MG Enthusiast – July 2019

58 MGEAUGUST 2019 http://www.mgenthusiast.com

Lindberg MGA kit

n the 1930s Paul Lindberg

was the editor of an

American aircraft magazine

who became known for his

designs for model aircraft made out

of balsa wood. After World War II he

teamed up with a partner called Olsen

to make plastic aircraft kits. Lindberg’s

breakthrough came when he managed

to get these distributed in Woolworth’s

stores, enabling him to buy out his

partner and market his kits as ‘the

Lindberg line’. Of course, he was only

one of many manufacturers who cashed

in on the popularity of the kit-building

hobby; by the mid-1950s the market

was growing so quickly that other firms

like Revell, Monogram and Aurora

were all able to profit from the plastic

injection moulding process.

Produced in a factory in Skokie,

Illinois, USA, the Lindberg line soon

expanded to include a wide range of

classic and contemporary civilian and

military aircraft but there were also

models of naval vessels, sailing ships

and, of course, cars. Many of these were

I

> Andrew Ralston is a retired teacher who has published many books

on educational and historical subjects. He has a lifelong passion for cars

and has collected car models since childhood. He has written a series

of books on diecast, plastic and tinplate cars, published by Veloce.

ABOVE: Stylish box artwork by Ray Gaedke helped sell the Lindberg line. The models were made of injection-moulded plastic.

Assembly of the

Lindberg MGA

would not present

too much of a

challenge.