabre

 

Image result for Hasegawa f100 super sabreImage result for Hasegawa f100 super sabre

 

Image result for FROG canadair sabreImage result for FROG canadair sabre

 

Image result for FROG ov1b mohawkresized_0ab887a5-812b-4f15-a90b-eb3cee49

 

resized_0f8496ae-fd83-4f69-9f8a-1b5421d9

 

Image result for FROG ov10a bronco

 

Image result for FROG ov10a bronco

 

Image result for hasegawa ov10 Bronco

 

 

 

Image result for frog lockheed neptune

 

Image result for frog renzanImage result for frog renzan

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Kawanishi emily

Image result for FROG Kawanishi emily

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Starfighter

 

Image result for FROG Starfighter

 

Image result for FROG Skyhawk

 

Image result for FROG Skyhawk

 

Image result for Hasegawa Skyhawk

 

Image result for FROG F4k Phantom

 

Image result for FROG F4k Phantom

 

Image result for FROG F4k Phantom

 

Image result for FROG F4k Phantom

 

Related image

 

 

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Intruder

 

Image result for FROG Intruder

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Thunderchief

 

Image result for FROG Thunderchief

 

Image result for Hasegawa Thunderchief

 

Image result for FROG Vought Corsair

 

Image result for FROG Vought Corsair

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Mig21

 

Image result for FROG Mig21

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Vigilante

 

Image result for FROG Vigilante

 

Image result for Hasegawa Vigilante

 

Image result for FROG EE Lightning

 

Image result for FROG EE Lightning

 

Image result for FROG EE Lightning

 

Image result for Hasegawa EE Lightning

 

 

 

Image result for Hasegawa EE Lightning

 

Related image

 

Image result for FROG F136 HMS Vanguard

 

Image result for FROG F5 freedom fighter

 

Related image

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Saab Viggen

 

Image result for FROG Saab Viggen

 

 

 

 

Edited by adey m
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only just seen this. We had a toy shop who sold Airfix and FROG. Never had a FROG kit as they cost more....

Anyway, I'm now racking my brains, and this is what I have or had.

1/72

Spitfire and V1 FROG built

Beaufort Original built and long gone

Beaufort reboxed and sold on

Wessex 2 FROG built and scrapped, Novo in stash

Gannet x 3 (1 scrapped, 2 stash (Novo)

Voodoos 7 (3 FROG, 1 built 2 in stash, 4 Hase, 3 in stash, 1 sold)

Sea Vixen, 3. FROG scrapped recently. Revell rebox sold, Russian rebag in stash.

FD2 3 FROG (from Heathrow on school trip) scrapped, 2 x Novo built.

P1 FROG cross kitted, built

Javelin FROG built (at Telford last year)

Beaufighter FROG scrapped recently

Hornet (Novo) scrapped recently

Barracuda (Novo) scrapped recently

Skua (Novo) scrapped recently

Attacker (Novo) scrapped recently

Wyvern 3 FROG, 1 built, one sold plus 1 Novo sold

Canberra B(I)8 (Novo) built

Neptune (FROG) built and awaiting refurb.

Whitley (Novo) built

Shackleton 3 (FROG) sold, Revell rebox and Novo in polybag in stash

Wellington (Novo) in bag. Sold

Lightning F Mk6 2 (Novo) 1 built, 1 in stash

P-61 (Novo) recently scrapped

Shark 3 (Novo) sold

Sea Venom (Eastern Express? rebox) built

Phantom FG1 FROG built

Gladiator FROG scrapped recently I think.

B-47 1 Hase issue built

Herald (Novo) stash

Vengeance (Novo) sold

Sea Fury 1 (Novo) bagged stash

Renzan 1 (Hase) sold on

Seahawk (Novo) scrapped recently

Blenheim 1 (Novo?) bagged stash

Whittle (Novo) sold

Buccaneer (unknown) bagged sold on.

Firefly (Novo) recently scrapped

Hellcat (Novo) recently scrapped

Typhoon (Novo) recently scrapped

S6B (Novo) built

1/96

Caravelle (Novo) stash

Comet 4 (Novo) stash

1/32

Bf 109E FROG stash

 

Ships.

Lightvessel Revell 1/121? 1 rebox, stash

Trawlers 1/142 2 Revell rebox

HMS Tiger 1/415 (Novo) stash

HMS Vanguard 1/415 (Hase boxing) Sold.

 

Cars

1/16

Cortina 2 (FROG) reduced to spares, Russian rebag under construction.

 

I think that's it - I may add more. Recent scrappings were poor, and I have 1/48 replacements for most.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

 

resized_b3a4bd2d-bb5c-430c-a848-51ace66e

 

resized_bf2b288f-40b9-44f5-91ca-dd5bcffd

 

resized_adf63c45-ea32-4fdd-b6f2-a03e362a

 

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

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1/72 Martin Baltimore B.IV  ( first issued 1963 )

 

Image result for FROG percival proctor

 

A picture I found of a superb FROG Baltimore in Coastal Command colours.

