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. (more…)

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 (more…)

Late 1940s assembled wood/metal HO craftsman kit

In the 1950s, “Consumerism” revolutionized the United States economy and social life. Two main items pushed the consumerist movement: discretionary income and free time. There had always been leisure time, but the activities that filled it varied. In the 1800s families might play instruments and sing after dinner. In the 1930s, they could gather around the radio for the latest drama series or news. But the changes in consumer buying power would revolutionize the USA in the mid 20th century.

In the 1930s “model building” as a hobby did not even make the top 10 list of boy’s activities. Hobbies were nothing new to America in the 1940s, but they were not mainstream. As early as the turn of the century, many dedicated modelers built flying or static airplanes, ship, train, automotive or other subjects. Basic kits existed, bu the majority of these models were built from scratch, which demanded a high talent level developed from years of experience. That changed in the early 1950s. The phenomenon of (more…)

I’ve had many jobs over the years that required working with aluminum castings and aluminum sheet. One of those jobs was as an Aviation Metalsmith in an A-4 squadron in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. As an avid, casual modeler, I have always wanted to recreate some of the unpainted planes of the same era. Until about five years ago I used buffing and non-buffing metalizers with varying degrees of success and satisfaction. One day I opened a Nestlé’s Crunch bar and suddenly realized that I had a better solution right there in my hands. I found some foil glue at Wal-Mart, an Italeri F-104, and some available time. I was very pleased with the outcome and hopelessly hooked….

(more…)

The first Revell-made mold was the 1953 USS Missouri, first issued in the narrow box.

The first three aircraft kits followed quickly in one-piece boxes. The F-94C, F7U-1 and F9F-6 were molded (more…)

Early Wood and Plastic Kits

In 1945 the company was producing stick/tissue aircraft kits and solid wooden kits of ships and cars. The ship line consisted of a US Battleship, Destroyer, Cruiser, Aircraft Carrier and Landing Craft.

Monogram seized the initiative in plastic early and produced what we would call multi-media kits. The flying and non-flying kits were called (more…)

The Early Years
In 1950, Abe Shikes and Joseph Giammarino created Aurora as an injection molding job-shop. Injection molding was booming and business went well. In 1952, they hired a salesman named John Cuomo. The plastic model kit business was just beginning, as the three decided this was the future of Aurora.

Brooklyn Era
Kit production started in the Brooklyn Plant in late 1952. These kits were in one-piece flip-top boxes and carried the circular logo and the “U-Ma-Kit” slogan. The first two kits were the 1/48 F9F Panther Jet (kit #22) and 1/48 Lockheed F-90A (kit #33) with no landing gear or missiles and minimal rivet and panel line detail. Box art was simple and used one or two colors. There is no price extension after the kit number.

Issues exist with the instructions printed on the inside of the box and with the instructions printed on a separate piece of paper. If you have the early Hawk releases of these kits, (more…)

Nothing is more discouraging than watching decals yellow with time after they have been applied to one of your favorite models. Well, maybe there is something more discouraging; spending your valuable allowance on an older model kit only to find the decals are almost useless from discoloration. The following article might help. Discolored decals can be used to generate new decals that stand a much better chance of maintaining their true colors and clarity.

The example below shows the original decal sheet from an AMT XB-70 kit released in 1995. The clear film between colored segments is discolored. Obviously, this will show dramatically (more…)