Archive

In this regular monthly section Aeronautical Archive will take a nostalgic look at one of the many plastic model kits produced in the in fifties and sixties of the last century.  This month we look at the plastic preformed kit made available by Frog in 1963.  The price quoted is the original retail price.

Frog Catalogue No.391P Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk

By 1965 there were no fewer than thirteen plastic kit manufacturers producing versions of the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk or Warhawk.  The superlative 1/48 scale P-40B produced by Monogram without doubt set the standard that the other manufacturers endeavoured to achieve.  Many failed, some miserably but amongst the top runners were Airfix, Revell and Frog who each produced a 1/72 scale version of the aircraft.

Frog was the trade name of International Model Aircraft Ltd of Morden Road, Merton South West London and they were one of the first to produce a plastic model of the P-40 their version having been available for several years prior to the Airfix or Revell variants.  The Frog kit was not quite up to the standard of the Airfix or Revell models of the P-40 but it was very good and assembled easily from the twenty-four separate 
components.  It was not possible to accurately ascertain either from the box or the detailed instruction sheet as to the precise version of the venerable P-40 that was to be represented, but this made it possible for the more enthusiastic modeller to modify the kit and apply an authentic colour schemes to accurately represent an aircraft that was used in many theatres and by many differing units in the early years of World War Two.

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