[More detailed history of Comet and its successors is on Continuation page 1 at
HISTORY.]
Because of heightened interest in these models, I have extracted random
mentions from my many hobby and ordnance and aviation pages and
concentrated them here on this separate page.
I had an early and abiding interest in tanks and armored vehicles and had (still
have) an enormous collection of model tanks and such. The highlight of
my collection was/is a complete set of all Comet Metal Products
(Authenticast) die-cast tanks and armored vehicles in near-HO
(1:87.1) scale@ {see below}. At the tender age of 14 or
so, I wrote to President Truman to try to obtain a model of the M-46 Patton
tank he'd just been presented; the Chief of Ordnance, himself, replied, with
photos and drawings of the new tank! From those photos, I modified an
Authenticast M-26 Pershing to approximate the M-46 Patton and Comet used it
as the development model for their new M-46! I was next accepted as
the youngest member ever in the (then) Army Ordnance Association, later the
American Ordnance Association, and now (with a typical modern gobbledegook
name) the Defense Preparedness Association. Then I worked as an
Engineering Aide at Aberdeen Proving Ground summers while in college in the
early '50s and then full time for a while as a Certified Ordnance Proof Director.
I was in the old Development & Proof Services and some of my time was spent
testing vehicles, especially the Mechanical Mule* ½-ton 4x 4, while the bulk of
the time I was in the Tank and Self Propelled Artillery section.
(NOT M46-cum-M48 as originally noted; the M-48 was the later Patton II.).
* - I saw one in St. Charles, Illinois, in 1999; what a surprise!
@ - The Authenticast Atomic Cannon and the Honest John shown below are
from Ordnance Continuation Page 2, after
Railguns. There is also a question about the actual scale, which is treated
below, as well.
AUTHENTICAST
(Comet Metal Products)
(Logos from 1945 Catalog)
(Note the warship in the AUTHENTICAST logo!)
The old, missing images were shot THROUGH the thin plastic upper
case of the Atomic Cannon package (which is stapled to the base and which is
finally cracking after all these years); I was amazed to find that I had packed
the underside of the lower case with strips of shirt cardboard to bear the great
weight (1# 2½oz!) of the model and not crush the cardboard base -
clever pre-teen kid, eh?
SPELLING - From the old boxes I have it is quite clear that the
correct spelling of Comet's trademarked product name is properly "AUTHENTICAST"
and NOT "AUTHENTI-CAST". Here are the top and the front and back
of the Honest John box top:
(06 Jul 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{for the end panels, see below}
This is rather funny! In all these years, I had never before noticed that the
Slonims had cribbed their images for this box from Mantua, the model RR
manufacturer!
Also, I NEVER tape a box (I sometimes forget and end up with
badly rotted rubber bands, though); you are looking at the residue of original Slonim
tape.
[From my Hobby page (edited):]
I assume that, if you are reading this page, you already know about the
AUTHENTICAST line of model tanks and armo(u)red fighting vehicles (AFVs)
from the old Comet Metal Products Co., Inc.. For those who don't
know of them, these were a rather comprehensive set of models of nearly all major
American tanks and AFVs and many of the most significant British, German, Russian,
and Japanese ones.
I have a complete set of all the "AUTHENTICAST" tanks and military
vehicles in a custom-fitted display case, plus the 280mm and an Honest John rocket
on a mobile launcher (Jimmy 6x6), both too big for the case, plus the original reference
manual. I even recovered and have the prototype M-26-cum-M-46.
(NOT M46-cum-M48 as originally noted.).
They are described below and on Continuation page 2 and in even greater detail on
Continuation page 5. In addition, I had
(sold) a full set of their HO American and German WWII troops, somehow no longer
jumbled in a classic long, yellow Comet Authenticast box (see below).
It appears that Comet NEVER claimed the models as HO (I may
eat these words, yet). See the 1945
Catalog on the next page. They DID make HO RR models after the war.
Another site (about ship models) has a partial history of Comet; it is on Paul Jacobs'
1200 and 1250 model
Warships page (but see below).
In my bureau, I have a life's collection of little "thingies", personal memorabilia
and such, dating back to just before WWII; I never really paid much attention
to the box until just now. It is one of the original boxes in which my
"HO" soldiers came! Other than my having obliterated personal notes
on paper labels taped over the top and ends for my privacy, here it is:
This is the left end, mostly obscured by my label, but clearly stating "prone",
and a detail of the top showing a distributor the name of which had been
taped over when I got the set and a detail of the other end:
I also added shots of the front and back of the cover:
(06 Jul 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The distributor imprint (not stamped) reads:
Sole Distributors
GEO. BORGFELDT CORP.
