Frog Squad GB Chat

[PeterB]

Just for the record my latest Frog Catalogue (1975) lists 59 aircraft kits. To date most of them are on the build list. The exceptions are as far as I can see F237 Spitfire VIII/IX, F392 Zero, F187 Mosquito IV/VI (though I think it has been mentioned as a possible), F208 Boston/Havoc, and F207 He 111. - 5 out of 59. Not bad. Of course there are many older kits not in that catalogue and also the Hasegawa ones, not to mention ships, and even a few Frog never quite built before they went under. With my Folgore, and a Voodoo and Twin Mustang declared as potential builds  recently we are very close to the Airfix total of 157, though how many actually get completed by the deadline remains to be seen. At the start I said that I doubted we would get close!

 

I think we all deserve a round of applause, particularly the overworked admin team.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[trickyrich]

at my IPMS club meeting today someone was selling heaps of Frog models, including a dozen or more of the first release boxings! They weren't cheap but in great condition.

 

I see Pete mentioned above the Boston/Havoc model, they had 3 different boxings of that one including the initial release boxing!

[Johnson]

49 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

someone was selling heaps of Frog models, including a dozen or more of the first release boxings!

Hi Rich,

 

May I ask roughly what they were going for?

 

I recently bought a first release boxing of the Sea Fury on ebay, I have no idea whether it was good value. (I'll post a pic of it when I get a mo).

 

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

I'm not to sure about all of them but most ranged from $10 to $20, a couple of what must have been rare ones they wanted $40 (AUD).

[Johnson]

Thanks Rich,

I paid £13.50 for the Sea Fury (about $25 AUD), so probably about right, especially as it was ebay!

Cheers,

[stevej60]

Hi folk's,I'm puzzled,the Masterkit HMS Ivanhoe kit came my way(would you believe for £4),cross checking the parts they are identical

to Frogs HMS Hero except on a single sprue I thought I'd read it was a Frog original but can't for the life of me find where I'd read it.Can

anyone shed any light on this?

[PeterB]

Steve,

 

There is a thread in BM about MasterCraft aka Master Craft and more recently Mister Craft which is what I think your kit is. They apparently copied other people's moulds sometimes adding a few extras. There are a number of derivatives of Hero - H and I class destroyers. Scalemates seem to say Ivanoe is either originally an Ogonek moulding or perhaps reboxing but when you check that company did sell quite a few ex Frog kits, and the scale of 1/500 makes it highly likely that Frog were the original source. Their Tribal Class Ashanti definitely was according to Scalemates but they do not show any of the Hero derivatives under Ogonek so I can't prove it. I may have misread the Scalemates history so it is perhaps also possible the Master Craft one is based on the allegedly new mould by Plastyk, but then again it is highly likely to be a re-engineered Frog kit. Well at least that is my opinion.

This is the sort of think Serge would probably know about.

 

Pete

Edited August 24, 2019 by PeterB

[Aardvark]

6 hours ago, PeterB said:

Just for the record my latest Frog Catalogue (1975) lists 59 aircraft kits. To date most of them are on the build list. The exceptions are as far as I can see F237 Spitfire VIII/IX, F392 Zero, F187 Mosquito IV/VI (though I think it has been mentioned as a possible), F208 Boston/Havoc, and F207 He 111.

I don't see:

http://retromodels.ru/f155/

and most funny, I don't see:

http://retromodels.ru/f350/#ert_pane1-4

🤔

On Britmodeller in GB cult British trade mark - FROG anybody don't building Bristol Britannia!!!

😲

 

B.R.

Serge

 

P.S. I had two Britannia, including one in a rare anniversary box with the order of Pobeda (Victory) and the Georgievskoi lentoi (George  ribbon).

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

6 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Steve,

 

There is a thread in BM about MasterCraft aka Master Craft and more recently Mister Craft which is what I think your kit is. They apparently copied other people's moulds sometimes adding a few extras. There are a number of derivatives of Hero - H and I class destroyers. Scalemates say Ivanoe is originally an Ogonek moulding or perhaps reboxing but when you check that company did sell quite a few ex Frog kits, and the scale of 1/500 makes it highly likely that Frog were the original source. Their Tribal Class Ashanti definitely was according to Scalemates but they do not show any of the Hero derivatives under Ogonek so I can't prove it. This is the sort of think Serge would probably know about.

 

Pete

Wake up Serge @Aardvark we have an important question for you, we might have our first boat !

 

So no pressure then eh ! 

