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A NOSTALGIC TRIBUTE TO FROG MODEL KITS


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I have just realized (with a bit strange feelings), that in my rather large stash (+200 subjects all in 1/72) there is no longer any Frog/Novo kit and only the last two Matchbox, to be frank Revell rebox of Matchbox, namely HP Heyford and He-70/170.  In last year I did mine the last original Matchbox  box - the Stranraer.  Moreover - there are very last two Heller kits among them as well. Few by Hasegawa or Tamiya. The majority are kits produced by Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish (including more than 10 of Broplan vacus) companies... 

Regards

J-W

 

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68 going on 15. started modelling in short trousers and never stopped.  Now living in New Zealand so its back to short trousers.  Love this thread, I still have a large number of Frog kits.  When I lived in Welwyn Garden City in the 1980s a local garage gave you a Frog kit for so many gallons of petrol.  Sounded like a bargain to me.

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On 3/10/2021 at 8:13 AM, adey m said:

Just on the subject of classic models of the P-38 Lightning, I should maybe finish this old Airfix one some day .............

 

resized_95b97b1f-6947-4609-9b4d-192793f0

 

It was a surprise find in an Airfix Beaufighter box which came from a car boot sale I think, it just needs a pilot and tail plane end pieces and I could display it in flying mode on one of my old Airfix stands.

Adey here's mine built in one day 26Dec1979, hope this inspires you to finish yours,

35135566954_bcbb9a823d_o.jpgDSC02361s by Neil, on Flickr

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18 minutes ago, FAAMAN said:

Adey here's mine built in one day 26Dec1979, hope this inspires you to finish yours,

35135566954_bcbb9a823d_o.jpg

 

How wonderful, a model kit you got on Christmas Day 1979, completed on Boxing Day, and you still have it.

 

Were the original issue of the Airfix Lightning still available then or was it from a relation's or friend's collection ?,

 

Yes, you have inspired me to do something with mine, considering it's vintage it still captures the lines and sleekness of the Lightning.

 

thanks,  adey

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Not a Chrissy pres Adey, just a build to do from my stash whilst still digesting my Mom's baked Chrissy lunch/dinner (no real start or finish, the food just kept coming) when I should've been focusing on high school study.

It was from a Type 6C box, Type 6 Oval logo available 1978 - 1981.

Still the same markings option (P-38J 904/CG-O 38th FS 55th FG) as the original 1958 issue (your pic), same moldings, as a kit it's a a bit clunky and not quite right really but yes it does look like like a P-38.

Link to ATF kit history;  https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/airfixtributeforum/viewtopic.php?p=843777#p843777

You may need to get building now . . . . . . .

I've gotta get back to a very stubborn OOB Airfix Scout . . . . . . . " . . . resistance is futile"

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On 3/18/2018 at 9:47 PM, adey m said:

Re JosephLalor Macchi 202

 

Hi Joseph, so your FROG Macchi 202 would have been packaged like this .........

 

168814c1-335f-4bd5-b7d2-22cf91ed9bc5.jpg

 

Is the price on this 3 /8 ?  Pre decimalisation three shillings and eight pence dating it to about 1969-1970.

 

Feel welcome to post your Ta 152 on here Joseph.

 

regards, adey

Hi Adey, thanks for the invitation.  Here's the model, only 3 years late.  It lay around almost finished for ages, but I've just put on the finishing touches yesterday.  Camouflage colours were hand-brushed with Xtracrylics throughout, with the mottle applied by stippling.  I followed the kit painting instructions, so the scheme may well be fictitious for all I know, particularly the green top to the power egg.

 

IMG_1750

 

 

IMG_1749

 

Edited by JosephLalor
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On 14/03/2021 at 21:58, Pig of the Week said:

I remember doing a V1 doodle bug flying bomb which came as a set with a Spitfire I think.

