Operation Thunderstorm

In 1945 the US Congress gave $250,000 to the US Weather Bureau to study violent weather, particularly thunderstorms.  In Phase I, the main base for this study was Pinecastle Field, Florida.  It took three months to get the microwave towers and all the test equipment in place. The first flights were made over Orlando by nine specially rigged P-61C aircraft fitted with weather instrumentation and recording devices.  As soon as a storm was detected, the aircraft were dispatched at 5,000 foot intervals up to 25,000 feet.

Phase II of the Operation was conducted at Clinton County Army Air Field in Ohio.  The equipment reached this field in February of 1947.  On this occasion, there were 13 P-61Cs, plus four variants sent by Northrop including two production F-15A’s, the XF-15, and the XF-15A.  Quite a line-up!  Also included was a P-61B sent to TWA for weather testing.  All aircraft got plenty of flight hours and took numerous lightning strikes and hail hits; many of them had Plexiglas nose damage. 

The Operation was suspended in late 1947, with the University of Chicago responsible for assimilating all the data and information.  These results contributed greatly to the knowledge of extreme weather flying and civil aviation safety.

P-61C Decal Search

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Many thanks to Carlton Shanks, John Burns and all the KCCers for their extensive research and documentation

Pyro is unique in plastic models because the subjects for kits were not selected by popularity.  Pyro was a very successful company without model kits.  Since the production of molds was subsidized by other profit centers, Pyro did not feel the extreme financial pressure that Revell and Monogram did.  The later had to produce kits that would sell immediately and in quantity so they could make loan payments and recoup their tooling expenses.

We do not know how Pyro chose their kits; perhaps Bill even had input into the process!  All we really know is that subjects were chosen based on historical significance and not sales potential.  That is why Pyro kit subjects are so unique and in so many cases are the only kit very made (or even envisioned) of such a subject.

 It appears that Pyro used popular reference books and sometimes existing wooden kits in the design process.  This was not an unusual industry practice.  As Pyro started making more detailed kits for more advanced modelers, they began to study the actual subjects when available – especially for automobile kits.  This yielded some excellent models for that time.

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I would like to thank artist and friend Michael Boss.  Without his research this article would not be possible.  Please note that any photos without credits are from the internet.  If you did not receive credit or any of these photos are copyrighted, please contact me for credit or removal.  Thank you-AB

Introduction 

Pyro is not the most famous of the US plastic model companies.  Die-hard collectors know the name well, but even fewer are aware that Pyro’s founder, William Lester, was an entrepreneur, innovator and inventor who actually invented injection molding as we know it today.  This completely revolutionized American plastics manufacturing, making plastic kits and the entire modern plastic industry possible.

Modern Injection Molding Machine (courtesy Western Kentucky Plastics)

Biography

Bill’s father was born in 1884 in Minsk, Russia and immigrated in 1905.  Bill’s mother, Mrs. Gussie Lester, was also born in Russia in 1884.  The elder Lester owned one of the leading die-cast companies in the USA based in Cleveland and also made die-casting machines. 

William Morris Lester was born in Brooklyn, New York on Jan. 14, 1908. He attended Brooklyn public schools and graduated high school in Worchester, Mass in 1904.  His father’s business impacted him early; William was still in school when he started designing molds and casting machines.  After high school he enrolled in Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  He graduated in 1928 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an extensive background experience in die casting machine and mold design.

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My sincere thanks to Art Cox.  Without him this biography would not have been possible.

Box artwork is a major part of model kit collecting.  In many cases, the illustration is more important that the contents!  The most colorful and desirable kits are from 1953 to the early 1960s, which is the ‘Golden Age’ of model art.  During this time, easy-to-assemble kits with dramatic box tops swept aside all pastimes and became the #1 hobby of teenage boys in America until the 1970s.

Jim and Aurora’s longest continuously used box art - the classic Fokker D-VII from 1956

Model kits were not always popular and colorful.  From 1910 to the 1930s, boxes were usually very plain, stating the company name and perhaps a simply drawn scene in one color.  By the 1930s, producers of wood and tissue flying kits were creating hobby empires, and packaging took on more color but still lacked flair.

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By OTTO EGER

Editor’s Introduction: Thousands of model airplane builders have for years used balsa wood with infinite skill and cleverness! Yet few know any more about it, other than it comes from South America. Therefore, we have asked Mr. Eger, our tropical wood expert to write the article which follow:

Well, to start with, up to this date, as far as I know, there is no literature on the Balsa Tree.  The few descriptions that have appeared in this country regarding it are short and in many instances contradictory. It has been my privilege to observe and study the flora of the tropics for a quarter of a century, and the balsa tree, due to its peculiarities, has attracted my attention especially. Thanks to these special studies, I have been called upon to manage a balsa plantation, the only plantation of this kind of tree in the world, where I had the opportunity of planting, cultivating and logging the balsa tree for a number of years.

In the following I give to our readers a condensed description of this wonderful tree, which I know will be of great interest to builders of Megow models.

The Balsa Tree belongs to the Bomacaceae (Linné), and its Latin name is Ochroma. There exist many species of Ochroma, of which the following are known to me:

• Ochroma limonensis, found in Costa Rica and Panama.
• Ochroma lagopus, found in Cuba, Jamaica and the other Antilles.
• Ochroma concolor, found in Guatemala and Honduras.
• Ochroma velutina, found on the Pacific coast of Central America.
• Ochroma tomentosa, found on the upper Magdalena River, Colombia.
• Ochroma obtusa, found on the lower Magdalena River, Colombia, and finally
• Ochroma grandifolia, found in the Republic of Ecuador.

