Luft46's Blog

Regular readers of this blog may have begun to think the name of this blog is a misnomer. At heart I will always be a Luft 46 modeller because this is the most non mainstream area of modelling. Having said that some of my recent excursions have been to do weird subjects like the Putty Hog. Even the Hanomag is being done in the service of my Munchen 48 diorama which the BV P202 may end up on also.
Having had a good look through my model cupboard I settled on this Toad kit. I have quite a few of their kits and have started a couple but none have ever been finished.
Toad were an English firm from the mid to late 90’s in the golden age of Luft 46 modelling. Around this time volume wise the Czechs dominated with Planet , RS and AV throwing out lots of kits. The owner Peter Long had a very droll approach to his kit instructions and was pleasant to correspond with. Unfortunately circumstances beyond his control led to a decline in quality and sales with some bad reviews pretty much finishing off his enthusiasm for Luft 46 and he went back to his musical career. This kit was not one of the better ones and I can already see lots of Milliput in my future.

Above is the box before opening again. Below is the kit in the box.

Below is it all spread out.

One of the great things Toad did was 2 vacform canopies which at the time the opposition were mostly not doing. Along with this they used metal undercarriage shown in the centre along with a seat and control column. Centre right is the eponymous Toad that they included as a marketing device with their kits. Collect 5 and return them and you would get a cannon and fairing to make a ju88p5. The grey parts above the toad are from a cmk me 262 to improve the engine area though parts from the Hase kit may be substituted.
The instructions are below including the pattern for u/c doors

Above are the reviews i collected and filed with the kit. This was in the early days of the net and model reviews were thin on the ground on the net then.
A close look at the photo below will show you that there is lots of work ahead. The wing has both excess resin and pinholes that need filling.