A NOSTALGIC TRIBUTE TO FROG MODEL KITS

[adey m]

7 hours ago, NAVY870 said:

I'm quite sure nobody will be surprised by these 

 

Thanks Steve for posting your FROG Venoms. At least we all know what to get you for Christmas and Birthdays...................

 

cheers,   adey

[adey m]

20 hours ago, Chillidragon said:

Harrumph!  No more curried eggs for me!

 

I didn't realise Frog did a Bloodhound!  Was it better than the Airfix one?  I never saw one.

Here is one I found on the web defending someone's kitchen by the look of it

 

 

cheers, adey

Edited March 16, 2018 by adey m

[tomkil]

On 3/14/2018 at 9:02 PM, tomkil said:

Does anyone remember a FROG promotion back in the 1970s offering a flight in a preserved Lancaster?

 

I think it was along the lines of having to collect a certain number of tokens and write a letter explaining why you thought you deserved to win the prize.

 

I seem to remember not having enough tokens as FROG kits weren't easy to come by where I lived and enclosing a note to that effect.

 

Needless to say, I heard nothing!

Now I think about, it might have been Revell!  

 

Were they the ones with an office in Potters Bar?

[Chillidragon]

I think so.  It might even have been in the (mercifully) short lived Pete Revell comic our local dealer was peddling.  First (only?) edition had a tool set moulded in Polystyrene (I think) - clever material, Revell; in Polythene it would have been very good indeed.  And wouldn't have stuck to our kits!

[Eric Mc]

Revell's UK  address was indeed at Potter's Bar. 

[adey m]

WIN THREE DAYS WITH THE ROYAL NAVY

 

FROG ran a competition in the 1960s I think where 36 lucky winners could spend three days with the Royal Navy, visiting a submarine, Naval air station and a warship.

 

Entrants had to write an essay about various roles of the modern Royal Navy and send off FOUR FROG box tops from a list given.

 

Sounds like a clever bit of sales promoting and a good recruitment drive for the Navy.

 

Wonder if anyone on here was one of the lucky winners.

 

GO TO YOUR TOY SHOP FOR YOUR ENTRY FORM NOW 

 

adey

[stevehnz]

On 3/17/2018 at 8:35 AM, adey m said:

Reply to FAAMAN ref TA 152 colours

Another thing that is confusing me is that there are photos showing the intake on the side of the nose being on the left on some and on the right on others. Did they do left and right hand drive versions  ............

regards  adey

 

 

Ta 152 H models were Jumo 213 engined intake on right, Ta 152 C had DB603 engine, intake on left like bf109s.

Steve.

Edited March 17, 2018 by stevehnz
Correct jumo number

[adey m]

How many paths can a wrong garden have ?

[adey m]

FROG competition advert

 

 

All you had to do was try and find a shop selling enough FROG kits and hope they had an entry form, blow all your Birthday money and piggy bank buying four of the special kits required, sit down and write an essay, cut out your prized box tops and cram them into a large envelope with your essay and completed entry form, seal and stick a stamp on and then cycle to the nearest post box to post your entry off. And then wait, and wait, watching excitedly as the postman came up to the front door every morning. And then one day a brown padded envelope arrives with HMS Hero inside ...............

 

 

If you were one of the lucky 36 you might have visited this

 

 

or this

 

 

or this

 

 

but you probably ended up with this

 

Actually I do wonder how many of the lucky 36 big prize winners went on to join the Royal Navy.

 

Clever sales promotion by FROG and a good recruiting campaign by the Royal Navy.  

 

'  Besides, it's easy ! '   ............ 

Edited June 18, 2020 by adey m

[adey m]

FROG FLY-HI

 

 

We might need a bigger stick for the Shackleton  ...........

[adey m]

HASEGAWA ISSUE OF THE FROG BLENHEIM MK 1

 

 

One of the FROG kits that was sold in a Hasegawa box. Great Britain Airforce Bomber ...........

