The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

fredk wrote:By the way; you can pick up Frog kits issued by Novo a lot cheaper than the price of a Frog issue, but they don't have stands in them

Hi fredk,I will add them to my list.

The main differences between Novo produced versions of FROG kits (apart from lack of stands) are softer plastic and unusable decals. They are perfectly buildable but you will need alternative decals sets.

The Soviet issue "anonymous" versions are perhaps the worst iterations of the ex-FROG kits. Their plastic was brittle, often oddly coloured and seemingly impervious to normal polystyrene solvents. Their instructions were in Cyrillic and were printed on paper that my local butcher used to wrap his cheap sausages in. The decals in these kits were absolutely hopeless.

More modern re-pops of old FROG kits (by Smer, Eastern Express etc) are better and have decent decals.

Eric Mc wrote:The main differences between Novo produced versions of FROG kits (apart from lack of stands) are softer plastic and unusable decals. They are perfectly buildable but you will need alternative decals sets.

The Soviet issue "anonymous" versions are perhaps the worst iterations of the ex-FROG kits. Their plastic was brittle, often oddly coloured and seemingly impervious to normal polystyrene solvents. Their instructions were in Cyrillic and were printed on paper that my local butcher used to wrap his cheap sausages in. The decals in these kits were absolutely hopeless.

More modern re-pops of old FROG kits (by Smer, Eastern Express etc) are better and have decent decals.

Hi EricMC,thanks for the info,I will stick to Frog,as I dont have alternative decals.The two Frog kits I have done so far have gone together with no filler and the decals worked fine.They were quick and easy build,just right for me.

Hi all,thank you for your responses to my question.Also many thanks to those who posted me stands,they are very much appreciated.

celt wrote:

Eric Mc wrote:The main differences between Novo produced versions of FROG kits (apart from lack of stands) are softer plastic and unusable decals. They are perfectly buildable but you will need alternative decals sets.

The Soviet issue "anonymous" versions are perhaps the worst iterations of the ex-FROG kits. Their plastic was brittle, often oddly coloured and seemingly impervious to normal polystyrene solvents. Their instructions were in Cyrillic and were printed on paper that my local butcher used to wrap his cheap sausages in. The decals in these kits were absolutely hopeless.

More modern re-pops of old FROG kits (by Smer, Eastern Express etc) are better and have decent decals.

Hi EricMC,thanks for the info,I will stick to Frog,as I dont have alternative decals.The two Frog kits I have done so far have gone together with no filler and the decals worked fine.They were quick and easy build,just right for me.

Indeed, I have found that original FROG decals (which are all over 40 years old or more now) still behave very well.