88 MODEL AVIATION
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
LEATHER FILLETS: The April 2003 column mentioned some
wing/fuselage fillet material that was included in the 1948
Madman, Sr. Control Line (CL) kit. I wrote: “ ... I have always
wondered what exactly that material had been adapted from ... ”
That brought forth a major pile of mail advising this farm boy that
toolmakers use the fillet material in varying sizes to “round” the
undercuts out of the corners of boxes for sand-casting patterns.
These toolmakers can’t leave sharp corners in their tooling
because the sand would not flow into a zero radius. They were
installed using casein glue and were fairly durable. Each mold
was made by packing in the sand, then pulling whatever cores
were used to form the final part.
So a bunch of readers straightened me out on the normal use of
these fillets. Since I have never seen a casting pattern made, or
even been in a foundry, it’s no wonder I didn’t know.
The other question I have is why were leather fillets not used
in other kits, or in other designs for that matter? One must
presume that the technique became lost in antiquity or was
unnoticed by others at the time. However, there appears to be a
sudden renewal of interest in using these leather fillets for CL
models at least.
“Wild Bill” Netzeband, who wrote the CL column for Model
Airplane News for many years and designed a slug of highly
regarded models, was one of the people who responded to my
original question, and he provided a source for the leather
material. Try Bill Sawyer at 165 Antioch Rd., New Bern NC
28560. His E-mail address is [email protected].
In his May 2003 CL Aerobatics column in Flying Models
magazine, Allen Brickhaus described installing leather fillets on
his Hal deBolt Stunt Wagon. That was the first time I had seen the
fillets mentioned in print in more than 50 years.
How Come? In the midst of a conversation with my flying buddy
George Sauer, we started remembering some of the more popular
large Radio Control Scale kits of the 1950s and 1960s.
Building wood recognition models was a popular, useful pastime
for students during World War II. National Archives photo.
Because 1⁄72 scale made models of large bombers much too
large, 1:432 scale was chosen for them. National archives photo.
Robert Mikesh displays his huge collection of recognition
models on the ceiling of his garage. Mikesh photo.
George mentioned that he’d always wanted to build the old
Berkeley Navion. It occurred to us at the same time that there
isn’t a Giant Scale kit of that wonderful airplane or for many other
neat civilian aircraft of the period, such as the Globe Swift, the
Mooney Mite, the Lockheed Li’l Dipper, the Percival Mew Gull,
the Luscombe Model 8A Silvaire, the Curtiss Junior, the Interstate
Cadet, or the Culver Cadet and V.
To echo comments many others have made on the subject of
choices for large scale kits, “why all the P-51s and Extras?”
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:29 pm Page 88
90 MODEL AVIATION
Correction: Also in the April 2003 column I mistakenly
identified the photo of the Kenhi kit ad as being published in the
1952 Model Airplane News magazine; it’s actually from 1953.
This is important to keep the Panther’s second version in the
proper time frame for CL Old Time Stunt events.
The Birth of Plastic Models: When I wrote my comments last
month about the extreme likelihood of US aircraft being shot at,
and even downed, by friendly fire during the attack on Pearl
Harbor, the calendar date was February 2003. The possibilities of
those long-ago problems with friendly fire and the identification
of friend or foe are still existent 70 years later, and they were
encountered the following month in Iraq.
I somehow thought that all of the electronic gadgetry of
modern combat aircraft (transponders, etc.) made identifying
aircraft and armor foolproof. Obviously that conclusion was in
error, and I apologize to any families affected by the friendly fire
accidents shown on the evening news.
In last month’s column I attempted to identify programs in
which the US military developed a stockpile of three-dimensional
model airplanes to be used in training gunnery and other units
that required the ability to quickly identify aircraft flying in their
vicinity—admittedly at much lower velocities than those
encountered in modern battlefield settings.
