The Styrofoam Glider Squadron: January 2014

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Comparison of 2 different Grumman F6F Hellcat gliders

Here is a comparison of the Power Prop Gliders #3 Grumman F6F Hellcat and the Glider with Power Prop #7 Grumman F6F Hellcat.

The fuselages are very similar in shape with only slight differences

The wings are exactly the same shape

The horizontal stabilizer / elevator are exactly the same shape with the exception of that notch at the top.

Counterfeit Fighter Gliders - #5 Blue Angels

Counterfeit Fighter Gliders - #3 Red Arrows

Counterfeit Fighter Gliders - #2 Snowbirds

Counterfeit Fighter Gliders - #1 Thunderbirds

Really Really Bad Counterfeit Thunderbirds glider, with WWII Power Prop Flying Gliders #1 Focke Wulf 190-A4 wings

Fighter Gliders - Introduction

"Fighter Glider" is a search that I routinely do on E-bay to find gliders that I have not seen before. Quite a while back I did a search and found a lot of 10 "Fighter Gliders" for something like $7.00 which were labeled as being made in China. Most of the gliders I have that have come from China have been gigantic pieces of garbage, but for whatever reason I decided to buy these. All of the packages look the same so there is no need for a group shot.

Fighter Gliders - front side of package

Fighter Gliders - reverse side of package

I automatically assumed that these were counterfeits. When I looked through saved images of gliders that I have, I found the following pictures that confirmed my suspicions that these are counterfeits.

First I found this picture which I had saved long ago. It looks like it is an authentic glider to me. One of the lot of 10 Fighter Gliders looks almost exactly like this one, but this one is more detailed and has the looks of an authentic glider.

Then I found this picture, which I had also saved long ago.

The glider in this picture looks a lot like one of the gliders in the set of 10 I bought. The quality of the picture is poor so I couldn't zoom in on the package detail any closer.

And then I found this picture on E-bay being sold by the guy whom Eric & I each bought a box of Tsubame glider from. His description says "World Acrobat Team Airplane" which is familiar as I believe I have seen similar gliders for sale on E-bay in the past. The Fighter Gliders that I bought were definitely counterfeited off of the gliders shown below which appear to be the real deal.

I was able to zoom in close on this picture and read the detail on the packages. Looking at the packages pictured above from top to bottom, the packages say

"Snow Birds"

"Blue Angels"

"Thunder Birds"

"Red Arrows"

"New Blue Angels"

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #12 Piper Tri-Pacer

This is obviously not a Piper Tri-Pacer. This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #3 Grumman F6F Hellcat that comes in the red and blue packages. This is a half decent copy as the print job is poor but still resembles the original.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #12 Piper Tri-Pacer

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #11 Spitfire MK1

This is not what the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look like either. This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #1 Hawker Hurricane that comes in the red and blue packages. It's a pretty poor copy because the print job is quite poor all over it.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #11 Spitfire MK1

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #10 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk

This is not what the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look like either. This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #9 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk from the red and blue packages. This is a really good copy. The light colored spot on the wings is actually glare. I don't think it was a coincidence that this glider ended up in this package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #10 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #9 Norther American Mustang MK2

This is obviously not what the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look like. This glider is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #4 Supermarine Spitfire MK.II that comes in the red and blue packages. The fuselage looks quite nice, although the quality of the print job on the wings is quite poor. I have no idea why this Spitfire would have ended up in the Mustang package, considering #11 is supposed to be a Spitfire.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #9 Norther American Mustang MK2

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #8 Focke-Wulf TA 152H

This is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look. The glider pictured here is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #2 Messerschmitt BF109E that comes in the red and blue packages. The quality of this copy is quite high although the glider was not aligned properly in the printer as you can see. I figure that this glider ended up in this package because there are 2 German airplanes in the Power Prop Flying Gliders set and the Power Prop Gliders set, and since the FW190 was already taken, the BF109E ended up in the TA152H package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #8 Focke-Wulf TA 152H

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #7 Lockheed P38J or Lightning

This is clearly a Lightning, but this is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look. This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #12 / #13 Lockheed P-38 that comes in the red and blue packages. It is a pretty poor copy as the print job is quite poor on all of the parts. Once again, I do not think that it was a coincidence that this glider made it into this package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #7 Lockheed P38J or Lightning

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #6 Hawker Hurricane MK.11C

This is clearly not a Hurricane. This is an identical copy of Power Prop Gliders #11 Type 3 Fighter Hien form the set with red and blue packages. I have no idea why this glider would have ended up in a Hurricane package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #6 Hawker Hurricane MK.11C

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #5 Thunderbolt F-47D

This is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look either. This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #8 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt that comes in the red and blue packages. This is a pretty good copy although the printing looks a little too dark on the fuselage. I don't think it was a coincidence that this glider made it into this package either.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #5 Thunderbolt F-47D

