Modelling Scale Aircraft

Building scale model aircraft is an absorbing pastime that can encompass a broad range of interests and skills. A proficiently created scale model can vividly evoke a key moment in history, and be an attractive addition to a mantelpiece or display cabinet. Despite competition from hi-tech leisure pursuits and the spiralling cost of mainstream manufacturing, the hobby of scale aircraft modelling has reached a pinnacle of variety and quality. Thanks to new short-run plastic injection moulding technologies and the superiority of resin details, modellers in the 21st century can build impressive replicas of almost any military aircraft that has ever taken to the sky. With the emergence of the internet, scale modellers now have access to technical and historical resources that earlier generations could only dream of. It has also put them in real-time contact with other modellers and historians across the globe. For all of these reasons, there has never been a better time to build plastic models.

The hobby of scale aircraft modelling stretches back to the 1930s. Skybirds of Britain was the first manufacturer to offer a range of wooden aircraft models in a constant scale. Their chosen size, 1/72nd, is still one of the most popular scales today. Around 1935, another British company, FROG, employed a new material known as cellulose acetate, originally used as a replacement for highly flammable cellulose nitrate film stock, for detail parts on its wooden flying model aircraft. FROG was an abbreviation for “Flies Right Off the Ground”, a reference to its flying models. In late 1936, FROG launched its brand-new Penguin range of static plastic scale aircraft, appropriately named after a flightless bird. These early plastic assembly kits proved immediately popular. Even in the first years of production, FROG Penguin released some ambitious kits, including the huge Short Empire flying boat in 1938. FROG Penguin also offered built-up kits, assembled by workers at their factory. These pre-built models were highly sought after luxury items, worth several weeks average wage. Even in these pioneering days, model aircraft were not solely ‘toys for boys’.

The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 diverted the focus of manufacturing to military production. Throughout the war, FROG Penguin played an important role as manufacturer of increasingly accurate, constant-scale identification models of Allied and Axis aircraft.

At the close of hostilities, FROG resumed the manufacture of kits, and by the beginning of the 1950s was joined by the iconic modelling brands Airfix (in the United Kingdom) and Monogram (in the USA). By now, scale aircraft model kits were manufactured using the same injection-moulding technology still employed today. 1/72nd scale remained the most popular constant scale, but new scales emerged during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including 1/48th, 1/32nd and 1/24th.

The 1960s and 1970s were the heyday for plastic models. In this era, a time before video games and multi-media entertainment, building plastic models was a mainstream hobby for children and a significant niche interest for adult aviation enthusiasts. However, the oil crisis of the 1970s increased the price of model kit raw materials, and the following decade saw a downturn in the fortunes of the traditional European and American model companies. In the Far East, though, Japanese brands such as Tamiya and Hasegawa were starting to have a big impact on the global modelling community, one that continues to this day. In more recent years, the emerging economies of Korea and China have started to make a significant contribution to mainstream model releases.

In this book, we will outline the tools and techniques that you will need to build a model straight from the box, and some other accessories to use when you are feeling a bit more ambitious. We will also describe techniques for building, painting and weathering your model aircraft. The text will summarize the theory of scale modelling along with some technical background information, while practical techniques are demonstrated and described in the photos and their accompanying captions.