44-60 EAST 23rd. STREET
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Naturally, I HAD to scrape off the opaque tape hiding that. Similarly,
on the right of the top, it originally came with tape hiding a word; when scraped off, it
revealed "MOVABLE", such that the box was originally printed to offer "STREAMLINED
SOLDIERS WITH MOVABLE ARMS". I have no
clue what a "streamlined soldier" might be, but in near-HO, I absolutely guarantee
they did NOT have movable arms (be they weapons or limbs). The box bottom
is finally disintegrating but the top is still in fair shape; I am not (yet) willing (or ready)
to remove my childhood labels to see what's underneath. The box was made
for regular "tin" soldiers but had some sort of folded, slotted cardboard divider, as I
recall, that held all the tiny HO men in place. I had seen a duplicate box
relatively recently, in good shape, holding all my U.S. and Wehrmacht soldiers in a
wild jumble, but couldn't recall where; when I finally found them, on 06 Jun 01, they
were in the wrong kind of box:
Here are the Americans; note they had a Springfield with and without bayonet, a
Tommy gun (Thompson semi-automatic), a Browning 30 cal. machine gun, a bazooka,
a 37mm antitank gun, and even a mine detector:
Whoa! I never realized; there are also figures of a standing G.I. with a
carbine slung over his shoulder (at far left)!
Now for the Germans, not quite as well equipped as the Yanks; they have a rifle with
and without bayonet, a Schmeisser submachine gun, a machine gun, and an antitank
gun:
Here are the two opposing sides up close:
(06 Jul 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Just so you can see the full panoply of the two forces, here is a keyed shot of the
whole lot, all 114 of them (57 American and, coincidentally, 57 German):
(31 Jan 04 photo by and © 2004 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger photo]
The keys are obvious, I hope -
AT = AntiTank Gun, P = Prone, B = Bazooka, C = Carbine, R = Rifle, T = Thompson
Sub-Machine Gun,
X = Broken, K = Kneeling, S = Schmiesser Sub-Machine Gun, MG = Machine Gun, MD =
to Mine Detector.
As I recall, they came in two sets each, standing and prone; don't ask me in which set
the kneeling figures were! Looking at them now, I wonder if the soldiers
weren't actually HO (1:87.1) or even 1:76, and not the so-called 15mm/1:108; I'll ask
one of the standing Yanks or Germans to stand up straight to be measured (6'? /
15.25cm?) and let you know when he does! The standing figures measure
¾" (19mm) above the base as is, which comes out to 5' 5" (166cm) - not bad
for true HO.
Also, please do not ask me how I come to have such odd proportions of soldiers; I
haven't the foggiest idea (unless many of them got "killed").
In the box, as shown above, were my pre-teen efforts to make HO scale rulers
(how did I know the tanks and soldiers weren't HO scale?); the metal
one is cut from a corset stay:
(06 Jul 03 photo by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
This reminds me that I used to make all sorts of things out of shirt cardboard, such as
a fortress-cum-castle with an operating drawbridge, from which I got the idea to build
a rather large landing ship/craft, sort of like a giant LCVP-cum-LCI-cum-LST, with an
operating bow ramp, to transport my AUTHENTICAST tanks and AFVs and troops
across the carpet ocean to the carpet beachhead; I found some and posted them to
page 4.
Now, here's an odd howdy-do! I'd written that the old box that contained
soldiers did NOT mention "AUTHENTICAST" at all! It
uses the adjective "AUTHENTIC", but that's not a trademark. Wrong!
"AUTHENTICAST" IS noted on the left end panel,
but it is on a pasted-on label, the one reading "PRONE".
I turned up my original ca. 1945 Comet Metal Products "AUTHENTICAST"
pumper fire engine, replete with driver and two other seated firemen. I
hadn't shown the other side because I'd cut a big hole in it for my dummy
firehose. Also, I painted the caps on two of the figures and had several
more, helmeted, standing figures, that I could hook on to the end of the hoses,
standing on the tailgate; unfortunately, the standing figures went the way of
the long single-wheelbase cab-over hook-and-ladder truck!
(06 Jul 03 photo by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The chrome paint on the lights and such is shot and the grille never had any,
the axle ends have rusted lightly, but otherwise she's held up rather well, I'd
say. Wonder if I'll ever turn up that ladder truck and the other figures?
19 Oct 01 - Bill Seymour has 38 Comet/AUTHENTICAST tanks and AFVs in
mint condition and in their original boxes, ca. 1950, and is (was?) willing to
part with them; here are two:
(Photo by and courtesy of B. Seymour - all rights reserved)
If you are seriously interested, let me know; Bill also is thinking of getting rid
of his old Britains, Ltd. soldiers.
It seems to me that Bill's boxes are a third generation box (Vietnam era?); the
boxes on my Ordnance page, for the Atomic Cannon and Honest John, are
second generation (Korean era), but I only have those WWII soldiers boxes,
not tank/AFV boxes; most were picked up directly at Comet and were in tissue
paper.
