1/48th completely photo-etched airplane kits.

[bob letterman]

John Piper, a Brit and a friend of mine, founded several model companies over the years, his last was called Scale Link. He eventually sold it and I believe it is still operating. John and I went back a lot of years. I first met him at the Model Engineering exhibition at Wembley Stadium in London back in the 70s. His Scale Link products were the first line I began importing when I started up VLS.

Anyway, years ago, he designed a Hawker Hurricane and a Fokker triplane ala The Red Baron in photo-etched brass. The fuselage, wings, tail and rudders were entirely photo-etch, each kit had a few white metal or resin parts such as the cowling, wheels and so on. I bought them and had one offs ran by our photo etching company in Massachusetts. They are gorgeous to look at, John actually built one of the triplanes and sent it to me but it arrived in pretty bad shape.

My modeler employees took one look at it and said, "No way we will ever be able to sell those". I admit, you would have to be into self torture to attempt to build one, however, I wrote them off and kept them as a kind of souvenir. John died about ten years ago and yesterday I was going through some mapping file cases looking for something and came across them. The photo-etch sheets of brass are very large, maybe 18 inches X 18 inches, (45 cm X 45 cm), and I have actually thought about framing them they are so cool looking.

My question is, does anybody have an interest in seeing photographs of those? If so, I'll take photos and post them.

Bob

 

[reconron]

My question is, does anybody have an interest in seeing photographs of those? If so, I'll take photos and post them.

YES,YES,YES!

 

[chukw]

 

[Bagge]

I'm gonna have nightmares but please post them! (i have problems with the small amount of PE that comes with the normal kits nowadays)
//Mats

 

[moon puppy]

:smack

I would have bought one!

 

[lupanzer]

:smack

I would have bought one!

...me too...yes Bob,photos,please...

Luiz

 

[TomN]

Oh hellz yeah!!!

I think you should build it! But framing the frets is a cool idea too...

Tom

 

[bob letterman]

OK, I went out this evening and pulled all that stuff out. I hadn't really looked at it in more than 15 years. There was much more than I remembered. I'll photograph it tomorrow and post it then.

Bob

 

[Sharkmouth]

I had fun with the Eduard kits, now this would be easier to see!

Regards,

 

[chukw]

Thanks, Big Daddy!

 

[White_Wolf]

If I could, I would put together a book - "History of Modelling History" or something like that with all these memories, photos of old competitions, kits, completed models, SBS's, the masters themselves, everything that could show the journey this hobby has been on so far.

Just a thought ....

 

[bob letterman]

If I could, I would put together a book - "History of Modelling History" or something like that with all these memories, photos of old competitions, kits, completed models, SBS's, the masters themselves, everything that could show the journey this hobby has been on so far.

Just a thought ....

Laurence,

Funny you should mention that. One of my closest friends is Ken Jones, the long time editor in chief of the British magazine Military Modelling, as well as his being in charge of the premier figure show in Europe, The Euromilitaire. Ken and his wife Sandra come visit us every year for a couple or three weeks and have been doing so for at least twenty years. We have been friends since the 70s. He has attended several of the VLS Mastercons as I have the Euromilitaire.

I believe that between us, we have known anybody that was anybody in modelling for the last 50 years from all countries, not only the modelers, but the model manufacturers, publishers, importers, authors, designers, sculptors and so on. We also have some very exotic kits including those manufactured decades ago in our collections. Of course, I have the museum and our combined model photo collection numbers in the hundreds of thousands. All this stuff spans the modeling world, including aircraft, armor, figures, cars/trucks/ ships and dioramas. When Ken retired about a year ago, we began discussing just such a project. We haven't started anything in earnest as yet, it would be a massive undertaking, but you could say it is more or less on the drawing board. Now if we can both manage to live long enough, maybe we can pull it off.

Bob

 

[White_Wolf]

kindred something or other as someone said

I have an idea of what this might require in terms of effort and time. But I also think that it would be best if it came from someone who has been on this journey every single step along the way, who has seen it all and done it all, been part of it in every possible way.If someone else writes it, there is no way they can capture the emotions, the perspective, the questions with or without answers, the struggle, the joy of being part of it, the achievements and the failures alike. It's pretty much like a reporter talking about a football game versus the players telling the story.

I think a book is something special, reading must take you within the book itself if the author got talent, it's about making me, the reader, part of the world the writer created, part of the things they lived and so on.

