A NOSTALGIC TRIBUTE TO FROG MODEL KITS

[adey m]

Hi Convair, that Wallace looks great, I would want to build it.

 

cheers,  adey

[Convair]

Me too . I have a few other kits queued to be built first, but the turn of the Wallace will come. Cheers!

Edited April 6, 2018 by Convair

[adey m]

FROG TRAIL BLAZERS  WESTLAND P.V.6 WALLACE

 

In 1964 FROG produced a 1/72 kit of the Westland Wallace in their Trail Blazer series.

 

The Wallace was built by Westland as a Private Venture improvement on their Wapiti which was in overseas service with the Royal Air Force.

 

A Westland Wapiti

 

In the 1960s FROG produced a range of unique models of aircraft under the title of Trail Blazers. These were aircraft that had featured in historic aviation achievements.

 

They chose to model a Wallace that had been specially modified for high altitude flight and which was one of two Wallaces which were the first aircraft to fly over Mount Everest on 3 April 1933. The aircraft had oxygen and heating equipment, an enclosed rear cockpit and a supercharged engine.

 

 

A feature of some of the Trail Blazer box art was the painted picture copied from an actual photograph

 

 

A total of 68 Wallace Mk 1s were built from converted Wapitis for the RAF. The Wallace was longer than the Wapiti, had a spatted undercarriage, wheel brakes and a different engine which was cowled.

 

They equipped Auxiliary Squadrons of the RAF in the UK.

 

 

A Westland Wallace Mk 1 in the Royal Air Force Museum in London

 

In 1935 an improved Wallace Mk II was produced which had a more powerful engine and an enclosed cockpit. A total of 104 Wallace IIs were built for the RAF and they served until 1943.

 

 

A lovely atmospheric painting of two Wallace IIs of 504 Royal Auxiliary Squadron

 

 

A nice example built from the box. Note the enclosed rear cockpit and the lack of wheel spats to reduce weight for the high altitude flight

 

 

Another lovely model of the record-breaking Wallace complete with FROG pilot

 

 

A nice modification of the kit to make a Wallace II with spats and enclosed cockpit. Wheel spats are not included in the kit so you have to make your own if you want an RAF version.

 

 

 

 

 

A camouflaged Wallace I in use as a target tug during the war

 

 

A camouflaged Wallace II is wheeled out of its hangar at RAF Thornaby

 

 

A superb conversion into a Wallace II by a fellow Britmodeller

 

 

1978 NOVO issue of the Wallace with misleading artwork which shows the aircraft with spats and gunner's rear cockpit.

 

 

" Dad why is the aeroplane on the back of the box different to the one on the front ? "

 

I would like to thank the guys who built the splendid Wallace models that I have used in this article

 

adey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2018 by adey m

[polo1112]

Very interesting post.

I would say that both aircraft, Wallace and Wapiti look really good.

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Great story here, have a couple of these in the attic somewhere, bought with the intention of converting them back to Wapitis, all these great posts just make you want to start yet another project.

[adey m]

FROG 1/72 FW Ta 152H  ( first released in 1970 )

 

 

An almost mint condition original issue which I purchased earlier this year from a used kit trader at a model show

 

 

The colour and decal guide on the reverse of the card instruction header

 

 

The crisply moulded contents laid out for inspection.

 

 

The model during construction. I decided to replace that strangely shaped propeller spinner with one from my spares. I replaced the undercarriage legs and used an old Airfix pilot.

 

 

Completed model now at the painting stage. 

 

 

The model was completely brush painted with Humbrol and Xtra Colour enamels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the propeller so it would spin freely with the flick of a finger

 

 

 

 

 

This model was a pleasure to build. Hard to believe it dates from 1970.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by adey m

[FAAMAN]

I keep coming back and sneaking a look at the beastie, just wow

[Max Headroom]

Just came across this photo.

 

 

I built this in 74/75 and used a camouflage scheme that was published in Airfix Magazine at the time that was part of a series of articles on Army Co Operation aircraft. I’m sure that fuselage roundel comes from a FROG Swordfish sheet. This is of course before I discovered ‘the Microscale Method’!

 

Trevor 

 

[modelldoc]

Great thread,

 

can anyone explain what happen here:

 

They use the older label and I saw it never before.

 

modelldoc

[Terry1954]

On 4/16/2018 at 5:41 PM, adey m said:

The model was completely brush painted with Humbrol and Xtra Colour enamels.

