Old Model Kits :: Plastic model info and howtos

The History of Marusan – the First Japanese Plastic Model Kit Manufacturer

By Alan Bussie

In the USA, Revell, Monogram and Aurora are synonymous with early modeling. However, the name Marusan is equally well known in Japan as the pioneer plastic kit manufacturer. The history of Marusan is not well known outside Japan. I am indebted to John Burns, numerous KCCers and Marusan for this information – without them, this article would not have been possible.

Early History
Marusan’s roots are deep in Japanese toy history. In 1923, Naokichi Ishida founded Ishida Manufacturing. The factory was located in the Asakusa area of Tokyo, which was well known for toy production. Ishida produced toy binoculars and telescopes for the domestic market. Business was good until the late 1930s when raw materials shortages and World War II brought non-necessary production to a stand-still in Japan. Immediately after WWII, toy production was encouraged as a way to economic growth. Metal stamping equipment was plentiful, and the flow of metals resumed as the country rebuilt.

The difficulties of post war production quickly became evident. In many large manufacturing cities, transportation beyond walking or bicycling did not exist and most large factories were heavily damaged or destroyed. As a result, many companies did not even assemble or finish their goods. Stamping and wood cutting would be done centrally, and painting and assembly would be sub-contracted out. Not surprisingly, this subcontracting was primarily done in residential homes. The factory would deliver the raw materials to the home, and the working members of the family would paint and assemble toys. The completed toys would be picked up and returned to the factory for boxing and distribution. It was in this challenging environment that Naokichi’s sons, Haruyasu and Minoru Ishida, with their business partner Yasuo Arai, founded Marusan in 1947. The brothers had been raised around toy manufacturing and understood the business. Initially they produced what they knew best, optical toys, and sold them wholesale only. They quickly branched out into other tin toys as well. Marusan marketed their good through several names and logos through the years, but the initial logo was based on the name itself- “Maru” means circle, and “San” means three, which refers to the three original founders in 1947.

Marusan Logo

The early success of the company lead to the formal incorporation as Marusan Shoten Ltd in 1950. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit History

How to Repair Clear Parts on Plastic Model Kits

By Mace R. Abrams

Editors Note: I first saw Mace’s work through photographs but quickly realized that I seen it before - in big screen movies. Mace is a professional model builder/supervisor/rigger at Stageco and has honed his techniques in the high pressure field of motion picture development. His technique for cleaning up clear injection molded parts work great, and he was kind enough to write and article and take sample pictures. I have found it very useful and I hope that you do too - Alan Bussie

As your skill in model building grows, you begin to choose more advanced model kits. In these advanced subjects you will frequently encounter additional clear plastic pieces such as fuselage, cowls and walls or hulls. For example, there are several kits of military submarines that have clear sections of hull so you can see the interior compartments and deck levels. There is also the famous Monogram Visible B-17 and the LS Ki-109 with all clear fuselage and cowls.

No matter how careful you are in your construction, accidents do happen. Suddenly the transparent hull pieces or windows get clouded or scared from glue on your fingers or by a masked area lifting up while airbrushing. In fact, I made the “boo-boo of all time” by thinking that I could clear a transparent hull section as I clear coated the entire model. Now what do I do? The entire submarine interior that I worked so carefully to detail was now obscured by a fogged opaque hull half!

Sample Damaged Clear Part

After thinking about the problem, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit How To's

How To Build Vacuform Model Kits

Many customers have written emails asking how to build vacuform kits. My skills in this area are lacking - which is a nice way of saying that I have ruined most of the vac kits that I have started. But I noticed several customers - like David Miller - who purchased vacuforms repeatedly. I asked, and he sent me photos of his completed models. They are incredible! He was kind enough to write this article. I hope you find it as educational and enjoyable as I do. Alan Bussie

By Dave Miller

“Significant modeling skill is required to build vacuform kit. Not recommended for beginners.”

This statement is contained in the description of many vacuform models offered through Old Model Kits (www.Oldmodelkits.com). It is intended to inform potential buyers that a vacuform kit is substantially different from the injection-molded kits offered by major brands such as Airfix, Revell, Tamiya, Hasegawa and Monogram. Generally, major brand injection molded kits have detailed instructions, painting guides, good to excellent part fit, and require minimal preparation prior to painting. Vacuform kits may also share some of these characteristics, but generally do pose their own unique challenges. Having said this, however, building a vacuform kit gives one an opportunity to develop some new modeling skills. If you’ve built several injection-molded kits, then you may already have experience with filling seams, re-scribing panel lines and adding aftermarket or scratch-built details to models. These same skills are needed when building a vacuform model. Most importantly, with some care, a beautiful and unique model can be built from a vacuform kit.

