Percival Proctor, civil adaptation of vintage Air Lines (Frog, Novo) 1/72 kit

[AdrianMF]

That sounds like a really pretty scheme. When I was reading up on the Proctor IV/V I did come across some really nice civilian schemes but I am currently on a yellow trainers theme so that made my choice.

 

Looking forward to seeing your colours go on.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[stevehnz]

Wow. Arthur's Bradshaw's aircraft. When Bradshaw returned to New Zealand, 1950s from memory he flew his family out here in the Proctor, all the way to Australia, where Aussie bureaucracy put the mockers on their flight across the Tasman. He was eventually allowed to continue solo with his family making the crossing by commercial airliner. The Kiwi Wanderer was based at Nelson Airport, my home airpirt, for many years, I recall seeing it quite a few times. His biography "Flying by Bradshaw" is a good read & worth tracking down if you haven't already @Moa, I'll be watching closely, this one has long been on my to do list.

Steve.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, stevehnz said:

Wow. Arthur's Bradshaw's aircraft. When Bradshaw returned to New Zealand, 1950s from memory he flew his family out here in the Proctor, all the way to Australia, where Aussie bureaucracy put the mockers on their flight across the Tasman. He was eventually allowed to continue solo with his family making the crossing by commercial airliner. The Kiwi Wanderer was based at Nelson Airport, my home airpirt, for many years, I recall seeing it quite a few times. His biography "Flying by Bradshaw" is a good read & worth tracking down if you haven't already @Moa, I'll be watching closely, this one has long been on my to do list.

Steve.

Interesting coincidence.

I read the story where I found the images, at The Aviation Forum.

The plane started its civil life as Skytravel, from whom Bradshaw bought it, then once in NZ changed the reg to ZK-AVW.

Most likely you saw the plane as it was later in life, with a slightly different paint scheme.

I was not aware of the bio, will see if I find it.

Cheers

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Since no aftermarket masks set seem to be available, I used generic ones:

 

Choosing the bits that fitted:

 

And filling the spaces with liquid mask:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

This plane had a number of antennas, so those are prepared from brass Strutz, ceramic wire, and a part from the spares that was the right size:

 

Two discharges that go underneath the cowl seen in photos are fabricated and hollowed:

 

The kit's Pitot is replaced with a more to scale scratched item:

 

 A white primer coat is applied before painting:

[Bigglesof266]

Thanks for the memory. At what looking back was arguably the zenith of my plastic kit model building childhood immediately before the teenage years when girls and pop music held greater sway over my time and subsequent activities, I built this kit in 1967.

 

The local suburban hobby shops didn't stock Frog, but perchance as luck would have it, my mum was in town and happenstanced upon an aisle bin stall of Frog model kits being remaindered at low prices in a major department store. I scored big time by ad hoc parental gifting standards of the day. Frog branded, it came in a box at a time when Airfix kits of similar status came with a paper header in a bag. I remember being both chuffed with the gift and disappointed at the same time that it wasn't something both more familiar and warlike, but liked the fact that it was different and British. Like the Miles Master III also scored along with half a dozen others, the Frog subject choices made a refreshing change from Airifx's then predominant line of safe bet sellers. e.g. Camel, Dr.1, Spitfire, Hurricane, P-51, P-47, P-40, Bf 109, Zero etc. It was only the year afterwards that the Airfix range started on their more adventurous excursion into less familiar -back then, types. i.e. Hs 123, Blenheim IV, Hs 129, Pe-2, Fw 189, et al, although due to international distribution protocols, the general pace of the day exacerbated by importation by sea of an era before the introduction of the B-747 (1969 for you youngsters =) , we generally didn't see new releases trickle through to local availability on shelves for another year or longer after their initial release and availability in the UK. As I recall, I first sighted those latter four Airfix kits on my local hobby shop display sometime in 1970, hardly able to contain my excitement and awe! By then I could afford Series 2 occasionally with income from my after school paper run, and in due course, added all four to my collection before my modelling days gave way to the lure of newer now attainable adventures of control-line model building and flying and a couple of years later, gliding. 

 

If I recall accurately, I think Frog also did the Magister which I have a vague recollection I also scored in the haul, along with a Dewoitine D.520C which I certainly remember along with the Hotspur II glider at the time. I also well remember feeling dejected all the German types were gone from the bin along with the twins like Frog's much lusted after by me Bristol Beaufort, the Whitley and Ju 88. For reasons unknown however, the Percival Proctor remains particularly prominent in my memory. 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

29 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

Percival Proctor remains particularly prominent in my memory. 