 

 

A later Hasegawa issue of the FROG Blenheim

 

 

The original 1960s FROG issue.  Their future prospects don't look good stooging around in Messerschmitt country with pairs of Blenheims in daylight. Was this what they called a Circus ? I wonder which clown thought that one up .............

 

 

 

 

 

Nice examples I found on the web. I wish I still had mine ............... regrets ,  I've had a few ..............

 

 

And where it all started, a 1/72 FROG Penguin model from 1939.

 

As a wartime advert stated,  " Have a really good hobby, such as model aeroplane construction. It is the best way of defeating boredom during the black-out . "

 

" Oi ....  switch that ruddy  light out ! "

 

Edited March 21, 2018 by adey m

[JosephLalor]

On 3/12/2018 at 9:37 PM, adey m said:

Here you are Joseph,  enjoy the memory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cheers,  adey

Thanks Adey, that takes me back alright. Mine was bag and header card packaged, a 10th birthday present in 1971.  It led to many Supermodel, Italeri and Hasegawa purchases later on.

 

Smart work on the Ta152H.  I've just walloped my Revell repop together straight from the box.

Edited March 18, 2018 by JosephLalor

[adey m]

Re JosephLalor Macchi 202

 

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

 

 

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

[junglierating]

I've gotta say i like your blog 

[Chris Royle]

[tomkil]

What are the chances there's one (or more) of the lucky 36 first prize winners frequenting Britmodeller?

 

And wouldn't it be great to read what they had to say about the role of Cruisers in "today's Royal Navy"!

 

 

 

 

[Meatbox8]

On 3/15/2018 at 11:20 AM, FAAMAN said:

@ Meatbox8, only units with Ta 152H's are I/JG301 and Stab/JG11 (test and eval versions pressed into service).

I can find no refs for II/JG3 flying the Ta.

Thanks.  I thought as much although I didn't know about Stab.JG11.  Frog must have wanted to offer more than one option, which was good of them if not entirely accurate.  Maybe they were ahead of their time as some Czech manufacturers are marketing 'What ifs' these days.  

[adey m]

THE FROG AVRO SHACKLETON

 

 

A couple of likely lads with the Shackleton mould at the FROG Margate factory.  I don't recognise any of that  ............

 

 

Since 1974 my FROG Shackleton has had a number of different guises. Here is the only photo I have of when it had retracted undercarriage and I made a display stand from MDF which slotted into the open weapons bay.  It represented a worn Phase 2 aircraft and was displayed doing a fly past with radome extended over our model club table at the Bridlington Spa about 1998. Sorry about the photo quality but it is the only photo I now have of it like this.

 

 

I then decided to reinstate the undercarriage,  convert it into a Phase 0,  and repaint it as a newly delivered Shackleton in the original overall grey colour scheme.

 

 

The big weapons bay. The bright red display stand that came with the kit slotted into the roof of the weapons bay.

 

adey

Edited March 21, 2018 by adey m

[JosephLalor]

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 .........

 

 

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

That's it indeed, with the 363rd Squadriglia aircraft on the card, later an option in one of the 1/48 Hasegawa boxings.  Egad, 3/8 for a 1/72 fighter kit!  18p?

 

I suppose now I would say it was a Breda-built machine from the sparse mottle; all I knew then was that it was an Italian plane and therefore something special.

 

I've just remembered that I replaced the Ta152 kit propeller with an item from the '70s Airfix Dora, so not quite straight from the box.  I guess it yielded a slight improvement in the shape of the spinner.

 

Thanks for the invitation to put the model up, will do.

Edited March 20, 2018 by JosephLalor

[JosephLalor]

36 minutes ago, adey m said:

THE FROG AVRO SHACKLETON

I then decided to reinstate the undercarriage.  convert it into a Phase 0,  and repaint it as a newly delivered Shackleton in the original all grey colour scheme.

 

 

The big weapons bay. The bright red display stand that came with the kit slotted into the roof of the weapons bay.

