History of Plastic modeling

The history of plastic modeling arose shortly before the Second World War, albeit in very limited form. Mass-produced plastic kits came in the period after the Second World War era, but you can not look at the history of plastic model without the long history of modeling in general, which dates from at least to ancient Egypt. Some graves contained models of cars and ships. In the history models were used to ideas and designs for recording. Before photography models rank with the art to contemporary events. In the lobby of the El Presidente Hotel in downtown Santo Domingo is a model of Santa Maria. It is 20 Century model used to illustrate the history of islands. In fact, most models from the past seem to be vessels and many are also in hand. Most warships have been built before the model ship was built. Until the mid-20th Model century was a hobby, the vast quantities of time. With the availability of mass-marketed plastic model kits and disposable incomes in the (relatively) prosperous times after the Second World War and Reconstruction in Europe and Japan, a new hobby was born: plastic kit building.

One of the main selling points was a link with history. Another was a hunger for an understanding of how different machines work. Model creates an interest in issues that will in any case from what is the color of the engine in Richard Petty's car, or what color was a F6F-5 Hellcat. Modeling allows each user a separate representation of the USS Constitution, or to keep Darth Vader's Tie fighter.


The first plastic models were manufactured in the 1950s by the British company Frog and Airfix. American manufacturers like Revell, AMT, Monogram and won promotion in the 1960s as French Heller SA in Europe. Since the 1970s, Japanese firms such as Hasegawa and Tamiya have dominated the field and represent the highest state of the art. Brands from Russia, Central Europe, China and Korea have also prominent recently. Many smaller companies also have plastic models.

During the injection-molding is the predominant manufacturing process for plastic models, the high cost of equipment and tools make it unsuitable for lower-income production. For example, models of small and obscure subjects are often produced using alternative methods. Vacuum Forming is popular for aircraft models, although assembly is more difficult than for injection molded parts kits. Resin-casting, popular with smaller manufacturers, especially "aftermarket" companies (but also producers of full kits) yields a greater degree of detail formed in situ, but as the forms used not so long, the price for this Kits is much higher. In recent times, the latest releases from major manufacturers offer unprecedented detail, this is a game for the best resin kits, which are often also high-quality mixed-media (photo-etched brass, turned aluminum) parts.