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Martin Baltimore

 

Image result for FROG Martin Baltimore

 

Another superb FROG Baltimore in Western Desert camouflage scheme.

 

Image result for FROG Martin BaltimoreImage result for FROG Martin Baltimore

 

Image result for FROG Martin Baltimore

 

 

 

 

Image result for FROG Martin Baltimore

 

Related image

 

Related image

 

After seeing all these fantastic FROG Baltimore models I am thinking I need to find one....................

 

 

Edited by adey m
  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loving seeing the Hasegawa box art as well as the Frog,I have the Airfix history books as well as Revell,Matchbox and Esci all full of great 

memories!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎10‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 0:12 PM, Hamster Volant said:

 

I wonder... It looks much like the usual Heller cement vial they included in their boxes until the early 80s.

Must be that the previous owner of the Frog P-61 put it in the box.

 

That could be it. The box wasn't sealed in any way. Also, I've been buying FROG kits since the late 60's and I've never found a glue vial in one. I've never found one in a Heller kit either, but then my first one was in about '82 or '83 and as you says, they stopped including them in their kits about that time.

 

 

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a nostalgic stream!!

I have looked in my database and have the following FROG or Frogspawn kits tucked away for a rainy day/month/year.

Proctor x 4

Magister x 3

Skua

Vengeance x 2

Ventura x 2 ( have not seen this one mentioned - came in plastic bags in a  plain box with no decals or instructions, moulded white)

Supermarine S6B

Shark x 2

Martin Maryland

Barracuda

Firefly 1 x 2

Meteor IV

Martin BAltimore

DH60 x 2

Canberra Mk8 x 2

Bristol 138

Lysander

Will try to get an image of the Ventura when I have time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the kits I built as a kid were Airfix, but I know I did the Boston, Buccaneer ( in South African markings), and Swordfish from Frog, there may have been more..... 

 

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did Frog ever do Jigsaw's? Looking at old box art spurred on by this thread the artwork for Shell Welder instantly took me

back to a rained off Holiday back in the early seventies when I was bought a jigsaw to keep me occupied!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure generated some fond memories of old Frog kits - I lived as a kid near RNAS Culdrose and Brawdy so the Hawker Seahawk and Attacker featured prominently in my early rather crude builds - I remember how disappointed I was at not being able to get a N113 Scimitar kit

CJP

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, dogsbody said:

 

That could be it. The box wasn't sealed in any way. Also, I've been buying FROG kits since the late 60's and I've never found a glue vial in one. I've never found one in a Heller kit either, but then my first one was in about '82 or '83 and as you says, they stopped including them in their kits about that time.

 

 

Chris

 

Back in mid sixties I recall making some frog kits that were small scale (144 or perhaps smaller).  These were simple but came with the plastic bottle of glue and some paints in the same sort of bottle.  I recall the Wellington and Lancaster in this range and I remember them as very simple and very small

 

George

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

resized_06d519ac-6e54-44fe-83b2-b4a280f5

 

This FROG Wessex suffered a heavy landing at the Huddersfield show in 2013.................one of the hazards of making public appearances .................always remember to take some super glue with you.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As many of my co-respondents have already said, great subject Adey and brings back many, many happy memories. We moved to Singapore in 1967 and this was my first introduction to Frog models, largely through my father. Prior to this, we had been living in Libya where, IIRC, we could only obtain Aurora or Lincoln kits at exorbitant prices. The dominant brand in Singapore in the late 1960s was Airfix closely followed by Frog although the latter kits were deemed to be more exotic (and pricey). My late Father's interest at the time was largely influenced by films such as 'The Battle of Brtain', '633 Sqn' and 'Mosquito Squadron' so he built most of the Airfix Series 1-3 range of WWII aircraft kits with the odd Series 4 and beyond kit. We did buy one or two of the Frog range - The DH Mosquito (one of his all time favourites) and the Baltimore instantly spring to mind. 

Fast forward Five years and we were heading for Gibraltar. My father had to go ahead of us for a couple of months due to the shortage of MOD Hirings on the peninsula. By the time we arrived, he had made and presented me with a superb Avro Shackleton, by far the largest model that we had collectively completed for our collection which steadily grew over the next few years. Once again, Frog kits were somewhat exotic; the two shops in Gibraltar that sold model kits mostly focused on Airfix and Revell but I do remember the impact that the first 10 or 12 Matchbox kits made on the market at that time (circa 1972) with their multi-colour plastic and 'window' packaging. We did add one or two more Frog kits to the ever growing collection but our next family destination, Cyprus, proved to be a treasure trove for Frog kits. Curiously the Cypriot market in the early 1970s seemed to be dominated by Frog and Revell with hardly any Airfix kits to be seen. I well remember two shops, one each in Limassol and Nicosia that stocked most of the Frog range and that is where we started to add some of the ex-Hasegawa kits to the 'ORBAT'. The BAC Lightning, F-100D Super Sabre and F-104 Starfighter all instantly spring to mind in spite of the fact that my father had 'strayed' over to the bigger scale 1:32 Revell kits which were also in plentiful supply. In 1974 I also witnessed for the first time that phenomena known as 'the stash'. We only ever bought and built at the same time but a friend of my Dad's, who had been so impressed with my latest build, the mighty Airfix C-130K Hercules, introduced me to his unbuilt collection of kits and invited me to pick one as my reward for doing such a good job with the Herk. I selected the Frog Barracuda which, IIRC, had only just arrived on the market.