 

 

Yes your memory is correct, it came with a Spitfire Mk XIV, which had an exciting five blade propeller and a choice of open or closed canopy.

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6 hours ago, JosephLalor said:

I followed the kit painting instructions, so the scheme may well be fictitious for all I know, particularly the green top to the power egg.

 

Thanks Joseph for sharing your FROG Ta152 with us, whether or not the scheme is fiction matters not, it is great to see another FROG kit built up, and very nicely too.

 

regards, adey

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On 14/03/2021 at 00:06, FAAMAN said:

I've gotta get back to a very stubborn OOB Airfix Scout . . . . . . . " . . . resistance is futile"

 

Oh I really love the Airfix Westland Scout, I had two in my childhood. The first was built by my father when I was eight, covered in glue with wonky skids, but I loved it so much that I had to build one for myself when I was thirteen.

 

I had great fun flying it low in our Married Quarters garden, following the contours and hovering between the plants seeking out my brother's tanks ( the first Scout when I was eight that is ........ )

 

Happy times.

 

regards, adey

Edited by adey m
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If anyone is interested, the Greg’s Models channel on YouTube is currently running a series of videos on old Frog kits. If I understand him correctly, the kits will be offered for sale when the videos are finished.

 

So far he’s done two videos, this is the first...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUXeAsrTgq4&t=26s

 

 

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28 minutes ago, adey m said:

 

Yes your memory is correct, it came with a Spitfire Mk XIV, which had an exciting five blade propeller and a choice of open or closed canopy.

I do remember being far more interested in the V1 than the fighter that came with it !...again not sure if I remember correctly but I seem to think a mate at school built a kit of the V2 rocket...

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6 hours ago, adey m said:

 

Yes your memory is correct, it came with a Spitfire Mk XIV, which had an exciting five blade propeller and a choice of open or closed canopy.

That was a wow for me too back in the '70s.  It would never have occurred to me otherwise that a Second World War fighter would have had a five-blade propeller.  Also, the combination of the Eagle Annual story and FROG kit of the Wyvern has left me with a fascination with aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers ever since.

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6 hours ago, adey m said:

Yes your memory is correct, it came with a Spitfire Mk XIV, which had an exciting five blade propeller and a choice of open or closed canopy.

I remember when I had this kit in the 60s I could not believe that a Spitfire could have a 5 bladed propeller.

In the FROG GB I had quite a few old FROG kits to choose from, I say old because they were priced in shillings and pennies with a "d" Just to confuse the younger members, for some reason I thought decimalisation was in June 71 when it was in February 71, must have been a mild February is all I'll say on that, usually my memories from the 70s are pretty good.

Back to the kit I chose to build, I had an Emily flying boat but the state of the clear parts put me off, the B-47 Stratojet might have been a push for a GB so I went with this, priced at 15/-

 

IMG_0869

And this is how it turned out, with some panel line re-scribing, Microscale decals instead of the original yellow transfers and a vac-form canopy.

IMG_1008

Best get myself signed up for the FROG GB.II  Still got a lot of FROG kits to build.

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1 hour ago, 224 Peter said:

Did any other maker offer a 1/72 scale Spitfire XIV?

Neatly done.  That looks like the FROG kit alright, with the 'e' wing, and the strangely shaped rear portion to the underside of the wing-fuselage fairing.  To my knowledge the only other original tooling of a Mk XIV in 1/72 is Academy's. It has the 'c' wing and markings for RB159/DW*D of 610 Sqn.

Edited by JosephLalor
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9 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

Neatly done.  That looks like the FROG kit alright, with the 'e' wing, and the strangely shaped rear portion to the underside of the wing-fuselage fairing.  To my knowledge the only other original tooling of a Mk XIV in 1/72 is Academy's. It has the 'c' wing and markings for RB159/DW*D of 610 Sqn.

 

The Academy kit first came out in the mid-90's.

 

 

 

Chris

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3 hours ago, 224 Peter said:

This might be the Spitfire XIV from Frog...

