# Aurora Sopwith Camel kit query



## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

Have been looking across the net at some Aurora 'Sopwith Camel' instuction sheets, various issues. Now in 1971 recall buying the one with the 1960s sort of blue art work, wrap round box. 

The instructions were the same as some of the one sided oval logo instructions I've seen on the net. Bar that in place of the line drawing of the kit, there was a photo of the prototype which also appeared in the 'Playcraft' 1960 Aurora kit catalogue.

I recently acquired a 70s issue of the kit which had the same blue art front and oval logo. But the instuctions are the version with the line drawing, no photo. My guess is this issue originates from round 1974, has the 'A' logo on the instructions.

The net also shows the 1956 issue 'Aurora line' (joined up writing) logo version. That seems also to have the line drawing.

I'm wondering what on Earth the issue I had with the photo on it was? Any ideas?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Its hard to tell what kit an instruction sheet came from because Aurora reused older sheets in newer kits. The last issue kits from around 1976 that came in the small white boxes with a photo of the model on the cover had a different instruction sheet than prior issues because the tooling and decals were changed. Those kits had a photo of the real plane on the instructions and a more modern look.

You could have a 1960s kit with the John Steele artwork that had an old 50s style instruction sheet, though.

Aurora had quite a few logos too. I have a 70s "Big A" style C-119 that, IIRC, has the 60s Famous FIghters style instructions.


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

Thanks for that. I'll try and post some pictures of my current kit, but the 'A' logo on instructions would indicate them to be 1969 or later. 

The box uses the blue backed artwork that replaced the 'Aurora line' yellow based '50s art. It has the oval Aurora logo.

The actual layout looks exactly like the 1956 sheet with the same line drawing. Could be the current one I have is a mid period. Maybe later in the catalogue they replaced the line drawing with a photo of the prototype? The one I had as a kid was purchased in 1971 or 72. It was a U.K. purchase so could have either been a U.S. or distributed by 'Playcraft'. They stopped handling Aurora sometime between 1960 and 62.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

An early 70s issue kit would have the same box art as the 60s issue. In the 70s those kits were reissued in white boxes with photos of the plane on the box and also instructions. There is the possibility that the kit you have also has a replacement instruction sheet. An example of this is a 60s long box Sherman tank that I picked up that has the original decals, the plastic parts from a 1980s Monogram reissue, and the instructions from the 70s big A square box kits. Someone put together this "complete" kit from parts from 3 kits.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

That happens all too often. Guys find a kit that's missing most of its parts, find the missing parts from another kit, instrux from another, then cobble them all together. 
There's so much variation in Aurora kits that it'd be near impossible to list all the variations. Canadian, US, British, Dutch, etc. Most have their own way of packaging. My Vampire in the Dutch box says '66 but the instructions have the big "A" logo that came in in '69. The longbox is thin cardboard and it unfolds into a flat sheet. Mustard colour instead of the usual tan.
To be honest I gave up on trying to figure out all the variants. I'm just happy to have the kits...

Chris.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Aurora also used so many colors of plastic that its hard to use that as an identifier. I have some Sopwith Camel kits in the 60s John Steele box in brown, tan and olive plastic. When I sold my 2001 Moon Bus on eBay I had someone accuse me of selling a painted kit as the parts were dark grey and light green, versus white/light grey. But yeah, my kit came in dark grey. Aurora did have specified colors for kits, but if the molding outfit that they used was running Bismarck battleships in grey, and had to switch to Moon Bus kits, they didn't empty out the machine and start over with white plastic.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

It's not just Aurora who used different colours to use up the pellets in the hopper- I just bought a Monogram Li'l Coffin kit from '70 (haunted house box) to restore and it's molded in orange!! I've heard of a run of blue ones but never orange. It's a perfect match to the colour of my original Boothill Express kit. Maybe they were running 'em one after the other....

Chris.


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

O.K. this is my current example. It's hard box. American address oval logo. The kit is later than the one I had as it's molded in light tan colour rather than olive green as mine was.


Sopwith-Camel-box-plan-and-contents-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

Side panel confirms American box. 


Sopwith-Camel-side-panel-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

Early Aurora line logo version from the net. (c 1956).


sopwith-camel-1956-kit-and-plan-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

This example from the net later than last but earlier than mine I think. Possibly c 1962 has the 'famous fighters' legend in the halo.


aurora-sopwith-camel-1956-instructions by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

This is mine - the basic imagery retained is almost the same as the 1956 on all.


Sopwith-Camel-Instrucions-front-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

But though it shows other kits in the Aurora range as 1950s U.S. plans do, it bears a 1969-70 'A' logo on the back. This led me to believe it might be a 1970 - 74 issue with the 1960s box copied.


Sopwith-Camel-back-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

Now this is a a RECONSTRUCTION a friend has mocked up of the plan I recall from mine - in olive plastic - purchased 1971 - 72 from a London store.


Sopwith-Camel-Instrucions--reconstruction-v1 by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

This is another second version as I think the kit photo may have been closer to the corner and bigger. Possibly the plan was longer than the one I have now. I also seem to think it was produced by PLAYCRAFT LTD, London with the same blue 1960s artwork seen. 

