AN AVIATION ENTHUSIAST´S KIT COLLECTION
 
Picture above: F
rom the 1978 catalogue.  Courtesy of Mario ©
Picture left: Boxtop. Courtesy of Christos Psarras ©
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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.
                                               




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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Started : 17. 12. 2011  Revised : 20.12.2011
Author: C.J.K.