On December 8, 1941, Navy Commander DeFlorez returned to
the US from England where he had been sent to gather
information about a British identification system using model
airplanes. The Bureau of Aeronautics’ special devices division
identified a need for vast numbers of these models—and quickly.
Commander DeFlorez called for manufacturers’ bids on a
Navy contract to produce precise, standardized models in large
quantities since production methods, and even materials, for
creating scale models by the thousands had yet to be invented.
Four bids were accepted, and the stories of these contractors’
struggles to produce models is a column in itself. The program
did not go well.
Finding a suitable material was a daunting problem. The term
“plastic” was new in 1942, and it applied to anything that was not
wood or metal. For many years “plastic” meant cheap, flimsy, of
poor quality, and generally classified as junk. Well into the 1950s
one would hear, “Oh gosh; it’s not metal, it’s plastic.”
Among materials tried was a reinforced plaster used to make
department-store mannequins. It proved much too fragile; it was a
substance resembling hard rubber that produced models on which
the wings drooped. Wood’s metal (a low-melting-temperature
Naval officers were also instructed in the identification of ships
using models. National Archives photo.
A Model Airplane News ad from 1947 features surplus plastic
identification models for sale by Polk’s Hobbies.
metal) and even cast iron were tried but abandoned because of
weight and scarcity of the materials. Even papier-maché, which
could not reproduce any detail, was tried.
The Cruver Company of Chicago, Illinois, had pioneered the
process of injection-molding cellulose acetate to produce
accessories for the automobile industry, such as gear-shift knobs
and window cranks. Cruver’s technique proved to be the most
satisfactory for models from a weight and durability standpoint,
and 30-60 identical airplanes could be produced each hour from a
particular mold.
An original master model had to be made for each type of
airplane to be produced. During the war years, Comet Engraving
Company and H&H Specialty Company, both in Chicago, made
most of the masters. By then the Army had joined the Navy’s
efforts, and both services selected and provided drawings and
photos of the full-scale aircraft of which they wanted
identification models.
Skilled model makers carved the master models from wood,
then sent them to specialists in the military for approval. Then the
masters went to Cruver where metal dies were made. Molten
plastic was injected into these half molds (split), or dies, at a
pressure of approximately 30 tons per square inch. This pressure
forced the molten plastic into every nook and cranny of the metal
die.
The die was then removed from the injection machine and
immersed in a water bath to cool everything down. The rough
models were cleaned, the injection sprue was cut off, and the
parting lines were sanded. The models had a great deal of carbon
black in the plastic mix; they tended to turn out shiny, and much
detail was lost in the reflections. To overcome this they were
sprayed with matte lacquer.
The models that resulted from this injection-molding process
were solid, unlike today’s plastic models with their hollow
construction. The reason was a lack of sufficient accuracy to mold
halves that would fit together well.
Though arbitrary, the choice of 1⁄72 scale became standard
throughout identification-model production and has continued to
this day. The models are scaled so that 1 inch of model equals 6
feet of airplane, or a 36-foot-wingspan fighter is represented by a
6-inch model. Other scales are used in the case of extra-large
bombers.
Production of the injection-molded identification models pretty
well ceased with the end of World War II, and many retailers,
most notably Polk’s Hobbies (Aristo-Craft), marketed the huge
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:29 pm Page 90
numbers of the aircraft left as surplus.
Thousands were presented as gifts to
children as they entered military facilities
for Air Force Day events, etc. I recall
seeing a bunch of the models in some kid’s
sandbox in the late 1940s.
Today the plastic identification models
have become rare. An active group of
collectors can be found on the Internet and
eBay; Classic Aircraft Collections of Fort
Worth, Texas, appears to have the original
molds and tooling and sells the models.
Call (800) 289-3167.
School Program: Last month I mentioned
the huge response from young modelers in
the US to an appeal and program designed
for them to carve recognition models in
their high-school shop classes. This
program was devised primarily as a
temporary stopgap to produce as many
models as possible while the unproven
plastic models were being developed.
