Atlantic
The company Atlantic based
in Treviglio, Italy produced plastic
kits and figures fom 1966 until the mid
1980, though the company was not legally
dissolved until 1989.
(Data derived from Soldatini-Atlantic
atlantictoysoldiers.com
which I do not link here as on
20.12.2011 I got a virus alert:
Trojan.JS.Iframe.AOQ , HTML:Iframe-inf
).
The range of products is shown in the
1978 catalogue, on the Italian
lanuage website Alantic Online.
Here are examples for pages
containing the
1/100 scale aircraft and
1/700 scale ships. (Permission to
store these pictures on my website to
the courtesy of Mario
© ).
According to
Burns (2003)"...the [aircraft] kits
are made of hard rubber plastic and are
of poor quality.
This is all what I will tell about the
general history of Atlantic, apart from
presenting pictures of one or two
examples of these "small scale" aircraft
and ships when I find some to put them
into my "Noah´s Ark" of kits.
Examples are
Mig- 21-C and
Mirage III C (Photobucket pictures
posted in
Airfix Collecting Forum). Horrible
boxart, but I like the color of the
plastic.
Figures and AGV are out of scope of my
collecting efforts anyway.
My contact with Atlantic kits and the
reason to create this page came about
from a hint in the
Airfix Collecting Forum . In the
Progresswerk thread I learned that
according to
Burns (1989)"The ex-Progresswerk(e)
1/125 Boeing 727-100 #MK00020 with
Alitalia, Lufthansa, Air France and
British Aiways markings was issued in
early 1980" by Atlantic. This was
extremely important information for my
research about the German manufacturer
Progresswerk Nuernberg. An
immediate search in the web guided me to
the thread
Airliners In 1/125 Scale in the
Scale Modeling Nostalgia forum, where
the Atlantic Models B 727 is described.
Heavy rivets, working retractable gear -
all there in the Progresswerk B 727,
too. In the pictures right the two
fuselage halves look quite similar. But
strangely some windows are missing in
the Atlantic kit. The design of the wing
root with the cutout for the wheel well
is ecactly the same.
From circumferencal evidence the
Atlantic Models Modern Destroyer
may as well be based on an
ex-Progresswerk mould
(
Z1 destroyer ). See picture right.
It is the same type US Fletcher Class
destroyer." Thirty-two were transferred
to the navies of Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Columbia, Germany, Greece, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Spain,
Taiwan and Turkey" (see article on
destroyerhistory.org ).
Progresswerk Nuernberg closed down
plastic production in 1973 so the
following remarks from
Atlantic online about these two
Atlantic kits serve well the theory (
kindly translated by Mario).
"Towards the end of the seventies some
construction models with moving parts,
series MK 0020, appeared for sale under
the brand name 'Atlantic Models'.
Marketed with a logo completely
different from the one used normally,
the models of the MK 0020 series
produced as kits might only be two: a "Boeing
727" (code MK 0020 - 1:144 scale)
with decals for four European Airlines
(Alitalia, BEA, Lufthansa, AirFrance),
and a navy ship model "Modern
Destroyer" (code MK 0021 - 1:300
scale)."
These two Progresswerk moulds surely
were quite cheap after the company
closed down kit production in 1973 and
found their home at Atlantic as two kits
with a much higher modelling standard
than their own range.
Remark:
We are told further on the Atlantic
online site; "For the
completeness of the information it is
worth to note that there still exists a
company called 'Atlantic
Models' [in Miami, USA] which makes
airplane models exclusively and which
does not appear to have any connection
with the firm Atlantic from Treviglio."
A reply from US Atlanic Models USA to my
request confirmed this on 19.12.2011 via
e-mail.
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Parts from the Atlantic
Models Boeing 727
Courtesy of Christos Psarras
©
Fuselage from the
Progresswerk Boeing 727. Seems to
injected from the same mould.
Zerstoerer Z1 from an 1970´s
Progresswerk catalogue
(horizintally mirrored picture )
© cjk
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