 

adey

That looks great, rasp-like surfaces and all.  I have the Revell boxing and am thinking of a South African machine, armed with spare 20mils from Airfix's MR.2.

Edited March 20, 2018 by JosephLalor

[adey m]

56 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

That looks great, rasp-like surfaces and all.  I have the Revell boxing and am thinking of a South African machine, armed with spare 20mils from Airfix's MR.2.

Hi Joseph, if you look carefully inside the front of the fuselage halves you will see that FROG originally intended to include the guns in the kit because the pivot holes to mount them are moulded inside the nose. Apparently the guns were then left out to save costs.

 

I like the look of the South African Shackletons, good choice Joseph.

 

regards,  adey

Edited March 20, 2018 by adey m

[adey m]

1 hour ago, JosephLalor said:

That's it indeed, with the 363rd Squadriglia aircraft on the card, later an option in one of the 1/48 Hasegawa boxings.  Egad, 3/8 for a 1/72 fighter kit!  18p?

 

I suppose now I would say it was a Breda-built machine from the sparse mottle; all I knew then was that it was an Italian plane and therefore something special.

 

I've just remembered that I replaced the Ta152 kit propeller with an item from the '70s Airfix Dora, so not quite straight from the box.  I guess it yielded a slight improvement in the shape of the spinner.

 

Thanks for the invitation to put the model up, will do.

Yes Joseph,  three and eight was a lot for a fighter kit at the time. The equivalent AIRFIX Series One kits were only about two and nine which meant that your pocket money went a lot farther with AIRFIX. Which is why buying a FROG kit was something you thought about more seriously.

 

adey

Edited March 20, 2018 by adey m

[adey m]

Thanks Troy for the above, that lower photo must be reversed as that intake is on the wrong side  .................  confusion reigns again.

 

I think I will just quietly go away until nobody is looking anymore ................. or join the What If crowd

 

How many wrong paths can a garden have ?

 

cheers,  adey

 

P.S.  do you get hurricanes in Sussex ?

Edited March 22, 2018 by adey m

[FAAMAN]

The pic is clearly reversed Adey. No confusion there. The under wing radio antenna is also on the wrong side for any '190 so fitted, it's under the left wing not the right.

The top pic posted by Troy has the intake clearly on the right hand side.

As I said don't trust pics of this Ta, it has several coats of paint on it as photographed, very little original paint can be seen (mostly on the underside).

So how's the Ta progressing? Did you go out and get the new(ish) Humbrol RLM colours? You need RLM-02, RLM-70, RLM-81, RLM-82 and RLM-76.

For my Ta's (Frog and Dragon) I'll be using Vallejo Acrylics.

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, FAAMAN said:

As I said don't trust pics of this Ta, it has several coats of paint on it as photographed, very little original paint can be seen (mostly on the underside).

 

IMO,   it has a lot of original paint,  what is new is some grey to obscure the fuslage cross, tail band and fin,   with RAF markings applied, then fake German crosses.   Above and in front of the '4' looks to be original paint.   Note the remains of the painted over delievery code letter 'J'  still visible.

 

 

compare,  apart from obvious overpainting, what is visible matches known schemes,   also note  just visible in the above,  the painted over JG301 bands bleeding through  the grey overspray on the lower fuselage 

 

 

It was certainly repainted heavily later on,    as the storage photos match the image below,  

 

 

 

6 hours ago, adey m said:

I think I will just quietly go away until nobody is looking anymore ................. or join the What If crowd

 

How many wrong paths can a garden have ?

 

 

Adey, pick a  scheme you are happy with,   and don't worry.

FWIW the washed out pic of green 4/FE-112,   the colours at the front  looks very similar to  the one on this Me 262

 

Which are the same ones quoted by FAAMAN.    The RLM 70 is the  black-green on the prop blades  BTW.

 

 

6 hours ago, adey m said:

P.S.  do you get hurricanes in Sussex

the last Hurricane we got in Sussex was 1987....