The program began in early 1942 and
officially ceased at the end of 1943.
During that period, hundreds of thousands
of models were completed and delivered to
Navy collection points.
However, the program continued on a
local basis in some schools which supplied
nearby Army, Navy, and civil-defense
needs. Hawaiian schools supplied models
of Japanese aircraft to the US Pacific Fleet
until August 1944.
Lieutenant Paul Graber was the naval
officer most closely tied to the day-to-day
management of the student-constructed
identification-model program. If that name
rings a bell, he was later the National Air
& Space Museum curator, and the
restoration facility in Silver Creek,
Maryland, is named in his honor.
Miscellany: I mentioned the battleship
USS Nevada last month. It was repaired
and served well through World War II,
then it was sold or given to the Argentine
Navy and renamed the Admiral Del Garno.
British aircraft sunk this battle-scarred
veteran (built in 1916) of the attack on
Pearl Harbor during the Falklands War in
1982.
Many Thanks: The materials used as
references in these last two columns came
from an incredible number of helpful
readers—far too many to list. My sincere
thanks to all of you who sent items and
comments, and I hope I have presented
things in a way that transfers your
enthusiasm for the subject to others.
Two printed articles by Robert C.
Mikesh, former curator of aircraft at the
Smithsonian Institution, were of immense
help as well. They were “Recognition
Models—The Government Issue Miniature
Air Force” in the May/June 1984 Fine
Scale Modeler magazine and “Uncle Sam’s
Plastic Air Force” in the September 1973
American Aircraft Modeler magazine. MA
96 MODEL AVIATION
Visit the AMA Education Committee
Web site at www.buildandfly.com.
417-725-7755
www.gatorrc.com
VISA & MasterCard Welcomed!
Wing Span: 2 meters (78.5”)
Length: 2 meters (78.5”)
Wing Area: 1170 sq. in.
Weight: 9.5-9.75 lbs.
Engine: 1.40 2 or 4-stroke
GILES 202 COMPETITION PLUS
2100 N Old Mill Rd
Brookline, MO 65619
Min. $6.50
Shipping&Handling per order
• 90% Finished Ultra-Lite Construction
• Finished Weight 9 1/2 - 9 3/4 lbs.
• Covered with Monokote
• Painted Cowl, Landing Gear and Wheel Pants
• Multiple color schemes available. See our web site.
• Completely assembled and aligned
• Nose ring installed. Set up to accept Hyde Mount.
• Gator R/C adjustable wing and stab system
• Complete quilted nylon airplane covers included
(Fuse,wings and stabs)
These airframes are hand crafted using ultra light building techniques to
provide a true competitive advantage for advanced pilots. They cannot
be mass produced and will be available in limited quantities only.
Giles 202 Competition Plus.......................$1895.00
Items to complete: install landing gear (pre-mounted before shipment), install
engine and exhaust system, hinge control surfaces and attach canopy (canopy
pre-trimmed for proper fit), install radio equipment.
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:30 pm Page 96
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/08
Page Numbers: 88,90,96
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/08
Page Numbers: 88,90,96
88 MODEL AVIATION
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
LEATHER FILLETS: The April 2003 column mentioned some
wing/fuselage fillet material that was included in the 1948
Madman, Sr. Control Line (CL) kit. I wrote: “ ... I have always
wondered what exactly that material had been adapted from ... ”
That brought forth a major pile of mail advising this farm boy that
toolmakers use the fillet material in varying sizes to “round” the
undercuts out of the corners of boxes for sand-casting patterns.
These toolmakers can’t leave sharp corners in their tooling
because the sand would not flow into a zero radius. They were
installed using casein glue and were fairly durable. Each mold
was made by packing in the sand, then pulling whatever cores
were used to form the final part.
So a bunch of readers straightened me out on the normal use of
these fillets. Since I have never seen a casting pattern made, or
even been in a foundry, it’s no wonder I didn’t know.
