Lockheed P-38J/L Lightning

The IPMS magazine, Vol.5 No.10, OCTOBER 1967
NEW AND IN VIEW
AIRCRAFT KITS

FROG. Following the Shackleton will be a 1/72 scale P-38J Lightning, then a Lysander kit from which both the Mk. I and Mk. Ill agent dropper may be assembled. After this will come the Blackburn Shark on floats or wheels, alternative markings for both types being included in the kit. All these kits are due before or shortly after Christmas.

The IPMS magazine, Vol.5 No.10, OCTOBER 1967

NEW AND IN VIEW NEW AIRCRAFT KITS
FROG. Lockheed P-38J and Lightening. 1/72 scale. Price 3/6d. (U.K.)

This kit is accurate in outline, but while the panel and rivet detail is acceptable, the overs ize rivet detail around the front of the engine nacelles will need to be sanded down. The model's appearance will also be improved by opening up the radiator intakes. The fit of the parts, which are pressed in light tan plastic, is excellent, while the unusual method of assembling them ensures that the model is easy to put together and rigid when completed.

The canopy is superb, very clear and of the correct shape, while the turbo-supercharger units are individually moulded and very highly detailed, as are the undercarriage parts. The characteristic "Christmas Tree" rocket assemblies of the P-38L, together with drop tanks, are included.

Decals are also excellent. They consist of markings for a Chinese Nationalist P-38L and those of the P-38J of the 433rd Fighter Squadron, U.S.A.A.F. 'Virginia Marie/Margaret' featured in the Profile describing the P-38 Series.

This is a good kit which could form the basis for many conversions. For further reference, we suggest that the Kookaburra book on the P-38, avail able from Bohemia Bookshop, 116 Bohemia Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, is invaluabl e, as the kit was based oh the drawings and photographs in this publication.

The IPMS magazine Vol.5 No.12, DECEMBER 1967

MODELLING
W R MATTHEWS
TWIN-TAILED LIGHTNING

This P-38 Lightning kit falls just short of being very good. Issued by Frog to 1/72nd scale, it is accurate in outline, and features a novel and ingenious method of assembly resulting in an extremely sturdy model easily put together. The component parts are well pressed from good-quality plastic, and the decal sheet, offering alternative markings for a Chinese Nationalist P-38L and a USAF P-38J, is really excellent. All this good work is unfortunately spoiled, however, by the ham-fisted application of surface detail, including raised lines for control-surface hinge lines. We very much hope that Frog's toolmakers will lighten their touch in the future.

NEW KITS (latest review copies received)

RAF Flying Review February, 1968, Vol. 23, No. 6

MODELLING
W R MATTHEWS
THIS MONTHS COLOUR

Although quantitatively produced in smaller numbers than the other major USAAF fighters of WW II, the near-unique configuration of the Lockheed Lightning has endowed it with some fascination for the modeller and, not surprisingly, a wealth of plastic kits purporting to represent this warplane have appeared on the -stockists shelves. Only one of these does the Lightning justice, however, and this is the superb 1/48th scale kit from Monogram which cannot be faulted. The 1/72nd scale kits from Airfix and Frog, although possessing their virtues, are not representative of the highest standards attained by either manufacturer, while the two kits offered by Aurora are very old and fully reveal their age.

Unfortunately, every P-38 Lightning kit yet placed on the market represents a late production version of the aircraft with the beard radiators that made their debut with the P-38J-1-LO, and resulted from the sandwiching of the intercooler air intake between the oil radiator intakes. From the modelling viewpoint, apart from the beard radiators, the P-38 Lightning remained little changed in external appearance throughout its production life, and, until some enterprising manufacturer realises that Lightnings were in use long before the debut of the P-38J on operations in August 1943, the skilled modeller should not experience too much difficulty in producing a passable P-38F or G from one or other of the kits readily available.

