Visit to HRB Harubang - precision model maker Seoul, Korea

[Henry Tenby]

In early December, 2013, I had the pleasure of visiting Seoul, South Korea. The area of Itaewon in Seoul is filled with antique shops, restaurant, and markets that are popular with aviation types, so we decided to check it out. We arrived at the Itaewon Metro Station and then walked west on the high street to visit the underground fabric market, which is famous for its custom embroidered airline logo clothing and tags.

On the north side of the street one will find the HRB Harubang shop, which specializes is custom brass badges for the aviation and shipping business. A small selection of Chinese made aircraft models are displayed in the window, and the main floor displays a large number of airline and shipping name badges, wings, and pins. When I ventured to the second floor of the shop, I made a very interesting discovery.

The second floor also had a large wall display of airline pins, wings and badges, in many airline liveries, and air crews from all over the world purchase their replacement uniform pieces from this specialist company during their Seoul layovers. Hidden in a small glass cabinet were some very detailed metal aircraft models. They appeared to be mostly 1/72 scale, and I was incredibly impressed with their quality and detail as I had never seen such models like this in my 25 years of aircraft model collecting.

So I asked if I could view the models in closer detail, so the clerk removed the models from their case and allowed me to photograph them. I asked if they were sale, to which he replied they were. I asked if there were any more available, and the clerk said the models in the case were all that remained. Further questions were asked of the clerk, as to the origin of the models and he told me they were pattern test models made by HRB Harubang for a retail project a number of years ago that was cancelled, and the models were being sold. Of course I was hungry for details, and the clerk then got on the phone and called the company owner, who then came to shop about ten minutes later and introduced himself to me.

The President of HRB Harbuang is a Mr. Young Ho Choi, a very kind man in his 50s or 60s, who took great appreciation in my interest in his detailed metal models. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Choi for about 20 minutes during which he explained the story of these very special models.

His company specializes in brass metal work for the airline and shipping uniform business. Back in 1995 ("eighteen years ago") he had the idea to introduce a line of highly detailed military aircraft models for the high end collector market in Japan. Each model would be made using the lost-wax cast brass parts, and the brass metal experts at HRB Harubang evaluated the production of these models by way of making a very small number of test models. It is these test models that were on display in the store.

His idea was to offer a range of highly deailed metal models of military aircraft from the WWII era through current day. His goal was for the models to be very detailed and made of brass, as he felt that the mass production methods of die-casting could not yield the proper scale wing thicknesses and fuselage engraved sheet metal details that are seen on the real aircraft. For this reason, the parts would need to be cast in brass, and then welded together using proper shaped moulds to achieve optimal quality and best representation of the actual aircraft shapes.

Only a very small number of test models were made. Unfortunately, they learned that production would involve a very high loss rate using the lost wax brass model making method, and it was deemed economically impractical to produce the models within a target price of $250.

Mr. Cho explained that he invested 500,000 Korean Won (about $50,000 USD) into the project, including labour, patterns, moulds and the test models (most of which had flaws and were melted down). All that remains today of this project are the several models that remain for sale in shop, as presented in the photos below.

Because the loss rate was so high with the lost wax brass casting process, Mr. Choi said the final cost for each model would have been probably closer to $1,000, which even the affluent hobby market in Japan could not likely support. And it would be far too risky for him to have gone ahead with the project only to be stuck with unsold models or mounting losses. So he made the right decision to cancel the project.

I asked if there were any other aircraft types that existed as prototype models and Mr. Choi said there were no others. So the remaining models are somewhat rare pieces, certainly very unique, and Mr. Choi said they have been sitting in the glass case since he cancelled the project in 1995. I made a special arrangement with Mr. Choi and acquired most of the models for my collection, and I think he was happy to see them go. These unique models are a testament of just how difficult and costly it can be to make high quality, detailed, metal aircraft models. All that survives of this project are these dozen or so prototype models, as photographed at HRB Harubang's Itaewon shop in early December, 2013.