The History of scale aircraft modelling-Part 1

[wonwinglo]

When we open our latest model kit and check over the detail and finesse we expect today,it is important to remember how scale models first started,in fact scale aeromodelling has been going on for as long as flight itself,both Leonardo Da Vinci and the Wright Brothers built small scale models of their inventions to show proudly show sponsors and those who were interested what their inventions looked like.

But several important landmarks in history have escalated not only the full size flying machine but its tiny model counterpart,and it the latter that we are going to discuss here in detail,as the machine went to war and thousands of aircraft were built for the first world war alone interest was created by those air minded people who looked skyward,so much so that boys comics and magazines of the day had free card cut out models to pull out and build up,out came the old Seccotine adhesive,a pair of mums kitchen scissors and so young ( and not so young!) boys would build their first model aeroplane,some of these early models were also made from reed cane curved under a candle flame and then covered with oiled silk,one of the people responsible for designing and producing these card models was a genius by the name of Wallis Rigby,in his time he produced many thousands of card models and also used them as commercial selling aids to promote many different products,people would send in tokens cut out from the product,send them in to obtain these small models,and so was born the first so called 'Premiums' these are incentives used in industry to promote products.

As aeroplanes became an household name and pilots like Louis Bleriot flew across the English channel,and Alcock & Brown conquered the Atlantic people just wanted to build small replicas of these machines and so the small scale model industry was well and truly born,it was not however until Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic single handed that a mass market was created literally overnight,every school boy and inventor plus the public at large were intrigued by this new found method of transport which could carry people thousands of miles across water ! the spark was well and truly lit and has never died since.Companies all over America & France produced scores of different models of the 'Spirit of St.Louis' Lindbergh's well known Ryan N-Y-P monoplane,models of this machine were virtually made from every conceivable type of material,wood,tin,metal, paper mache and the well established cardboard we have spoken about here !

Next time I will deal with the pulp magazine era that swept America,and with it brought yet another way of promoting the small scale model and the interest that it created,see you soon.

 

[wonwinglo]

Typical card cut out model that would be supplied with boys comics & magazines of the day,in 1930 the first world war battles of the skies were still very much in the minds of the people,the frail biplanes and the heroes did a lot to create interest,and above all for people to start making models of them.

 

[wonwinglo]

The impact that early flying had on the public was immense,the Daily Mail gave large sums of money for aerial meetings like this,flying was here to stay and young boys who would look in wonder as people like Claude Graham White toured the country landing on local commons,in America Samual Cody was also on tour with his wood & fabric biplane,likewise in France there was much development,people wanted to make models of these machines and gradually clubs were formed under organisations such as the Royal Aero club who promoted the sport.The hobby of building scale model aeroplanes worked alongside that of the progress of aviation itself and has refined itself into what we accept today.

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 2,The pulp magazine years.

With the first world war just twelve years gone and the advances in aeroplane construction reaching new levels,the thirties were to become the golden years of flight,all over the world new manufacturers were springing up to produce that elusive perfect airplane,in America flying was reaching fever pitch with ordinary people learning to fly on the Taylor (later to become the famous Piper Cub) Cub,during the thirties some names were to be with us for a long time to come,Lloyd Stearman,Beech,Waco,Porterfield and Fairchild designed and built some of the finest sporting and aerobatic machines of their day.The publishing giants realised the potential and brought out an odd mix of what were termed 'Pulp magazines' produced on self destroying cheap acid based paper these mags have become collectors pieces in themselves,the front part of the magazine would feature both real life and fictional stories written by such stalwarts as Arch Whitehouse,world war one aces battling it out in the skies,superb drawings of machine guns ripping through fabric of early biplanes and triplanes !!,then there was a section typically called 'On the lightplane tarmac' featuring such aircraft as the Aeronca C.3 Flying bathtub with its tiny JAP.99 engine,a section called 'I learned about flying from that' a sort of period primer in aeronautical chance taking,but it was the rear of the mag that held treasures,articles and above all plans of small scale models made from balsa wood,the new wonder material that was both light and strong which grew at an alarming rate in the swamps of Ecuador,these plans coupled with clubs such as the well known 'Flying Aces' club sparked enthusiasm beyond all belief as modellers throughout America reached for their building boards and sharpened up their craft knives,the infectious way that the plans were laid out and the succinct instructions that came with them were here to stay.