Hi Adey,

 

Thats a very convincing mottle finish considering its brush painted. I think I built my Frog Ta152 when it was first released! Happy days.

 

Terry

[FAAMAN]

46 minutes ago, modelldoc said:

Great thread,

 

can anyone explain what happen here:

 

They use the older label and I saw it never before.

 

modelldoc

There's something very odd here, It even has "FROG" Established in 1932 on the front of the box???

It's apparently a kit from Singapore, High Planes Models . . . . .

[224 Peter]

I wonder if someone has acquired the rights to the "FROG" Name and is planning a re-launch?

The Model is on the HPM Website. £21.00 to pre-order. 

[Pete in Lincs]

If you click on that picture you go to a Singapore based modelshop facebook page.

A series of pictures shows the shop, lots of people, some nice models, and a FROG Mig15bis.

[ColinChipmunkfan]

This thread is always interesting, full of nostalgic interest to us crincklies and also packed with historic and modelling information, thank you for starting it Adey.  I have 2 Wallace kits that I am intending to turn into Wapitis when I can find the time, at the moment just finishing a Matchbox Provost and Tempest II- hopefully they will end up as my first ever posts on the site.

[Eric Mc]

My FROG/Novo Barracuda is progressing slowly. I am using an Airwaves photo etch set which is designed for the Special Hobby kit so needs adjustment to fit into the FROG fuselage. So far I've spent most of my time sorting this aspect out.

[modelldoc]

And here one of my last FROG kits:

 

 

modelldoc

[Aardvark]

New Russian site about FROG/NOVO & Soviet/post-Soviet epoch models.

Site started 01.06.2018 

Main:

http://retromodels.ru

Aircraft FROG/NOVO article:

http://retromodels.ru/авиация-ново/

Ship FROG/NOVO article:

http://retromodels.ru/флот-novo/

e.t.c.

 

Site opened for all. Site in work.

You may help this project with you memories, photo built/unbuilt models, real aircraft/ship/cars  which was prototype models,  e.t.c. about FROG/NOVO epoch:

http://retromodels.ru/контакты/

 

B.R.

Serge

 

 

[Neil.C]

20 hours ago, Aardvark said:

New Russian site about FROG/NOVO & Soviet/post-Soviet epoch models.

Site started 01.06.2018 

Main:

http://retromodels.ru

Aircraft FROG/NOVO article:

http://retromodels.ru/авиация-ново/

Ship FROG/NOVO article:

http://retromodels.ru/флот-novo/

e.t.c.

 

Site opened for all. Site in work.

You may help this project with you memories, photo built/unbuilt models, real aircraft/ship/cars  which was prototype models,  e.t.c. about FROG/NOVO epoch:

http://retromodels.ru/контакты/

 

B.R.

Serge

 

 

Looks a very worthy site Serge but it's all in Russian. 🤨

[Aardvark]

6 hours ago, Neil.C said:

Looks a very worthy site Serge but it's all in Russian. 🤨

I wrote to the developers of the site, yesterday, about the need to add English. The question is that it is a kind of site-museum or a reference-site whose emphasis on the Soviet / post-Soviet history of the FROG is known as NOVO. In any case, this is necessary and interesting.

The site was initially positioned as not commercial.

In this section:

http://retromodels.ru/статьи/

you can read a lot of interesting (while in Russian, but perhaps the developers will make a translation into English) stories from modelers from different cities of the former USSR.

Perhaps something in these memories is exaggerated, perhaps something is distorted, and something is forgotten for the prescription of the years, but these memories make it possible to understand the spirit of that epoch of undivided dominance of the FROG / NOVO models in the vastness of the USSR and those unforgettable, with nothing not comparable emotions associated with hunting (yes it is hunting!) on these models.

By the way, you almost certainly do not know that the black market in Moscow was a scam when, under the guise of Mosquito, gullible buyers were selling DH.103 Hornet? The box, decal, instruction was from the Mosquito but the spruce from the Hornet. Economically, the Hornet cost something about 1 rubles and such false Mosquito was sold for 25 rubles. This is a famous deception, the authors of which are unknown.

Modelling in Soviet Union was very interesting adventures, absolutely incomparable with the present times when everything can be bought.

 

B.R.