 

@Bigglesof266

This is a wonderful trip down memory lane, a rich and well woven tapestry of memories.

thanks for sharing them.
 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

36 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

much lusted after by me Bristol Beaufort

Regarding the Beaufort, be very careful what you wish for!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Imported goods are traditionally extremely expensive in many South American economies, most of times.

For me to have a kit it had to be my birthday or another special occasion. I could only dream of having paints or even the most basic tools, so I had to do with my grandma's scissors and my grandpa's shaving blade. No sandpaper.

A craft glue bought at the local neighborhood school supplies store is what I used.

It all ended at about 12. Then I went the same way you did (many here do): free flight balsa planes, lots of them, then u-control, radio control. For decades. Only occasionally would I buy and build, as an adult, a plastic kit. 

About 16 years ago I started back on plastic kits in parallel with flying models. I basically abandoned flying models, given that for a urban dweller here in the States is almost impossible to have a good experience doing that. Too crowded, fields too far away, and a bureaucracy unheard of in earlier times. It completely and utterly took the fan out of it.

So now 1/72 is the way of dreaming.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

56 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

adventures of control-line model building and flying and a couple of years later, gliding. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bigglesof266]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Regarding the Beaufort, be very careful what you wish for!

Haha! 😁 That was early 1967. I was either 11 or had just turned 12. The day of the internet critic was a long way off, buying and building plastic models was then the domain of kids, and if I was happy playing with with Airfix's rivet ridden Fortress and Wellington moulded in 'orrible brittle black plastic of the day, just how bad could the Frog Beaufort have been? Simpler times and pleasures. I could lament that it's a shame age has to change that if you permit it.

 

Although I appreciate greater scale accuracy and detail now along with larger scale benefiting it, I do prefer it moulded in as much as is possible, and outside the cockpit. I don't do aftermarket resin generally unless it's in the box, and although I have in the past, I avoid excessive sheets of piddling PE parts which drives me nuts. Particularly the stuff inside the fuselage, cockpit, wheel bays or nacelles which ends up effectively hidden in any hands off display or unappreciated by presbyopia afflicted eyes from more than three feet away.

We're all very spoilt today. I have somehow over the past decade managed to accumulate a stash that realisation occurred a couple of years ago now well exceeds STABLE. How did that happen?!!!! 🙄

 

[Bigglesof266]

2 hours ago, Moa said:

It all ended at about 12. Then I went the same way you did (many here do): free flight balsa planes, lots of them, then u-control, radio control. For decades. Only occasionally would I buy and build, as an adult, a plastic kit. 

About 16 years ago I started back on plastic kits in parallel with flying models. I basically abandoned flying models, given that for a urban dweller here in the States is almost impossible to have a good experience doing that. Too crowded, fields too far away, and a bureaucracy unheard of in earlier times. It completely and utterly took the fan out of it. So now 1/72 is the way of dreaming.

Grew up in AU here. I think this was pretty much de rigueur in most parts of the world except the wealthy US back in the day. Although materially affluent in comparison with previous generations and particularly the UK's austerity era kids, the age of rampant materialism where expensive things are bestowed in lieu of what today is labeled 'parenting' wasn't yet upon us. We all made do with the basics, a tube of polystyrene glue that built a dozen or more models, one brush, industrial turps to thin and clean, and not being able to afford a tin of every paint colour from the then relatively simplified camouflage and decoration instruction sheets, characteristically printed in greyscale.  

 

Possibly a bit older than you, much as I am tempted from time to time, I have stopped buying kits due to the realisation of STABLE mentioned in a preceding post. My preferred scale up until about 30 years ago, I also avoid 1/72 now most of the time, although it still gets a look in with larger multi types, e.g. Stirling, Sunderland, Lancaster, Whitley and obsessed over exceptions. e.g. He 219, Bf 110. 

 

Great R/C memories you have in your photos there.  I flew R/C for decades too. Still have a Spektrum DX9 and couple of operational sport electric sailplanes (Pilot Turmeric and Thunder Tiger Soaring Star) which I can fly silently locally without drawing attention to myself or folk understandably getting their noses out of joint over the noise.  I have IC too, but I like you, CBF with the travelling to and from field locations any more. Similarly the long drive, expense, energy, effort and commitment required to continue flying full size sailplanes recreationally any more. Been there done that for many many years, I recognise that the proverbial season and time of that for me has passed. 