The other question I have is why were leather fillets not used
in other kits, or in other designs for that matter? One must
presume that the technique became lost in antiquity or was
unnoticed by others at the time. However, there appears to be a
sudden renewal of interest in using these leather fillets for CL
models at least.
“Wild Bill” Netzeband, who wrote the CL column for Model
Airplane News for many years and designed a slug of highly
regarded models, was one of the people who responded to my
original question, and he provided a source for the leather
material. Try Bill Sawyer at 165 Antioch Rd., New Bern NC
28560. His E-mail address is [email protected].
In his May 2003 CL Aerobatics column in Flying Models
magazine, Allen Brickhaus described installing leather fillets on
his Hal deBolt Stunt Wagon. That was the first time I had seen the
fillets mentioned in print in more than 50 years.
How Come? In the midst of a conversation with my flying buddy
George Sauer, we started remembering some of the more popular
large Radio Control Scale kits of the 1950s and 1960s.
Building wood recognition models was a popular, useful pastime
for students during World War II. National Archives photo.
Because 1⁄72 scale made models of large bombers much too
large, 1:432 scale was chosen for them. National archives photo.
Robert Mikesh displays his huge collection of recognition
models on the ceiling of his garage. Mikesh photo.
George mentioned that he’d always wanted to build the old
Berkeley Navion. It occurred to us at the same time that there
isn’t a Giant Scale kit of that wonderful airplane or for many other
neat civilian aircraft of the period, such as the Globe Swift, the
Mooney Mite, the Lockheed Li’l Dipper, the Percival Mew Gull,
the Luscombe Model 8A Silvaire, the Curtiss Junior, the Interstate
Cadet, or the Culver Cadet and V.
To echo comments many others have made on the subject of
choices for large scale kits, “why all the P-51s and Extras?”
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:29 pm Page 88
90 MODEL AVIATION
Correction: Also in the April 2003 column I mistakenly
identified the photo of the Kenhi kit ad as being published in the
1952 Model Airplane News magazine; it’s actually from 1953.
This is important to keep the Panther’s second version in the
proper time frame for CL Old Time Stunt events.
The Birth of Plastic Models: When I wrote my comments last
month about the extreme likelihood of US aircraft being shot at,
and even downed, by friendly fire during the attack on Pearl
Harbor, the calendar date was February 2003. The possibilities of
those long-ago problems with friendly fire and the identification
of friend or foe are still existent 70 years later, and they were
encountered the following month in Iraq.
I somehow thought that all of the electronic gadgetry of
modern combat aircraft (transponders, etc.) made identifying
aircraft and armor foolproof. Obviously that conclusion was in
error, and I apologize to any families affected by the friendly fire
accidents shown on the evening news.
In last month’s column I attempted to identify programs in
which the US military developed a stockpile of three-dimensional
model airplanes to be used in training gunnery and other units
that required the ability to quickly identify aircraft flying in their
vicinity—admittedly at much lower velocities than those
encountered in modern battlefield settings.
On December 8, 1941, Navy Commander DeFlorez returned to
the US from England where he had been sent to gather
information about a British identification system using model
airplanes. The Bureau of Aeronautics’ special devices division
identified a need for vast numbers of these models—and quickly.
Commander DeFlorez called for manufacturers’ bids on a
Navy contract to produce precise, standardized models in large
quantities since production methods, and even materials, for
creating scale models by the thousands had yet to be invented.
Four bids were accepted, and the stories of these contractors’
struggles to produce models is a column in itself. The program
did not go well.
Finding a suitable material was a daunting problem. The term
“plastic” was new in 1942, and it applied to anything that was not
wood or metal. For many years “plastic” meant cheap, flimsy, of
poor quality, and generally classified as junk. Well into the 1950s
one would hear, “Oh gosh; it’s not metal, it’s plastic.”
