IN PLASTIC : WW2 AIRCRAFT KITS

INTRODUCTION

I was born on a day which would not become a day that would " live in infamy " until my seventh birthday, December 7th, 1941. I was too young then to understand what had happened but it quickly became real to me. I clearly remember the day my father went off to war and the day he came home. The Second World War became my childhood war. Little boys growing up in little towns in the red dirt of central Oklahoma had only romantic dreams of the nobility of war sadly began until reality began to shatter neighbourhood families who sadly began to display gold stars in their windows. My personal war wasn't even called one, just a " police action ". While my contemporaries were fighting and peace - keeping in Korea, I spent most of it in Tokyo, Japan, serving in an U.S. Army Engineer Battalion ( Topographic ), making maps of the Far East. My emotional war was Vietnam as I spent many difficult and agonising hours counseling college young men about their response to their nation's call to duty.

As I have grown older, the personal impact of war has diminished but the fascination remains and continues to grow. War is fascinating. Even with its horrors, hurts and hates, war fascinates. We are drawn to it like moth to the flame, even while aware of the risk. We study it, write about it, replay it and argue over it forever. ( ... ) We are also fascinated by the instruments of war. Perhaps, we reduce the impact of these instruments to lessen their horror, as well. Miniatures of war toys have been around as long as there have been soldiers or sailors to use them. In the early years of this century, however, a new instrument of war developed which caught the attention of war - makers. The ability to fly above the groundbattle and engage the enemy in air battle became a significant element in victory or defeat. The airplane was basically novel and experimental in the first war of this century but became decisive in the middle war... ( ... )

THE WW2 AIRCRAFT COMPANY LIST

This section contains two parts beginning with an alphabetical list of WW2 aircraft manufacturers by country and then by manufacturer. Not all of the manufacturers of WW2 aircraft are included here, just those companies whose aircraft have been produced or planned by a plastic kit company. Thus far, there are 220 companies from 23 countries in the list but these numbers will surely grow as more kits are produced in the future.

The second part of this section is an alphabetical list of WW2 aircraft and the plastic kit companies who produced or planned a lut of that specific aircraft. Thus far, there are 920 WW2 aircraft for which at least one kit company planned or produced a plastic kit. This list will certainly continue to grow as plastic kits of more WW2 aircraft appear in the future.