A natural progression was to be the advent of many manufacturers producing and selling kits of parts to make up models,the back cover held advertisements for cloud soaring Mr Mulligan racers and balsa solids attractively packed in small brown card boxes,propellers made from tin,wheel pants made from deadly lead and tiny turned wooden wheels and cowlings,a whole new industry was created around a demand never before realised,as the nation became air minded the thirst for new models increased by the week.Back in England things were also about to change and as Uncle Sam actively recruited for its air force and navy elements for darkening skies,second hand copies of the pulp mags such as 'Flying Aces' & 'Model Airplane News' started to emerge on the market stalls of England,and this is where another story has to be told,the next installment will deal with the way that scale aircraft modelling was starting to emerge in a very big way indeed and how one man in particular was about to start building an empire which included a dedicated following of scale model builders.

Part 3 to follow soon !

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 3-The UK scene.

Whilst scale model builders yearned for stocks of difficult to obtain balsa wood in the UK ( It had not yet made it in any quantity yet over the Atlantic in any quantity ), and drooled over scale plans and advertisements for Cleveland aircraft kits in the American pulps,one man in particular was taking note of what was going on,his name was J.J.Halliday and he was busy setting up a business who had a name that was to go into the model making history books,originally marketed under the name 'Givejoy' the company was more well known as the prestigious 'Skybirds' models,within a few months in the nineteen thirties the Skybird league had been set up,this consisted of model clubs scattered the whole length of the country and had its mouthpiece in the form of a several paged newsletter at the rear of the 'Aeromodeller' magazine.Before we go on it is important to mention someone else here who was deeply involved with the Skybirds empire,his name was James.Hays.Stevens a clever young draughtsman who was producing the drawings for Skybirds in his spare time,his talents were recorded in the pages of the period 'Air Stories' magazine,yes another pulp mag with an aeromodelling section at the back like its American counterparts,but this time UK orientated,every month an aircraft type was covered as a three view 1=72 nd scale drawing together with building instructions,these were the same drawings used in the Skybirds kits and were works of art in themselves.

The thing about Skybirds kits was that they were not just crude blanks of wood thrown into a box,but beautifully sanded spindled pieces that were hand strung into flat boxes together with tin propellers,wooden wheels and proper struts with pre-drilled holes into the wood patterns,they set standards in wooden kits that have never been repeated to this day,they could even be purchased by those who really needed them built built up.Sadly as war loomed over Europe Skybirds were in decline and cheaper inferior quality kits with wooden blanks started to appear to fulfill the needs of the enthusiast,that enthusiast model builder was to play an important part in the few years ahead.Meanwhile a new owner took over the Aeromodeller magazine and wanted to start charging the Skybirds league for its pages which were previously a gift to the aeromodelling youth of the country,new management swept clean and wanted money,that money was not available and despite heated discussions no soloution was found,the Skybirds empire sadly died leaving the market wide open.

Part 4 will cover the need for people to recognise aeroplanes in wartime,friend or foe as they said,before you opened fire you needed to know whether it really was a Junkers Ju.88 and not a Blenheim ! and this was where scale models played a big part,see you soon for a bit more nostalgia !

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 4-shooting down the right aircraft !

The lead up to the war years promoted scale aircraft modelling to new heights,every week in the 'Flight' & 'Aeroplane' magazines a new aircraft would be described,usually very little was known of some of these machines and a hastily prepared silhouette was shown,the Luftwaffe in particular as we know were gearing up their fleets of aircraft to frightening levels,Dornier's,Junkers 88's and Heinkels were being stockpiled ready for action,the layman could hardly tell which aircraft was which ? and to this end Penguin books published a small recognition handbook,which sold in its thousands,the problem was that when an enemy aircraft approached the coast and with the sheer number of British aircraft training by day they quickly infiltrated and got to their target at very low level,usually munitions factories and other important sites were targeted and it was vital to track these aircraft and if possible shoot them down with AA fire as they dodged between the balloons strategically strung around the country.