NEW KITS (latest review copies received)

RAF Flying Review April, 1968, Vol. 23, No. 8

Air Enthusiast 1975-06 vol.08 no.06

MODEL ENTHUSIAST
This month's colour subject

Fascinating at the time of its debut for the number and variety of the innovations that it embodied — turbo-superchargers, a radical twin-boom configuration and a nosewheel undercarriage — the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a remarkable aeroplane in several respects. If the sobriquet of Der Gabel-schwanz Teufel (The Fork-tailed Devil) perhaps owed its origin to a Lockheed public-isist with a colourful imagination rather than to awed Luftwaffe pilots, the Lightning was, nevertheless, a very fine warplane that established a reputation for remarkable versatility and enjoyed a distinguished combat career. At a disadvantage when tangling with single-engined opponents — constant effort was expended in improving the manoeuvrability of the Lightning throughout its development life — at low and medium altitudes, it made an excellent bomber interceptor and a sound long-range escort fighter. It was unique among WW II fighters in employing a wheel control rather than a conventional stick, a feature which many alleged did not make for ease of manoeuvre; with the P-38F-15 model an 8-deg flap combat setting was introduced to increase the cL in turns, while the P-38J-25 received power-boosted ailerons - one of the first applications of powered controls to any fighter — in a further effort to increase manoeuvrability. But if short on manoeuvrability by comparison with its single-engined contemporaries, it was still to claim the destruction of more Japanese aircraft than any other fighter operating in the Pacific.

There have so far been 10 different kits of the Lightning in various versions and to various scales. It captured the imagination of the kit manufacturers at an early stage and has retained its popularity ever since. The first in the field was Aurora with a 1/48th scale kit of the P-38J which, in its day, was well thought of but now seems very crude by current standards. This kit has also appeared from time to time under the Marusan and UPC labels. First in the UK was Airfix with a P-38J to 1/72nd scale and although good for its time has now long been defunct. Next in line came Monogram with the first really good P-38 kit, remaining, in our opinion, the best available in any scale and an outstanding product. To 1/48th scale, it includes alternative parts which enable it to be completed as a standard P-38J, a 'pathfinder' modification of the J-model, an F-5B photo-recce aircraft and the two-seat P-38M night fighter variant.

Frog entered the scene with a nice 1/72nd scale P-38J, which was also issued by AMT and Hasegawa, while Airfix produced a good kit of the P-38F to the same scale, the choice of this earlier variant meaning that it was complimentary to Frog's kit rather than directly competitive. Both kits may be recommended, the use of combinations of components from the two opening the way to conversions to almost any of the single-seat variants. The most recent and easily the largest kit available for the P-38 Lightning is by Re-vell and, depicting the J-model, is to 1/32nd scale. If you like your models big, then this can be heartily recommended. The other P-38 kits that have appeared have been to scales varying from l/63rd down to 1/1 OOth, but apart from the fact that they are unlikely to be available now, they are barely worthy of consideration by the serious modeller.
F J HENDERSON

Air Enthusiast 1975-06 vol.08 no.06

MODELLING
W R MATTHEWS
TWIN-TAILED LIGHTNING

This P-38 Lightning kit falls just short of being very good. Issued by Frog to 1/72nd scale, it is accurate in outline, and features a novel and ingenious method of assembly resulting in an extremely sturdy model easily put together. The component parts are well pressed from good-quality plastic, and the decal sheet, offering alternative markings for a Chinese Nationalist P-38L and a USAF P-38J, is really excellent. All this good work is unfortunately spoiled, however, by the ham-fisted application of surface detail, including raised lines for control-surface hinge lines. We very much hope that Frog's toolmakers will lighten their touch in the future.

