Just picked up a Lindberg 1/72 Betty bomber and it looks like an old Aurora or Revell release from the sixties.Literally no interior detail,no instrument panel,joysticks radio s nothing,just 3 seated crew figures.Also features over size rivets that I had to sand down.True I only paid five bucks but wow worse than an old Airfix kit!On the positive side,it does seem to have the correct general shape.Does seem kind of small so I have to locate the formula to calculate scale to see what’s what.I plan on painting it in the surrender scheme of white with green crosses. Any info on this kit?
Lindberg is an old time brand too, and according to Scalemates had a Betty released back in the 60’s and has been reboxed a few times.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/968888-lindberg-576-mitsubishi-g4m2-betty-japanese-bomber
regards,
Jack
Either the first or second plastic kit I ever built (I had built some balsa ones) was a GeeBee racing plane by Lindberg. That was in about 1950. I have one in my stash now, to build as a good memories project. The other kit- I don’t remember which was first, which was second, was a P-80.
Yes that is correct, I am putting it together and everything seems to fit pretty well but putty will be necessary on the fuselage joint.No major deal.
Lindberg is one of the early plastic kit manufacturers and the Betty is an old kit. As advancements in aircraft were made Lindberg made models. So the early Lindberg models of the F-104, F-8 Crusader, F-11-F 1, F-100, F-7 Cutlass, and AD4 Skyhawk (Aircraft/Douglas) were models of the prototype aircraft, i.e. the test-bed aircraft. Revell and Monogram survive today, as does Lindberg, but Aurora, Hawk, Stromberg, Comet, Williams Brothers, and several other small manufacturers have gone out of business and their molds have been sold. A lot of Aurora mold were destroyed before they went out of business. Lindberg has some very nice old kits such as the JN4 Jenny, the Locheed Vega, and several old car models.Also of note is that Lindberg models generally scale out very well.
That’s an interesting find, Philo esp. for $ 5.
Lindberg tends to be either love/ hate. I’m in the latter camp but do have respect for the brand. They were inexpensive which was nice. Some of their better old kits have been reissued by Round2 models.
Their Hood and Bismarck were really horrible, but they made a bunch of pretty nice small civilian watercraft in car model scale.
Williams Brothers is alive and producing. They have survived Harvey and are back in production. Lindberg is under Round2 along with AMT.
The original Williams Brothers company was sold by the heirs (family) of the Williams brothers. The sale/purchase included the brand name, the molds, and other assets. It is great that the buyers have continued the production of the kits. They made some unique kits.
The only plastic C-46.
And the only current kits for large scale aircraft engine kits!
I have a William’s Brothers P-35. It looks like a fun, yet challenging kit. I’m looking forward to the time when I have a proper bench setup so I can enjoy building it.
They are very old kits. I picked up a pair of combo sets. One with the betty and two Hellcats. The other was an He-111 and a pair of thunderbolts. Very cheap, like $5 a set, kits weren’t up to Matchbox quality.
My first kit was a Lindberg Models DH Comet Jetliner 50 years ago when I was five. Though simple by today’s standards, I still enjoy building them. Their 1/72 World War Two German aircraft series was on par with Revell’s series of 1/72 at the time (early / mid-1960’s.) I’m grateful that Round 2 is still issuing them to this day.
Couple of years ago I picked up a Revell 1/72nd Nakajima G8N Renzan ‘Rita’ that seemed about the same. Simple interior detail, loads of rivets, but generally looked like photos of the real deal. I think the box was labeled 1972 or thereabouts.
Yes it is a simple kit the hardst part being the masking of the canpy sections.Still it is a quick fun project.As for Williams,I made the Red Lion air racer and it is a very nice kit with good decals,look firward to building the C-46 in the future,perhaos using Alclad to represent a polished aluminum finish.
I’d built the Williams C-46 kit c.1988, limited interior detail well as exterior parts ala attennas, numerous fitting issues though workable, here’s one of a number of kit reviews: Hyperscale Curtis C-46 Commando.
Yes it us not state of the art but still can look good if finished properly.
It’s actually a pretty good model. It looks like the real thing, more so than the various 1/72 DC-3 models out there do.
