wonwinglo

Surprisingly a lot of these famous manufacturers did not record much information about their products,a friend once deeply involved with collecting Lone Star models got to the stage of actually visiting their factory,they made him most welcome and showed him what they had left in terms of their famous cowboy guns range ( remember them,fired caps and made a lowd bang as you said 'stick em up' !) eventually they took him over to a big filing cabinet and opened the door,inside were the remnants of the companies history,yes all five of them ! five boxed models where as they had produced hundreds of different subjects over the years,the enthusiast in question was an expert in Lone Star products and was rattling off his knowledge to them,in the end they gave him the models for safe keeping,so it seems that we just cannot always rely on these manufacturers to come up with even their own history ? so perhaps even here with this modest collection we are tapping into forgotton history,once we have dealt with these I will show more treasures from days gone by,some will amaze you as to what has been produced over the years.
My dream model museum that was once to have been set up under railway arches in Bridlington sadly never got off the ground,British Rail were happy to rent the property on a seasonal basis,but the Bridlington council would not allow me to advertise the museum anywhere off the road,as the arches were off the beaten track it would have needed some form of directions,but alas it was not to be.
A lot of these things were earmarked for that museum,I think that I have mentioned it before that Bridlingtons main claim to fame are its wonderful land ladies,and the biggest shop in the country selling ladies and gents underwear in every size imagineable !!

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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 !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

Something that I must mention about old diecast models that is important,many of these models suffer from what is termed 'Metal Fatigue' this is due to the instability of Mazak or Zamak in the casting process,well not strictly true as what caused the fatigue is the habit of the casters in throwing any old junk metal such as strapping from packaging,straight into the hot metal,this created great instability on what is a fine process and critical metals,so over the years as the metal contracted it just splits and crumbles into dust in extreme cases,this is why so few of these older models exist today due to the fatigue problems,modern mazak is a much softer material and can sometimes be eased into position,but be very careful,if in doubt leave well alone.
I will go into detail about preserving such artifacts in the future,and ways that can stop the rot.
Notice that the Queen Mary has a ding in the side,this was a manufacturing fault caused one again by warm parts dropping into heavy stillages,best left well alone as any attempts with a pair of pliers would quickly end in disaster.

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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 !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bunkerbarge

Just bought a second hand copy of Janes Fighting Ships of WWII from Amazon USA for just over six quid. Can't go wrong really!!

Hang on to those ships Barry!!!

wonwinglo

***That was cheap Richard,dread to think what the postage was as these are heavy tomes,well done a useful purchase for your maritime library and a piece of history in itself.
For those not familiar with the books of Fred.T.Jane these are classics and were produced in demand by the industry to know more about ships,aircraft,fighting vehicles etc,every newspaper office worth its salt would hold copies,the retail price of a new copy of these publications runs to hundreds of pounds,but just like Richard has found one here they do appear,usually ex library or factory copies,my latest find in a junk shop was 'Janes All The Worlds Aircraft' for 1953,a crucial time for the aircraft industry,they are well laid out by country.
Reproduction books have appeared over the years sometimes the only way to get them,both WW1 & WW2 aircraft were acquired in this way,they are what I call doorstop publications !

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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 !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bunkerbarge

The six quid includes the P&P. It was a really good deal.

wonwinglo

***Generally books do not sell too well on E-bay,to make them attractive this is what the sellers do make an all in price,but you really did excell on this one,I bet that you have a big heap of goodies when you get back home ?

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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 !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bunkerbarge

I usually go home to a really interesting pile of goodies!!

Nigel.D

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH Richard !!!!!!! Whatever will Annette think ?

Bunkerbarge

I just tell her it's because I'm worth it!!

wonwinglo

Warship#3



This one is carefully marked 'Cardiff' in Indian ink underneath,is she Cardiff ?

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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 !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/