Edited July 6, 2019 by Bigglesof266
spelling correction

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

39 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

e.g. He 219, Bf 110. 

Oh, well, nobody is perfect. Sigh...

41 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

Still have a Spektrum DX9 and couple of operational sport electric sailplanes

Same here, still some flying condition stuff

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

43 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

I have stopped buying kits

I have about 100.

But I build like crazy. Enough I think for a few years.

I scratchbuild too, so can go with that.

I still buy things to support civil releases by manufacturers, because I complain a lot that they don't do it as much as they release boom-boom machines.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

46 minutes ago, Bigglesof266 said:

Possibly a bit older than you

I doubt it.

The years spent here with the current goverment count as 100 per calendar year.

[Bigglesof266]

I suspect that effect is a currently a worldwide phenomenon we've all been experiencing in recent years Moa.

 

Upon reflection looking at those photos and sighting that venerable TX at your feet, perhaps you are older, and probably still with more hair!👍 ....or were perhaps just richer! 😁 No. I 'fess I was late to the R/C party. I did control-line, then went gliding, along came full time work which with persistence, eventuated into a professional aviation career which left little time for anything else for many, many years, and only later came back to R/C when it was apparent I needed something to distract me from the all consuming mistress professional aviation is.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Bigglesof266 said:

sighting that venerable TX at your feet, perhaps you are older, and probably still with more hair!👍 ....or were perhaps just richer! 

Not richer surely, I used to build models for others in order to finance my hobby. I still have hair, but it is, like the glaciers, receding at a fast pace. It makes me angry.

[Bigglesof266]

Was looking around for images of my R/C stuff Moa, but they're either on other disks, hard copy in a box somewhere I'd need to search for & scan, and the models are currently stored (operational) and stowed (decommissioned -until required again) in the roof space. I located some C/L images on my stale Photobucket account, but will have to download them and re-upload them to Flickr as 'free' Photobucket is a BOS now with their huge watermark defacing the linked image. The images might jog pleasing memories for you, as you seem to be from a similar era.

 

Although a more accomplished R/C pilot than C/L pilot, I've always enjoyed flying C/L more. It's just more fun assessed by my #grin factor rating. My particular love in that discipline is and has always been for C/L combat since I first encountered it aged about 16 back in the days you turned up for an event with a single model. Back in the day AU was still very Commonwealth orientated and influence of 'the mother country' predominated, thus available magazines, imports, rules and the TBR diesel motored whale tail models e.g. Warlord, Liquidator were what we read, bought, or scratch built and flew, from an (usually) "The Aeromodeller" lift out plan - or bought from their mail order plans service or LHS if you were flush, borrowed if you weren't. Although it didn't prevent us from using a mix of US designs e.g. Splinter and glow plug engines to which the designs were orientated. After a career hiatus, I returned to C/L in 1989 through the mid '90s for a time concurrently with R/C. By then C/L combat F2D had moved on to the Russian influenced designs fitted with 30+k RPM purposed Nelson or button head glow motors. Too old for contemporary FAI F2D now though. The aged reflexes won't cope. It's just too fast. It's vintage with diesel TBRs which is challenging enough, or a locally run event called slow for me, but with my diverse interests and age, there's only so much time compromised by the tyranny of distance to a suitable field and factors we previously mentioned, so model flying is triaged a very occasional affair for me now. And in this day and age, I'm no longer willing to make a 20 litre drum purchase nor jump through the three act play of police checks and associated silliness to do so even before the odious job of handling and decanting it.  With activity in having dwindled to the odd nostalgic few even in major cities, obtaining a few litres of ether for a diesel brew isn't easy, storing it for any time even more of a challenge given its molecular activity and current commercially available containers for decanting it into. DII is a bit easier to procure, and storage isn't an issue.

 

I'll post the image links in a short while once I've uploaded them.

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

3 hours ago, Bigglesof266 said:

Was looking around for images of my R/C stuff Moa, but they're either on other disks, hard copy in a box somewhere I'd need to search for & scan, and the models are currently stored (operational) and stowed (decommissioned -until required again) in the roof space. I located some C/L images on my stale Photobucket account, but will have to download them and re-upload them to Flickr as 'free' Photobucket is a BOS now with their huge watermark defacing the linked image. The images might jog pleasing memories for you, as you seem to be from a similar era.