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #4 Airacobra P-39

This is obviously not an Airacobra P-39. This is a copy of the Power Prop Gliders #10 North American P-51 Mustang. I cannot speculate as to why this glider would have ended up in this package. The quality of the wings and the horizontal stabilizer is quite nice. The fuselage is quite blurry but strongly represents the original.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #4 Airacobra P-39

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #3 Type 4 Fighter Hayate

This is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look either. There are quite a few similarities, but they are not the same. This is a copy of the Power Prop Gliders #5 Type 4 Fighter Hayate which comes in red and blue packages. The print fuselage looks great, however the wings and the horizontal stabilizer look pretty bad. I don't think that it is a coincidence that this glider made it into this package either.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #3 Type 4 Fighter Hayate

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #2 Mitsubishi Zero

This is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look either. This is a copy of the Power Prop Gliders #6 Type Zero Carrier Fighter that comes in the red and blue packages. The wings appear to have had a good print job (although not aligned completely) and the fuselage and horizontal stabilizer have a a pretty poor print job. I also don't think that it is a coincidence that the Type Zero Carrier Fighter glider ended up in the Mitsubishi Zero package as they are based on the same airplane.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #2 Mitsubishi Zero

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #1 Focke Wulf 190 A-4

This is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look. This is a copy of the Power Prop Gliders #7 Focke-Wulf FW190 that comes in the red and blue envelopes, of which I have already posted pictures of. This is a nearly exact copy although the quality of the printing on the wings of this glider is quite poor compared to my other glider. I don't think it is a coincidence that the FW190 from the red and blue package set made it into the FW190 package set. It is pretty clear to me that this was deliberate.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #1 Focke Wulf 190 A-4

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - Introduction

Not long after I first started collecting gliders I found a complete set of 12 for sale on E-bay. They had all of the characteristics that I was looking for, which are that the front side of the packages has the propeller logo and the reverse side of the packages says "Made in Taiwan". The seller was asking a reasonable price, so I bought them. My major motivation for buying this set was that it contained the Lockheed P-38 Lightning glider which is quite difficult to find. Shown below is a picture of the front side of all of the packages and the reverse side of one of them.

A very nice looking set (especially the Lightning)

"Made in Taiwan", shown as clear as day

I quickly realized that there was something wrong, as you will soon see.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Popsicle Stick Clothespin Fokker Dr.1

I have seen quite a few pictures of models of airplanes made with clothespins. I first started seeing them when searching for images of styrofoam gliders to add to my collection. If you do a Google image search of "clothespin airplane" you will see what I mean.

Inspired by what I saw online, I decided to make a clothespin airplane myself out of a spring loaded clothespin as I don't have any of those other kind of clothespins around. I was supposed to go to a Christmas ornament gift exchange and decided to try make a clothespin airplane to bring as my ornament. I wanted to make it red and green so that it would have a Christmas theme and even considered making a pilot with a Santa hat on.

Well, as I started making it I got really into it! Making this airplane took me somewhere from 4 to 5 hours as I figured out out the design. What took up the most time is that the design changed multiple times. I ended up coloring the whole thing red, other than the supports for the top wing which originally colored green and could not go back and change. I even added a propeller from one of my counterfeit Power Prop Gliders.

Materials used:

- 1 clothespin (fuselage)

- 4 or 5 popsicle sticks (wings, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer)

- Sharpie markers (red, black & green)

- Elmer's glue

- Card stock (for pilot)

- Black metal office clip (one handle used for landing gear)

- Black plastic (wheels)

- Power Prop Glider propeller

Tools used:

- Cutting pliers (for cutting the popsicle sticks so that they wouldn't splinter)

- X-Acto knife & cutting mat (cutting out the pilot from card stock)

- Scissors (to trim corners of the popsicle sticks

- Hair dryer (to make the glue dry faster)

I ended up liking my creation so much that I didn't want to give it away at the Christmas ornament gift exchange and had to find a substitute ornament. Tonight I was inspired to make a pilot for the airplane and added an over sized Manfred Von Richthofen made of card stock. Here are pictures of the final result:

Front view

Rear view

Left side view

Right side view

Front right side view

Front left side view

There are some dimensions and parts that I would change if I made this again. Now I am thinking of making another one of Snoopy flying his Sopwith Camel which should be easier because it is a biplane.

Some really interesting clothespin airplanes can be seen on a blog called "The Penny Whistle" under the labels "WWI" or "boxkites" at the following address:

http://thepennywhistle.blogspot.ca/

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Google Image Search

I forget exactly what words I used in an image search for additional gliders, but I found the following picture. These gliders look loosely based on some of the WW2 Power Prop Flying Gliders. I would certainly add them to my collection if I could find them for sale online.

The entire set

A close up of what appears to be a Tomahawk and a 190 A-4

Tsubame Gliders - Box photo

After posting Eric's pictures of his WW2 Power Prop Flying Gliders box, I decided to take some pictures of my Japanese Tsubame glider box and post them as well. The artwork on this box is quite nice.