 

Cheers Pat

[PeterB]

Hi Serge,

 

They were the earlier kits that I said were not in the 1975 catalogue, but of course are still valid for this GB. Any thoughts on Steve's ship kit above? How's the Typhoon going? The artwork on the special edition Britannia looks more like an Il-18 to me so perhaps another artist who was on something potent!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

Later - looks like Dave is going to have to get his reading glasses and calculator out again as Tim has just put in another entry!

Edited August 24, 2019 by PeterB

[Richard Humm]

6 hours ago, PeterB said:

Just for the record my latest Frog Catalogue (1975) lists 59 aircraft kits. To date most of them are on the build list. The exceptions are as far as I can see F237 Spitfire VIII/IX, F392 Zero, F187 Mosquito IV/VI (though I think it has been mentioned as a possible), F208 Boston/Havoc, and F207 He 111. - 5 out of 59. Not bad. Of course there are many older kits not in that catalogue and also the Hasegawa ones, not to mention ships, and even a few Frog never quite built before they went under. With my Folgore, and a Voodoo and Twin Mustang declared as potential builds  recently we are very close to the Airfix total of 157, though how many actually get completed by the deadline remains to be seen. At the start I said that I doubted we would get close!

 

I think we all deserve a round of applause, particularly the overworked admin team.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Isn't the Gladiator in that catalogue? I think it should be listed as F429. We've also got the kits that were new in the 1976 catalogue on the build list (Ar 234, Sea Vixen, B-17 and Lancaster (even if it's being converted)) and two of the four that were to be new releases in the 1977 range (Airacobra and Wellington - no-one's actually building a Twin Mustang or He 115 yet) - surprisingly the Rufe and Ventura weren't scheduled for release despite having been in the 1974 catalogue!

 

Both the 1976 and 1977 lists have 65 aircraft, with the 1976 being nicely balanced with 12 in each of the Black, Blue, Red, Green and Orange series, and five larger aircraft. 1977 only has 11 Orange kits, with the Wellington to join the larger set.

 

I might yet fill in a couple of the missing 1975 kits - I have all of them except the Zero in the stack facing me as I type this....

[Richard Humm]

1 hour ago, PeterB said:

Steve,

 

There is a thread in BM about MasterCraft aka Master Craft and more recently Mister Craft which is what I think your kit is. They apparently copied other people's moulds sometimes adding a few extras. There are a number of derivatives of Hero - H and I class destroyers. Scalemates seem to say Ivanoe is either originally an Ogonek moulding or perhaps reboxing but when you check that company did sell quite a few ex Frog kits, and the scale of 1/500 makes it highly likely that Frog were the original source. Their Tribal Class Ashanti definitely was according to Scalemates but they do not show any of the Hero derivatives under Ogonek so I can't prove it. I may have misread the Scalemates history so it is perhaps also possible the Master Craft one is based on the allegedly new mould by Plastyk, but then again it is highly likely to be a re-engineered Frog kit. Well at least that is my opinion.

This is the sort of think Serge would probably know about.

 

Pete

There are some aircraft kits in the Mistercraft range that were originated by ZTS Plastyk, so the H/I Class ships might be as well.

[Aardvark]

1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said:

Wake up Serge @Aardvark we have an important question for you, we might have our first boat !

 

So no pressure then eh ! 

Don't panic! Aardvark don't sleep!

"Homeland hears!"

Vasya Lozhkin picture.

😉😁😁

I'm in a hurry to help:

😉😁😁

1 hour ago, PeterB said:

Any thoughts on Steve's ship kit above?

Difficult question!

Yes, I building this kit when was young, but I absolutely no expert in ship.

So, translate from:

http://retromodels.ru/f124/

"The history of the model was continued after a few years, but already in Poland.  The company “ZTS Plastyk” released a set of “Niszczyciel klasy“ I ”” (S-015), based on the “ex-Frog” model, but the details, with preserved appearance and size, are located on the sprues in a different way.  Instead of fastening with a “herringbone” (parts on the sides of one feeder), here they are located on the familiar frame.  The Polish manufacturer, albeit with a slight deterioration in quality, copied the product "Spark", especially the difference was visible on the example of portholes.  The decal included side numbers for the design of 3 options - “HMS Harvester” (H19), “HMS Hesperus” (H57) and “HMS Ivanhoe” (D16).

 In addition, in the 2000s.  products appeared on the model market from the Polish company “Mistercraft” (aka “Mastercraft”) under the boxed names “HMS Hero”, “HMS Harvester” and “HMS Ivanhoe”, whose prototype actually belonged to the class of destroyers “I”. Despite the similarity of the classes, the developers from Poland did not take into account that the “I” class, in contrast to the “H” class, carried two five-pipe torpedo tubes instead of four-pipe ones, although they supplied the model with a box with excellent box art, new instructions and decals.  Unfortunately, this model was produced for a very short time."

