I was just poking around on ebay and found several of my beloved between-the-wars airplanes, most of which are vacforms and a lot are made by esoteric models and labeled Naval Aircraft Factory.

Anybody know anything about these?

I too am gathering a few Esoteric NAF kits off E-bay, but mine are Brit 'tweeners ... Haven't built any, but inspection shows them to be a cut above overall; some have lots of decal options and very good white metal ... OTOH, I have seen adverse comments ...

I suspect they are like all limited run kits -- in the line, there some good ones, some average ones, and some bad ones ...

But, if you want kits the mainstream guys won't touch, what're you gonna do ??? I've scarfed up the Fairey Flycatcher, Hawker Nimrod, Blackburn Dart, Boulton Paul Sidestrand & Overstrand, Westland Walrus and am searching for a few more ...

John
Dad of a Family Divided - daughter a Wildcat, son a Jayhawk ...

"But, if you want kits the mainstream guys won't touch, what're you gonna do ???"

Hi John - Your apparantly gonna pay a lot of money, for one thing. I started bidding on one of the Brit flying boats but had to stop as it eventually went for over a hundred thirty dollars. I did however pick up a Blackburn Iris III however and a Boeing 307 (that's right a 307 - not 377). My problem with the Blackburn is finding a color scheme for it.

Is Esoteric still in business and do you know if they have a website, or a hobby shop that sells them? I've looked and can't find anything.

Regards,
Steve

Esoteric is out of business quite a few years now.

Naval Aircraft Factory.

Oh, yes, depending on who is looking for what. I was in on those same bidding wars, I remember the $130 one ... I had same issue with 4 other flying boat kits today & just bailed out .... The only thing I can say is to just keep trying till everyone else has got theirs ... they'll still be expensive ...

Blackburn Iris (I left that off my list, forgot I had it) color scheme is easy -- silver, national markings, nothing else. There were only actually 5 of them, one was rebuilt 3 times into different marks -- some books make you think there were 8 because of this ...



John