"Lockheed Electra at Big Lots" Topic

Toy Liquidators…a branch of Kay B Toys…also carries New Ray for about this price. There are 4 1/48ish biplanes along these lines.

Thanks for the heads up on this model…I could use one for my 3rd world airport! Will check locally.

I wonder if some would still be in service for an AK47 despot…

Yes I have seen these. Trying to think up an excuse to get one.

Thanks, cloudcaptain! There's always room for more 1/100 scale aircraft.

Hmmm….Air De Bongo is looking for some more planes since the attempted conversion of IL-28's into passenger aircraft didnt work out as well as intended.

Murph, the ol' Beagles really don't make good passenger aircraft. Better try for the TU-95's if you can get a clapped out one.

Don't know who wrote this nice article, but he has the scale completely wrong.

This kit is exactly 1/60th scale, making it MUCH too big for 20mm or 15mm, and perfect for 28mm.

I have a couple of these, and the wingspan of the model is 11". The wingspan of the actual aircraft is 55 feet (660 inches). The math is easy.

You had to duck and fold to get into the doors of early airliners, and couldn't stand up straight in the cabins.

Really, Chick? Well shut my mouth!

Then this is perfect for all the 25-28mm pulp-oriented miniatures being offered these days. The only question is how can I fit a 1/60 Lockheed Electra in Afghanistan in the 1980s with all those 1/60 Mi-24 "Hinds" buzzing around.

Don't know who wrote this nice article, but he has the scale completely wrong.

I stand corrected.

By the way, here's some more motivation to find these puppies. According to the book 'Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War' by Gerald Howson, two Electras flew during that conflict. One of them was the personal transport of General Alfredo Kindelán y Duany, who was air chief for the Nationalists. Here is how it appeared:

picture

The other one was smuggled to and operated by the Republicans, and was believed to have been the very last aircraft that evacuated Republican officers to France at the end of the war.

Well, wish me luck. I'm going out to find them.

Great catch! I know I'm off the big lots for lunch today.

Saginaw, the picture link doesn't work.

Dang! *sad*

Let me try this link:

wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/t/1088/67/0

YEAH!!

Follow the above link. You'll see the results on the right hand side of the page. The pic of the Electra in the SCW book looks exactly like the second pic (the plane with the mottled camouflage).

By the way, I found and bought the kits (they retail at Big Lots for $5.00). They're awesome! Someone should tell Nigel at Anglian Miniatures about these. Maybe he can get a couple of generic pilots sculpted!

Nice detective work, Saginaw ! One of my electras is headed for Espana.

Glad I could help out, Chick.

If only the local Big Lots would get these in…Oh well.

bjporter, e-mail me, please:

saginaw1@charter.net

That's very cool. Isn't that the plane that Tim Matheson and Nancy Allen took for a joyride in "1941?"

Small aircraft have rings on their underside, usually the tail and wings, so they can be tied down if they have to sit out on the ramp during wind storms, keeping them from being blown over. The "loops" on the underside may be for tying down the aircraft, but these aren't where I'd expect to find them. I used to work as a "ramp rat" during my college years and had the opportunity to fuel an Electra once. I was told the Lockheed Electra was pretty rare these days and I should feel honored I got to work with one. *rolls eyes* I just remember being cold while pumping the fuel.

Jawjatek: I thought I smelled a ramp ape around here. Bag smashers unite!

Other than that, this is a definite wanna get on the old list. There's a Big Lots not far from work, too…

Jwomack94 – I never smashed a bag that didn't deserve it.

My Big Lots had a slew of em and I picked up one. Assembled, I think it will go great with my modern Africa fellows in 20mm. A figure measured against the door on the left side of the plane is no more than a head taller. Only problem I had was the kit was missing the piece that goes between the forward half of the fuselage that the retaining screw for the wing assembly goes into. A little work with a hobby knife and file and some glue and all was well.

"The only question is how can I fit a 1/60 Lockheed Electra in Afghanistan in the 1980s with all those 1/60 Mi-24 "Hinds" buzzing around."

Live dangerously like my Uncle Eddie who was a bush pilot and air racer in the 20's and 30's: Uncle Eddie flew a Gee Bee, or as he explained it to me when I was a wee pup. "Well kid, that's when I had more guts than brains!"

Time to go raid Big Lots over in The Colony (assuming Saginaw hasn't beaten me to it already)…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Saginaw must have beaten me to it; not an Electra in the house…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net
("Curses! Foiled again!")

Hey! It wasn't me!

Great deal! I picked up the last one at my local Big Lots. It will look great on my Pulp Fiction airstrip next to a Gee Bee and my Gyro Copter kit. I'll have to make up a scenario where a French spy and his wife are trying to get out of a North African city but several parties want to stop him… now where have I heard that story before?

-MM

Been to Ny, NH, Pa looking for this No LUCK

Where are these?
I have been to several Big Lots in the four northern Rocky Mountains states and cannot find one of these aircraft.
Cannot find a Big Lots associate in any of those stores who remembers ever having them either!

Are there any of these still around?

As of this date, it is now more than eleven and one half years since the original post, and no one has mentioned that a Lockheed Model 10 Electra (tail no. NR16020) is still missing somewhere in the South Pacific along with it's pilot (Amelia Earhart) and navigator (Fred Noonan).

Considering it's route, link the possible pulp scenarii are endless.

Pulp fans should love it … as soon as I saw this old article in the sidebar I though … 'that's the plane they leave in at the end of Casablanca!' More so, of course, as the plane in the movie was also a model …

Phil