Revell (Great Britain) Potters Bar and London

[Jeepboy]

I remember the 1/72 Corsair and Mowhawk with opening cockpit, I think the Tempest opened too.  The I-16 was a great kit too but then Revell were so different to Airfix.  As a youngster opening cockpit and moving gun turrets mattered - like the Airfix Anson with retractable undercarriage.  Anyway, I digress, I hope the Revell details surface but in the meantime thanks everyone for reminding me how exciting the "series one" type Revell kits were

[Des]

11 minutes ago, Jeepboy said:

I remember the 1/72 Corsair and Mowhawk with opening cockpit, I think the Tempest opened too. 

I think that maybe most of that series had a sliding canopy option where applicable , the Tempest did have one and I am sure that both the P-51 and P-47 that bought later had them as well.

[wannsee]

5 minutes ago, Jeepboy said:

I remember the 1/72 Corsair and Mowhawk with opening cockpit, I think the Tempest opened too.  The I-16 was a great kit too but then Revell were so different to Airfix.  As a youngster opening cockpit and moving gun turrets mattered - like the Airfix Anson with retractable undercarriage.  Anyway, I digress, I hope the Revell details surface but in the meantime thanks everyone for reminding me how exciting the "series one" type Revell kits were

Thank you for that, I totally agree opening canopy's did matter back then. It was state of the art in those days. For me it was the Brian Knight artwork and the fact you could frame the box tops. I remember my late Father would frame them for me before hanging them on my bedroom wall, My Mother used to complain about having to dust them, for some reason I never hung them from the ceiling, the models that is !

Another odd model was the ME 109 (one of Revells better one's) the canopy opened the correct way, but later releases had a one piece canopy. I also liked the revell instruction sheets and history of the model. The FW190 also was interesting in that the tail had a cross on it rather than the swastika.

Thanks one and all for a trip down memory lane.

I am using this lock down to do some serious work on my book "Merton to Moscow" bringing the Frog story up to date.

 

 

[wannsee]

7 minutes ago, Des said:

I think that maybe most of that series had a sliding canopy option where applicable , the Tempest did have one and I am sure that both the P-51 and P-47 that bought later had them as well.

They did, or at least the early ones did. The P47 was a big beast.

[Des]

After dithering for the past week over will I or wont I nostalgia has won and I have just eBayed  a 1960s Revell H-620 boxing of the Tempest with sliding canopy option rather than the later re-pops with a single piece one and and as the decals are a bit basic if even still usable I have got an Almark set to got with it , just under fifteen pounds total including shipping on the kit and free postage on the decals.     If I make a start as a break from more serious projects when it arrives as I hope it will be the first 1/72 small fighter I have built in yonks although I suppose my brief foray since Christmas with the 1/100 Tamiya kit offer from Hobbycraft has been a bit of a warm up , if successful might even look for more of the series.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Des

[alt-92]

On 4/4/2020 at 8:45 PM, Richard Humm said:

There were quite a few of these, I think. I have the FW 190, I've seen the DH2 and P11C  and know someone who's seen the P-36, I-16 and SE5a. I think these date from the mid-1960s, as the logo is the "Authentic Kit" version which seems to have been dropped around 1968.

You mean like these?

 

 

Got these in a bulk 2nd hand sale this week.

 

[Richard Humm]

On 4/7/2020 at 5:29 PM, alt-92 said:

You mean like these?

 

 

Got these in a bulk 2nd hand sale this week.

 

Those look like they are boxed versions without the boxes, as there are no header cards.

[wannsee]

10 minutes ago, Richard Humm said:

Those look like they are boxed versions without the boxes, as there are no header cards.

Yes I agree, The Fokker DV11 had a crude header card, A lot of Polikarpov's are on Ebay at the moment, but they are boxed

[Richard Humm]

Kingkit has five of the bagged I-16s in stock. Interestingly, the kit has the later logo.

[wannsee]

There seems to be a lot of the MilSlides boxed version at the moment, a quick search on Ebay UK will show a lot of sellers offering them, from £4.99 to £20.00. Just a thought where have they all come from? One seller is showing over ten in stock !

[Des]

Almark decals and the 1963 H-620 Revell (Great Britain) kit of the Tempest arrived today , had forgotten just how small those boxes were and surprised at how clean and how well the parts dry-fit together and all in a nice hard plastic rather than the softer style in vogue these days.

[wannsee]

1 hour ago, Des said:

Almark decals and the 1963 H-620 Revell (Great Britain) kit of the Tempest arrived today , had forgotten just how small those boxes were and surprised at how clean and how well the parts dry-fit together and all in a nice hard plastic rather than the softer style in vogue these days.

And what's more, you can frame the box art 😀

Martin

[stevehnz]

A nice thread this, bringing back some memories. I can recall (50 plus years ago) making two of these early Revell kits, the Hurricane, which was quite basic & no opening canopy from memory & the Wildcat in FAA colours. It certainly had an opening canopy, as well as a removable engine cowl & quite nice (for the day) detailed engine, a P & W R-1830 with odd, widely spaced cylinder banks. A replacement I picked up some years ago (I only have the engine, prop & one wing from the first one) has a correct Wright R-1820 styled engine, and a cracked sliding canopy, the down side of making them sliding, they were quite thin & vulnerable, possibly why they went to one piece, less claims on the parts dept?

Steve.

[wannsee]

On 4/11/2020 at 10:38 PM, stevehnz said:

A nice thread this, bringing back some memories. I can recall (50 plus years ago) making two of these early Revell kits, the Hurricane, which was quite basic & no opening canopy from memory & the Wildcat in FAA colours. It certainly had an opening canopy, as well as a removable engine cowl & quite nice (for the day) detailed engine, a P & W R-1830 with odd, widely spaced cylinder banks. A replacement I picked up some years ago (I only have the engine, prop & one wing from the first one) has a correct Wright R-1820 styled engine, and a cracked sliding canopy, the down side of making them sliding, they were quite thin & vulnerable, possibly why they went to one piece, less claims on the parts dept?

Steve.

I totally agree, Steve. The canopy for the the Wildcat is wafer thin. I just checked my example and can see how easy it would snap. It would be interesting to know how high the demand for spares was. I have a couple of ME109's and the later ones have a one piece canopy. 

[wannsee]

Having had a chance to go through my Revell collection in the last few days, I discovered my Rotodyne (A Revell GB kit) but more interesting was the “stamp” in the box and invitation to join the Master Modellers Club, for the sum of two shillings ( 2/-).

 

That has got me thinking, how many people remember the club? It was very modern thinking by Revell to suggest a consumer panel. Did this ever meet, and were suggestions acted on? I know that a similar club existed in the United States and was successful. 

 

I look forward to your replies……