John Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 My existing builds are coming along nicely, except for the Wildcat that's managed to get itself embargoed in a building I can't get access to just at the moment, so it seems like a good time to indulge in a bit more nostalgia. In this case it's a revisiting of the first Hasegawa kit I ever built, the Fuji T-1A jet trainer. Over on Rafwaffe's Hasegawa Spitfire thread there's some discussion on the former Scottish newsagents chain John Menzies. Calling them newsagents is selling them short, in the 1970s and 80s they also sold books, records, stationery, toys, art supplies and loads of other things. Every Scottish high street had its branch and there were shops or kiosks in railway stations and bigger bus stations. Their flagship store in Princes Street in Edinburgh was a must-visit location on every trip to the big city and getting a Menzies gift certificate for a birthday or Christmas was an event to savour. From the middle of the 1970s they also got into kits in a big way. Even their smaller branches had a reasonable selection while Princes Street had a huge model section. My local branch was a 2 story building right beside Falkirk bus station. Kits and records were up the stairs while everything else was on the the ground floor. The shop was at my end of the town centre so I would often go in on my way home from the town to get a can of Irn Bru to keep me company on the way home. I remember on one occasion going in for a look at the magazine rack and spotting what was obviously a model A-10 on a red background. Curiosity aroused, I bought my first ever copy of Scale Models magazine. They were early stockists of Hasegawa kits. I remember seeing this unfamiliar brand among the usual stock and thinking it was quite exotic. I know I chose between the Fuji and the He-51 for my first investment and, given my ingrained caution about biplanes, bought the jet. Very nice it was too. It reminded me of a 2-seat F-86 and it was certainly colourful. A nice introduction to one of the giants of the hobby. I did eventually get the He-51 as well. Menzies also had a big newspaper wholesale business and, a bit incongruously, an airport services business. In the early 1990s they decided to concentrate on their logistics and airport services activities and sold their retail division to W H Smith. The T-1A seems to be a bit of a rarity these days but I recently saw one on Ebay for a reasonable price and decided to invest. I think it's a slightly later boxing than my original. I'm looking forward to renewing the acquaintance. John 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Great to see something a bit different being built here John. The T-1 is a nice looking aircraft, as you say very much like a 2 seat Sabre, and the JASDF have finished them in some nice schemes over the years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Lovely - a great looking aeroplane and a nice little kit. Looking forward to seeing some mega-masking going on here with all that red and white, even a bit a dayglo orange perhaps? I remember getting my first Scale Models - it was a left over at my newsagents, that someone had ordered and didn't want. June 1974, still got it and Steve Archibald's build of the David Bowie figure in there is still amazing. 😀 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 (edited) Hi John, Like you I first came across Hasegawa kits (excluding the Frog reboxings of course) in the early 1970's, and I saw both the Fuji and the He 51 in a model shop in Chester and was tempted. However in those days I was sticking pretty much to WWI, WWII and UK/US/USSR jets so I did not bother. Since then I have thought a few times about the 51 - might get one yet. We did not have a Menzies in Bradford, but WH Smith did have a small selection of kits. They also had book sales once or twice a year where you could pick up £3 books for 3/6 - still have quite a few of them. Speaking of books I picked up a few Ian Allan warship books in Menzies in Edinburgh on a day trip in around 1974, together with some kits from the shop on the Royal Mile - happy days! I will look forward to seeing this kit come together. Cheers Pete Edited June 28, 2020 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxbat Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Ahhh, Menzies. They had a big store by the Monument in Newcastle. I remember the climb up the dingy back stairs to the 'interesting' departments. Can't recall very much about the models they had, except I picked up a Revell Kawasaki Mach III in a sale and never finished it. Don't think I've ever completed a bike kit to this day. Hope your build ends better than my wee nostalgia trip Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Looking forward to the t-1a build john, thanks for another great nostalgic journey in the intro 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 3 hours ago, Foxbat said: Ahhh, Menzies. They had a big store by the Monument in Newcastle. I remember the climb up the dingy back stairs to the 'interesting' departments. Can't recall very much about the models they had, except I picked up a Revell Kawasaki Mach III in a sale and never finished it. Don't think I've ever completed a bike kit to this day. Hope your build ends better than my wee nostalgia trip Andy I never knew that the Menzies empire stretched that far into the deep south 😱 I think there was a branch in Berwick upon Tweed, right enough. 11 hours ago, PeterB said: Hi John, Like you I first came across Hasegawa kits (excluding the Frog reboxings of course) in the early 1970's, and I saw both the Fuji and the He 51 in a model shop in Chester and was tempted. However in those days I was sticking pretty much to WWI, WWII and UK/US/USSR jets so I did not bother. Since then I have thought a few times about the 51 - might get one yet. We did not have a Menzies in Bradford, but WH Smith did have a small selection of kits. They also had book sales once or twice a year where you could pick up £3 books for 3/6 - still have quite a few of them. Speaking of books I picked up a few Ian Allan warship books in Menzies in Edinburgh on a day trip in around 1974, together with some kits from the shop on the Royal Mile - happy days! I will look forward to seeing this kit come together. Cheers Pete I think the ancient Hasegawa kit is still the only He-51 in 1/72 scale even all these years later. They did the float plane as well, if I remember correctly. