I don’t really know how I am feeling about the prospect of posting the latest Flying Tigers Newsletter – I know that it is going to be a bit of a challenge. It is certainly something of a watershed moment in my life, as the thing I have invested so much time and effort into, over the past eight years and four months, is moving off in a different direction and I will not be involved. It is a strange feeling for sure and although I do feel a little restless right now, there is certainly an immense feeling of pride in what we managed to achieve with Flying Tigers and I will always regard it as a real success. Ok, enough of all this – let’s get stuck in!
The Flying Tigers website Takes Off
Our header image for this weeks Newsletter is as poignant as it is spectacular – it was the header image for the very first Flying Tigers Newsletter, way back in November 2006. I remember being at my usual spot, near the tank bank at Duxford, for their October show, when the Fighter Collection’s magnificent P-51C Mustang ‘Princess Elizabeth’ took off right over our heads, which was an experience that I will never forget. Enjoyable as this was, little did we know that it was the aircraft saying goodbye to her loyal fans in the UK, as after the show, it was announced that she had been sold to a new owner in the USA and this much loved aircraft may not be seen in UK skies again. At the time, we were just all thinking how fortunate we were, as this was something really special for us – I managed to take a series of pictures featuring this stunning take off, with the aircraft facing almost head on and keeping very low to the ground. Almost as soon as her wheels had left the grass, they began to retract and this magnificent Mustang continued to hug the ground – I could hardly believe my eyes, but I was determined to keep shooting. The final picture in this series is literally just a propellor and spinner, as this blue noser gave us an afternoon to remember and I think that anyone who was in the same vicinity as myself on that fateful day, will have extremely fond memories of this spectacular take-off.
I remember that the Mustang take off really brought me to my senses, as I was in something of a daze, following weeks of feverish activity. Emma and I had found ourselves without jobs, following the demise of the once famous Corgi Heritage Centre and had decided to give it a go running our own business. There had been much to do in trying to establish our business and I was feeling the pace a little, whilst taking my place on the Duxford crowd line. It had been a bit of a roller-coaster ride in truth, as we were trying to set up a business for the first time, without any help whatsoever and needing to do so pretty quickly. I have to say that we had the support of friends and family and collectors we had met through the hobby were extremely generous with their support. Unfortunately, this did not extend to people who were already in the trade. I received comments that were extremely dismissive from former retail colleagues, telling me that I was wasting my time, as they were going to expand in a big way and we would never get off the ground. This did nothing more than to make me even more determined to succeed and if they thought that they could make me think twice, they were dealing with the wrong man – we were heading for take off!
With this determination behind us, Princess Elizabeth seemed like the perfect image to launch Flying Tigers and Newsletter edition No.1 saw us enter the die-cast aviation fray, determined to bring something a little different to our hobby. From those very early days, one thing that has continue to grow beyond our wildest expectations was the weekly Newsletter we produced. I will be honest with you, it does take some effort to produce the Newsletter, particularly as it is usually started after already doing a full weeks work, but the ever growing readership and extremely supportive comments we were fortunate enough to receive, were the only tonic we needed to continue. Our readership extends right across the globe, from Brazil to New Zealand and from South Africa to Russia and amazingly, continues to grow to this day. I have to say that I am genuinely humbled by the support that we have received regarding our Newsletter and I am really glad that it seems to have entertained you, in it’s own small way. It can be quite lonely, sat here in my office, working on the Newsletter each week, but a regular stream of very kind comments were all I needed to keep going and I hope that you have enjoyed reading the ramblings of an avid aviation enthusiast, who shares your passion for model collecting. Genuinely, I would like to thank you all for your very kind support.
