Central Model Toy Company 1/72 kits

[rt65soo]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been able to find out a lot about Central Model Toy Company, a Japanese kit manufacturer from the 60s. I know that they produced the following 1/72 kits:

- Douglas A4D Skyhawk

- Dassault Mirage IIIC

- Hawker Hunter F.6

- Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 'Farmer-B'

My brother and I built the Skyhawk & Mirage way back in the late 70s when we were young boys - I recall that they came with fuel tanks and a full load of weapons (bombs for the A-4 and missiles for the Mirage) and they looked accurate. However I don't know how they compare to a set of drawings or if there are any faults for any of the above kits. I tried to search the Net for any details or comments but haven't been able to uncover anything although I have discovered that some can be found for sale on eBay or other collectible kit websites.

Does anyone know if there were any other kits in the series? Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the kits? If the Hunter is any good I might try and search for one although I know that the Revell ones are more accurate by far and probably easier to build. Likewise the other kits will have been superseded by more modern renditions but nostalgia makes me want to try and build some of the kits of my childhood but apply all the skills & techniques that I've picked up over the years in this wonderful hobby of ours.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Regards,

Richard

[Giorgio N]

First of all, welcome here !

Have to say this is the very first time I've heard of this company. Can you tell more about it ? I'm very curious, the Mig-19 especially would have been a unusual subject in the '60s

[Giorgio N]

Actually, I found one for sale here:

http://www.aviationmegastore.com/hawker-hu...2&art=85670

The price is very reasonable for something that must be rare enough. Not sure how much it would cost to post from Holland to China though..

[172flogger]

I has MIG-19 and early version Skyhawk. And i have Mirage III somewhere in my home, but i never inspected her.

Skyhawk looks simple like old 60s Airfix kits with recessed panel lines like old Matchbox kits.

MIG-19P Farmer is very inaccurate. Like Heller MiG-19, nothing for serious modeller.

MIG-19 was later reissued by the BANDAI company.

[rt65soo]

Hi again,

As a further update to my original post I have managed to purchase 3 of the Central kits from eBay recently. Being in China temporarily until January 2011, I had to wait for my brother to take some pics of the kits back home in Oz. First up is the A4D Skyhawk:

Next is the MiG-19:

Finally the Mirage IIIC:

As can be seen, the parts count isn't very high and there are much better & more modern renditions available today however the kits were, I think, pretty much on a par with your typical Airfix or Hasegawa at the time (early 70s). I won't get a chance to inspect them closer (much less build them) till I return home next year but hopefully I'll be able to describe them in more detail as part of a build report in the future.

There was also a Hunter on offer but I missed out on it. Thanks to Giorgio N there is one on offer at Aviation Megastore for a reasonable price (about 8 Euros IIRC) but unfortunately the postage cost is very prohibitive (something like 30+ Euros for the first kg of a parcel) as they use courier only. Anyway here's the boxtop for anyone who's interested:

Cheers,

Richard

[AWFK10]

I think I remember a passing reference to the Central Hunter in an Airfix Magazine article many years ago (around the time you were building the other kits), implying that it wasn't all that accurate.

[mrcooljules]

I think I remember a passing reference to the Central Hunter in an Airfix Magazine article many years ago (around the time you were building the other kits), implying that it wasn't all that accurate.

lol, dont upset him ;-)

anyway ta for posting the fotos, i had never heard of this make, so nice to learn something