Plastic Kits

Do you remember going down to Woolworth's on a Saturday to buy an Airfix kit that came in a plastic bag for 2/-? (That's two shillings or 10 pence in our money!) I used to get half a crown pocket money in the late 50s, so I had sixpence left to spend on glue or paint.

What was the fascination?

I think that those models fulfilled a boy's need to collect things; to be creative and to indulge in a miniature fantasy world, which makes them toys basically. Model aircraft were an induction to the world of science and the exciting future we believed it had in store for us. Making those kits was educational too. The instructions were extremely detailed, containing phrases like "locate and cement the port tail-plane to the port fuselage half, just below the rudder". We learned words like aileron, anhedral, dihedral, nacelle, bulkhead and elevator; and that was just the planes. If you made a ship you had masses of other parts to learn the names of. Accuracy was important too because polystyrene cement actually melts the plastic so you can't just rub it off.

Mostly at the budget end it was fighter planes from WW2. Which one was your favourite? Probably it was the Spitfire which still sells well today. I think that's because it is almost the perfect shape for a plane and  robust enough to stand a bit of dusting. Painting the camouflage is a doddle; just don't mess up the cockpit with your gluey fingers. The "Spit" is iconic in terms of  it's history (and because of "Biggles") and yet we can still see them in the air most summer week-ends. When I was a kid in Southampton I saw a blue prototype flying almost every day and can still recognise the sound of a Merlin engine before I see the plane. I must have made a dozen model spitfires over the years.


I had a soft spot for bi-planes that was also fuelled by Capt. W.E. Johns' "Biggles" stories. The German planes were the most interesting to make, especially the Fokker Tri-plane, like the one flown by the Red Baron himself. In 1/72 scale these little planes were fiddly and fragile, but in 1/48 scale they were wonderful. The Aurora model company made a set of them that would be lovely to own now.

The planes were made by Frog, Revell, Aurora and Lindberg as well as Airfix, and they were not all the same scale or period. I even had a Fireball XL5 and some Captain Scarlet jets, but I think Airfix always made the biggest range at the best price and I didn't have to go beyond the local "Woolie's" to get one.

All my aeroplanes were hung on fishing line from my bedroom ceiling. (Yes, the one with "Dan Dare" wallpaper.) At night my brother and I would lie in bed with torches, catching the planes in our "searchlights" before trying to shoot them down. On the table there was a model of the first hovercraft, the SRN 1 and a huge HMS Victory; both of local interest for two Hampshire boys.

My best model was a WW1 Handley-Page twin engined, bi-plane bomber, rather like the Vickers Vimy that Alcock and Brown flew the Atlantic in, but I always wanted a Sunderland Flying Boat because it was massive and they used to fly over my school regularly, bound for the tropics. I made do with a Douglas DC3 "Dakota" which, like the Spitfire, was above my house daily and had that natural, curvy, organic look. They were just perfect planes and strong as a rock. I'd love to fly in one.
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One day, I had the bright idea of  hanging model planes from fishing line outdoors and then taking photos of them with my Kodak Brownie 127 camera. The best one was of a German Junkers Stuka dive-bomber zooming down on my house. If I ever find that photo I'll show it to you, but you can imagine it I'm sure; all grainy, out of focus in black and white with finger prints everywhere, like the ones above.