Gloster E28/39
Discussion
Now that my big push to meet Self Assessment tax deadlines is out of the way for another 9 months or so, it's time to raid the stash and crack open the polystyrene cement.
As I've not touched a model since mid November, I decided to ease myself in with an "easy build" and have chosen the venerable FROG Gloster E28/39. This kit is very old - dating back to the early 1960s. It is quite inaccurate in places - the fuselage being too bulged for a start - but it's got a low parts count and should go together fairly well. FROG kits did click together quite well and they never featured the rivets that so often marred Airfix kits of that era.
This particular rendition dates from the late 1970s just after FROG had gone out of business and the moulds sold to the Soviet Union.
As part of the payment deal, a company called Novo was set up to package, market and distribute the kits in the UK. So, the models were moulded in the USSR (as it says on the sprue) but bagged up and packaged in the UK. As you can see, the old FROG artwork was retained.
This distribution deal ended in the early 80s and the later supplies of Soviet manufactured ex-FROG kits were much more crudely packaged.
I've already made a start.
Unusually for its time, the cockpit is moulded as a separate tub - but there is no internal detail except for a pilot's seat. I've added a crude instrument panel which will be just visible through the canopy.
Another feature of the tub is that the forward end forms the air intake splitter. As moulded, the splitter was too short and had an unsightly gap. The gap was filled with plastic card and filler and the tube extended in order to move the splitter closer to the front of the air intake.
I've also roofed the main wheel well and added some guessed detail.
The aim today will be to get the main construction work completed. I mustn't forget to put some weight in the nose.
Here are some progress shots -
As I've not touched a model since mid November, I decided to ease myself in with an "easy build" and have chosen the venerable FROG Gloster E28/39. This kit is very old - dating back to the early 1960s. It is quite inaccurate in places - the fuselage being too bulged for a start - but it's got a low parts count and should go together fairly well. FROG kits did click together quite well and they never featured the rivets that so often marred Airfix kits of that era.
This particular rendition dates from the late 1970s just after FROG had gone out of business and the moulds sold to the Soviet Union.
As part of the payment deal, a company called Novo was set up to package, market and distribute the kits in the UK. So, the models were moulded in the USSR (as it says on the sprue) but bagged up and packaged in the UK. As you can see, the old FROG artwork was retained.
This distribution deal ended in the early 80s and the later supplies of Soviet manufactured ex-FROG kits were much more crudely packaged.
I've already made a start.
Unusually for its time, the cockpit is moulded as a separate tub - but there is no internal detail except for a pilot's seat. I've added a crude instrument panel which will be just visible through the canopy.
Another feature of the tub is that the forward end forms the air intake splitter. As moulded, the splitter was too short and had an unsightly gap. The gap was filled with plastic card and filler and the tube extended in order to move the splitter closer to the front of the air intake.
I've also roofed the main wheel well and added some guessed detail.
The aim today will be to get the main construction work completed. I mustn't forget to put some weight in the nose.
Here are some progress shots -
I've since read that the "splitter plate" is really the division where the air was directed either side of the cockpit tub to feed into the centrifugal compressors of the engine - which was mounted behind the cockpit. So it's not a true splitter plate at all - more a dividing of the intake trunking.
The "Novo" era was actually very short. The deal was that the Soviet government paid for the ex-FROG moulds by exporting the first "X thousand" of the production run of the kits to the UK. They had to do this because they had no hard currency to pay the Rovex Group liquidator for the mould purchases.
The Novo packaging was printed in the UK and used the FROG artwork - so they looked very like the kits that had been on sale under the FROG label only a year or so earlier.
Once the cash had been generated for each mould, the Novo packaged kits ceased. By 1980/81 the deal had been fully paid for and no more "new" Novo kits appeared.
From then on, Soviet moulded ex-FROG kits became quite rare and only surfaced in the UK in very cheap looking boxings with poor artwork. Here';s an example of the awfulness of the post Novo era Soviet moulded kits -
The Novo packaging was printed in the UK and used the FROG artwork - so they looked very like the kits that had been on sale under the FROG label only a year or so earlier.
Once the cash had been generated for each mould, the Novo packaged kits ceased. By 1980/81 the deal had been fully paid for and no more "new" Novo kits appeared.