The government acted quickly to establish factory roof spotters,these spotters would man the roof and hopefully positively identify oncoming aircraft and report them together with the ROC ( Royal Observer Corps ) usually they were some of the factory workers themselves and their skills were dependent on how good they were at recognising quickly an aircraft type to determine whether it was one of ours or not ! many mistakes had been made with the Junkers Ju.88 and the Bristol Blenheim,and oddly enough the Focke Wulf 190 and the Hawker Typhoon at certain critical angles.Above all the building of wooden aircraft models was actively encouraged and people would gather around Salamander heaters in squadrons and units carving away at what were termed 'Solid' models,these models took many forms,they could be built from commercial kits which supposedly were only available to members of the forces,also plans were published in magazines from which to build them,accessories such as tin propellers,cast lead cowlings,pot wheels were also available in model supply stores.The Air Ministry also commissioned companies such as 'Skyleader' and pattern making shops and furniture manufacturers to make black painted recognition models ( like the one above from my collection of a Fairey Albacore biplane ) all these were basic accurate shapes of the aircraft ( or ship for that matter,made by Bassette Lowke ) that could be hung from the roof nissan huts together with silouette recognition charts pinned to the walls alongside the inevitable pin-ups ! all of this frenetic activity was serious stuff and the importance of these models which were the tools,were to play an important part for those involved in identifying aircraft not only quickly but with great accuracy.One magazine/paper that appeared was to be the 'Aeroplane Spotter' a newspaper like publication which kept people up to date with what was likely to be seen in our skies,it was full of silhouettes,drawings and dimensions to keep everyone up to date.

As the war years thankfully draw to a close the seeds had been sown for many people as they became interested in looking at aircraft as an hobby,this is where the aircraft spotters of today first originated,it is all part of our social history.

Part 5 will deal with the immediate post war period and how scale modelling developed in peacetime,hope that you are enjoying these stories about our hobby and how it gradually developed through circumstance.

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 5-The post war period

Scale models had done a good job of getting more people interested in modelling,and also fulfilled a very useful purpose in making the identifying of aeroplanes & ships in a fun way during the war torn years of Europe,as the Lancasters,B-17 Flying Fortress & Liberators were smelted down into making peacetime saucepans,people enjoyed their new found freedom.

The wooden solids were by now well established although understandably sales did go into decline as people just wanted to forget the trauma of war and the machines that went with it,many companies went into decline including Skybirds which struggled on until 1945,but around this period a new type of model kit was starting to emerge,the roots of which would change scale modelling forever,Frog ( Stands for flying,rise off ground ) introduced some de-luxe and expensive kits of parts made from a form of celluloid,these were to be the breakthrough into what we now know today as plastic kits,but the celluloid mouldings had many drawbacks one of which they used to warp very bady,for this reason not many survive to this day and I d not have a single example in my collection ! the models were difficult to assemble especially on the thin edges of the celluloid which had to be stuck with a special adhesive.

The ordinary solid kits plodded on but in all fairness never changed much or developed into anything more sophisticated than the crude chunks of timber,in fact in some ways they went downhill and the quality declined and varied from one manufacturer to another.Veron had a range called 'Truescale' which included the early jets such as Supermarine Swift,Supermarine Attacker,Mig 15,F-86 Sabre,De Havilland Comet airliner etc these included small plastic wheels and a supply of thin ply for the undercarriage doors,nice clear cockpit mouldings as well.Down in Wickford in Essex the long established Keil Kraft company were making a similar product line to supplement their famous flying model kits.

It was to be America where the first breakthrough was to happen,a company called Monogram,started to add small plastic mouldings to their wooden model kits,I have an example of a Mig 15 which has a plastic nose button,undercarriage legs and other tricky to make fittings,a sort of combo kit,it also featured a nicely made spindled fuselage but again chunks of badly sawn wood for the basis to make the wings,finesse in one respect but back to the dinosaur in another,it was to be another 5 years before something happened that changed things forever,so here meanwhile are two questions ? What was the very first injection moulded plastic kit ever to be made in the UK ? and which model was to be the very first in a range that still exists today ? if you happen to have either of these then they are worth a lot of money.