NEW KITS (latest review copies received)

RAF Flying Review February, 1968, Vol. 23, No. 6

MODELLING
W R MATTHEWS
THIS MONTHS COLOUR

Although quantitatively produced in smaller numbers than the other major USAAF fighters of WW II, the near-unique configuration of the Lockheed Lightning has endowed it with some fascination for the modeller and, not surprisingly, a wealth of plastic kits purporting to represent this warplane have appeared on the -stockists shelves. Only one of these does the Lightning justice, however, and this is the superb 1/48th scale kit from Monogram which cannot be faulted. The 1/72nd scale kits from Airfix and Frog, although possessing their virtues, are not representative of the highest standards attained by either manufacturer, while the two kits offered by Aurora are very old and fully reveal their age.

Unfortunately, every P-38 Lightning kit yet placed on the market represents a late production version of the aircraft with the beard radiators that made their debut with the P-38J-1-LO, and resulted from the sandwiching of the intercooler air intake between the oil radiator intakes. From the modelling viewpoint, apart from the beard radiators, the P-38 Lightning remained little changed in external appearance throughout its production life, and, until some enterprising manufacturer realises that Lightnings were in use long before the debut of the P-38J on operations in August 1943, the skilled modeller should not experience too much difficulty in producing a passable P-38F or G from one or other of the kits readily available.

RAF Flying Review April, 1968, Vol. 23, No. 8

Hasegawa/Frog
Hasegawa Seisakushu Ltd. Co., 600-6, Higashi Nitta. Shizuoka-Shi, Japan
Period: 1967-1974?

The co-operation between Frog and Hasegawa is one of the most successful between two independent companies and also one of the most extensive. But it is not unique. Airfix had a similar arrangement with Eidai during the same period, to mention one example, although this was limited to Eidai selling Airfix kits and not vice versa.

The first contacts were made by Rovex in early 1967, on the suggestion of UPC - themselves large buyers of Japanese kits and also a customer of Frog mouldings. Initially both LS and Hasegavva were considered as potential suppliers, but the latter was soon found to be the better of the two.

Under the agreement reached, all kits were moulded by the originating company who sold the bagged mouldings to the other company. Hasegawa thus added boxes, instructions and decals at their own factory. The decals used were often based on the original Frog ones, although in some cases changes were made by adding or deleting options. E.g., the Vimy had RAF decals, the Ju 87 Hungarian markings only and the P-38 an additional two USAAF options apart from the two in the Frog issue. All box artwork was new and of good quality.

Hasegawa was one of the few companies to issue former Frog kits in more than one box style. The first kits came with the old Hasegawa logotype, but around 1969 this was changed to the new one still in use today. Many kits can therefore be found with two different box styles. Unfortunately, no detailed information is available on the subject and the details given below should be considered as provisional only.

It should be noted that the Ju 88 and Beaufighter were first sold in their original form and later on with Spin-a-Prop modifications added (although never sold as Spin-a-Prop kits by Hasegawa).

The reason for discontinuing the co-operation between the two companies is not quite clear, since both sides were apparently satisfied with the arrangement. The probable reason is that the receivership imposed on Rovex in the early 1970s caused a desire to withdraw from any long-term commitment. Be this as it may, Rovex delivered the last batch of mouldings in early 1973, and these were probably sold out by Hasegawa within the year.

The Hasegawa kit numbers were allocated roughly in order of issue, the last new Frog kits being released in 1971. While most kits did have the JS-prefix to their numbers, it is worth noting that at least some of the new style boxes (e.g. that for the Shark) lacked this.

The production quantities given below are based on incomplete information and should therefore be treated as strictly provisional.

Repeated inquiries to Hasegawa regarding some of the above have, unfortunately, remained unanswered. Of all the companies contacted, they are one of the few not to respond in any way.

FROG model aircraft 1932-1976, R. Lines, L. Hellstrom

AMT Frog
AMT Corp., 1225 East Maple, Troy, MI 48084, USA.
Period: 1967-1970

AMT was, and has continued to be, a company specialising in car and truck kits. By the mid-1960s, they had become interested in diversifying into aircraft kits as well, and were thus a natural new partner for Lines Bros, after the demise of Air Lines. AMT sold the kits under the AMT/Frog label and, apart from a batch supplied by Rovex in 1968, did all moulding themselves, using Frog moulds brought over from England.

