Retired In Kalifornia's Italian Aircraft Model Builds In Progress Photos

[Editor]

The master's workshop. I agree, 2 gallon air compressors have a short life span - they don't last very long and usually die looking new.

[RetiredInKalifornia]

The master's workshop. I agree, 2 gallon air compressors have a short life span - they don't last very long and usually die looking new.

Only air compressors I'd use for model spray painting 1966-69, 1977-1990 were US-made 3/4 hp no-tank Thompson diaphragms. Inexpensive they'd rattled & crept on floors, noisy as hell, reberb running them inside folk's auto garages & kitchens of apartments I'd lived in during these times likely damaged my hearing, now in old age paying the price for that! IMHO their's no such thing as an absolutely quiet air compressor for hobby airbrushing, some diaphragm ones come close but they're near noisy as home refrigerator compressors one in my apartment can hear 15 feet away, sound from it bouncing off kitchen walls into my bedroom at night!

Whilst living in apartments generally didn't spray paint past 9:00 p.m. though did on occasion up till & past 10 p.m. finishing up on time-demanding painting sessons, shutter now recalling how nasty these "sprays" were especially with Floquil lacquers building Luftwaffe subjects in 1980s. Floquils generally sprayed on nice but had to be mixed repeatedly else pigments would settle on cup bottoms clogging siphon tubes & blowing out in clumps ala 1966-vintage Revell Fw 200 kit had built c.1981, did another a decade that came out near perfecto with Testors Model Master enamels, gave it away with 94 other models in 1997.

[RetiredInKalifornia]

This was the entire line of (recollected for 2nd time since late 1980s) unbuilt USA-only issue 1964-66 AIRLINES (Air Lines with International Model Aircraft Ltd. FROG logo between words in their sales literature) 1/72 scale airplane model kits photographed in my apartment hallway closet on December 12, 2017 all given away to Viking Hobbies Sacramento, California in 2021:



The first 24 kits issued early 1964 were heralded in this very rare promotional full-color sales flyer I've kept for posterity:



The display-dispenser & header graphic was that intended for USA retail marketing though swapped-out in USA Thrifty Drug Stores for an enlarged dispenser & redesigned header jointly marketing Testors PLA Enamels & AIRLINES kits. No photographs of this dispenser are on the Internet, photographs and/or paper sales flyers of it rotting away in file folders, attics, garages, etc. one possibly held by another AIRLINES kits aficionado.

Interestingly Thrifty Drug stores kept the dispensers up & stocked till end of 1967 months after AIRLINES had ceased operations & FROG commenced direct US kit sales after the US Government repealed most tariffs on imported toys, including scale model kits.

The garish box top artwork by Joseph (Jo) Kotula was most striking of early 1960s aviation model kit box top artistry, Aurora's & Revell's close equals with some kits though AIRLINES was only brand then to consistantly image its entire kit range.

Besides those kits shown above there also were duplicates, including my most favorite airplane scale model of all time sparking decades of interest of Italian aviation:



Sadly I couldn't keep them all but kept the best physical conditioned one for posterity as well

[RetiredInKalifornia]

...My continuing on with posting on this discussion thread, gone too afield after returning to it few days ago. Other than making return post replies when warranted time to move on with posting on other forum discussion threads well as starting new ones. I don't know if you "lock" threads Vince but this one might be a candidate given several models I'd built here are up on the Gallery. I am entertaining starting a thread on reminiscences of other Italian model builds not on this thread but have finish photos of them, keep on watch for it!

Richard

[Editor]

I haven't ever needed to lock a thread, no reason to. The Airlines collection you sent me photos a few years ago, incredible - I think they're shrink wrapped too.

[RetiredInKalifornia]

I haven't ever needed to lock a thread, no reason to. The Airlines collection you sent me photos a few years ago, incredible - I think they're shrink wrapped too.

...Had to ask whether you'd locked threads. All my AIRLINES kits were shrink wrapped but did that when had a shrinkwapper, me thinks had given it to Viking Hobbies Sacramento, don't remember when, none of their kits ever were shrinkwrapped BTW. As best remembered & far as I know viewing old kits via Internet no model kitmaker shrinkwrapped their products till mid-1960s, could start a discussion thread just on model kit contents & box "security", memories still good on those securely packaged & those pilfer-prone, Revell's top of my list of latters well into the 1960s!

[Editor]

I think you may have posted the display stand and photos of the Airline kits way back when, and may have been lost when the board went down in 2019 - we lost 3000 posts and 300 users, speaking of which I should do a backup this weekend. btw each of those kits is a collectible. There's a guy in San Jose that has some of these kits listed on ebay.

[RetiredInKalifornia]

I think you may have posted the display stand and photos of the Airline kits way back when, and may have been lost when the board went down in 2019 - we lost 3000 posts and 300 users, speaking of which I should do a backup this weekend. btw each of those kits is a collectible. There's a guy in San Jose that has some of these kits listed on ebay.

...Know for sure I'd posted the AIRLINES kits hallway closet photos on other websites in past, stacked collection of Macchi C.202 kits is new one taken January 10, 2021. Now 59 years later some AIRLINES kits are still up for sale on eBay, hundreds of others some going back to late 1950s. Those kits I had were resold at least once most twice or or more since first retailed, could start discussion thread just on model kit retailing during late 1950s & 60s. Plastic model kits were sold everywhere then, Airfix Of America airplane issues in Disneyland Anaheim, California for example, saw them in 1965 when folks sold Lakewood house we'd lived in 1952-63 to neighbor their son inheriting & renting it out to this day.