1/72 B-32 Dominator
(Click photo to enlarge)

Probably the chief reason that builders contemplate the purchase of a vacuform model is that the subject is not available in Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit How To's

Early Plastic Model Kit Development in the USA

Editors Note: every once in a while you run across someone with exceptional knowledge in a certain field. During an email exchange about older kits, I asked Dave if he would mind writing an article about early kits in the US. Dave’s knowledge has been an education to me, and I hope that you enjoy it as well. Alan Bussie

By Dave Fischer

Who made the first plastic model kit in the USA? One of these three companies- Varney, Hawk or Empire- was the first. A later company, O-lin, was significant in early production. We will probably never have an accurate view of the pioneer or the earliest history of the plastic model industry in the U.S. because there was no one innovation that could be described as a starting point. Ideas merged and evolved and eventually came to appear as progress.

The plastic model was not a new idea. In 1934 Dick and Phil Mates, founders of the Hawk Model Company, displayed and sold finished (not kits) plastic models at the re-run of the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair. In the mid to late 1930s and into World War II, FROG in England had made 1/72 plastic kits cast in acetate plastic and usually including some metal parts. At that time in the U.S., plastic casting was expediting the production of many items necessary to fighting the war, including constant-scale aircraft identification models. These models were originally made of wood, each hand-crafted in high school and trade school workshops across the country. These ID models were distributed in great numbers to training and operational bases world-wide. Casting the models in plastic produced larger quantities in less time and with greater uniformity in appearance. Several companies that marketed balsa models before the war were asked to produce ID models in plastic, Hawk Models among them. The Mates brothers quickly adapted casting technology beyond their war production, creating generic propellers for their famous line of solid wood models.

Gordon Varney produced wood and metal model railroad equipment before the war and may have been another business drafted into wartime production. In 1944 Varney produced a wood, cardstock and metal PT boat kit that featured detail parts cast in tenite, an injection molded acetate most often used for tool handles and control knobs of all sorts. At the end of the war, Varney introduced an LST model in the same mixed materials.

First issue Varney mixed-media LST kit @ 1944

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Posted in Plastic Model Kit History

The Elusive Revell Electra…will it ever return?

Editors Note: I came across this article tucked inside an old Revell Electra kit. It tells the history of one of Revell’s rare and more desirable model kits as well as shedding light on mold modification. The photos have been added. I do not know the original publication source, although it may have been an IPMS magazine. Enjoy - Alan Bussie

By Lloyd Jones

The first issue of the Electra, the “S” kit H255-98 from 1957

When Lockheed unveiled their model 188 Turboprop Electra airliner, it was heralded as America’s entry into the jet age and was certainly destined to be an aviation classic. Among those enticed by Lockheed’s promotion was Revell, Inc. of Venice, California, a small company which was known to dabble in plastic models on occasion. With boundless enthusiasm plus the blessings of Lockheed and American Airlines, Revell set about producing a 1/x scale model of the fabled Electra.

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Posted in Plastic Model Kit History

The Life of a Plastic Model Kit Designer By Bruce P. Byerly

Editors Note: The appearance of the great AMT XB-70, F7F Tigercat and XB-35 Flying Wing kits was always a surprise to me. They seemed to appear from nowhere – from a company that almost exclusively made car models. Many years later I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Bruce Byerly, the designer of these and numerous other kits. He has been kind enough to write his bio and it is my pleasure to print it. Model designers are where it all starts – and Ihope that this story adds as much to your depth and appreciation of the modeling art as it has mine. AB

I’ve not written this story to brag, not by any means. I’ve had a very wonderful life because of models and you fellow modelers. I thank GOD everyday for the road I’ve traveled. I’ve gone through a lot of would’ve, could’ve, should’ves, but when I do, I look back on all the adventures I’ve had. I’ve been very lucky and blessed.

Beginnings

I was born very young, I’ve been told. It’s been said I saw the first light of day with a hobby knife in my hand. I truly don’t remember.

My father had been a fighter pilot in World War II flying PT-17s, Corsairs and Hellcats, so I was born with a love of aircraft. My Dad got me started building models when I was about 5. One day he brought home an airplane kit and some glue and we jumped in. He saw that I showed an interest, so he took a chance I could build a model and wouldn’t cut my finger off. There were no “snap-together” kits back then but most kits were pretty basic. My first kit was a disaster…the canopy had enough gluey fingerprints on it that you couldn’t really tell what it was. My skills soon improved as I recall a Revell box-scale B-52 that didn’t turn out half bad. The joy of having all these winged things around the house took hold deep inside me and I was hooked. My best friend Gary and I would take weekly trips down to our Ben Franklin store to see if anything new had come in. We grew our thumbnails long so we could slice open the taped boxes, revealing the goodies inside…always careful that ‘ol man Penner didn’t catch us. We’d look inside and if the clear parts were decent, the rest of the kit would be. We had standards, you see.