This last mentioned species interests us most, as almost 100 percent of all balsa shipped to the United States is exported from Ecuador. The reason for the predilection of Ecuadorian balsa is found in its finer texture, white color and extreme lightness of weight.

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Who was the marketing savant who decided to put “pain” in a kid’s toy’s name?

Does Barbie drive a Pain Ferrari? Would the Great Garloo have sold better if Ideal had called him The Big Green Pain Demon? Has Wham-O made a fortune over the last fifty years selling Pain Hoops?

Aurora’s Original Monster Scenes Pain Parlor from the early 1970s

The answer to the last three questions is a resounding no, but Aurora’s creative minds (more…)

For the last seventeen years, model kit aficionados have seen a steady stream of superb replicas of Aurora Plastics’ iconic styrene monsters, from warhorses like the Frankenstein Monster to heretofore un-reissued rarities like Dracula’s Dragster. But one of Aurora’s 1/8th scale beauties has been passed over without fail whenever reissuing time rolled around: Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde.

Why is the good doctor never returned to hobby store shelves? Did that flask that Dr. Jekyll’s chugging spook parental watchdogs into thinking that it would inspire impressionable young chemists to poison themselves with some unspeakable brew? Where’s the logic here? Why has this kit been out of the legitimate kit market for over thirty years?

Moebius Models reissue of the classic Aurora Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde

“No one did it earlier as they said it wouldn’t sell,” says Frank Winspur, president of Moebius Models. “At Polar Lights, they thought it wouldn’t sell enough to make it break even.” Larger kit manufacturers, he says, “felt it was a crappy kit, hard to build, and no one remembered it with any fondness! Crazy stuff, in my opinion!” (more…)

Please note that this interview with Paul Schilola took place in 2008.  Ultratumba ceased production in 2009. - Alan Bussie

Over two decades after his death, the delightfully lurid cinematic monstrosities of creature creator (creaturist?) Paul Blaisdell remain perennially popular. Rather than lumbering, shambling, or fluttering around dive-bombing victims as they did in their original movie habitats, they generally sit stock-still these days… In effigy, that is, courtesy of Ultratumba Productions.

Ultratumba is releasing a series of 50s and 60s-era movie monster models that have, among other things, resurrected Blaisdell’s monstrous menagerie—creatures like “Beulah” the Venusian from It Conquered the World, and the titular BEM from Invasion of the Saucermen with its head like a bundle of vines from a freshly-picked pumpkin patch with a hideous trademark Blaisdell scowl.

Author George Clayton Johnson once told me that “Pulp never dies,” and that’s uniquely true of unique pulp. And nowhere has pulp been more unique or lovingly rendered than with Blaisdell’s monsters. Bizarre, bulbous, bug-eyed, scaly, or all spines and crackly surfaces, they remain a lasting tribute to Blaisdell’s furious imagination. They are 30s “Amazing Stories” covers sprung to life.

Ultratumba’s Angry Red Spider Resin Kit

At first glance, they might appear ridiculous. One modern horror director and movie aficionado (more…)

Editors Notes - During the Golden Age of model aviation (1930s-1940s), the wood and tissue flying model aircraft was king. As rubber power yielded to gas in the mid 1930s, model aircraft design became more and more critical. The basics were well known, but gas power added numerous complications. The now-much-heavier aircraft needed to climb steeply in a stable fashion during the short but powerful motor run. During the rush for maximum altitude, it had to withstand the forces of the higher relative winds and the vibrations of the engine. When the engine stopped, the plane was required to suddenly fly level and and display a stable, high glide ratio flight pattern - one suitable for catching thermals. The men who could create successful designs from scratch were among the few, and there names are well known - Walt Good, Carl Goldberg, Joe Koval and Henry Struck, just to name a few. Now, thanks to Diane, we have the history of the creator of the Kansas City Terror. Alan Bussie

Thomas Lamar Wardlaw, Jr. was born in Columbia, South Carolina March 28, 1915. His father got him started on airplanes when he was about 6 years old and so from an early age he was interested in aviation. By the time he was 11 years (1926) old he was building his own flying models. This soon became a passion for model airplanes and he was building them and also teaching others. While still living in Columbia he had a model airplane camp group where he taught young boys to build models.

T.L. Wardlaw, Jr. standing center, with the boys club

As a young man he enrolled at the Parrish Flying Service. He studied there from July 1934 and received his wings in February of 1937. Once receiving (more…)

Expanded Kit History by Alan Bussie

The Aircraft

Breguet 14

Built by The Société des Ateliers d’Aviation Louis Breguet, also known as Breguet Aviation, the Breguet 14 (often spelled as the Breguet XIV) is considered one of the most important French warplanes of WW1. Designed for reconnaissance and bombing roles, it was known for toughness and performance, thanks to Breguet Aviation internal structure of duralumin and steel, with a wood and fabric external construction. Powered by a Renault 12Fe water-cooled inline engine rated at 224 kW (300 hp), the Breguet 14 was fast (121 mph) and fairly maneuverable. It usually packed a fixed Vickers 7.7mm machine gun firing ahead, and single or twin 7.7mm Lewis Guns mounted on a scarf ring for the observer.

The Aéronautique Militaire used them (more…)