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Hi John, They went much further south than that - we had one here in Pontypridd 12 miles north of Cardiff for around 10 years. Yes Hasegawa did and maybe still do both land and floatplane versions but I think I saw another make in 1/72 on e-Bay as well - ICM I believe. Cheers Pete 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Yes ICM released a 1/72 He-51 a few years ago, we even have a 1/48 one now from Roden. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 8 hours ago, PeterB said: Hi John, They went much further south than that - we had one here in Pontypridd 12 miles north of Cardiff for around 10 years. Yes Hasegawa did and maybe still do both land and floatplane versions but I think I saw another make in 1/72 on e-Bay as well - ICM I believe. Cheers Pete That's interesting, thanks. I didn't know they had encroached on W H Smith territory to any significant degree. Certainly W H Smith were pretty much anonymous up here while Menzies were in the retail business. I don't think I've seen the ICM kit, I'll keep an eye out for it. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Humm Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 There was a John Menzies in Walthamstow from the late 1960s (as far back as I can remember) until about twenty years ago when the shopping arcade it was in was demolished. I don't reember them ever having model kits, though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Glad to see this turn up John I've seen them go for give away prices on e-bay and should really take the plunge.Now John Menzies were my source of Mad magazine back in the late seventies then I used to buy a good few Ian Allan special's when one caught my eye but by the early eighties when I started to buy the popular model magazines they'd gone and W H Smith replaced them(at least in Sunderland where I worked).Hasegawa never featured much in my "kidhood" the first ever kit I bought of theirs was a Skywarrior which was on a trip to the model shop in Newcastle which would have been around 75 or 76 I always remember as I was "persuaded" to by a book on the subject by the guy in the shop which cost more than the kit! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 OK, leaving aside UK retail history for the moment, this has turned up: I think this is probably the boxing I had, but with an A A Hales logo below the title. I doubt if I'll be using the glue: John 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 44 minutes ago, John said: with an A A Hales logo below the title. Theres a blast from the past! I well remember the Hales logo and thought that they were their kits when I was a kid, built a lot of their boxed dinosaurs at one point before moving onto planes and tanks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 This should be good - will be interesting to see how it compares with the Airfix Kittyhawk that came out around the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 7, 2020 Author Share Posted July 7, 2020 15 hours ago, Jinxman said: This should be good - will be interesting to see how it compares with the Airfix Kittyhawk that came out around the same time. It's a very neat little kit. Looking at the instruction sheets available on Scalemates, Hasegawa did a retool at some point and added more detail to the cockpit and areas of the airframe. This one is the original unmodified tooling which more than holds its own with kits of the era. The surface detail is by far the finest of any kit I've built so far in this GB, with the Airacobra probably coming second. This early boxing also misses out on the elaborate colour schemes the type carried during its career, it only has the early overall white with orange extremities scheme. I see there's also a Platz kit these days. Tempted...😁 John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 These always reminded me of the two seat TF-86 Trainer. https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/451296-tf-86f-sabre-transonic-trainer/ I wonder if someone saw one and decided to make a similar design ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 7 hours ago, John said: I see there's also a Platz kit these days. Tempted... Having seen the Platz kit in the flesh so to speak I can say that it is light years ahead of the old Hasegawa kit, it really does look very nice indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 8 hours ago, John said: I see there's also a Platz kit these days. Tempted...😁 Very tempting - I've got one and they are very nice kits indeed. Slightly overstated panel lines if anything, and amazing decal sheets with all the stencilling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 This really is an attractive little jet. It clearly has some F-86 ancestry but it's not the same. British engine, for one thing: The build is OOB and the only cockpit detail will be the crew. So far the only paintwork is Humbrol 27 on the inside. I needed the merest hint of filler on the nose and on the hump behind the cockpit but the fit is very nice so far. John 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 Thats taken shape very nicely John, she really is an attractive aircraft isn't she. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 Looking good - does it come with pilots? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 3 hours ago, Jinxman said: Looking good - does it come with pilots? It does, I'm throwing some paint at them just now: John 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 Nice to see the JASDF pilots sporting trendy orange flight suits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 Just needs the canopy attached and masked then it's off for a coat of white paint: John 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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