Box was almost identical to the one on my current one, bar it may have had the PLAYCRAFT logo inside the Aurora halo.

Bear in mind this is a RECONSTRUCTION of what I recall. The photo is the one I recall but we gleaned it from a Playcraft 1960 catalogue. (Electronically done, no scissors!)


Sopwith-Camel-Instrucions-reconstruction-v2 by aurorajohn, on Flickr


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## 1bluegtx (Aug 13, 2004)

aurorajohn said:


> O.K. this is my current example. It's hard box. American address oval logo. The kit is later than the one I had as it's molded in light tan colour rather than olive green as mine was.
> 
> 
> Sopwith-Camel-box-plan-and-contents-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


Whats the number with price code on the end of the box? this will tell which issue this is.

BRIAN


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Aurora used the 60s box well into the 70s with "Big A" instructions as they did not change the box or package at all until the 1976 (?) white box issues with revised tooling, new instructions, etc. Your kit can be from 1969 to 1975 or so


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

aurorajohn said:


> But though it shows other kits in the Aurora range as 1950s U.S. plans do, it bears a 1969-70 'A' logo on the back. This led me to believe it might be a 1970 - 74 issue with the 1960s box copied.
> 
> 
> Sopwith-Camel-back-for-web by aurorajohn, on Flickr


Looking at the other kits the Lockheed F-90 kit # 33 is one I'd love to have 2 of, to model the comic book characters Blackhawk who had these in their arsenal, this is one of my holy grail kits to have but so far I haven't had any luck finding these anywhere, I just hope they do make these again. Karl


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The F-90 kit is fairly common on eBay and they bring about $80 +/-. Oddly the Aurora kit is much more common than the Hawk kit, which came first and Aurora copied to make their version. 

Unless you just have to have the fairly poor Aurora kit, there are a couple nice 1/72 and 1/48 vac kits and there have been a couple in resin too.


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

Thanks djnick66 but I'd prefer the 1/48th scale kit, for the other 1/48 scale kits I have, I've tried and looked on e bay so far no luck, I'll just keep trying. Karl


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

also if you search for F-90 you wont find much since the real plane was the XF-90


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

Right ......... I forgot about that X . heh, thanks djnick66. Karl


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## aurorajohn (Dec 4, 2011)

1bluegtx said:


> Whats the number with price code on the end of the box? this will tell which issue this is.
> 
> BRIAN


Issue and price code is Kit no 102-100. One end though has a blank white sticker obscuring the second figure. On another Aurora vehicle kit I have somewhere, they have put a sticker over the second figure with a different figure.

I've looked in Greenbergs Aurora guide, and they say the kits were in olive plastic until 1974. They went to tan in 1974. 

I may have half remembered this from before.

In the 1975 Aurora catalogue all the biplanes are deleted bar the K&B classics series.

They were then reissued with the photo box format in 1976.


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## Dyonisis (Nov 11, 2009)

I had one of these kits when I was a kid. It had mostly green parts with a couple tan parts. It had a later box with it, and I don't even remember what type it was. I built it, but I don't remember what happened to it - I guess that it got destroyed.  It seems that there was a lot of hodge-podge mismatching going on back in the day. I had some kits that were of different colour than stated on the box. This is why there are disclaimers on most boxes these days as to what colour the model inside is. This also has a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about "Due to changes that we're constantly improving our products with, the colour of the model inside may vary from the one shown on the box". WTF!?!?!







Whatever! 


This is just them trying to explain why they have to use all the colour from the dye lot inside the extruder before changing it to another colour. There are varying reasons as to why they'll do this, but the manufacturer never replies when you ask about a colour. They do one run in white, and another in silver, or black. Sometimes in olive drab, or tan. No explanation other than whoever owns the die wants that particular colour to match the original product they're depicting on the cover art of the box. 
~ Chris​


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## 1bluegtx (Aug 13, 2004)

aurorajohn said:


> I've looked in Greenbergs Aurora guide, and they say the kits were in olive plastic until 1974. They went to tan in 1974.


Looks like you have the next to last long box issue.From what i can figure the first issues (northern lights and famous fighter boxes) were molded in green the 60s long box issues were molded in tan and the last long box issue (with no price code) was molded in orange.









BRIAN


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## Dyonisis (Nov 11, 2009)

It looks more red in that picture. 

~ Chris​


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Its orange or sort of a rusty brown.


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## Dyonisis (Nov 11, 2009)

djnick66 said:


> Its orange or sort of a rusty brown.


 You mean somewhat of a dark red rust stain colour? 

~ Chris​


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

It really isn't red so no. It doesn't look red on my screen and the actual plastic is not red. It is closer to the orange they used on the Cave and Sabre Tooth Tiger and not as red or brown as the brown Aurora used on the Tar Pit. I think actually its the same brown the Roman Warship was molded in.


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## Dyonisis (Nov 11, 2009)

I understand. I've been looking around the web for a kit similar to this one. A comparison was what I needed. Thanks. 

~ Chris​


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