wonwinglo

Whilst scale model builders yearned for stocks of difficult to obtain balsa wood in the UK ( It had not yet made it in any quantity yet over the Atlantic in any quantity ), and drooled over scale plans and advertisements for Cleveland aircraft kits in the American pulps,one man in particular was taking note of what was going on,his name was J.J.Halliday and he was busy setting up a business who had a name that was to go into the model making history books,originally marketed under the name 'Givejoy' the company was more well known as the prestigious 'Skybirds' models,within a few months in the nineteen thirties the Skybird league had been set up,this consisted of model clubs scattered the whole length of the country and had its mouthpiece in the form of a several paged newsletter at the rear of the 'Aeromodeller' magazine.Before we go on it is important to mention someone else here who was deeply involved with the Skybirds empire,his name was James.Hays.Stevens a clever young draughtsman who was producing the drawings for Skybirds in his spare time,his talents were recorded in the pages of the period 'Air Stories' magazine,yes another pulp mag with an aeromodelling section at the back like its American counterparts,but this time UK orientated,every month an aircraft type was covered as a three view 1=72 nd scale drawing together with building instructions,these were the same drawings used in the Skybirds kits and were works of art in themselves.
The thing about Skybirds kits was that they were not just crude blanks of wood thrown into a box,but beautifully sanded spindled pieces that were hand strung into flat boxes together with tin propellers,wooden wheels and proper struts with pre-drilled holes into the wood patterns,they set standards in wooden kits that have never been repeated to this day,they could even be purchased by those who really needed them built built up.Sadly as war loomed over Europe Skybirds were in decline and cheaper inferior quality kits with wooden blanks started to appear to fulfill the needs of the enthusiast,that enthusiast model builder was to play an important part in the few years ahead.Meanwhile a new owner took over the Aeromodeller magazine and wanted to start charging the Skybirds league for its pages which were previously a gift to the aeromodelling youth of the country,new management swept clean and wanted money,that money was not available and despite heated discussions no soloution was found,the Skybirds empire sadly died leaving the market wide open.
Part 4 will cover the need for people to recognise aeroplanes in wartime,friend or foe as they said,before you opened fire you needed to know whether it really was a Junkers Ju.88 and not a Blenheim ! and this was where scale models played a big part,see you soon for a bit more nostalgia !

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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