[Epapazian]

[Rush104]

Nice planes, Epipazian! I love the I-16's, especially the one in the bottom pic...

[Captain Eddie]

Tell us about them, Epapazian! Who made them? When? And why no props?

[Epapazian]

Originally Posted by Captain Eddie

Tell us about them, Epapazian! Who made them? When? And why no props?

These go back about twelve years or just about the same time that the first of the new diecasts were appearing in the marketplace. At that time, I had just rekindled my interest in model building and collecting after a long hiatus. For some reason, I liked my planes to be displayed in the flying mode without props---as if they were spinning. Also, I preferred the planes with their wheels up, but curiously, I didn't care that much about crew figures----don't ask me why. Although I made kits in this manner, I began my interest in this hobby as a kid starting with the old WWII recognition models. With this impetus lingering in my mind, I commissioned the preparation of 1:72 scale "master models" of a number of planes. Once completed, these were made into rubber molds which in turn produced solid resin castings with etched panel lines, raised canopy frames, and other refinements. The final preparation of the castings, once air bubbles, dents and other problems were dealt with, featured the addition of wheels, spinners, guns, pitot heads, antennae, etc. Then I painted them as you see in the pictures. The HS-123 and HE-51 were made from kits, but the others pictured are these, now aging, solid resin castings, which, as you can see, provide a lot of detail. I doubt that the rubber molds are still in good shape. I donated them to a small company in Texas, but I have heard nothing about them since. Even if they were still viable, the pricing for new castings is much higher than for comparable diecast models. While I have long since abandoned plastic in favor of diecast, some of these resin castings still sit proudly in my display cases along with their more modern counterparts. Every once in a while, I dig out an "extra" and do it in an interesting scheme. If you guys are interested, I'll post more pics of such models when I have the time.

[djjeffhall]

I would love to see more pictures, please keep posting them and thanks for taking the time.

[replicaman]

Hi everybody

I'm new in this great forum, and I was astonished with Epapazian's impressive models.

I'm from Spain -Barcelona-.When I was younger, I used to build aircraft plastic kits, but I don´t have enough time nowadays and I've decided to collect diecast models. I'm also very interested in Spanish Civil War aviation.

The SCW planes period are few or none represented in any commercial diecast manufacturer. You can imagine my happyness when I found many SCW models in the series "Mythic Biplanes" from Planeta deAgostini, Henschel HS 123, FIAT CR-32 (nationalists) DeHavilland DH82 Tiger Moth, Polikarpov I-15 (republicans) and a prewar spanish Avro 504K, incredible.

BUT, despite of these very interesting versions, BEWARE from the Planeta deAgostini biplanes series. Quality in these 1/72 diecast models is awful. In a first view, they've intended to mount the whole cable systems with thick glue balls. Handpainting has a bad trace and brilliant and you will laugh with the pilot's glass. All of them should need a hard restore work.

I don't know who the manufacturer is (as i.e. in the Altaya WWII warplanes series is IXO Models Junior). IXO planes are largely better than the deAgostini ones, and also worst than many other diecast manufacturers.

A last coment, the Polikarpov I-15 "Chato" is the finest model of them and it will become one of the jewels of my collection.

I will continue looking for SCW model planes

[fileasfog]

I wish Corgi would make Spanish civil war planes

[chascbv]

An impressive selection of the main types flown by "blue" and "red" aviators in those pioneering days, Epapazian. This is IMHO a very interesting topic (no chauvinism implied, I hope...), so my skin has now become somewhat "greener"... (the Spanish Civil War is not a popular topic, so related offerings and releases are virtually nil, except for the Planeta and Altaya kind of stuff; sadly, my only SCW item is a 1/48th scale Stuka by CDC Armour).

Some very nice collection you have there! Congrats!