Just a little nostalgia from the 1940's.

[ssculptor]

I am sure that some of you are familiar with the PT Boat model that Lindberg has been issuing as a plastic injection molded kit for the past 60+ years. Well the kit started as a wood kit by the Varney Company at the end of World War Two. Varney then concentrated in HO gauge model railroading and sold off their airplanes and ships to Lindberg. Lindberg then revamped the kit and issued it as a plastic kit.
The original Varney kit is now available on eBay, if any of you are interested. The item number is 231011145196.
No, it is not mine. I sold my Varney kit back in the 1970's. I made a couple of the Varney PTs and one was on exhibit in a museum on the west coast. It may still be there, I do not know.
Varney's wood LST kit was also sold to Lindberg who converted it to plastic and still reissues it occasionally.
Varney also produced the 1/48 scale PT-17 airplane as a plastic model, but the fuselage was solid Bakelite plastic like the Identification models were back during World War Two. Lindberg just changed the Bakelite to styrene plastic and that kit is also reissued from time to time. So I guess the earliest plastic 1/48 scale airplane kit is the Lindberg PT-17.

How do I know all this? Because I was there and I bought and built all these kits.

Ah, nostalgia.

Stephen

[wunwinglow]

Nostalgia. Not what it used to be like, of course.....

 

Tim

[Hogzilla]

Bakelite is polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, is an early plastic. It is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from an elimination reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. It was developed by Belgian-born chemist Leo Baekeland in New York in 1907.

One of the first plastics made from synthetic components, Bakelite was used for its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, and children's toys. (from wikipedia of course) Those old ID models were done in 1:72 scale to give pilots a consistent size to compare one aircraft to another. -Danny

[ssculptor]

Well that was interesting read.

 

Stephen , I like PT boats especially after reading JFK's biography ..

 

But I wanted to ask you since you will know...

Apart from seeing wooden train kits and other kinds of models, rarely have I seen wood aurcraft kit models.

So the question is how were they built. I mean did one have to use screws or glue to join the different parts...just curious after reading your thread.thank you in advance.

 

 

And what is Bakelite please ..thanks you.

 

MARU.

Hi, I'd like to reply in detail but right now I am rearranging the house bcause we are getting ready for the delivery of a replacement refrigerator, electric stove, fan motor for the centra air conditioner and docking station for my notebook computer because the 12 year old desktiop crashed. It has not been the best month for electrical items in my life.

There were two types of wood airplane models: solid wood which you carved and stick and tissue which you built up from nothing but sheets of printed formers and 1/16 x 1/16 inch lengths of wood.

For the latter look at the Guillow site.

http://www.guillow.com/

For solid models go look at solid balsa model airplanes on ebay.

In the old days of wood models very few scratchbuilt all the fine details in their models - it took a lot of patience and skill just to build any model airplane of wood.

Stephen