Through our time at Flying Tigers, we have supplied many thousands of models to thousands of collectors all over the world. I have been fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of aviation personalities past and present, influential industry professionals and I have met and spoken to people that I never thought I would be lucky enough to meet. When Corgi launched their magnificent Boulton Paul Defiant model, I was fortunate enough to speak to two Defiant pilots and a Defiant gunner, who were generous in indulging my barrage of questions – true gentlemen and real heroes. I had the chance to provide the model centrepiece for the birthday of a Battle of Britain veteran, who served in the same squadron as Alan Deere and received a cherished thank you letter from his wife – and then there are my regular collectors. You obviously start a business to stay in business and make a living, but believe me, we could not have done it without you lot – you have been fantastic. Many collectors quickly became friends and we have been lucky to have made so many friends through Flying Tigers. Unfortunately, we have also lost friends and shared the pain of our collectors who have had to endure illness and misfortune – perhaps the most upsetting times have been when the loved ones of our members who have passed away contacted us, to tell us how much their husbands enjoyed the Newsletter and the models we sent them. Although this was obviously very nice to hear, they were all extremely sad conversations to be having.
Thanks again to you lot, we have also laughed – there has been a great deal of laughter at Flying Tigers, as we have been fortunate to meet some real characters. If we have entertained you with our website and Newsletter (which I hope we have), you have kept a smile on our face, with your humour and friendship. For the past eight years and four months, Emma and I would like to sincerely thank each and every one of you for being so fantastic – we really will miss you!
From a model perspective, we have also managed to put Flying Tigers on the map with a pair of extremely memorable commissioned model releases, which will always be a source of real pride for me. It somehow seems fitting that our first commissioned model featured the aircraft that made such an impression on me at Duxford, in October 2006 – North American P-51C ‘Princess Elizabeth’. Producing a commissioned model is fraught with danger for any company and requires a significant amount of work – using the Gemini Aces Mustang tool, they helped us produce an absolutely stunning model, which is a superb die-cast representation of this much loved fighter. GAUSA2AAA was a limited edition release of just 750 pieces and we were grateful for fantastic support from the collector world – this model was a resounding success for us. Totally sold out, this model rarely comes up for sale on the secondary market, but when they do, they are quickly snapped up. We are also really pleased that many collectors count our Princess to be one of their most cherished models – she is a beauty!
Our second commission was equally well received by collectors, but I would have to say had a little more difficulty in production. Looking back, I think our Messerschmitt was being produced as the Far East was just becoming a little more problematic for the die-cast manufacturing companies and we definitely had a few more headaches with this one. GALFTJG27A was a 504 run release of Hans Joachim Marseille’s Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4/Trop ‘Yellow 14’ and was something of an obsession for me. I am fascinated by the exploits of ‘The Star of Afrika‘, who was perhaps the most gifted fighter pilot of WWII and his Messerschmitt was one of the most distinctive aircraft of the war. I will always look back on our commissioned models with pride and if you have one in your collections, I hope that you think they worthy of inclusion. Again, to all our collectors who kindly supported these commissioned projects, thank you very much indeed.
The future for Flying Tigers
You will have noticed that Monday lunch-time saw the suspension of all ordering on the Flying Tigers website. I can’t tell you how difficult I found this, as things were very much thrown into perspective by this significant action. It needed to happen, as much still needs to be done over the coming few days, so that Flying Tigers Mk.II can take to the air, but it was still a difficult thing to do! As Emma and I move on from Flying Tigers, we pass the baton on to Mr Richard Darling, who will be going live with Flying Tigers Mk.II at the end of this month. Richard has been a customer and friend of ours for many years now and when he heard of our decision to close our business, he immediately wanted to take over the Flying Tigers website and contacted us straight away. I had hoped to conduct a full interview with Richard this week, so that you could find out a little more about him, but he has had a bit of a tough week, with family issues and trying to establish his own business premises – ahh, I remember it well! Not to be deterred, I will go with what I know, so here is a short introduction to Richard – the new owner of the Flying Tigers website.