You understand?

I don't understand....

I will consult a Russian ship modeler.  But I can’t guarantee the result, because now  the scale is different.

But in the caption to this photo:

written:

""HMS Harvester" - sprues with details of the model of the company "Mastercraft" created on the basis of mold FROG"

You may compare with original FROG/NOVO mold:

 

1 hour ago, PeterB said:

How's the Typhoon going?

Bad...many my time eat work, don't time on modelling...

1 hour ago, PeterB said:

The artwork on the special edition Britannia looks more like an Il-18 to me so perhaps another artist who was on something potent!

Pete, special for You:

First version box with Union Jack!

😉

 

B.R.

Serge

Edited August 24, 2019 by Aardvark

[PeterB]

Thanks Serge,

 

Whatever they were copying the nose looks more like a Douglas product.

 

Hi Richard,

 

Only have the 1975 catalogue with the Javelin on the front and Jaguar on the back. Definitely no Gladiator. I bought the catalogue in a model shop in Chester when I bought the Arado so must have been in 76. They also had the Sea Vixen but when I went back next month it had gone and so had Frog, or so they told me!

Edited August 24, 2019 by PeterB

[JOCKNEY]

I have a number of the catalogues 

 

I will post copies of the pages of aircraft etc later. I'm not sure of the years so will check when I get home, as Mrs Jockney has taken me out for tea !

 

Cheers Pat 

 

[JOCKNEY]

These are the Frog catalogues I have below.

 

 

From top left 

1964, 1965, 1966

1968, 1970, 1973

1974, 1975, 1976

 

Let me know what pages you would like to see and from which one !

 

cheers Pat

[PeterB]

Thanks Pat,

 

I think perhaps 1964, 1970 and 1976 might give a really good coverage but don't go to too much trouble -  perhaps 1964 for starters as it should include many of the earlier kits that we older modellers remember. No idea how many pages there would be in it or what I at least would like to see - leave it up to you but I would suggest kits that are not in the build list so we know what is missing. Lost count but we may only be 2 behind the Classic Airfix build when Dave puts up the new entries and one or two more may show up soon - Richard might be persuaded to do that Zero or something. If we equal or pass that total I guess you could give yourself a "Pat" on the back! Ok, that's nearly as bad a pun as your Renzan one, speaking of which, how is the Renzan going - decided on the "O" word yet? I would really like to see that one finished as I almost bought it when it came out. I think I would have painted the upper surfaces at least in standard camo colour - all that O*!#+! would be hard on the eyes!

 

Pete

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by PeterB

[stevej60]

Thanks for picking up on the HMS Ivanhoe question folk's I think there's a remarkable similarity of the two molds in fact apart from

the sprue layout they are identical.Now if we are including Hasegawa re-boxes and you feel this kit qualifies let me know and I'll

get the riveter's and platers off the unemployment register and lay the keel😉

[JOCKNEY]

@stevej60

Looks identical to me, I say BUILD IT !

 

[Rabbit Leader]

18 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

@stevej60

Looks identical to me, I say BUILD IT !

I’ll second that, I think you still owe us a few, Steve! 

[JOCKNEY]

Imagine it's 1964, and the new Frog catalogue is out, so let's take a look inside

 

 

 

 

 

Next instalment will be 1965, a much better year as a subtle hint to an alternative GB currently running with @Rabbit Leader

 

cheers Pat

[Rabbit Leader]

1965 - so the Beatles really hit their straps with the release of ‘Help’ and ‘Rubber Soul’, Dylan goes Electric and the TSR-2 gets mercifully scrapped. What else happened in 65 Pat?? 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Rabbit Leader]

O look... a Qantas V-Jet! (excuse the poor quality image). 

 

 

 

[Aardvark]

6 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

These are the Frog catalogues I have below.

 

 

From top left 

1964, 1965, 1966

1968, 1970, 1973

1974, 1975, 1976

 

Let me know what pages you would like to see and from which one !

 

cheers Pat

Impressive!  Need to compare with this:

http://retromodels.ru/frog/catalogues/

But for the complete collection You still need to add this:

http://retromodels.ru/novo/catalogues-novo/

😉

 

B.R.

Serge

 

P.S.  Is castle  building  suitable for this GB?

We can greatly expand the number of Britmodeller users .... but I'm not sure if this modeler can describe the process of building them on the Internet!

😁😁😁

[Andre B]

But...

Where are the Scimitar? 

 

Cheers / André