Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

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uavdb
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Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by uavdb »

This kit was my first Ebay purchase way back in 1995. I thought to myself, "I can start collecting old out of production models as an investment!".....yeah, right. A few years later the Russians started cranking out old Frog kits, rendering my Wallace worth about the 5 dollars I paid for it. Who could have known that my crackpot scheme of sitting on a goldmine of old OOP model kits would never pan out? The silver lining is now I wont feel guilty for building them!
This is a pretty nice kit for it's age, there is some minor flash and some sink marks in the usual areas, but there are some surprisingly petite parts, like the wing struts and landing gear bits, for such an old kit. All control surfaces are separate parts. One odd thing is that the box art shows this Wallace with wheel spats, but there are none in the box or shown in the assembly diagram. The decals look quite nice and useable after getting the sunshine treatment to cure the carrier film yellowing. One interesting feature of this kit is the huge clear stand. It's really big, and it does have location lines on the base for the "Westland Wallace" decal.
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gnomemeansgnome
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by gnomemeansgnome »

Cool beans. Is it also buildable as the Wapiti?
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by Gregers »

Sweet. I have a couple of these stashed away somewhere. Watch out for the decals disintegrating on contact with water though. That happened to afriend of mines example.

All the best

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uavdb
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by uavdb »

gnomemeansgnome wrote:Cool beans. Is it also buildable as the Wapiti?
It would be if one had whatever Wapiti specific parts needed to make it one. The box only contains Wallace parts.
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by uavdb »

Gregers wrote:Sweet. I have a couple of these stashed away somewhere. Watch out for the decals disintegrating on contact with water though. That happened to afriend of mines example.

All the best

Greg
Yes, been there done that! I found an article on this some time ago (I've forgotten where) that if you hold the decal sheet tilted at an angle with some light shining on the surface, you can see fairly small fractures if they are present. If they are, a light spray of Glosscoat is in order, followed by a heavier application after the first is dry. It's worked for me on more than one occasion allowing them to be used. It is really important to remember to trim them close to the markings edge. Ask me how I know!
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by ShaunW »

That looks to be a decent old kit of a nicely left field subject, Dave. Although I am a real fan of building classic kits I'm much less enthusiastic about using classic decals and looking at those examples they would be heading for the bin with modern replacements being sought - you sound like you have more patience than I and you might well be able to make them work.
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by splash »

I still think Frog made the best stands.
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by uavdb »

splash wrote:I still think Frog made the best stands.
Frog wasn't a company inclined to skimp on providing rather burly stands, that's for sure.
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by JamesPerrin »

If only Frog put as much effort into their pilot figures as their stands. Great choice of build btw.
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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by The Great Auk »

The bit about the russians re-popping Frog molds brought back bad memories.

In the very early '90s after communism fell, I picked up an eastern bloc re-pop of this kit at a hobby shop - remember those? The kit was horribly molded in a substance I couldn't identify that was impervious to model cement. Now with a bit more experience, I think it may have been some type of resin but there was nothing included that indicated it was anything but bog-standard styrene.

I need a drink now just thinking about it. Is the sun above the yard arm yet?

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Re: Air Lines 1/72 Westland Wallace

Post by iggie »

The Great Auk wrote:The bit about the russians re-popping Frog molds brought back bad memories.

In the very early '90s after communism fell, I picked up an eastern bloc re-pop of this kit at a hobby shop - remember those? The kit was horribly molded in a substance I couldn't identify that was impervious to model cement. Now with a bit more experience, I think it may have been some type of resin but there was nothing included that indicated it was anything but bog-standard styrene.

I need a drink now just thinking about it. Is the sun above the yard arm yet?

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