 

Thanks Peter, that looks like the FROG Spitfire XIV to me.

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3 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

Back to the kit I chose to build, I had an Emily flying boat but the state of the clear parts put me off, the B-47 Stratojet might have been a push for a GB so I went with this, priced at 15/-

 

IMG_0869

 

Thanks Bob, fantastic atmospheric FROG box art again, unusual angle from low down on the deck with the human content that was so prevailing in FROG artwork.

 

Lovely Vigilante and great to see the FROG instruction sheet too.

 

Your mention of the FROG Emily brings back another memory for me. For my thirteenth birthday my dad brought me through to Scarborough from our home in Whitby on the Saturday and took me to the small model shop which he had discovered on Bar Street. They had the FROG Kawanishi Emily flying boat kit on display and my dad got me it for my birthday. I think it said Moulded in Japan somewhere on the box but I did not know then that it was really a Hasegawa kit packaged by FROG. I soon had it built and dogfighting with my brother's Sunderland, I always won the combat because it had bigger longer-range guns ..................

 

edfa7ffa-f47a-43ba-927f-31a34094490c.jpg

 

It came in a box just like this one, the Beaching Tractor was rather crude and disappointing though.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, adey m said:

 

Thanks Bob, fantastic atmospheric FROG box art again, unusual angle from low down on the deck with the human content that was so prevailing in FROG artwork.

 

Lovely Vigilante and great to see the FROG instruction sheet too.

 

Your mention of the FROG Emily brings back another memory for me. For my thirteenth birthday my dad brought me through to Scarborough from our home in Whitby on the Saturday and took me to the small model shop which he had discovered on Bar Street. They had the FROG Kawanishi Emily flying boat kit on display and my dad got me it for my birthday. I think it said Moulded in Japan somewhere on the box but I did not know then that it was really a Hasegawa kit packaged by FROG. I soon had it built and dogfighting with my brother's Sunderland, I always won the combat because it had bigger longer-range guns ..................

 

edfa7ffa-f47a-43ba-927f-31a34094490c.jpg

 

It came in a box just like this one, the Beaching Tractor was rather crude and disappointing though.

 

I still have the kit in that box, not in such a good condition as that box looks, mine has the price 36/- penciled on, they used to use a pencil so that if the price went up they could change it.

As mentioned, this was the first kit I thought about making when I joined the FROG GB, I always liked the idea of a Japanese Sunderland, however, the clear parts were badly moulded with injector pin marks and the canopy framing is just on the inside of the canopy?  Another throw back to that era, the fuselage and wings are covered in rivets except where the Japanese "meatballs" go.

The only other big FROG boxed kit I have is the B-47 Stratojet, this I intend to build as I have bought a vac-form canopy and some resin cockpit and engine improvement parts.

I did find quite a few FROG kits in my shed after a search:

IMG_0940

There is a Canberra B(I)8, Buccaneer and 2 Novo Fairey Delta 2's missing from this picture.

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58 minutes ago, 224 Peter said:

We know what happened to the Matchbox moulds, but what happened to the Frog ones? 

 

Hi Peter, many of them were acquired by the Russians and sold back to us under the NOVO banner.

 

52e39b0d-4574-429c-a635-43df2e8dd228.jpg

 

71eb45e6-d6ba-4961-88f9-64fddb0069e5.jpg

 

The Fairey Delta was another one resold under the NOVO banner. However, the Russians did not want any Axis powers subjects so some of them were acquired by Revell and sold under their branding, subjects such as the He111, He115 and Do17Z.

 

280b1b89-cbd9-4f53-b8a2-cdb6a01cbb85.jpg

 

This Revell boxing of the He111 is actually the FROG one. Does the artwork look familiar ?

 

79afeb83-e6cd-4c66-b1ac-1b780a64f582.jpg

 

mmmmmm yes, I think it does

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