Serge

[JWM]

On 4/14/2018 at 11:10 PM, adey m said:

 

 

A superb conversion into a Wallace II by a fellow Britmodeller

Adey, thank you for digging out my Wallace  

More photos as well as Wapiti are here:

Regards

J-W

 

 

[modelldoc]

It's a very good page, full of informations, thanks for that,

 

but it's better when it is also a part in English.

 

Here is a historic example; developed by FROG, produced by NOVO:

 

 

modelldoc

Edited June 5, 2018 by modelldoc

[Aardvark]

56 minutes ago, modelldoc said:

but it's better when it is also a part in English.

I agree, but translated on English have some problem.

As examples, in 

In the subcultures of the modelers of the USSR, some aircraft received original slang names, which have no analogues. They were based on consonance.

"Ventura" was "Mentura"...derived from criminal slang "Ment"- Cop

https://ru.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/мент

"Sea Vixen" was "Svinjukxen" this is an artificial word that does not appear in dictionaries, derivative of the word "Svin" - Pig.

BAC Lightning was a BACLAN

derivative of the Russian word "baklan" - cormorant.

Most funny  was a "Buccaneer" - "Buchaneer" derivative of the slang Russian word "buchoj" - "drunk person", and 

"Mysoroschmitt" - "Messerschmitt",

derivative of the Russian word "Mysor"- Garbage...Garbageschmitt.

e.t.c...

Which translator will this translate?

  

 

B.R.

Serge

 

 

 

 

 

[tempestfan]

17 hours ago, Aardvark said:

 

"Mysoroschmitt" - "Messerschmitt",

derivative of the Russian word "Mysor"- Garbage...Garbageschmitt.

 

B.R.

Serge

But that can’t relate to any Novo (or pre-ca. 1988) kit, as the USSR refused all of Frog‘s axis moulds including all Messerschmitt‘s, the moulds going to Revell 😉

[VMA131Marine]

On 6/5/2018 at 8:42 AM, Neil.C said:

Looks a very worthy site Serge but it's all in Russian. 🤨

Did you try Google Translate?

[Aardvark]

5 hours ago, tempestfan said:

But that can’t relate to any Novo (or pre-ca. 1988) kit, as the USSR refused all of Frog‘s axis moulds including all Messerschmitt‘s, the moulds going to Revell 😉

And "Yes" and "No". We don't know about full catalog  NOVO, periodic was 

there were occasional rumors about the F-100 roofing felts, F-104 roofing felts, the press-forms for which they allegedly accidentally fell into the USSR and lie in some factory, gasoline was also signed into the fire by white boxes of NOVO on La-7 and DH.60 one of which was depicted Macci M.С.202, which gave rise to rumors that he was being made somewhere in the USSR, but exclusively made in USSR for the West. Periodically, the modelers from Poland or Czechoslovakia requested the exchange of the Axis aircraft, allegedly manufactured in the USSR, for offering them Czech or Polish models, they had the opportunity to see the FROG catalogs, but they did not know about the range of NOVO! Perhaps because of these rumors and there was such a name, however it is not the original name invented by the modelers of the USSR. The fact is that to control the speed limit on the road in the USSR, Ka-26 helicopters such as this were used:

 

 

Do you see the inscription of the ГАИ- GAI on them - the state automobile inspection? That's what they drivers called Ka-26 - "Mentokryly Musoroschmitt" what translated as

"Copwinged Garbageschmitt".

And then it's interesting that both "ment"(cop) and "musor"(garbage) are essentially a criminal slang by a policeman. But if the first word "ment" has lost its negative connotation over time, and many policemen say of themselves "I am a ment!" implying that he is a real, honest policeman, the name musor- "garbage" is a word with a negative connotation implying a criminal, corrupt policeman. 

Such are the interesting meanings and word games.

The first list of NOVO models produced in the USSR was published in the Bulletin "Airplane -Courier" in 1989 or 1990(?). Then the first list was published in the first issue of the magazine "M-Hobby" in 1992.

But were Messerschmitt's models available in the USSR? Not massively, but thanks to an exchange with the Czechs and Poles were available Аvia C.199 from KP & Avia C.S.92 from Smer, how you know it was Czechs built  Me-109 & Me-262B, also on exchange was limited available western and Japan models Messerschmitt.

But the topic is about FROG / NOVO?

There is a city legend of the USSR period, that one modeler from Minsk converted Spitfirе 8/9 from NOVO to Messershmit Me.109 !!!

Who after this will say that NOVO did not make the Messerschmitt's?

B.R.

Serge

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Aardvark