I’m not sure if this question belongs in General Discussion or not, but here goes anyway. About 1954- '55, my brother and I got model airplane kits for Christmas. He built a B-17 and I did a B-24. They were plank-on-frame balsa, with injection-molded plastic parts, like the canopies, turrets, wing tips, and I can’t remember what else. I had a ball building and painting mine, but I can’t remember who made the kit. I think it was Strombecker. Anyone remember these kits from way back when?
The kits you describe sound like the Monogram “Speedee Built” line of kits that were marketed in the 1950’s. They were the first “Multimedia” kits in that they were basically balsa former & plank construction, but also included injection plastic detail parts. They were supposedly flying models, but were way too heavy to actually fly. I built several of them as a kid & they really started what has become a life-long hobby for me. They also taught me that Butyrate Dope & plastic didn’t mix well [:)].
The kit you show is by Guillow’s – here is their website: www.guillow.com
They are not “plank on frame” – they are former/stringer with paper covering, usually – agt least the ones I remember. Some of these bigger ships could take an .010 or maybe .020 engine although I never did that – I was into .035 & up – a free-flight SE5 was my favorite …
Monogram “Speedee-Bilts” only covered single engine aircraft, not the bigger stuff. They had a former/plank/stringer fuselage and carved balsa flying surfaces, paper covering where needed. They were powered by a long rubber band and they did fly !!! I built dozens in the 50’s & 60’s – they crashed a lot and/or flew with a lit-firecracker in 'em … I cannot remeber all the kits they had, but I know I built a lot of Hellcats …
The Gillows kits were manufactured within the last 25 to 30 years. First the B-17, then a B-25, and later (about 15 years ago) the B-24. Monogram did manufacture a multi-media B-24 in the early to mid 1950s and possibly earlier than that. Strombecker aslo made some multi-media kits, but there were also many manufacturers of balsa kits that had some vacuum formed plastic parts as well as injection molded wheels and props. Top Flight, Goldberg, and a few others were around at that time, as well as Gillows.
I’ll be darned !! I stand corrected. I didn’t know Monogram got into those bigger ones. As I said, we built the single-engine ones. For anything bigger than those we were into the Berkeley & etc kits – the control-line or free-flight (usually scale) stuff with small gas engines …
Asa mentioned above, I do remember the Top Flite & Strombecker kits but not sure I remember building any specific ones. There was also Comet – know because the parts were not pre-cut (or not very well), you had to be handy with a razor blade.