Another move to the Far East coincided with that pre-bankruptcy spurt of kits including the memorable H.S. Buccaneer, Dassault Mirage IIIE/O and BAC Canberra B(I)8. Alas by the late 1970s, it was all history but not before I had started to earn my own money and started to gather up their fast disappearing kits for future use. I still have one or two examples of these kits for nostalgic purposes and one or two of the built up examples, in memory of my late father. 

 

Like I say, great subject !               

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Tiger331

 

You have many memories there influenced by the model kits you built or saw at the time.

 

So similar to my life so far.

 

I remember in Singapore in 1967 when I went round to a friend's house and was admiring a Beaufighter sat up high on their fridge.

It was unpainted and moulded in a smooth light grey plastic. I didn't realise it at the time but this was a FROG Beaufighter

 

Thank you again for sharing.

 

best wishes, Adrian

Edited by adey m
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bought this many years ago in one of Hannant's famous end-of-year sales from back when mail-order meant waiting for the printed sale sheets and then 'phoning your order in hoping that what you really wanted was still available.

 

 

ChematicShack_zpsb29036e2.jpg

 

 

Hoped that Chematic had somehow managed to make an MR.2 out of the original FROG MR.3 as per the box-art but unfortunately that was the only new thing about the kit which otherwise was the same parts and decals as the original , however I did need one for my Aeroclub AEW.2 conversion (still unbuilt) and it was reduced to a very good price.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1/72 FROG Bristol Beaufort II  ( produced 1963 - 1973 )

 

Image result for FROG Bristol BeaufortImage result for FROG Bristol Beaufort

 

Strange picture on 1960s issue box of Beauforts and a fighter nearly colliding at night.............a theme repeated on other box tops such as the Airspeed Oxford.

 

I remember seeing this boxing in the Post Office window in the late 1960s.

 

The thing about FROG producing unusual subjects was that the Post Office window became an education for me in the lesser known aircraft types...........this FROG Beaufort would have been the first time that I would have seen a Beaufort.

 

Image result for FROG Bristol BeaufortImage result for FROG Bristol Beaufort

 

Image result for FROG Bristol Beaufort

 

A Beaufort built from the box. The extra windows which are not included in the model have been painted on. The model had a very basic and empty interior with just a couple of small  floors  and seats for the pilot and gunner.

Note the narrow engine cowlings.

 

Related imageRelated image

 

It looks like the pilot applied the brakes too hard on landing...........

 

Related image

 

https://s1.scalemates.com/products/img/3/8/2/133382-10263-pristine.jpg

 

Image result for FROG Bristol Beaufort

 

In 1972 my father took us on a Saturday visit to Scarborough from our home in Whitby. Back then toy shops were dotted all over the town. I went into a small toy shop on St Thomas Street and found that they sold FROG models.

I bought the later issue of the Beaufort in the Green Series box shown above. It had two decal options, an RAF Coastal Command one with an interesting Ghost motif on the nose and an Australian built version.

It was also one of the Spin a Prop kits which you could fit little FROG battery powered motors in the cowlings to spin the props.

A large removeable panel under the fuselage where the bomb bay would have been moulded gave access to the battery if fitted. Two extra plastic tabs were included which were attached to the underneath of the cockpit and gunners floors and this would have held the battery mounting.

 

I built mine straight from the box in the RAF option colours. I had recently discovered the then fabulous Humbrol paints which were available from Andersons newsagent and toy shop in Whitby. The paints then covered well in one coat and over two or three days my Beaufort was finished off with the superb FROG decals.

 

A few years later I made an interior for my Beaufort using plastic card and spare bits like seats and control column.

I added some better Airfix crew figures in the cockpit.

I cut open the extra windows and glazed them and also cut open the side entrance hatch. I built a torpedo bay with crutches and modified a torpedo with fins which slotted into the bay.

I replaced the turret guns with those from an Airfix Blenheim.

I finally replaced the narrow engines with beefy Hercules ones from an old AIrfix Stirling and I then had a FROG Beaufort which I was proud off.

 

Unfortunately I regret that I no longer have this model to share with you.

 

Image result for FROG Bristol Beaufort

 

A lovely FROG Beaufort I found on the web.

 

 

 

 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a great thread. I'm really getting into these kind of kits. In my childhood I only built Airfix and Matchbox kits, I remember seeing the bagged Novo kits (the Bleriot?) hanging above a display cabinet at South Eastern Models at Felbridge, West Sussex, but only started buying Frog kits long after they had stopped production. I picked up a Orange boxed Frog Lightning at Peterborough two weeks ago for £7 (parts still sealed in the bag), tried building the kit twice, one Frog and one Hasegawa box but never finished either, third time lucky?

 

Colin      

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...