To join we are accepting payments through PayPal. Membership is U.S.$25.00 annually. Our PayPal address is: info@internationalresinmodellers.com. Once you join we will put you on our newsletter list, give you a membership number and we can then publish any contributions from members. Members will also be able to purchase exclusive kits based on the Wish List! page. The first of these will be never-before-produced aircraft and later we will expand into other areas. You will also be entitled to any discounts from participating resin manufactuers and dealers. Please remember that not everyone on the Resin Manufacturers page or Hobby Suppliers and Organizations page is participating in the discount program yet. Give us about a week to get your membership number to you. We want to get it all correct the first time so everyone is happy. Your memberships will also help finance initial production runs for never-before-produced model kits available to IRMA membes ONLY on the initial runs. The first of these will be in 1/72 aircraft with expansion into other areas as we get up and running. Hopefully soon we can offer more perks!

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This very interesting early jet is the Unicraft Models 1/72 Payen-Melot Pa-22/1R Flechair "Arrow." This is NOT an easy kit! The front must be drilled and hollowed out to fit the engine parts, the cockpit too must be dug out and built, and the details and landing gear were home made from metal due to the brittle quality of the resin landing gear included. This one is definitely for the advanced resin modeller.

Model by Zane R Nobbs 

The aircraft it is based on is the 1935 airframe built by Nicolas Roland Payen. M. Payen was an early advocate of delta wing design with large canards at the front to give enough lift for the engines of the day. His designs included many varied types of aircraft based on a similar layout. 

The Pa-22 was originally intended for the Melot Steam-Oil Jet, an early type of ramjet. Henri F. Melot began experimenting with ram jet technology in the 1930s. By 1935 he had envisioned a self-propelled ramjet based on a mixture of oil and water. The oil was ignited in a boiler inside the aircraft to heat the water which was then forced through tubes into a bulb at the front of the engine. The heat from the steam compressed the air coming into the round air scoops. Within the bulb the oil and air mixed to form a small explosion. This set off a series of explosions as each airscoop took in more air. This series built up into a continuous stream with an outlet underneath the aircraft for propulsion. This was the Melot 1R engine.

Monsieurs Payen and Melot formed an alliance to build an experimental aircraft for the upcoming air races in 1939. The engine proved so heavy that a fourth wheel was included under the front in case the aircraft bounced when landing (similar to the Heinkel He-176). In the end all was for naught as engine development took longer than expected. M. Payen then modified the airframe and re-engined it with a Regnier R6 piston engine. This too was in vain as the war started and the Luftwaffe seized the aircraft, which was later destroyed completely in an Allied bombing raid. There was also a military  version planned, the Pa-112, that was not built.

Model by Zane R Nobbs

References for this article:

Popular Science Monthly, August, 1935.

Everyday Science and Mechanics Magazine, October, 1935.

This is the Planet Models 1/72 DeHavilland DH-108 Swallow. This kit is extremely clean with well fit resin parts, a very nice vacuform canopy and required very minimal filing, filling and sanding. It was even moulded so that no nose weight was needed!

The Swallow was a British tailess design similar in layout to the Messerschmitt Me-163. However, it was powered by a turbojet instead of a rocket. It paved the way for the world's first commercial jet, the DeHavilland DH-106 Comet.

Model Model by Zane R Nobbs  

Here is an ancient kit by CMR Models/ Czech Master Resin of the Sukhoi Su-5 in 1/72. This model was made back in the 1980s and was a very clean build. This particular kit is a combination as some details were added from the resin portions of the Don's Model Works and MPM Ltd. Models kits of the same aircraft.

The Sukhoi Su-5 was a Soviet motorjet of 1945 to meet Stalin's requirements that there be some type of jet aircraft in the Soviet Union that could counter the Messerschmitt Me-262 (Mikoyan-Gureyvich received the same assignment resulting in the MiG-13). This was accomplished through a typical piston-engine forcing air into a turboshaft jet through a series of ducted-fan chambers. The arrangement allowed a short burst of speed for the Su-5 to hopefully catch up the the Me-262. As jet technology advanced, however, the need for the Su-5 was no more. Only two were built and later scrapped.

Model by Zane R Nobbs 

Below and to the left is the Payen-Melot Pa-22/1R Flechair "Arrow" in the traditional French racing color of cobalt-blue. 

Model by Zane R Nobbs

Another fine set of photos by Al Maciejewski!