The original plans called for some 40+ Frog kits to be released by AMT, but eventually only 23 different kits got produced. While having the moulds with them, AMT had several of them (P-47, FW 190 etc.) cleaned up by removing engraved markings and other heavy surface detailing. They also added a dorsal turret (but no guns) to the P-61 and reworked the Boston/Havoc kit.

At first all kits had kit numbers type 0000, but around 1968 this was changed to A-000 for both older releases and new items. Most artwork and decals were changed at the same time.

The agreement with AMT provided Lines with a large range of AMT cars for release in Europe under the Frog/ AMT label. However, these proved to be poor sellers and this caused the co-operation between the companies to be dissolved after a couple of years.

FROG model aircraft 1932-1976, R. Lines, L. Hellstrom

Novo Novo Toys Ltd., Maxey, Peterborough, England PE69HQ Period: 1976-1981

Few, if any other kit companies have been subjected to as much rumour spreading, speculation and ill-informed guesswork as Novo. Neither has any other company name been so misused, and perhaps it is best to start by putting this straight.

As can be seen above, Novo was a British company, and it always was. Although the company name itself was derived from Novoexport, their Soviet trade partner, Novo was never owned by the Russians. In recent years, Novo has been used as a collective name for any ex-Frog kits coming out of the USSR, but nothing could be more wrong or misleading. Only kits actually packed in Novo packaging should be called Novo kits. Anything else can only be described as kits by the Soviet factory in question (BFI, Krugozor, Tashigrushka etc.). If a collective name is really necessary, then one might perhaps use MLI (for the Soviet Ministry of Light Industry, who supervise most of these factories).

The events leading up to the creation of Novo have been covered in the Frog history section of this book and will not be repeated here. Suffice to say that a General Agreement was reached between Dunbee-Combex-Marx (the owner of both Novo and Rovex) and V/O Novoexport in August 1975. This agreement stipulated that DCM was to deliver moulds, tools and materials to Novoexport, who would pay for them by sending back finished goods from the same moulds. It must be pointed out that apart from model kits the agreement also covered a wide range of other toys. Novo Toys Ltd. was set up by DCM in 1975 to handle this business.

The finer details of the arrangement were set out in twelve contracts, three of which concerned the ex-Frog kits. A theoretical value (based on remaining production life and other factors) was set for each mould. These were totalled for each contract and a suitable mix of kits to the same amount was worked out, meaning that payment for a particular mould did not necessarily consist of kits from that very same mould only.

Once the agreed quantity of kits had been delivered by Novoexport, the moulds were considered their property and all future purchases by Novo had to be paid for in cash. In the event, no such follow-up orders were ever placed by Novo.

The first moulds were sent out to the USSR in early 1976 (i.e. almost a year before Frog production by Rovex finally ceased) and these were distributed among the several Soviet factories undertaking the actual production. With the exception of the Dennis Ambulance, Firefly Dinghy and the Axis aircraft sold to Revell, all Frog moulds still with Rovex in 1976 were shipped to the Soviet Union over the next year or so. Of these, the Britannia, R-100 and the car kits were considered to be of little interest to the Western market, and consequently no Novo numbers were ever assigned. Although not specifically mentioned in any contract, it is believed that the Soviets also took delivery of the old Drifter and Tug Boat moulds.

The Novo kit number incorporated the original projected year of release (e.g. 76001). Some kits were in fact delivered to Novo in 1976, but not until 1977 was a marketable range available and released. Due to this, no additional kits were planned for 1977, but instead delayed until 1978 and given numbers starting with 78. The many gaps in the sequence were partly filled by other Novo products.