 

[Kiwi]

Airfix's first model ever was a Ferguson tractor! (why??)I had one, moulded in grey plastic, with rubber tyres, and remember the whole engine cover which tilted forward "just like the real thing"

 

[wonwinglo]

Airfix's first model ever was a Ferguson tractor! (why??)I had one' date=' moulded in grey plastic, with rubber tyres, and remember the whole engine cover which tilted forward "just like the real thing"[/quote']*** If you still have that tactor she is worth a lot of money,more about this product and how it originated in the next installment.

 

[Kiwi]

I'm not well up on tractors but I think the fergie was a model TEA.(we used them as aircraft tugs, easy to get them wheel spinning with a fully bombed up Canberra in tow on a wet tarmac)

The first plastic aircraft I can remember was the Linderg F-94 Starfire, about 8 pieces plus the stand, no u/c, raised markings and two little balls moulded for the pilots heads and about 1/48 scale.

 

[wonwinglo]

The Lindbergh Starfire was an early model kit but not the first,dont forget we are talking about the first to appear in the UK I am not sure about Australia ? both Lindbergh,Hawk etc started to infiltrate the model distributors world wide in the fifties with some good models made from tough plastics,some of which was difficult to glue with conventional adhesives at that time.

By the way the Lindbergh F-94 kit was revamped later to include undercarriage,co-incidently this kit was made from the original Lincoln International moulding,but that is yet another story that we will cover some other time !

 

[Kiwi]

Australia!! What are you implying. Australia is the island 1200 mile off the coast of my fair land. As a country, Australia only has one geographical disadvantage - it's above sea level!

 

[wonwinglo]

Australia!! What are you implying. Australia is the island 1200 mile off the coast of my fair land. As a country' date=' Australia only has one geographical disadvantage - it's above sea level![/quote']*** Sorry Kiwi,what made me say Australia ? you live in a beautiful part of the world,a friend has just returned fron a trip to New Zealand visiting air museums.

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 6-A major breakthrough.

During the nineteen fifties a company called 'Kleeware' were producing domestic items plus a few toys in the United Kingdom,they had somehow obtained the moulds for a model of the Bell 47G skeletal boomed helicopter from America and produced it for the UK market,this appeared long before Airfix had even thought of marketing kits and was to make history as the very first injection moulded plastic kit to appear in the UK.(Note: the only other mouldings to appear just after the war were celluloid Frog Penguin's but these were entirely different in concept)

The model shown here which is a treasured part of my collection and amazingly survived all of these years despite several repaints ! only the side stretchers are missing which plugged over the undercarriage supports,the rotor head was a piece of steel and the whole thing came packaged in a rather spartan looking white & blue card box,despite its apparent crudeness it can lay claim to being a pioneer and must be looked at in the light of the day that it was made.

The Aeromodeller reported it straight away giving instructions on how to convert it to take two Jetex 50 motors lashed to a new set of rotors ! sheer sacrilage in my opinion and I wonder how many were destroyed in this way ? as the plastic would not stand up to any hard landings,the idea was no doubt a copy of the twin engined balsa model helicopter model marketed by Wilmot Mansiour who marketed the well known Jetex motors and kits of the day.

In a few years time from this a small injection moulding company based at Haldane Place in London were to change the whole concept of kits with a small model tractor contracted by a large manufacturer for publicity purposes.

Part 7 will deal with this story in detail.

 

[wonwinglo]

We have the dreaded 'X' again but it should appear soon as the server cycles,for those wishing to view the picture of the Kleeware Bell 47 go here- http://www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/id45.htm

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 7-Haldane place.