Revell Box Scale B-52

I remember many a shopping trip to Cedar Rapids, the next biggest town from ours. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit History, Uncategorized

How to build Resin Model Airplane Kits-Resin 101

Article and Photographs by Ken Friend

Some time ago I was asked to build a few models for display at the 2008 IPMS Nationals. The first of those was an Anigrand Mirage 4000, and while building the kit I thought back to the time when I built my first resin kit and of the changes in modeling techniques I had to adopt and/or develop. Other modelers I talk with are sometimes reluctant to build a resin kit, simply because they “don’t know what they don’t know” about building kits made of this different kind of plastic. I realized the Mirage would be a great beginner’s kit that could help new resin modelers get over their resin anxiety and open their collections to rare, one-of-a-kind, and unusual aircraft. First, a little history of just what the Mirage 4000 is all about:

HISTORY

The Mirage 4000 was a French prototype jet fighter aircraft developed by Dassault-Breguet from their Mirage 2000. The new aircraft was noticeably bigger and heavier, being fitted with two (SNECMA M53-2) turbofans, rather than the single engine found on the Mirage 2000. It also featured small canards above the engine air intakes. Despite the changes the two aircraft remain similar, sharing the delta wing design, semi-circular air intakes and general configuration.

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Posted in Plastic Model Kit How To's, Uncategorized

More on Using or Restoring Old Decals

• Introduction
• How are decals made?
• How can old decals fail?
• Common problems and solutions
• Making new decals

Introduction
With fewer molds being run by fewer manufactures, many modelers are turning to the older kits to find desirable subject matter. The plastic usually ages well, but the decals can become troublesome. Most decals were not designed to last and time and environment can take their toll. Luckily, many highly experienced builders and collectors have been willing to share their hard-earned knowledge on saving old decals. I would specifically like to thank Jim Allen, Ken Friend and Larry Johnson for their contributions.

How are decals made?
Decal paper then and now is composed of a thin, strong paper with a thin clear film and water-release adhesive. The vast majority of decals from time immemorial were silk-screened. Silk-screening utilizes different screens for each color starting with the lightest and finishing with the black. The major reason for misalignment was always the backing paper which would begin to expand with each color. The rapid improvement of screening materials, backing papers and inks bring us the great decals we enjoy today which are still silk-screened.

Commercial Silk-Screen Printing Press

The wax-based toner printer ALPS is used by some specialty decal providers but the technology has been discontinued by Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit How To's

A Pigeon Called Doolittle

By Jan R. Bussie

As much as any nine year old boy could, I loved the seemingly endless days of summer fun while living at Koontz Lake. The sad days of the war years were coming to an end and there was a marked improvement in the post-war economic outlook. The war effort had kindled an interest in world military aircraft, and savvy manufacturers like “Bild-A-Set” in Chicago, with their ace designer Joe Ott, saw a profit potential in model airplanes and began producing kits. These kits were very expensive so my brothers and I began collecting a war plane glider series that came in every box of a popular breakfast cereal.

Joe Ott “Bild-A-Set” P-51 box and contents

These models consisted of a thin sheet of cardboard about nine inches square. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit History

Modeling in a Vacuum

by Jan R. Bussie

As a young boy I was fascinated by the WW2 war news coming out of Europe. The bravery of the bombers and fast fighters pilots made them my heroes both then and now. In an effort to emulate these men I would fly my balsa glider in my backyard and pretend to be a dashing British pilot flying the silvery Spitfire fighter that dominated the skies over London and the English Channel. My favorite targets were the “Buzz Bombs”, Bf-109s, and the slow Stuka dive-bombers. I would often try to scratch-build a model of an airplane, but I did not possess the materials, skill or knowledge to do so.

The first years of my life were spent living in a remote lake community in northern Indiana called Koontz Lake. The lake and surrounding area covered tens of thousands of acres, and was thinly populated by no more than 250 hearty souls year round. During my many hunting and fishing outings I can remember going for days on end without seeing any one other than my immediate family.

Even after the war our solitude was destined to remain unbroken for many years due lack of newspapers, telephones, or reliable transportation. Our most important link to the outside world was via short wave radio…and later on for me, ‘Model Airplane News’ magazine.

Early to mid 1950’s Model Airplane News Magazines

Every summer I would travel to LaGrange, Indiana to visit my Grandmother for two weeks. During one such visit Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Plastic Model Kit History