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The very special PBY from vintage Scale Modeler magazine


KRK4m

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Some 40 years ago a late friend of mine was regularly receiving the US Scale Modeler monthly. For the teenagers (from behind the iron curtain) we were those days these magazines were like the Holy Grail. Till today I remember the cover pictures of more than 200 issues I have read between 1966 and 1981 (when martial law in Poland cut off the supply of US-edited magazines).

A few years ago my friend passed away and his widow simply thrown out all his books and magazines (happily the great model collection he made has been bought by the Polish Aviation Museum and thus saved) and today I'm unable to verify my memory condition... Looking into my notes from the 70s I have found that some PBY was featured in the July 1969 issue of Scale Modeler, but I'm not sure, whether this was THE one I need and whether they were other Catalinas featured in other Scale Modeler issues. So I'm looking for your help :)

First - can anybody of you confirm that a PBY Catalina featured in July 1969 (Vol. 4 Issue 7) Scale Modeler is the camouflaged VP-22 (or VP-101) specimen that fought over NEI in January 1942 ?

Second - can anybody of you outline me the contents of the SM issues that are missing in my notes? There are few of them:

  • June 1976 (Vol.11 iss.6),
  • November 1976 (Vol.11 iss.11),
  • December 1976 (Vol.11 iss.12),
  • May 1977 (Vol.12 iss.5),
  • February 1978 (Vol.13 iss.2),
  • March 1979 (Vol.14 iss.3)
  • January 1981 (Vol.16 iss.1).

Any help will be warmly appreciated. And the specimen itself looks worth of very ineteresting debate for many of us here.

Cheers

Michael 

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I have everything except the January '81. I missed most of the year.

 

Finding the list of magazines was easy. The hard part will be digging through the bottom of the closet, to find the right box of old magazines. Give me a few days, please.

 

 

Chris

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Greetings KRK4m, Wow, blast from the past!  In the late 60's and early 70's I was a contributor to 'Scale Modeler' magazine.  Under my name of Mike Wightman I was a freelance builder, writer and reviewer of aircraft model kits.  Things were a lot simpler in those days and reference (accurate or otherwise) was not easy to come by.  I/we never envisaged how far these magazines were dispersed let alone behind the 'Iron Curtain'!  I looked in the back issues that I still have and I'm afraid I don't have vol.4 no.7.  I can remember a cover with a camouflaged PBY on it from about that time, but can't confirm what issue it was.  I even looked in some of the later issues because they sometimes advertised available back issues for sale.  I'm sure one of our brilliant britmodellers will jump in with detail you need.  Just an amusing aside, 'Scale Modeller' and 'Air Classics' were published by 'Challenge Publications' to legitimise the company and as a tax write off because there core business was pornography!  By the way, I was in Krakow just 3 months ago.  All I can say is what a fantastic city you live in!  We loved it.  Wonderful people and gorgeous sights to see.  I must have just missed you on our walkabouts!  Good luck,  Mikey W.

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21 hours ago, Mikey W said:

 I looked in the back issues that I still have and I'm afraid I don't have vol.4 no.7.  I can remember a cover with a camouflaged PBY on it from about that time, but can't confirm what issue it was.  I even looked in some of the later issues because they sometimes advertised available back issues for sale. [...] 

 

[...] By the way, I was in Krakow just 3 months ago.  All I can say is what a fantastic city you live in!  We loved it.  Wonderful people and gorgeous sights to see.  I must have just missed you on our walkabouts! 

Good luck,  Mikey W.

In my mind there was also something like a camouflaged PBY on the cover, but thanks to Scalemates and @dogsbody now I must say I was wrong. The only PBY featuring article is the one in Vol.4 issue 7 (July 1969) SM with red Macchi MC.72 racing floatplane on the cover. The question remains whether this very article features the VP-22 camouflaged PBY-5...

 

Thank you for these nice words about Krakow. I hope you had enough time to visit the oldest/largest/best historic aircraft collection in Poland. If not - be in touch with me before your next visit there. It would be the honor for me to be your guide at the Polish Aviation Museum.

Cheers

Michael

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