How did Airfix a small plastic bucket manufacturer from Haldane Place,London get involved with model kits ? well in the fifties the tractor and agricultural manufacturers Massey Ferguson wanted some small models of their tractors to give away to clients,they contacted a plastic products manufacturer called Airfix who had some state of the art injection moulding equipment at their factory,their main business was supplying thousands of plastic buckets and other domestic equipment to F.W.Woolworths branches nationwide,at great speed they had the patterns made and supplied the tractors to M.F who were delighted,Airfix must have come to some agreement with Massey Ferguson as the small grey tractor models were placed into plastic bags with a paper header and sold them through Woolworths,the models sold out very quickly and the company realised that there was a market out there for kits that sold at the right price ie 2/- two old shillings ! it is said that Airfix took the moulds for their next model from an example marketed by Aurora of the Supermarine Spitfire,this model which had very thin wings with no aerofoil section was a non-descript mark of this famous aircraft built to 1=72nd scale,Airfix acquired huge stocks of pale blue plastic and injected millions of mouldings for this kit,Woolworhs set up special counters in their chain of shops and the model was a knock out from day one,quickly following were a Gloster Gladiator,Supermarine S.6B seaplane,Westland Sikorsky S-55 helicopter,Bristol Fighter,Sopwith Pup,R.E.8 and some small galleon kits plus some vintage cars to add to the range,as the months went on twin engined aircraft were added to the range Me.110,Bristol Beaufighter etc and then the long awaited Avro Lancaster was announced at a retail price of 7/6 seven shillinmgs and sixpence,however it never appeared on time and there were cries of broken moulds and manufacturing problems with this ambitious project for its day,but it did appear and was very quickly snapped up by modellers everywhere who wanted to add a Lancaster to their collections,this model was a revelation and feat of small scale mould making not known at that time,Airfix's success was due to the right product,at the right price and at the right time,in doing so they went onto becoming the largest manufacturer of model kits anywhere supplying up until that time only F.W.Woolworths,things were about to change however as no contracts to make Woolworths exclusive retailers of these kits were renewed,and kits were starting to appear in ordinary model shops everywhere as demand and sales increased twofold.The company expanded to new heights with a new factory quickly appearing to meet the demand as the range grew huge as the American market was targeted with respective kits for subjects for that country emerging,they did however make mistakes as the choice of a Fairey Rotadyne as a kit subject proved a failure,the brunt of the costs of production being taken by more popular subjects such as the constant demand for models of the Spitfire which was completely remoulded with new tooling that demanded a more accurate representation of a Spitfire.

The rest of this story is history itself and the outcome would fill a seperate book alone,but without doubt the company succeeded in making scale models available to the masses and to which a lot of modelling pleasure was derived,the eagerly awaited model of the TSR.2 will be released by Airfix this year 2005,they have come a long way since that small blue Spitfire kit that we all remember so well.

Part 8 will consolidate some of the subjects that we have covered here in this small piece of history in the making.

 

[wonwinglo]

The History of scale aircraft modelling-Part 8

Having covered the basic history we can now look a little deeper into some of the success stories,when kits & models first came out the scales were just all over the place,America favoured the larger 1=36th scale which made for large impressive models,so how did the popular 1=72nd scale we know of today originate ? well it was easy,James.Hay.Stevens just halved the scale and came up with the magic figure ! although the trend today is to build larger models mainly to incorporate the necessary scale detail demanded 1=72nd has dominated the scale scene for many years,people only have so much space and the desire to build up a collection whereby the models can be compared in size was also on the minds of the designer,so there we have it.

Although the contents of this set look well worn which they are,the kit of a Skybirds Westland Lysander is very rare,Skybirds were the inspiration of J.J.Halliday who introduced a range of models which went under the name of 'Givejoy' these were later marketed as the famous 'Skybirds' model kits.The kits had wooden carved and spindled parts,metal struts and fittings such as lead undercarriage spats in the case of the Lysander kit which was introduced around 1942,quite a late example of a Skybird and the only one in my collection.