Getting the Russians to keep up with the delivery schedule was the main Novo headache. From the very start and until the very end, Novoexport were constantly behind in their deliveries. The reasons were of course many, but a few of these warrant some comments.

Problems with production facilities and moulds were common. Although certain Soviet factories were fairly well-equipped, others had obsolete and unsuitable machinery. Staff competence and maintenance levels also sometimes left something to be desired. This not only slowed down production, but also led to some moulds being damaged. The Mirage mould, for example, was left out-doors one winter and was of course thoroughly rusty by spring! (It was later restored to usable condition.)

The mould for the old Typhoon, when returned to the UK for repairs, was found to be missing all six original locking bolts holding the two halves together. These had been replaced by four new ones of inferior material. Had these broken during operation (remembering that plastic was being injected with a pressure of over 500 p.s.i., or 35 kp/cm2), the mould would probably have been completely destroyed along with the injection machine and its unfortunate operator. The same mould had also been repaired by the Russians, using brass instead of toughened steel.

All in all, Novoexport complained about problems with some two dozen moulds. Of the eight subsequently repaired in the U.K., five had damage caused by the Russians.

But the main problem was the inferior plastic used in the USSR. All Frog moulds were tuned to use Shell SI73 polystyrene (or equivalent), having a Melt Flow Index of 35. Soviet polystyrene, on the other hand, was found to have an index of around 4! This meant that, in order to make the plastic fill the mould, the temperature had to be increased by some 50°C and the injection pressure up to 100%. Not only was this very damaging to the moulds (several subsequently had to be repaired), but also often led to sub-standard mouldings. This since the extreme pressure forced the mould halves apart, letting plastic overflow into the gaps and form flash.

Neither was the low MFI the only problem with the plastic. An independent evaluation carried out in 1978 reads like a catalogue of faults: "Izod (= impact strength) very low .. . abnormally low I.V. (= inherent viscosity) . .. colour is poor and contamination excessive ... poor surface finish and gloss ... extremely brittle and not very rigid .. . must make good colouring difficult and appearance of finished article to be doubtful quality."

The third major problem was politics. Soviet laws take a pretty grim view of anything "fascist", which was why all German, Italian and Japanese aircraft were sold to Revell instead of being sent to the USSR. But other problems were to come up.

The original boxes for the Tupolev SB-2 showed one Luftwaffe marking alternative. Novoexport refused point-blank to touch these and Novo eventually had to print a replacement batch of some 105,000 box bottoms. The Luftwaffe portion of the decals were also cut away.

Later on, the Soviet Ministry of Culture classed the Fokker D.XXI as a "fascist aircraft" since it had been used by the Finnish AF in WWII. The fact that the Finns also used e.g. M.S.406, P-40, Lysander, SB-2, Hurricane, Gladiator and Blenheim - all of which were also included in the Novo range - did not seem to bother them, however. Subsequent Novo attempts to get this decision changed were all in vain. It should be noted that Novo had replaced the original Finish AF marking alternative with a Danish one, to avoid this very problem.

The next casualty was the Sea Fury. Due to a slip-up, the 1980 Novo catalogue described it as having shot down some MiG-15s during the Korean War. Novoexport were much upset by this and refused to deliver any more Sea Fury kits! Only a few kits from an earlier trial consignment ever reached the market. The same fate probably befell the Sea Venom, only this time the catalogue mentioned Egyptian MiGs destroyed in 1956. Only a small number of Sea Venoms were delivered, anyway.

Despite all difficulties, business was good for Novo and their kits sold well - mainly due to very competitive prices made possible by the unique set-up of the production. The downfall of Novo was thus not caused by economical problems as has often been suggested, at least not directly. However, Dunbee-Combex-Marx Ltd. fell into severe financial difficulties in 1979 and eventually had to go into receivership. Since DCM owned Novo, legal requirements forced Novo to do the same and the company passed into the hands of the receivers in February 1980. No buyer could be found in time and Novo Toys Ltd. was wound up later in the same year, although formal liquidation only took place five years later.