Among materials tried was a reinforced plaster used to make
department-store mannequins. It proved much too fragile; it was a
substance resembling hard rubber that produced models on which
the wings drooped. Wood’s metal (a low-melting-temperature
Naval officers were also instructed in the identification of ships
using models. National Archives photo.
A Model Airplane News ad from 1947 features surplus plastic
identification models for sale by Polk’s Hobbies.
metal) and even cast iron were tried but abandoned because of
weight and scarcity of the materials. Even papier-maché, which
could not reproduce any detail, was tried.
The Cruver Company of Chicago, Illinois, had pioneered the
process of injection-molding cellulose acetate to produce
accessories for the automobile industry, such as gear-shift knobs
and window cranks. Cruver’s technique proved to be the most
satisfactory for models from a weight and durability standpoint,
and 30-60 identical airplanes could be produced each hour from a
particular mold.
An original master model had to be made for each type of
airplane to be produced. During the war years, Comet Engraving
Company and H&H Specialty Company, both in Chicago, made
most of the masters. By then the Army had joined the Navy’s
efforts, and both services selected and provided drawings and
photos of the full-scale aircraft of which they wanted
identification models.
Skilled model makers carved the master models from wood,
then sent them to specialists in the military for approval. Then the
masters went to Cruver where metal dies were made. Molten
plastic was injected into these half molds (split), or dies, at a
pressure of approximately 30 tons per square inch. This pressure
forced the molten plastic into every nook and cranny of the metal
die.
The die was then removed from the injection machine and
immersed in a water bath to cool everything down. The rough
models were cleaned, the injection sprue was cut off, and the
parting lines were sanded. The models had a great deal of carbon
black in the plastic mix; they tended to turn out shiny, and much
detail was lost in the reflections. To overcome this they were
sprayed with matte lacquer.
The models that resulted from this injection-molding process
were solid, unlike today’s plastic models with their hollow
construction. The reason was a lack of sufficient accuracy to mold
halves that would fit together well.
Though arbitrary, the choice of 1⁄72 scale became standard
throughout identification-model production and has continued to
this day. The models are scaled so that 1 inch of model equals 6
feet of airplane, or a 36-foot-wingspan fighter is represented by a
6-inch model. Other scales are used in the case of extra-large
bombers.
Production of the injection-molded identification models pretty
well ceased with the end of World War II, and many retailers,
most notably Polk’s Hobbies (Aristo-Craft), marketed the huge
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:29 pm Page 90
numbers of the aircraft left as surplus.
Thousands were presented as gifts to
children as they entered military facilities
for Air Force Day events, etc. I recall
seeing a bunch of the models in some kid’s
sandbox in the late 1940s.
Today the plastic identification models
have become rare. An active group of
collectors can be found on the Internet and
eBay; Classic Aircraft Collections of Fort
Worth, Texas, appears to have the original
molds and tooling and sells the models.
Call (800) 289-3167.
School Program: Last month I mentioned
the huge response from young modelers in
the US to an appeal and program designed
for them to carve recognition models in
their high-school shop classes. This
program was devised primarily as a
temporary stopgap to produce as many
models as possible while the unproven
plastic models were being developed.
The program began in early 1942 and
officially ceased at the end of 1943.
During that period, hundreds of thousands
of models were completed and delivered to
Navy collection points.
However, the program continued on a
local basis in some schools which supplied
nearby Army, Navy, and civil-defense
needs. Hawaiian schools supplied models
of Japanese aircraft to the US Pacific Fleet
until August 1944.
Lieutenant Paul Graber was the naval
officer most closely tied to the day-to-day
management of the student-constructed
identification-model program. If that name
rings a bell, he was later the National Air
& Space Museum curator, and the
restoration facility in Silver Creek,
Maryland, is named in his honor.
Miscellany: I mentioned the battleship
USS Nevada last month. It was repaired
and served well through World War II,
then it was sold or given to the Argentine
Navy and renamed the Admiral Del Garno.