From then on, Soviet moulded ex-FROG kits became quite rare and only surfaced in the UK in very cheap looking boxings with poor artwork. Here';s an example of the awfulness of the post Novo era Soviet moulded kits -
Eric Mc said:
The "Novo" era was actually very short. The deal was that the Soviet government paid for the ex-FROG moulds by exporting the first "X thousand" of the production run of the kits to the UK. They had to do this because they had no hard currency to pay the Rovex Group liquidator for the mould purchases.
The Novo packaging was printed in the UK and used the FROG artwork - so they looked very like the kits that had been on sale under the FROG label only a year or so earlier.
Once the cash had been generated for each mould, the Novo packaged kits ceased. By 1980/81 the deal had been fully paid for and no more "new" Novo kits appeared.
From then on, Soviet moulded ex-FROG kits became quite rare and only surfaced in the UK in very cheap looking boxings with poor artwork. Here';s an example of the awfulness of the post Novo era Soviet moulded kits -
Ain't command economies great? The Novo packaging was printed in the UK and used the FROG artwork - so they looked very like the kits that had been on sale under the FROG label only a year or so earlier.
Once the cash had been generated for each mould, the Novo packaged kits ceased. By 1980/81 the deal had been fully paid for and no more "new" Novo kits appeared.
From then on, Soviet moulded ex-FROG kits became quite rare and only surfaced in the UK in very cheap looking boxings with poor artwork. Here';s an example of the awfulness of the post Novo era Soviet moulded kits -
Thanks for that Eric, very interesting.
Eric Mc said:
And the plastics they used were poor too. I built that Canberra a couple of years ago and the plastic was extremely brittle and just about responded to the polystyrene cement.
I had a pile of unbuilt FROGs until quite recently, including the Canberra. I was always quite fond of FROG. For a start Rovex had an odd distribution policy which meant I could get them in my village post office miles from anywhere, and also because, like your Gloster, they made some interesting types and variants. 
Finished.
As expected, the Novo decals fell apart as soon as I attempted to manouever them so
I resorted to specialist decal sheets of various provenances. The prototype P came off a 1970s Almark sheet - which seems to have survived well despite being 40 years old.
I made the serials using using a laser printer and blank decal sheet.
The roundels are from a Modeldecal sheet - which is at least 20 years old and working well.
As expected, the Novo decals fell apart as soon as I attempted to manouever them so
I resorted to specialist decal sheets of various provenances. The prototype P came off a 1970s Almark sheet - which seems to have survived well despite being 40 years old.
I made the serials using using a laser printer and blank decal sheet.
The roundels are from a Modeldecal sheet - which is at least 20 years old and working well.
Thank you.
It doesn't look so good in real life, I have to admit.
Still, it's my first completed model since early November so I'm fairly pleased with the result.
Next up should be getting on with a Frog Meteor 4 I started a couple of weeks ago.
I'll post some progress pictures on that over the next few days.
It doesn't look so good in real life, I have to admit.
Still, it's my first completed model since early November so I'm fairly pleased with the result.
Next up should be getting on with a Frog Meteor 4 I started a couple of weeks ago.
I'll post some progress pictures on that over the next few days.
I'd expect all my Almarks sheets to be usable long after I'm pushing up daisies Eric, you might have tried spraying the Novo items with a coat or two of Humbrol or Tamiya Acrylic varnish before you added water. That would add the body that the silkscreen printed top coat varnish has lost over the years.
When they print transfers they print each separate colour onto a waterslide transfer paper in register and at the end of the process they print a carrier film on top using a varnish as carrier film.
(I used to be in the trade, many of my old vinyl 45s still have some of the transfers we used to print on them)
If a decent quality top cover film varnish is used you get Almarks quality, if it ain't you don't
I like your E28/39, I will always be a fan of Frog's old "Buy British" policy, didn't they make some iconic models.
When they print transfers they print each separate colour onto a waterslide transfer paper in register and at the end of the process they print a carrier film on top using a varnish as carrier film.
(I used to be in the trade, many of my old vinyl 45s still have some of the transfers we used to print on them)
If a decent quality top cover film varnish is used you get Almarks quality, if it ain't you don't
I like your E28/39, I will always be a fan of Frog's old "Buy British" policy, didn't they make some iconic models.
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