The last Soviet deliveries were made in mid-1980 and all kits had been sold out by early 1981. Remaining stocks of boxes, decals and instruction sheets (all printed in the UK) were handed over to Novoexport together with some original box artwork and other bits and pieces.

Box styles, artwork, decals and instructions were in general very similar to the late Frog issues. Indeed, early box mock-ups were almost identical to the Frog boxes except for the removal of the Frog logotype. Apart from the mock-ups, a small batch of similar test boxes were also printed before the style eventually used was finally agreed upon.

Although most Novo kits were boxed, it should be pointed out that kits 76001-76031 were packed in plastic bags with header cards.

Apart from box style, there were also some changes in artwork and decal sheets. Sixteen of the kits used completely new box top art and a few others had slightly changed versions of the Frog originals. In addition, five kits used art previously only utilised on Air Lines boxes.

The only all-new decals were those for the Dart Herald, F-82, Baltimore, VC10 and Boeing 707, although the first three probably had the new designs completed while still with Rovex. Either way, the design work was carried out by Dick Ward of Modeldecal. Apart from the previously mentioned Tupolev and Fokker, the only other known change was that the P-38 had its Chinese markings alternative replaced by a second USAAF one. Although the HMS Trafalgar box art showed the ship with the "RO9" pendant number of HMS Cadiz, the actual decals gave "D77" which was the post-war number of Trafalgar.

A great deal of speculation has taken place over the last few years as regards which kits Novo actually released. And this with some right, since it is indeed a very complex subject.

To begin with, a large number of kits were undeniably released. The kit listing which follows gives production quantities for these.

Secondly, certain kits belonging to the third phase of the third contract were definitely never released. They arc all marked "t" in the list, and for these kits no boxes, decals or instruction sheets were ever printed.

This leaves us with some twenty-three kits which were never officially released but nevertheless had all boxes etc. printed. In the list they all have the official production quantity zero. Regrettably, this does not represent the whole truth, and that for two reasons.

The first one is that trial consignments were often received by Novo and, although not included in the official production quantity, these kits were eventually sold by them. It is also possible that a few batches of slightly faulty and previously rejected kits were also sold out at a discount when Novo closed down. These consignments might number anything from a few dozen to several hundred kits, in some case perhaps more than a thousand.

In connection with this, the Boeing 707 is a special case worth mention. A batch of some 3,000 707s were received by Novo and quickly distributed. However, it was soon found that most kits suffered moulding defects and in the end all but a very few were recalled by Novo or returned to them by irate buyers.

The second reason is that when Novo closed down, Novoexport held enough "paper work" to produce another 2,750,000 Novo kits. It is a fact that some of this has since been used by the Russians. In many cases only the box has been used, omitting the decals and substituting the instruction sheet with a Russian one (or a photo-copy of the Novo original). But sometimes all three original items have been used and the only clue that these are "fake" Novo kits might be the somewhat odd plastic colour (Novo usually managed to avoid the more disgusting ones of the strange shades apparently beloved by Soviet plastic producers). However, in a few cases even this gives nothing away. Since these kits are produced in the same factories as before, using original Novo boxes, decals and instruction sheets, they are - for all practical purposes - Novo kits.

To give some (admittedly subjective) indication of the quantity known to exist of the "zero production" kits, one or two pluses have been added. Thus "0+ + " indicates that a reasonable quantity - perhaps a few hundred - has found its way on to the Western market. "0+" indicates that very-few, or none, have yet been seen. But this may of course change at any time; who knows when the Soviets decide to make use of their 46,000 sets of Twin Mustang packaging...

