Just a note of interest: I was digging through my stash and realized I have two 1/72nd scale kits of the Grummun EF-111A Ravens in both AMT/Ertl and Italeri. (Three if you count my Hasegawa kit) Opening the boxes, I discovered that they are the exact same moldings! There are a few differences, the AMT kit molded in green and the Italeri kit is molded in gray. Different decals are given with the Italeri kit with two TFW options and the AMT gives you an option of a unit based out of a airbase in the UK or the prototype version. Don’t know if I will ever get around to either as my Hasegawa EF-111A is partially built and much better than these two…
Just like the KC-135R from Italeri which is AMT.
Ever heard of a little company called “ESCI?” From the late 70’s through the late 80’s, this Italian company was a pioneer in the realm of the engraved and ultra fine detail we take for granted today. Their 1/72 scale line of aircraft kits were some of the best, ever, and one - the F-100D - was 1984’s Kit of the Year.
Their one drawback was the rather simplistic cockpits found in their kits.
In time, the company was purchased by ERTL and the kits released under the ERTL/ESCI marque. By the 1990’s, ESCI had folded and ERTL/AMT now owned all the molds. They released the ESCI 1/72 kits under this name until ERTL, the parent company, got out of the aircraft model business in the late 90’s.
Around 2000, Italeri obtained those molds that remained in usable condition, having purchased them from ERTL. Most were still sitting around ERTL’s Dyersville warehouse, covered in dust. A few are rumored to have gone to rust outside in the work yard, too, never to be seen again. So after many years, the ESCI molds found their way back into Italian hands.
Today Italeri is re-releasing many of these kits. They re-box them with new decals and new artwork, but they are essentially unchanged from their initial manufacture. Those Raven kits of yours? They are REALLY from the old ESCI molds, cut over three decades ago!
P.S. I have them, too, in ESCI/ERTL boxings. Along with the ESCI F-4 Phantoms and the Sea Harrier FRS1, they are still some of the best 1/72 kits in my collection.
A lot of great info there Dahutist! I don’t recall for sure, but I think I bought both these kits off of “bargain” tables at a couple of different now defunct hobby shops maybe 20 years ago!. I have an XB-70 Valkyrie in the AMT line which I understand had been re-released as an Italeri kit, with the same fit issues I have read about. So all of what you said fits! I have yet to build one of the AMT kits, so I can not judge good or bad. Again, thanks for the background info, I love to learn new stuff, no matter how old I may get!
Model companies often rehash/rerelease other companies products. This keeps them “New” in modelers minds, especially those who are younger or not aware that the kit being touted is in reality 10-30+ years old, just in a new box with new decals.
Took this at the Revell exhibit at iHobby this past weekend. Lots of old kits getting new life. Revell wasn’t the only ones…as said Italeri often releases kits which were once prime sellers in days of old by their original mfr.
!(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t320/hawkeyes_bucket/Misc Stuff/other stuff/P1540487e6.jpg)
Glad to ne of help. If youve ever read the article about ESCI’s history over at Swannys’ Models, well… I’m the author. I know a bit about the company.
After all this time, I find two things interesting:
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The ESCI 1/72 molded aircraft, armor and figure kits are some of the best ever in the scale. They still hold up.
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The 1/48 aircraft kits, by comparison, are clunky and primitive! Not even close, really.
At one time, I had collected nearly every 1/72 kit ESCI produced… and I can tell you they were all good. Ive had to thin most of them out since I cant work in God’s Own Scale* anymore. But Ive kept a few - and the F-111’s are among those.
* Other names I’ve heard applied to 1/72 scale, besides “Gods Own Scale,” are “Bookshelf Scale,” “Braille Scale,” “Recognition Scale,” “1/6” Scale" and “Gentlemens Scale.” Airfix generally gets the credit for the scale’s first use, but 1/72 models were first seen in the early 1930’s, under the now defunct “Skybirds” and Frog “Penguin” aircraft model lines… It later served as the basis for the aircraft recognition models of WWII (thus the name, “Recognition Scale”). As you probably know, the deisgnation “1/72” means that one inch on the model is equal to 72 inches (six feet) on the real thing.
Airfix picked up it’s use in the late 1950’s and developed a line of models around what was then a new idea: the use of a constant scale for all the models in a company’s line-up. Today we see the term generally applied to all plastic scale models, and that is still another name for 1/72 from an earlier time.- “Constant Scale.” But, back then, the notion of constant scale fidelity was ground breaking.
Prior to the use of constant scale, most models were created to fit a shelf-sized packaging box! This was back in the late1950’s, and model kits were almost exclusively sold to young boys back then. And where did most boys go to get them? Why, to the variety, or “Five and Dime,” store, of course!
These stores are roughly equivalent to today’s Dollar Store (or Pound Store, in Great Britain) and they were very popular. One such store you may have heard of was called “Woolworth’s.” Such stores were in every town across America and they carried an immense array of items, so shelf space was limited for products. There was only so much space to go around, you might say. I distinctly recall the big items were on top and everything else - including models - were below. All the merchandise was button-holed and carefully organized, too, a cornucopia of items to delight anyone.
So these “box-scale” kits, as they were called, could be any size that would fit on the allowed shelf space Today, we’re very “serious” as modelers about such things as scale and detail fidelity. But back then, boys didn’t care anything about scale: they only wanted bright colors and hokey “working” features. Really, there was no more reason behind the model’s size than what the store would stock - and what a 10 year old boy might spend a dime on!
So, it was a Brave New World Airfix entered into when their 1/72 scale kits emerged. Truly, it started to move towards the wide range of model scales we take for granted today.