I’m sure it has happened to most modellers, circumstances change, work, marriage you know the score and the fruits of your spare time go’s into a box and ends up in the loft.
This happened to me in 1979, first into my parent’s loft, then into my own many years later.
Even after all this time I sort of knew which boxes contained what i.e. built or unbuilt, but the details of the contents has become understandably hazy. Also I didn’t want to unpack them all as space is short and I didn’t want to swamp the ‘wall of joy’.
You can imagine my surprise when searching for some bits in the loft I found a small box separate from the other box’s containing six built kits, four of which were wrapped and piled onto what looked like two damaged ones.
Intrigued I went against my previous decision and brought it down for investigation thinking I would have some scrap parts or candidates for the ‘Box of Doom’.
How wrong I was……….
Here’s the first two, these were wrapped and have stood the test of time amazingly well……..
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The Walrus is short of a rudder and the
Albatross Pfalz
(see replies no 4 and 9, my bad!) had one decal lifted which I stuck down with Microsol and that’s it, they are in remarkably good condition. In my perfectionist eye i can see some minor faults but these two are going on the wall as is. Ironically I don’t remember anything about the
Albatross Pfalz it is a type and scale I seldom dabble in and don’t even recall building it, but it is one of mine, the clear stretched sprue rigging is a dead giveaway.
The next was also packed and only had a broken nose wheel……….
by
Robomog, on Flickr
This goes to show I was a bit of a whiffer even in those days, I converted a Britten Norman Islander into an attack aircraft with bombs, rockets and sideways firing machine guns possibly influenced by the Dakota Gunships. You can imagine my surprise when I saw a film sometime later extolling the virtues of the new Britten Norman Defender with similar armament.
However I cannot for the life of me remember why I chose to display it in Arab colours. As you can see in the photo it’s not perfect, the line between the top and bottom camouflage is distinctly wavy and the doctored decals leave a bit to be desired, however this one is also going onto the wall as is.
The next two were unpacked………….
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The Heron was another surprise, I really did not know I had this kit, it was also an annoyance as I could have made it the subject of the zip paint scheme that I eventually put on a Simoun Cauldron. I have always liked the lines of this aircraft and as it is largely intact and long out of production so I am going to try to restore this one.
The Lightning P1 is an original Frog kit and has been badly abused, you can see by way of glue marks where attempts where made to up gun it with weapons pylons and where the undercarriage has been shorn off, given this kits rarity and if I can revive the canopy I’m going to try and restore this one too.
The last one was packed but I think this was just to save some of the parts…….
by
Robomog, on Flickr
This model I remember well, it is a 1/48th scale (approx.) scratch build of an early model Lockspeiser LDA-1 experimental aircraft based on a scaled up basic three view from an aviation magazine. I did this for an Air Cadet Model competition and it won the scratch built category.
Unfortunately time has not been kind to this one the plastic card has gone brittle causing one wing to break (it’s propped on a paint bottle in this pic) and the vertical stabilisers to detach.
That said the Bulk of it is still intact so I’m going to attempt to restore this one also but not to real world colours, I don’t think I could reproduce the gold text on the blue, and as you can see from the pic I cheated on my original by using painted clear tape and dry transfers for the cheat line (no Pun intended) which has not survived very well. I’m thinking of a crop sprayer, postal transport or some sort of RAF colours we shall see
This little box has been quite a revelation and instead of providing spares has generated three more projects, where’s the Revive a Kit Group Build when you need It ?
Hope you enjoyed this little bit of personal history. as always any comments or suggestions welcome
Thanks for looking....
Mog
>^-.-^<