Finally, the four Russian aircraft - Anatra, MiG-3, LaGG-3 and Yak-3 - must also be mentioned. Produced by Rovcx in accordance with the 1975 DCM-Novoexport agreement, the moulds were kept with Novo in England for many years. But for various reasons they were never included in any of the actual contracts with Novoexport, nor were kit numbers assigned. When Novo closed down, the Russians were most interested in buying the moulds but lacked the hard currency needed. Later attempts by the receivers to sell them to other kit manufacturers - including Lindberg, Monogram, Revell and Starfix - all failed. Not until 1983 were they finally disposed of, to Red Star (which see).

Throughout the list, the Novo number has been given as kit number. But all the kits also carried the old Frog number on the box; indeed, on the 76xxx kits this was more prominently displayed than the Novo number.

** Existence possible, information uncertain

FROG model aircraft 1932-1976, R. Lines, L. Hellstrom

Novoexport V/O Novoexport, Bashitovskaya 19. Moscow 103287, USSR Period: (1976 to date)

Novoexport is one of several state-owned Soviet export organisations, each specialising in a different type of merchandise, with Novoexport handling all sales of toys and similar goods.

Apart from the role played in connection with Novo (which see), Novoexport also had - and probably still has -an ambition to export kits produced from the old Frog moulds under their own name.

The first attempt took place in the mid-1970s, parallel to the introduction of Novo kits. Novoexport expressed a desire to export kits under their own name while simultaneously supplying kits to Novo. Novo had no objections and helped print a test batch of some 2,000 pieces each of fifteen header cards. No new instruction sheets were made, however. The cards were basically identical to those used by Novo, but with a red rather than blue border and a new logotype. However, Novoexport soon fell behind with their deliveries to Novo and, to ensure that no part of the Soviet production was diverted to other outlets, Novo refused to supply further header cards. The initial batch was never used commercially, but some cards have since surfaced from east Europe with Novo instructions and newly produced kits.

Attempt number two was initiated in September 1982, when contact was established with Capital Model Supply, a London hobby shop since gone bankrupt. After lengthy discussions a range of 24 kits was agreed upon (although the 1/96 scale Lancaster was later dropped) and by August 1984 a contract - giving CMS exclusive distribution rights -had been drawn up. However, at this point the financiers finally became aware of the true economic situation of CMS and consequently pulled out - only 48 hours before the contract with Novoexport was due to be signed!

Since no instruction sheets were printed for the first group, these kits have also been marked as projects only.

The observant reader will have noted that the last nine kits in the second group have numbers different from the Novo issues. These numbers are shown on a recent Soviet list and would in all probability have been used on the kits in question, had they been released.

2nd group

FROG model aircraft 1932-1976, R. Lines, L. Hellstrom

UPC
Universal Powermaster Corporation, New York 10, NY. USA
Period: 1967-1970?

Compared to most other kit companies, UPC is something of an oddity. They had a very large number of kits in their range - more than 150 at one time or another - but they never made any moulds of their own. Instead they repacked kits from countless other manufacturers and sold these under the UPC label. The company was apparently more or less a "one-man show" under the management of Mike Tager.

The first Frog kits bought were the ten ship kits, in quantities of 15-25,000 pieces each. The R.100, Gannet, Barracuda, Beaufort and Lancaster followed in 1968 with the rest of the aircraft in 1969. Quantities varied between 10,000 and 20,000. The 5,000 Jaguar kits were scheduled for 1968 but eventually delayed until the following year. Most kits had new artwork but used stock decals supplied by Rovcx. Instruction sheets were standard Frog, except for a change of logotype.

The R.100 came without the cardboard base of the Frog issue. A UPC R.100 with kit number 6040 has been reported elsewhere, but this is probably just a misprint.

For four of the aircraft kits the situation is a bit unclear. UPC ordered 10,000 pieces each of these, and apparently at least some were produced by Rovex of all except possibly the Mosquito, but their issue by UPC is still not confirmed. Were they in fact issued, they probably got kit numbers in the 51 xx range.

FROG model aircraft 1932-1976, R. Lines, L. Hellstrom