I cannot think of a better person to do it - no disrespect to any of your life long friends who have been part of this world as much as you have - than yourself Bob, and I dare to say I am not the only one who thinks that way.

Good luck and hope I am going to get a signed copy when it's ready.

 

[ErnieS]

A book about the history of the hobby with your insights would be fantastic! I have long been interested in the cottage industry manufactures because of the unique subjects that they have produced and the innovative approaches they have taken to produce kits and bring them to market. One of my modeling goals is to build a kit from as many of these manufacturers as I can. To that end I am always on the lookout for these type kits at shows and on e-bay. Best of luck on your project, I certainly hope it comes to fruition as I would be very interested in it.
Ernie

 

[kryptosdaddy]

I would pick this up on the day of it's release Bob- something like this would be perfect for the archive. CR

 

[bob letterman]

Well, all I can say is I would like to try it, and I believe Ken would as well. There are other modelers who have experienced the things I have. I would say that I have built models and dioramas in every possible field and, although it may seem that I favor armor, I only do more armor because armor/figures lend themselves to dioramas more than the other fields. There are manufacturers, both mainstream and aftermarket that have my experience, there are publishers that have had similar experiences as Ken and I. There are importers, exporters and distributors that have been out there like me for years. There are retailers and Internet sales companies such as VLS and modelmecca.com, and there are show producers such as Ken and I, but I can't honestly think of anybody else with extensive experience in all those fields.

I know that everybody thinks that once you retire, you have all the time in the world on your hands. I suppose that can be the case with some, but I swear, I am busier now than when I was running VLS and all it's subsidiaries, plus Miniature World museum, Letterman publishing and the annual Mastercon conventions, not to mention building superdioramas. It seems there aren't enough hours in the day for me.

A book like that shouldn't be done unless it is done right. It should be done comprehensively. It would have to be done using all the objectivity that Ken and I could muster. Otherwise it wouldn't be honest. Just because of previous conflicts with people across all those areas within the modeling world, objectivity would be high priority. Neither Ken nor I have had many conflicts, but there have been a few. I don't believe that anybody so involved could spend 40 or 50 years without making a few enemies. No honest book would minimize or ignore the efforts and contributions of those people as well as those who were considered friends.

We'll see what happens.

 

[bob letterman]

OK, heeeeerrrrres Johnny!!!

First the Fokker Dr-1. It is 1/48th scale but tiny. First up, a fret, (That's the correct term for a sheet of photo etch). containing the entire aircraft, wings, fuselage, tail and rudder, plus wheel strut assembly. There were six frets on this single sheet. John Piper used one to build the demo model.



Then a sheet with only a single part, beside the very damaged DR-1 model John built and sent me from England. It got battered considerably.



A closeup of the triplane. This makes me nervous just looking at it.



A side view.



And from the front.



Again, but this time beside a 1/35th tank rider so you can see it in proportion.



Now, the masters of the cast parts. They could be made from white metal or resin. Note the Red Baron and his dog are included.



So much for the triplane. This is a 1/48 Hawker Hurricane. This one has never been built, and even the masters need to be completed in the casting process. creating multiple parts, mirror imaged parts, etc. These are the wing frets, one for each kit.



Five of them. Note that included are the body and wing panels to wrap the frame with, having all the rivets, panels, etc.



The second Hurricane fret, can you even imagine somebody building this. It sound like a job for Randy Ditton, our resident brassmaster.



Masters, RTV molds and castings for the Hurricane.



Close up of some of the castings, cowling, prop blades, cockpit parts and so on.



The green RTV molds created by Piper, and the white metal landing gear struts.



A close up of the master patterns, machined out of styrene plastic. These, in turn were used to create the RTV molds. In production, the masters are always prized and stored in a safe place. If a mold is lost and your casting supplies limited. You will need those masters to recreate the mold and continue production.



OK, guys, That's about it. I hope you enjoyed it. Just something that in my opinion is a very unusual idea from the very creative mind of John Piper, may he rest in peace!

Bob

 

[reconron]

Insane!....in a VERY good way that is.

May John Piper rest in peace.

Thanks for sharing,Bob!



Greetings,Ron.

 

[kryptosdaddy]

I'll never complain about those tiny PE frets they stick into most kits ever again! Thanks for sharing Bob sr.

 

[Sharkmouth]

That looks real nice! I hope I replaced the last image (about the polystyrene masters) with the correct one as you posted the previous image twice.

Regards,