The Eduard Fokker DVI was out as well as the Sopwith Pup and there was a
suggestion that the DFW-28 Floh was present but I didn't pursue this- in
any event- it's only a few weeks away. My status as a turista- namely
anything I bought was going to have to , not only be paid for now, but
humped back to London and then to the States, put a damper on some of my
purchases. If I knew it was going to be in the States with in the next 3 or
4 months at a fairly similar price, I left it alone.
Skybirds 86- run by Michael Eacock [a former engineer for Polaroid in
Massachusetts- brought out three new beauties in 1:72
Rumpler C.IV, DFW CV and the Friedrichshafen G.II- Theses are multi media
kits which are described on P. 7 of the Sept Oct Windsock- The 2 seaters go
for$40.incl air postage and the Friedrichshafen for t$ 57. US incl
airmail] They are extremely nice kits. I purchased the Friedrichshafen-
The metal parts, resin [beautiful thin trailing edges] etchings , rubber
wheels and a plentitude of decals are fantastic.
The addres is Skybirds '86, Orchard House,Chetnole, Sherborne, Dorset,DT9
6PE, England
I spoke to the Revell rep re the 1:28 Fokker DVII- It should be out in the
UK this week and probably before Christmas for the States.
Here is a list of some of the kits I picked up:
Libramodels-Pfalz EII,EIV,EVI- metal parts, etched, decals vac [7.92]
Likewise a Sopwith Cuckoo [11.00]
Scaleplanes: [which is also Libramodels- Joe Chubbock doing the vacs]
These are reissues of the vac form kits with the addition of decals and
etched interior pieces at 8.00
SP-006 Morane Saulnier L
SP-015 Bristol Scout D
SP016-Airco DH5
and SP-os5 A.D.-1Sparrow - an experimental and very odd looking Farmanesque
British pusher
ELAN 1:48 figures [8.00]
3 WWI German [incl Richtofen]and 3 British [one I believe is suposed to be
Lanoe Hawker]
I also found a 1:76 resin 1920 style Rolls Armord car in resin-
Print Media:
The aviation Bookshop of Holloway Road in North London was there and doing
a booming business-
Interesting titles- [most of which I grabbed- my God I will have to hide
this next Visa bill[
Battlebags- British Airships of the First World War [=A325.]
The Sky Their Battlefield - [a complete listing of Allied casualties from
enemy action in the First War- with detailes- of course] [=A340.]
The RFC in France [from April 1917] =A318.95
In the Teeth of the Wind [memoir of the RNAS
Wings Over the Somme- [Gwilym Lewis- Chas Bowyer Ed.]
Bloody April...Black September [Norman Franks et als] =A325.
Windsock?
The Windsock stand was next to that of Blue Rider maitained by our
congenial colleague Richard Humberstone[who it was a delight to meet-
someone asked if Blue Rider still had the Oeffag conversion for the
Albatross DIII- Richard said that he still has a stock -so grab while you
can]
A further plug for the new Blue Rider mag "Insignia" the first issue has an
excellent, well illustrated article on the Oeffag DIII's]
Geting abck to Windsock- Mr. Rimmell never showed- he had some sort of
problem and the tables remained available for lunch but little else. This
was a bit of a disappointment as I had put off getting the DataFile
reprints 1-4 till the show. As It turned out, a few days later I took the
tube out to The Aviation Booksop in North London only to be initially
disappointed by the fact that they were out of all but the #2 Datafile
reprint. But... while I was there a package came in from Windsock with -
not only the reprints but...
a. the First three "Mini-Datafiles
#1 Albatros W-4
#2PKZ2 [the Austrian helicopter]
#3Lewis Guns
These mini datafiles are designed to concentrate on lesser known subjects
and will be 12-16 pages and sell for =A35 [ plus postage- of course]
In addition was a new monograph called Richtofen by one AE Ferko- The text
is really nothing new but the drawings[by Dr. Rimmell]of all of Richtofens
planes [incliuding an all red Albatros C.IX] At =A321. [ plus [postage- its
more than a bit pricey- but the pictures ? I've never seen so many of them]
The new flyer from Rosemont has these advertised.
All of which asks the question- was it profitable or enjoyable to make the
journey?
The answer being a godd old wishy washy- yes and no! I could have gotten
the goodies eventually by post and - considering the cost of transport-
and at less money even when considering postage. What really made it
worthwhile was seeing some of the model work. Norman Franks' Ilya Muramets
and Short Bomber- scratch built masterpieces from last year- were there and
were truly magnificent- but there was another modelers work that stood
out. I don't know the mans name- he had several 1:72 single seaters- allied
and German- done in mini diorama fashion on bases with ladders or some
equipment around [no figures]-I ws told by someone at the table [which was
a display area for one of the area groups] that the gentlemen who did these
masterpieces sells them in London for huge prices. What makes these models
different? Two things I think-in addition to using a basic diorama setting-
this guy used oils- I'm not sure the effect is true scale but the effect
was dramatic and made these aircraft models into true jewels-
I've used up enough bandwidth- thanks for listening,
BTW- I went to the Imperial War Museum and took several shots of the Camel
2f1- someone was interested?
Cheers-Gerry McOsker
Gerry McOsker- Newport Rhode Island.
"Solvency is valueless without security and security is impossible
without solvency." W.S. Churchill