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Morse Code in a Wimpy?


Uncle Pete

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Maybe it's just something I never noticed in an Airfix kit before and I have no others in the stash (couple of Revells and Tamiyas but no Airfix) to check so I'm bringing this to the more experienced members for perusal.  (And I didn't know which forum to put this in so WW2 aircraft seemed a reasonable option).

 

I'm working on the new Wimpy that came out last year and happened to notice some dots inside both upper wing halves.  On closer inspection they turned out to be dots and dashes.  I don't know Morse Code from a hole in the ground but I know what it looks like and this looked like Morse Code.

Wimpy Morse

 

So I asked Mr Google.

 

Mr Google said, "UAEHSAGOT"

 

Not very helpful.

 

I turned it over...

 

"TOWNSHEND"

 

Why the devil would they do that?  Peter Townshend springs immediately to mind but I don't associate either of them with Wimpys... One I associate with Lancs and Princess Margaret and the other I associate with Wembley Stadium and burst eardrums.

 

What gives?  Is Townshend one of Airfix's design crew?

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24 minutes ago, Work In Progress said:

Yes. Sam Townshend. 

Cool... Thanks.  👍 Now I have to call him the spawn of Satan, though, as I try to get the engine nacelles to go together.  The kit so far has been reasonably user-friendly and a good fit but those nacelles are looking a bit naughty. :headbang:

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I suggested the use of Morse in rivet lines in drawings and on models as a guard against piracy more years ago than I can remember, with the dash represented by closer spaced rivets.     *  **  **  ** /  **  **  ** /  * * * **  / ** *  after Mike Keep used to put a false panel line on some of his drawings. I believe that Gordon Stevens also had his own way.

 

Play it again Sam.

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1 hour ago, Ossington said:

So someone named Townsend was involved with mould production and wanted a subtle way to be imortalised. A bit like how production staff at vinyl record manufacturers would scratch their name onto the shiny bit at the end of the grooves?  

That "someone" is the designer of the kit. He also did the 1/24 Typhoon. And his name is Townshend, not Townsend.

Edited by Work In Progress
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I'm sure I have a Damned album with Peter Jones's voice on the run-out. (He of the radio version of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, circa 1977-78ish) saying "Nibbled to death by an okapi" on repeat. Machine Gun Etiquette? Sorry for the thread drift.

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21 hours ago, John Aero said:

I suggested the use of Morse in rivet lines in drawings and on models as a guard against piracy more years ago than I can remember, with the dash represented by closer spaced rivets.     *  **  **  ** /  **  **  ** /  * * * **  / ** *  after Mike Keep used to put a false panel line on some of his drawings. I believe that Gordon Stevens also had his own way.

 

Play it again Sam.

You may not have been the first to come up with the idea - after Aurora copied a couple of early Hawk kits in the early 1950s, Hawk are supposed to have included "Hawk" in morse code in the rivets of their kits, according to Thomas Graham's book about Aurora.

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Thank you, I hadn't come across this before. nor the Aurora book. I had my Miles Messenger vac copied in resin and the perpetrator, even used the instruction sheet exploded drawing, but they crudely painted out the the lower wing and tailplane halves with correction fluid.

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The Aurora/Hawk incident is covered a few paragraphs into this history of Aurora.

https://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/plastic-model-kit-history/a-brief-history-of-aurora-plastic-model-kits/

Basically Aurora did pretty much flat out copy a couple of Hawk kits, which prompted the 'Hawk' Morse code to appear in future Hawk releases rivet detail. There was a good deal of bad blood at the time, but the two companies were apparently able to joke about it later on. I'm not condoning it by any means, but it does appear to be a common way to start your model company, by copying someone else's work. Academy got their start by mostly copying Tamiya more recently, and are still 'persona non grata' in some Japanese modeling circles because of it, even though they have been doing their own thing for quite a while now. 

Edited by Asmodai
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On 12/10/2019 at 7:57 AM, Ossington said:

A bit like how production staff at vinyl record manufacturers would scratch their name onto the shiny bit at the end of the grooves?  

 

On 12/10/2019 at 8:14 AM, bhouse said:

I used to work with Porky...

 

20 hours ago, lasermonkey said:

He's become a bit of a legend.

Fascinating.  Despite growing up with a father in the music game (regular player/arranger/conductor and sometimes-minor-producer at EMI, BBC and Thames TV among others)) and going into it myself in 1969 till I retired in 2009 (admittedly at a much lower level... my pinnacle was music director on cruise ships) I'd never heard of Porky or the graffiti on runout grooves.  (I had noticed odd scratchings in that area of records but thought nothing of it).  Thanks for the "thread drift"!

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Airfix got their big start by scaling down the Aurora Spitfire.  In the UK, it is believed that Academy began by copying from Frog kits, rather than Tamiya.  Avenger, Wildcat, Tomahawk, Ventura.  I recall one batch of East European kits that were fairly blatant copies of Hasegawa subjects - a Bf.109 in particular.

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