- 18 May 02 - Allen Hill turned up and
puts Bill's collection to shame (at least in terms of sheer bulk):
(Cropped 18 May 02 from photo by A. Hill - all rights reserved)
From my Ordnance Continuation Page 2:
I have a ca.-1945 HO model (of the Atomic
Cannon (q.v.):
This 50+-year-old AUTHENTICAST model still looks reasonably good; it's 10"
(72½') long in HO scale (or is it 90' long in 1:108?) and was made by Comet
Metal Products of Richmond Hill (Jamaica area), Long Island, New York, as part of their
WWII tank and armored vehicle series (and is older than the "M65" production
designation). Here's what's left of the original box:
(Ca. 1945 model and box and 1999 photos by - and © 1999 - S. Berliner, III)
Whil(e)(st) looking for another old model, I ran across the AUTHENTICAST Honest
John Rocket Launcher in its original box (like the Atomic Cannon, it would not fit
in my fitted case). The box is labelled "GUIDED MISSILE HONEST JOHN 5194"
and probably dates from 1950 or so. I moved this coverage to the
continuation page 2.
Henk Timmermann of Holland sent photos of PST models to show the differences.
I also looked up the QualityCast
(ex-AuthentiCast) line of
Soviet tanks to double check.
From my Railroad Schnabel Car Continuation Page 2
(edited):
I grew up wanting (although I never bought) the Comet Metal Products
AUTHENTICAST HO POLLOCK hot metal car. They are also called
"bottle" cars or even (improperly) "ThermosTM
bottle" cars, in the U.S. As I moved this paragraph and edited it, it occurred to
me that the Comet car was probably the Red Ball car (if my memory serves me aright).
Comet "AUTHENTICAST" 1:432 Aircraft Recognition ("Spotter")
Models
I completely forgot about the Slonim's line of tiny Comet "AUTHENTICAST"
1:432 aircraft recognition ("spotter") models!
For more on these and on Comet/AUTHENTICAST, see Ed Pugh's
Reaper Miniatures "Monkey Shyne" page.
The full set of original brass dies
AND many of the masters are for sale! Serious inquiries are invited;
contact Ed Pugh if you are interested and in a position to aquire these rarities.
From Ed's pages, Duke Seifreid purchased both the Armor and Aircraft sets from
Superior Models in 1974 (Comet had changed its name to Superior in the late 50's),
Seifreid sold them to the private collector from whom Ed purchased them from in 1982.
Ed purchased both sets from the collector in 1988. Ed sold the armor set to a
private collector in L.A. in 1994.
During the war and post-war years, the 1:432 planes were offered to the public by
Comet as part of their Authenticast line.
During the '70s and '80s, they were sold by Heritage USA under the Air
Power brand name.
During the '90s limited pieces were offered by Distinguished Flying Collectibles
during the 50th anniversary of WW II.
- If your ancient zinc models start to crumble away from IGC [Inter-Granular Corrosion, brought about by tin impurities in the zinc (very common in WWII)], just soak the whole thing in ACC (alpha cyanoacrylate, or "Crazy Glue"). It's just that simple and works like a charm, bonding the grain structure back together. It wll NOT, however, shrink back a badly swollen casting, only bond it together and keep it from crumbling further. it really works; I've been doing it ever since ACC came on the market - SB,III.
Speaking of which, I hauled out the fitted case on 18 May 02 and opened it for the
first time in perhaps five or more years; oh, my! What a mess! Many
more models have succumbed to IGC and a few are falling apart along glue lines or
have paint flaking off. However, I found things I'd completely forgotten about!
The models appear to be in numbered order in the order of their acquisition (my
master list is in the misplaced catalog). There are a few ringers, like one of the
Chevvies is a civilian car I painted OD (I had completely forgotten that Comet put out
a line of civilian cars in putative HO). Also, there are two M22 Locust tanks
(don't ask me why!) and there are a dozen seated soldiers that came with one of the
Jimmies, the one with seats along each side of the stake body (I'd completely
forgotten about them) and some incredibly tiny figures that I can't even begin to
identify. Since the original 18 May 02 photos seem to be irretrievably lost, I
hauled the case out yet again on 16 Jul 03 (my, it gets heavier every year!)and the
new photos are on Continuation page 2.
- 07 Jul 03 - I took some
new photos on 06 and 07 Jul 03 to replace the many of the missing ones; then, on
30 Dec 2004, I hauled out the box yet again and documented every single one of the
90+ models. After a herculean feat, the results are now posted to a new
continuation page 5 at 1950s Fitted Case of Tanks.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Comet/AUTHENTICAST pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005,
2006
- All rights reserved.
Return to Top of Page
times since the counter was re-installed 01 Dec 99.
(04 Jan 05)
