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Frog, 1/72, P-51A


Ron Bell

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Here's another trip down memory lane. This kit dates from 1970. For those not familiar with FROG, they were making wooden model aircraft kits as far back as the 1930's and were one of the first to transition to all plastic kits. The name, FROG, stands for "Flies Right Off the Ground", as most of their early rubber band powered models did. I had to do a little research as I knew very little about this a/c. It's got an Allison engine instead of the later Merlin and came with two 20mm cannons, although the British models exchanged these for four 50 cal. mgs. From what I read, it was not intended to be a fighter-bomber, rather as a pure fighter, so the hard points under the wings for ordnance were removed. HOWEVER, obviously, Frog intended the kit's parts to suffice for both versions, so they compromised, using the mg wings, but including rather clunky bomb racks under the wings. So, thinking it looked cooler with ordnance under the wings, I ground off the kit's bomb racks and substituted ones from a Blenheim kit. In addition, even though the racks were there the kit did not come with bombs, so I pirated two from the same Blenheim kit. The rest is OOTB with the exception of the decals. The ones in the example I got were too far gone to salvage, so I used ones from the spares box. The invasion stripes are painted on. I don't know how accurate the outline and/or dimensions are, but it looks like a P-51A to me. 

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Wow! You did excellent on that ancient kit! I love it! Makes me want to go see if I have one in the stash. I have a bunch of old FROG kits in bags; I just don't remember what they are.

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Good looking relic! :laugh:

Looks like Frog got more right than wrong on that old molding. With your skills, it makes for a very nice looking early Mustang, especially with the D-Day stripes. Congrats on another fun trip down memory lane Ron!

 

Gil :smiley16:

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Nice job. I remember building that kit as a teenage. I did it the supplier Air Commando marking because the Pilot, Phil Cochran was a neighbor of my father when they were kids. FROG kits were always great in outline but lacked any interior detail. I still have some in my stash as well.

Bob Walker 17121

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Is can remember the Frog plastic kits. I have an AC Cobra car kit of theirs, but I think it was an American kit made by Frog under licence at the time.

Ron mentioned the Frog wooden kits of days gone by. I can remember the flying ones, but cannot remember if they made any ' solid'  kits in 1/72 scale. I know that Kiel Kraft and Veron did balsa wood solid kits back in the early fifties, but got wiped out in that market as soon as plastic kits hit the shelves. The old solid kits were sold with rough cut balsa parts that had to all be shaped by the modeller to match plans enc!osed.

Kiel Kraft dabbled in plastics, and as far as I can recall made just 2 kits in 1/72 scale, a Sopwith Camel and a Hawker Hurricane with 'Last of the Many' markings.

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On 18.10.2020 at 21:48, RCTHEFOX said:

Хорошая работа. Я помню, как создавал этот комплект в подростковом возрасте. Я сделал это маркировкой поставщика Air Commando, потому что пилот Фил Кокран был соседом моего отца, когда они были детьми. Комплекты FROG всегда были хороши по контуру, но в них не было деталей интерьера. Еще кое-что есть в моем тайнике.

Боб Уокер 17121

А, что есть в тайнике? 

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