Note that the plans were a blueprint,incidently the drawings were done by James.Hay.Stevens who as a schoolboy, Halliday realised his talents and paid him to produce the excellent plans,at the same time Stevens was having his drawings published in a pulp magazine called 'Air Stories' which had a special section at the rear for model makers,to go with the drawings was a complete article on how to build each model,this was further enhanced with beautifully executed pen and ink drawings,James.Hay.Stevens was later to become a respected author and aviation consultant in his own right doing articles on French aviation in the fifties and later owning his own fleet of vintage aircraft which included a DH.84 Dragon,Moth Minor,Leopard Moth,Percival Proctor and a Coupe version of the Tiger Moth,these aircraft were operated by a company called 'Chrisair' from Sywell airfield.

Skybirds also ran a thriving network of clubs scattered the length and breadth of the British Isles,the voicepiece for the club was in the back of the Aeromodeller magazine,the pages being supplied for free until new management stepped in and imposed a charge for same,this was not taken too kindly and as a result the clubs and Skybirds suffered gradually going into oblivion.

The thing which Skybirds did was to pre shape the parts which appealed to many people,you could even purchase models built up and painted for a considerable price above that of the basic sets which were beautifully strung into flat cardboard boxes like the one shown above.

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 9

By direct contrast here is a selection of wartime wooden solid kits,note the wooden parts roughly cut to shape on a bandsaw,paint and glue were included together with in this case pot ( clay ) engine nacelles,stamped tinb propellers and turned wooden wheels,until plastic kits came onto the scene this is how you built your models,the basics were provided but you added the finishing touches.

The B-17 Flying Fortress is an Airyda kit and the Dornier 215 & short nosed Bristol Blenheim are made by a company called Airyda,We are looking here at a piece of aeromodelling history here that has survived.

It is hard to believe that once this is all that we had to build from,never before as today did we have the resources to produce such beautiful scale models given the parts and tools available.

The temptation has been there to build up some of these old kits however if I want to build one then I simply reproduce the parts from the plans in order to keep them in their original state,its fun and above all it reminds me of the way that we used to do things not that long ago.

The next part will illustrate some wartime accessories that showed great ingenuity.

 

[wonwinglo]

The history of scale aircraft modelling-Part 9-Accessories in wartime

The ingenuity of the manufacturers to produce small scale parts from unusual materials in wartime was by circumstance,valuable metals and other raw materials were banned for toys and model manufacture so re-constituted early plastics known as Bakelite & beetle plastics were sometimes used,the cowlings in the above photograph were made from a clay substance,the tin cowlings are a work of art in themselves.To go with the kits clear plastic mouldings for canopies were produced in their thousands for those who did not have the skills to carve solid canopies from scrap aircraft perspex and polish them up with metal polish,ingenuity was the key word in the wartime conditions of make & mend as the air raid sirens wailed and you donned your gas mask.

The historical selection above is representative of what was available in the local model shop if they had any stock left ? it is interesting to compare these products with those produced today by the cottage industry that backs up the model kit companies with conversion add-ons and parts with greater detail.

Part 10 will deal with the kits produced post war as we went into the jet age.

 

[wonwinglo]

History of scale aircraft modelling-Part 10-Into the jet age.

Whilst the fifties saw some interesting developments as the jet age gained momentum,and the Farnborough air show showed the progress with this form of flight,unfortunately model kits were still suffering from the lack of sophistication due to the clinging onto blocks of sawn wood as their wartime counterpart ! illustrated above are these last kits produced in this way before plastic models came along Veron superscale headed by Phil Smith with his Bournemouth based company produced these models en masse,band sawn timber with plastic wheels and small canopies made on simple moulds and a piece of thin ply for the undercarriage doors.

The kits carried on right up until the Airfix revolution and then sales dropped dramatically and they became history overnight.

So there you have it,what will the next generation of models produce ? well my prophecy is that tougher new materials will emerge,even now resin moulded models are being produced in large quantities from RTV moulds mostly at the moment by cottage industries,Corgi do the ready built metal diecast models,not quite scale modelling but obviously there must be a demand,will self assembly metal kits emerge ? yes I think that they will,these will be the future kits that you trim up with a file and stick with araldite or cyno,it has just got to happen,so one day someone else will be telling the story from here onwards,meanwhile I will continue like many others to enjoy the vast range of scale models that we have at out disposal,they will keep me going for a bit !