Kitmaster P2 presentation set

[andyman7]

I've been fascinated by Kitmaster kits since I first found out about them as a teenager in the early 1980s - references in railway modelling magazines; the discovery that most of the Airfix loco kits had started life as Kitmaster kits; and discovering the odd example at swapmeets etc. I started collecting them as they turned up, built and unbuilt and over the years have handled or owned every single one...except for the P2 and P3 gift sets. The P1 set '100 years of Steam' is hard enough to find but the P2 Battle-of-Britain plus Mk1s set and the TT Royal Scot plus Mk1s sets are rare as hen's teeth. 

 

Trawling through auction catalogues some days ago, I was amazed to see a P2 set looking very worse for wear lotted with a pile of other plastic building kits in a classic 'pile of crap' lot coming up in a sale. The sale also included some very nice Triang in there too at ridiculously low estimates - for example, a lot with two tone green R257 Transcontinental electric, 4 two tone green coaches and an orange/green R257 estimated at £50-£80. Well the pantographs as salvage off that lot would cost more than £100 alone and the two-tone green models are the most collectable of all the TC series; unsurprisingly the Triang collectors were out in force and that lot went for a hammer price of £500. But what of my lot? £32 plus commission, a 7 hour round trip and I was able to pay using contactless.

 

The loco was missing as were the windows for the coaches but I have amassed a large pile of spare Kitmaster bits and models  so was able to make the contents up. The box is the irreplaceable item - the first photo shows it 'as found' and it took quite a lot of ironing, tabs repairing, straightening out and old tape carefully removed but has scrubbed up well. I'll be able to make the bid price back from the other bits that came with the lot and it is very satisfying now to have this set. Just the P3 one to find now...

[33C]

Cracking set and a fine piece of resto! Have you tried "Ronsonol" lighter fluid to rid your self of stubborn sellotape? Trust me, soak it well, it eats the glue, the tape lifts off a treat AND it evaporates clear. Also it's a £1. I always keep a few tins around for removing the price labels on CD's, books etc. 

[Il Grifone]

I built quite a few back in the day (badly!). A new locomotive every month for pennies was too much to resist! I even built the Italian 835 class 0-6-0T* (some sort of premonition?). The coach kits were a great loss, though I have managed to amass a lot of them over the years, often at bargain prices like a couple of quid.

 

* Making it to 4mm scale was an error. 1:80 or 1:87 would have increased sales abroad. The French and German coaches remedied this but by then it was too late.

[33C]

3 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

I built quite a few back in the day (badly!). A new locomotive every month for pennies was too much to resist! I even built the Italian 835 class 0-6-0T* (some sort of premonition?). The coach kits were a great loss, though I have managed to amass a lot of them over the years, often at bargain prices like a couple of quid.

 

* Making it to 4mm scale was an error. 1:80 or 1:87 would have increased sales abroad. The French and German coaches remedied this but by then it was too late.

Do you know about the mistake the artist made on the "B.R. Mogul" box.....?

[andyman7]

3 hours ago, 33C said:

Do you know about the mistake the artist made on the "B.R. Mogul" box.....?

The box for the Airfix reissue has a missing set of conrods on what is otherwise a splendid picture. I'm not aware of any specific error on the KItmaster box apart for the slightly distorted perspectives the Kitmaster pictures tended to have.

[andyman7]

15 hours ago, 33C said:

Cracking set and a fine piece of resto! Have you tried "Ronsonol" lighter fluid to rid your self of stubborn sellotape? Trust me, soak it well, it eats the glue, the tape lifts off a treat AND it evaporates clear. Also it's a £1. I always keep a few tins around for removing the price labels on CD's, books etc. 

Ah yes, I'm never without lighter fluid in my restoration box of tricks. The biggest problem with old sticky tape is that it delaminates over time and the adhesive leaches into and stains the actual card - which is why archival document restorers NEVER use ordinary clear tape. Indeed any box I get that has been tape repaired gets the tape removed regardless of how neat or recent the taping is. In the case of the Kitmaster kit it is never going to be mint and I didn't want to destroy the patina so the actual tape has been removed but what you see is the residual staining and there is no way that can be soaked off without started to fade and fuzz the ink.

 

The box had obviously been stored in a damp garage or loft at some point so there was some surface delamination of the paper, which was all gently gummed back into place. The corner seams were split with the detached tabs held in place by badly rusted staples. The staples were removed and the tabs carefully re-attached to the main sides using thin card and gum (no sticky tape!). When dry the tabs could be carefully reattached to the ends by hand inserting carefully folded staples - this recreates the original tabbed corners of the box.  

[Trainshed Terry]

Great Catch, and well done on the restoration of the box. In my own collection I have a P1 set and P3. the only one that I do not have is the P2.

 

Please follow this link it takes you to the Kitmaster Web site'

 

The web site has not been updated due to the web master passing on many years back. And the club dose note have the password to update the site.

 

I hope that is a help to people.

 

Club member. Terry Macavoy.

[Il Grifone]

On 16/10/2021 at 13:15, 33C said:

Do you know about the mistake the artist made on the "B.R. Mogul" box.....?

 

I didn't, but the error was easy enough to do seeing the coupling rod was right next to the turntable handrail.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Il Grifone

[roythebus1]

Back in about 1962 I got the "100 years" set for christmas. I spent all of Boxing Day building them (badly) with that horrible plastic cement they used for the kits. I was about 10 at the time and the Africa Queen was on TV again.

 

A few years later when I worked in Patricks toys in Fulham (still going today) the shop manager sold me the BB and 3 coaches set. Needless to say I spent a couple of days making that lot as well.

 

I found an Italian Tank in a toy shop in Bury St.Edmunds in 1967 and made that up but kept the box. Of course that has gone over the years. A chap called Jock (ADK)Young of the MRC motorised one using a Wills P class chassis.

 

all I have left are about a dozen coaches painted crimson and cream (believed to have been owned by Peter Hendy many years ago), a Blue Pullman set with an unbuilt mint condition power car, and a Deltic box. And a motor bogie that won't work because the casting has broken. I may have a diesel shunter box somewhere and a couple of German coaches.

 

[Il Grifone]

IIRC  'African Queen' was staple Boxing Day fare every year.... 

 

An advantage of the capsules was that, since the adhesive was semi useless, they were easy to dismantle again (sometimes all by themselves!).

[roythebus1]

Most of the Kitmaster coaches I have seem to have disassembled over the years.

[5050]

And there was I, prior to reading the postings, thinking that you had discovered a previously unknown kit for a large LNER 2-8-2................................

[Il Grifone]

On 24/10/2021 at 19:31, roythebus1 said:

Most of the Kitmaster coaches I have seem to have disassembled over the years.

 

My problem was keeping the glue off the windows during assembly. I always managed to mess at least one up.

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Il Grifone