 

Although a more accomplished R/C pilot than C/L pilot, I've always enjoyed flying C/L more. It's just more fun assessed by my #grin factor rating. My particular love in that discipline is and has always been for C/L combat since I first encountered it aged about 16 back in the days you turned up for an event with a single model. Back in the day AU was still very Commonwealth orientated and influence of 'the mother country' predominated, thus available magazines, imports, rules and the TBR diesel motored whale tail models e.g. Warlord, Liquidator were what we read, bought, or scratch built and flew, from an (usually) "The Aeromodeller" lift out plan - or bought from their mail order plans service or LHS if you were flush, borrowed if you weren't. Although it didn't prevent us from using a mix of US designs e.g. Splinter and glow plug engines to which the designs were orientated. After a career hiatus, I returned to C/L in 1989 through the mid '90s for a time concurrently with R/C. By then C/L combat F2D had moved on to the Russian influenced designs fitted with 30+k RPM purposed Nelson or button head glow motors. Too old for contemporary FAI F2D now though. The aged reflexes won't cope. It's just too fast. It's vintage with diesel TBRs which is challenging enough, or a locally run event called slow for me, but with my diverse interests and age, there's only so much time compromised by the tyranny of distance to a suitable field and factors we previously mentioned, so model flying is triaged a very occasional affair for me now. And in this day and age, I'm no longer willing to make a 20 litre drum purchase nor jump through the three act play of police checks and associated silliness to do so even before the odious job of handling and decanting it.  With activity in having dwindled to the odd nostalgic few even in major cities, obtaining a few litres of ether for a diesel brew isn't easy, storing it for any time even more of a challenge given its molecular activity and current commercially available containers for decanting it into. DII is a bit easier to procure, and storage isn't an issue.

 

I'll post the image links in a short while once I've uploaded them.

 

 

 

 

 

I raise you an U-control Dynajet 😉

It was so fortunate we could never get it to run properly. It would have probably drag all of us to outer space, handle, lines and all.

 

I did very little U-control, certainly not combat or any fancy acrobatics. I would get dizzy after a couple minutes.

Besides RC, I did a lot of free-flight (A-1, 1/2A, scale rubber, sport rubber, even microfilm indoors).

But when things started to get expensive or sophisticated, I would go do something else.

A few years ago I went to a club to fly RC locally (slope soaring, which I love). I don't think even a couple of club members would know how to build a model, or why a model would fly or not. The only thing most knew was how to buy stuff, the bigger, the more expensive, the better. Sad.

My car then, a Citroen 2CV, make 1958, in the background

 

 

[Alejandro Martinez Colombres]

Hi Moa. I am a silent follower of your job. Intrigued about the place you show not those  old photos. Tucumán, may  be?

Cheers

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, Alejandro Martinez Colombres said:

Hi Moa. I am a silent follower of your job. Intrigued about the place you show not those  old photos. Tucumán, may  be?

Cheers

 

Yes, Alejandro, it is! (How you got to find out is a mystery).

Don't tell anybody here (). I have many secret identities and they have already guessed a couple of those.

Fortunately they will never know what Tucumán is or where it is.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, Alejandro Martinez Colombres said:

Hi Moa. I am a silent follower of your job. Intrigued about the place you show not those  old photos. Tucumán, may  be?

Cheers

 

My older son, Jeremías, also a modeler (an agricultural engineer and now brewer) lives in Córdoba too, in Rio Ceballos.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

After some touch-ups, a coat of gloss white follows, in preparation for the aluminium Alclad:

 

Indispensable accessories:

[Alejandro Martinez Colombres]

13 minutes ago, Moa said:

After some touch-ups, a coat of gloss white follows, in preparation for the aluminium Alclad:

 

Indispensable accessories:

Mmhh. Mate with medialuna? With tortilla May be, but...

 

[Alejandro Martinez Colombres]

2 hours ago, Moa said:

Yes, Alejandro, it is! (How you got to find out is a mystery).

Don't tell anybody here (). I have many secret identities and they have already guessed a couple of those.

Fortunately they will never know what Tucumán is or where it is.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

I knew about your origins . I also knew that your son used  to live in Yerba Buena if I am not wrong. But didn’t know about him living now in Cordoba.

Cheers.