Richard is a 54 year old businessman, who has a history in retail and a love of aviation. He told me that his earliest memories of aeroplanes came when his father took him to the Airshows at Farnborough and Biggin Hill. He recalls that in those days, the displays seemed to be much nearer to the crowd and were more dynamic than todays shows and his aviation obsession began with an English Electric Lightning. Sat on his fathers shoulders, the Lightning performed a stunning routine for the gathered masses, before pulling vertically upwards, from a high speed pass – Richard said that he was sure that he could feel the heat from the Rolls Royce Avon’s, as it passed overhead.
From this point, he was hooked on aeroplanes and like many of us, fuelled his passion by raiding the Airfix catalogue at every available opportunity. At the height of his model making prowess, he had no less than one hundred model aircraft hanging from the ceiling in his bedroom, although many had not survived the hanging process intact. Again, I am sure that this is a shared experience with many of us, but as Richard entered the world of work, he had little time to make his kits any more and more mundane tasks had to take centre stage. It was not until Corgi released their 1/72nd scale ‘Aces’ range that his passion for aviation was rekindled, which is when I first met Richard. He was smitten by these fantastic models and began a collecting obsession that has seen him scour the globe, looking for the models he needed to complete his collection. To date, he has approximately 1300 models in his collection, all in 1/72nd scale and from most of the major brands – some of these will be on display at his business premises at Sywell airfield and visitors will be welcome.
Richard was kind enough to tell us that he enjoyed dealing with Flying Tigers because he liked the courteous and professional way that we did business and he wants to reassure our collectors that he intends to run his business in exactly the same way. He will obviously be open to suggestions and advice from his customers, but he wants to change very little from the way that Flying Tigers was run before he acquired the website. Importantly, he will quickly have all the latest releases and future models available on his website, so collectors can reserve all the models that they need, without the need to pay a deposit! He will still operate the charge and hold system, so that collectors can have multiple models sent at the same time, to save a little on postage and he is more than happy for customers to call and collect models from his base at Sywell. This could be a great day out, as Sywell is a beautiful little airfield, with unique buildings, a museum, hotel and restaurant and importantly, aeroplanes – Richard also said that he would have a kettle on permanent standby for visitors! When he is up and running, Richard also intends to produce a Newsletter for his customers, but I think that we will have to bear with him a little at first, as he is going to have plenty to occupy him in the first few weeks.
So that is the future – Richard will be running his Flying Tigers Mk.II business from the beautifully atmospheric surroundings of Sywell aerodrome, which will instantly be a fascinating destination store for the die-cast aviation enthusiast. I really do think that it is a fantastic idea to run this type of business from an airfield location and I genuinely wish Richard every success. If he is lucky enough to deal with some of you good people, he will be very fortunate indeed and will understand why we found it so difficult to say goodbye. Good luck Richard and success to Flying Tigers Mk.II
Where does my future lie?
I don’t think that it will come as any surprise to Newsletter readers that aviation is a real passion for me and I have invested so much time and energy in this hobby over the years, that it really is in my blood. I am therefore pleased to be able to tell you that I will be staying in the industry that I love and that you will still be able to keep an eye on what I will be doing. I am proud and extremely excited to let you all know that I have accepted a position with Hornby Hobbies, where I will be able to continue my passion for all things aviation.
This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I am hoping that with the power of the Hornby Hobbies Group and their fantastic new website, that I will be able to make a contribution to the hobby that I love and perhaps take my regular aviation Newsletter to new heights. I will be working closely with the on-line content team at Hornby and I am very much looking forward to becoming a member of this successful group. Although I do not yet have a specific area to direct you to, if you keep a regular check on the main sites www.corgi.co.uk and www.airfix.com, any updates will be clearly marked on the homepage.
Like many of our readers, I began my die-cast aviation collecting journey with the Corgi Aviation Archive range and I have to say that I am really pleased and excited to be joining the team that is responsible for this and other fantastic aviation brands.
So there you have it. Thankfully, Flying Tigers will live on and I will still be involved in the hobby. Thank you very much for your support over the past few years and I am sure that our aviation paths will cross again.