British aircraft sunk this battle-scarred
veteran (built in 1916) of the attack on
Pearl Harbor during the Falklands War in
1982.
Many Thanks: The materials used as
references in these last two columns came
from an incredible number of helpful
readers—far too many to list. My sincere
thanks to all of you who sent items and
comments, and I hope I have presented
things in a way that transfers your
enthusiasm for the subject to others.
Two printed articles by Robert C.
Mikesh, former curator of aircraft at the
Smithsonian Institution, were of immense
help as well. They were “Recognition
Models—The Government Issue Miniature
Air Force” in the May/June 1984 Fine
Scale Modeler magazine and “Uncle Sam’s
Plastic Air Force” in the September 1973
American Aircraft Modeler magazine. MA
96 MODEL AVIATION
Visit the AMA Education Committee
Web site at www.buildandfly.com.
417-725-7755
www.gatorrc.com
VISA & MasterCard Welcomed!
Wing Span: 2 meters (78.5”)
Length: 2 meters (78.5”)
Wing Area: 1170 sq. in.
Weight: 9.5-9.75 lbs.
Engine: 1.40 2 or 4-stroke
GILES 202 COMPETITION PLUS
2100 N Old Mill Rd
Brookline, MO 65619
Min. $6.50
Shipping&Handling per order
• 90% Finished Ultra-Lite Construction
• Finished Weight 9 1/2 - 9 3/4 lbs.
• Covered with Monokote
• Painted Cowl, Landing Gear and Wheel Pants
• Multiple color schemes available. See our web site.
• Completely assembled and aligned
• Nose ring installed. Set up to accept Hyde Mount.
• Gator R/C adjustable wing and stab system
• Complete quilted nylon airplane covers included
(Fuse,wings and stabs)
These airframes are hand crafted using ultra light building techniques to
provide a true competitive advantage for advanced pilots. They cannot
be mass produced and will be available in limited quantities only.
Giles 202 Competition Plus.......................$1895.00
Items to complete: install landing gear (pre-mounted before shipment), install
engine and exhaust system, hinge control surfaces and attach canopy (canopy
pre-trimmed for proper fit), install radio equipment.
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:30 pm Page 96
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/08
Page Numbers: 88,90,96
88 MODEL AVIATION
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
LEATHER FILLETS: The April 2003 column mentioned some
wing/fuselage fillet material that was included in the 1948
Madman, Sr. Control Line (CL) kit. I wrote: “ ... I have always
wondered what exactly that material had been adapted from ... ”
That brought forth a major pile of mail advising this farm boy that
toolmakers use the fillet material in varying sizes to “round” the
undercuts out of the corners of boxes for sand-casting patterns.
These toolmakers can’t leave sharp corners in their tooling
because the sand would not flow into a zero radius. They were
installed using casein glue and were fairly durable. Each mold
was made by packing in the sand, then pulling whatever cores
were used to form the final part.
So a bunch of readers straightened me out on the normal use of
these fillets. Since I have never seen a casting pattern made, or
even been in a foundry, it’s no wonder I didn’t know.
The other question I have is why were leather fillets not used
in other kits, or in other designs for that matter? One must
presume that the technique became lost in antiquity or was
unnoticed by others at the time. However, there appears to be a
sudden renewal of interest in using these leather fillets for CL
models at least.
“Wild Bill” Netzeband, who wrote the CL column for Model
Airplane News for many years and designed a slug of highly
regarded models, was one of the people who responded to my
original question, and he provided a source for the leather
material. Try Bill Sawyer at 165 Antioch Rd., New Bern NC
28560. His E-mail address is [email protected].
In his May 2003 CL Aerobatics column in Flying Models
magazine, Allen Brickhaus described installing leather fillets on
his Hal deBolt Stunt Wagon. That was the first time I had seen the
fillets mentioned in print in more than 50 years.
