Air Plane Photos 2013: Model Airplane Kits

Model Airplane Kits

Source(www.google.com.pk)

The magazine was launched as Flying Aces in October 1928[1] by Periodical House, Inc. It was initially published in a 7x10” format, with more than 100 pages per issue, and sold for 15 cents per copy. In November 1933, the magazine moved to the so-called "slick" format — an 8½x10" format printed on glossy paper and began featuring full-sized plans for model airplanes in every issue. Issue size was reduced to 74 pages. In addition to adventure stories, non-fiction aviation articles and aviation news were added, as were articles related to model airplanes. The magazine’s tagline became "Fiction, Model Building, Fact — Three Aviation Magazines in One

During World War II the magazine had been subtitled 'Magazine of the Flying Age'. The content focused on the war effort, with little advertising and the name changed briefly to Flying Age late in the war. In later years, model airplane construction features started appearing more regularly and became more and more dominant, until finally, in 1947, the magazine was renamed Flying Models. It was sold to Carstens Publications in 1969 which continues to publish the title without the fiction content.[6]

Flying Models is set apart from its competition as it features in-depth model construction features and new product reviews, as well as catering to specific interests within the model airplane construction hobby, such as soaring, control line, and stunt flying. The magazine also reports on the latest technology related to radio control, ducted fan, and electric flight. Editors Fanelli and Wiggin are both active hobbyists themselves, having built and flown many models of their own over the years. In December 2011, Flying Models expanded its reach with the debut of digital editions for home computers, laptops, and select mobile digital devices

Static model aircraft (i.e. those not intended to fly) are scale models built using plastic, wood, metal, or paper. Some static models are scaled for use in wind tunnels, where the data acquired is used to aid the design of full scale aircraft.

Models are available that have already been built and painted; models that require construction, painting and gluing; or models that have been painted but need to be snapped together.

Static model aircraft are primarily available commercially in a variety of scales from as large as 1:18 scale to as small as 1:1250 scale. Plastic model kits requiring assembly and painting are primarily available in 1:200, 1:144, 1:72, 1:50, 1:48, 1:32 and 1:24 scale, often depending on the size of the original subject. Die-cast metal models (pre-assembled and factory painted) are primarily available in 1:400, 1:200, 1:72, and 1:600, 1:500, 1:300, 1:250, 1:48. A variety of odd scales (e.g. 1:239) are also available but less common.

The scales are not random but are based on easy divisions of imperial measuring systems so that 1:48 scale is 1" to 4 feet, 1:72 is 1" to 6 feet. Even numbered scales are similarly based on metric systems. 1:72 scale was first introduced in the Skybirds wood and metal model aircraft kits in 1932. Skybirds was followed closely by Frog which produced 1:72 scale aircraft in 1936 under the "Frog Penguin" name. According to Fine Scale Modeler magazine, 1:72 was also popularized by the US War Department (renamed the Department of Defense) when it requested models of single seat aircraft at that scale. The War Department also requested models of multi-engine aircraft at a scale of 1:144. The War Department was hoping to educate Americans in the proper identification of aircraft. These scales provided the best compromise between size and detail. After WWII, the toy manufactures continued to favor these scales. More detailed models are available at 1:32 and 1:24. Some manufacturers introduced 1:50 scale and 1:30 scale. Japan offers 1:100. The French firm Heller SA is the only manufacturer to offer models in the scale of 1:125. Herpa and others produce promotional models for airlines in scales including 1:200, 1:400, 1:500, 1:600, 1:1000 and more. A few First World War aircraft were offered at 1:28 by Revell, such as the Fokker Dr.I and Sopwith Camel.

A number of manufacturers have made 1:18th scale aircraft to go with cars of the same scale. Aircraft scales have commonly been different from the scales used for military vehicles, figures, cars and trains – the armour equivalent of 1:72 was 1:76 and the rail version was 1:87 scale however the difference between the scales can be noticeable and so a small number of kits have been offered over the years that match these alternate scales, while there has been a growing tendency in recent years for smaller military vehicle kits to use aircraft scales. This has resulted in a substantial amount of duplication of the more famous subjects in a large variety of sizes, which while useful for forced perspective box dioramas has limited the number of possible subjects to those that are more well known.

Other less popular scales are 1:50, 1:64, 1:96, and 1:128; however, old models are often revived in these scales. Many older plastic models, such as those built by Revell do not conform to any established scale as they were sized to fit inside standard commercially available boxes. These kits are often called "box-scale" and are often reissued in their original, unusual scales.[2] Some helicopters used to be offered in 1:32 scale, similar to some fixed-wing aircraft models. The trend is to issue helicopters in 1:35 scale, similar to most land vehicle models.