Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Good stuff Wayne, and useful that you pointed out the age and origins of this kit.
Many tend to forget that, not that many years ago, the information and photographic records of WW2 aircraft we have now were not as common. Indeed, actual WW2 aircraft were not so commonly and freely available to view, with the 'Warbird' movement, as it's now commonly called, only getting into the early stages of 'full swing' in the early 1970s, a lot of it due to the work involved on the BoB movie, and the 'knock-on' effect that had in the UK and USA.
I remember building the (original) Hasegawa 1/32nd scale FW190, in 1978, which had its origins in a Frog kit of the late 1960s/early 1970s. The seat in that kit bore only a vague resemblance to the real seat, and at that time, only 34 years ago, there just wasn't the reference material around which we now take for granted, apart from the odd photo showing the front edge of the seat, being a 'cockpit' shot for the instrument panel. This lack of references also affected model manufacturers, as most WW2 aircraft available for viewing were in museums, where they hadn't moved for years, and many were suspended from the roof, unlike 'today', where there are now more 'readily available' aircraft than ever before, due to restorations, discoveries and so on.
Bearing all this in mind, manufacturers of the era did pretty well to achieve something which looked reasonably close to the original, especially in a time when the absolute, down to the last millimetre accuracy many expect today, either wasn't even dreamed of, or didn't really matter, as long as the overall model 'looked right', and could have fine detail ('super-detailing, as it was known then) added by scratch-building. Heck, just look at the rules for IPMS competitions back then - it was in writing that a model must be ???% plastic (can't remember the figure, but was something like 95% !), including any scratch-built items, although those new-fangled white metal props, or landing gear legs, were allowed, as long as the combined number of metal parts did not infringe on the percentage demanded!
Nowadays, you'd probably be lucky to find a competition model that is 50% plastic!
And now, back to the thread! Sorry Wayne, thought I'd just make some observations on older kits, and the hobby in general !
Many tend to forget that, not that many years ago, the information and photographic records of WW2 aircraft we have now were not as common. Indeed, actual WW2 aircraft were not so commonly and freely available to view, with the 'Warbird' movement, as it's now commonly called, only getting into the early stages of 'full swing' in the early 1970s, a lot of it due to the work involved on the BoB movie, and the 'knock-on' effect that had in the UK and USA.
I remember building the (original) Hasegawa 1/32nd scale FW190, in 1978, which had its origins in a Frog kit of the late 1960s/early 1970s. The seat in that kit bore only a vague resemblance to the real seat, and at that time, only 34 years ago, there just wasn't the reference material around which we now take for granted, apart from the odd photo showing the front edge of the seat, being a 'cockpit' shot for the instrument panel. This lack of references also affected model manufacturers, as most WW2 aircraft available for viewing were in museums, where they hadn't moved for years, and many were suspended from the roof, unlike 'today', where there are now more 'readily available' aircraft than ever before, due to restorations, discoveries and so on.
Bearing all this in mind, manufacturers of the era did pretty well to achieve something which looked reasonably close to the original, especially in a time when the absolute, down to the last millimetre accuracy many expect today, either wasn't even dreamed of, or didn't really matter, as long as the overall model 'looked right', and could have fine detail ('super-detailing, as it was known then) added by scratch-building. Heck, just look at the rules for IPMS competitions back then - it was in writing that a model must be ???% plastic (can't remember the figure, but was something like 95% !), including any scratch-built items, although those new-fangled white metal props, or landing gear legs, were allowed, as long as the combined number of metal parts did not infringe on the percentage demanded!
Nowadays, you'd probably be lucky to find a competition model that is 50% plastic!
And now, back to the thread! Sorry Wayne, thought I'd just make some observations on older kits, and the hobby in general !