How Come? In the midst of a conversation with my flying buddy
George Sauer, we started remembering some of the more popular
large Radio Control Scale kits of the 1950s and 1960s.
Building wood recognition models was a popular, useful pastime
for students during World War II. National Archives photo.
Because 1⁄72 scale made models of large bombers much too
large, 1:432 scale was chosen for them. National archives photo.
Robert Mikesh displays his huge collection of recognition
models on the ceiling of his garage. Mikesh photo.
George mentioned that he’d always wanted to build the old
Berkeley Navion. It occurred to us at the same time that there
isn’t a Giant Scale kit of that wonderful airplane or for many other
neat civilian aircraft of the period, such as the Globe Swift, the
Mooney Mite, the Lockheed Li’l Dipper, the Percival Mew Gull,
the Luscombe Model 8A Silvaire, the Curtiss Junior, the Interstate
Cadet, or the Culver Cadet and V.
To echo comments many others have made on the subject of
choices for large scale kits, “why all the P-51s and Extras?”
08sig3.QXD 5.23.03 1:29 pm Page 88
90 MODEL AVIATION
Correction: Also in the April 2003 column I mistakenly
identified the photo of the Kenhi kit ad as being published in the
1952 Model Airplane News magazine; it’s actually from 1953.
This is important to keep the Panther’s second version in the
proper time frame for CL Old Time Stunt events.
The Birth of Plastic Models: When I wrote my comments last
month about the extreme likelihood of US aircraft being shot at,
and even downed, by friendly fire during the attack on Pearl
Harbor, the calendar date was February 2003. The possibilities of
those long-ago problems with friendly fire and the identification
of friend or foe are still existent 70 years later, and they were
encountered the following month in Iraq.
I somehow thought that all of the electronic gadgetry of
modern combat aircraft (transponders, etc.) made identifying
aircraft and armor foolproof. Obviously that conclusion was in
error, and I apologize to any families affected by the friendly fire
accidents shown on the evening news.
In last month’s column I attempted to identify programs in
which the US military developed a stockpile of three-dimensional
model airplanes to be used in training gunnery and other units
that required the ability to quickly identify aircraft flying in their
vicinity—admittedly at much lower velocities than those
encountered in modern battlefield settings.
On December 8, 1941, Navy Commander DeFlorez returned to
the US from England where he had been sent to gather
information about a British identification system using model
airplanes. The Bureau of Aeronautics’ special devices division
identified a need for vast numbers of these models—and quickly.
Commander DeFlorez called for manufacturers’ bids on a
Navy contract to produce precise, standardized models in large
quantities since production methods, and even materials, for
creating scale models by the thousands had yet to be invented.
Four bids were accepted, and the stories of these contractors’
struggles to produce models is a column in itself. The program
did not go well.
Finding a suitable material was a daunting problem. The term
“plastic” was new in 1942, and it applied to anything that was not
wood or metal. For many years “plastic” meant cheap, flimsy, of
poor quality, and generally classified as junk. Well into the 1950s
one would hear, “Oh gosh; it’s not metal, it’s plastic.”
Among materials tried was a reinforced plaster used to make
department-store mannequins. It proved much too fragile; it was a
substance resembling hard rubber that produced models on which
the wings drooped. Wood’s metal (a low-melting-temperature
Naval officers were also instructed in the identification of ships
using models. National Archives photo.
A Model Airplane News ad from 1947 features surplus plastic
identification models for sale by Polk’s Hobbies.
metal) and even cast iron were tried but abandoned because of
weight and scarcity of the materials. Even papier-maché, which
could not reproduce any detail, was tried.
The Cruver Company of Chicago, Illinois, had pioneered the
process of injection-molding cellulose acetate to produce
accessories for the automobile industry, such as gear-shift knobs
and window cranks. Cruver’s technique proved to be the most
satisfactory for models from a weight and durability standpoint,
and 30-60 identical airplanes could be produced each hour from a
particular mold.
