Hamster Volant Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 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 More sharing options...
malpaso Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 20 hours ago, adey m said: Which Vigilante box art would inspire you most guys ? None of the above, it was this one I built as a kid: https://goo.gl/images/9hos8d it must have been a Christmas present. I'll get me coat... Will 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 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 More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 (edited) " Bloody hell......I'm trying to instruct a radio operator back here................" I am tempted to try and find one of these now............... Edited June 18, 2020 by adey m 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangor Lad Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 This is bringing back so many fond memories of kits long past! Love it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 (edited) Hasegawa kits that appeared in FROG boxes with FROG instructions and FROG decals......................... Edited June 18, 2020 by adey m 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 An Avon engined Sabre? I take it there wasn't an alternative deeper fuselage included in the kit! Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reddog Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Some great kits there, and great artwork. Inspiring to go looking for some older kits now....thanks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 1/72 FROG de Havilland Venom FB. 4 ( 1955-1962) Unrestored 1/72 FROG de Havilland Venom FB.4 offered to me by a member of our model club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 (edited) 1/72 Martin Baltimore B.IV ( first issued 1963 ) A picture I found of a superb FROG Baltimore in Coastal Command colours. Another superb FROG Baltimore in Western Desert camouflage scheme. After seeing all these fantastic FROG Baltimore models I am thinking I need to find one.................... Edited June 18, 2020 by adey m 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 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! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 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 More sharing options...
Horatio Gruntfuttock Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 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 More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 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! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJP Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boffin Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 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. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger331 Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 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 ! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 (edited) 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 March 12, 2017 by adey m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Some fantastic builds on this thread, exquisite rigging on the Vimy and Swordfish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Des Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 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. 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. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted March 15, 2017 Author Share Posted March 15, 2017 1/72 FROG Bristol Beaufort II ( produced 1963 - 1973 ) 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. 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. It looks like the pilot applied the brakes too hard on landing........... 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. A lovely FROG Beaufort I found on the web. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin @ Freightdog Models Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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