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Introduction
Shortly after building my first kits which were from AIRFIX I also built some aircraft from the German manufacturer FALLER. I remember to have build the Piper Cub in Burda colors, the Messerschmitt Me-262 ( with that clumsy unrealistically array of 24 underwing rockets), the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka ( tank buster version G, with that pair of 37 canons slung beneath the wings) the Republic F-84 Thunderjet ( with that stunning photograph in the instructon sheet depicting the choice of external weapons) and some more, which I cannot remember clearly (possibly the Fokker D.R. I triplane, the Fieseler Storch , the Ju-88 or He-111). These kits were rather basic and it seems that even im my early days I had recognized that their accuracy was not good enough for serious modelling . That still holds today, but nontheless I rate FALLER aircraft as very interesting from the collector´s resp. historian´s point of view.
History
The Faller company was founded by the brothers Edwin und Hermann Faller in Germany after WW 2 (before 1948) [W1]. They started with HO scale railroad buildings and accessoires made from wood and cardboard first , later in the mid 50´s they were made from plastic and also offered as kits.
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According to [1] the first plastic construction kit a model of a 'stone viaduct' first appeared in 1954. At the Nuernberg Toy Faitr in 1956 , along with theit growing range of railway accessoires , Faller exibited their 1/100 scale plastic kit range. But consider this as a secondary source.
The earliest date of issue given for some kits is 1956 n the website [W 2] . Obviously the dates are validated by catlogs and leaflets. I found a leaflet from 1957 and a catlog from 1958 depicted there.
According to [2] all production ended in 1965.
There is also stated in [2] that FALLER kits have been available as well in the USA as Europe until the late 60´s - early 70´s when the supply dried up.
The moulds for the Me-109, Me-262, Ju-87, Convair CV-440 and Viscount were scrapped. The rest of the moulds were aquired by Mr. Dahlmann [ 3 ] .
He produces and sells these kits packed in new boxes since the mid 1990 under the DAHLMANN brand. (see Dahlmann Kits )
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