An original master model had to be made for each type of
airplane to be produced. During the war years, Comet Engraving
Company and H&H Specialty Company, both in Chicago, made
most of the masters. By then the Army had joined the Navy’s
efforts, and both services selected and provided drawings and
photos of the full-scale aircraft of which they wanted
identification models.
Skilled model makers carved the master models from wood,
then sent them to specialists in the military for approval. Then the
masters went to Cruver where metal dies were made. Molten
plastic was injected into these half molds (split), or dies, at a
pressure of approximately 30 tons per square inch. This pressure
forced the molten plastic into every nook and cranny of the metal
die.
The die was then removed from the injection machine and
immersed in a water bath to cool everything down. The rough
models were cleaned, the injection sprue was cut off, and the
parting lines were sanded. The models had a great deal of carbon
black in the plastic mix; they tended to turn out shiny, and much
detail was lost in the reflections. To overcome this they were
sprayed with matte lacquer.
The models that resulted from this injection-molding process
were solid, unlike today’s plastic models with their hollow
construction. The reason was a lack of sufficient accuracy to mold
halves that would fit together well.
Though arbitrary, the choice of 1⁄72 scale became standard
throughout identification-model production and has continued to
this day. The models are scaled so that 1 inch of model equals 6
feet of airplane, or a 36-foot-wingspan fighter is represented by a
6-inch model. Other scales are used in the case of extra-large
bombers.
Production of the injection-molded identification models pretty
well ceased with the end of World War II, and many retailers,
most notably Polk’s Hobbies (Aristo-Craft), marketed the huge
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numbers of the aircraft left as surplus.
Thousands were presented as gifts to
children as they entered military facilities
for Air Force Day events, etc. I recall
seeing a bunch of the models in some kid’s
sandbox in the late 1940s.
Today the plastic identification models
have become rare. An active group of
collectors can be found on the Internet and
eBay; Classic Aircraft Collections of Fort
Worth, Texas, appears to have the original
molds and tooling and sells the models.
Call (800) 289-3167.
School Program: Last month I mentioned
the huge response from young modelers in
the US to an appeal and program designed
for them to carve recognition models in
their high-school shop classes. This
program was devised primarily as a
temporary stopgap to produce as many
models as possible while the unproven
plastic models were being developed.
The program began in early 1942 and
officially ceased at the end of 1943.
During that period, hundreds of thousands
of models were completed and delivered to
Navy collection points.
However, the program continued on a
local basis in some schools which supplied
nearby Army, Navy, and civil-defense
needs. Hawaiian schools supplied models
of Japanese aircraft to the US Pacific Fleet
until August 1944.
Lieutenant Paul Graber was the naval
officer most closely tied to the day-to-day
management of the student-constructed
identification-model program. If that name
rings a bell, he was later the National Air
& Space Museum curator, and the
restoration facility in Silver Creek,
Maryland, is named in his honor.
Miscellany: I mentioned the battleship
USS Nevada last month. It was repaired
and served well through World War II,
then it was sold or given to the Argentine
Navy and renamed the Admiral Del Garno.
British aircraft sunk this battle-scarred
veteran (built in 1916) of the attack on
Pearl Harbor during the Falklands War in
1982.
Many Thanks: The materials used as
references in these last two columns came
from an incredible number of helpful
readers—far too many to list. My sincere
thanks to all of you who sent items and
comments, and I hope I have presented
things in a way that transfers your
enthusiasm for the subject to others.
Two printed articles by Robert C.
Mikesh, former curator of aircraft at the
Smithsonian Institution, were of immense
help as well. They were “Recognition
Models—The Government Issue Miniature
Air Force” in the May/June 1984 Fine
Scale Modeler magazine and “Uncle Sam’s
Plastic Air Force” in the September 1973
American Aircraft Modeler magazine. MA
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