Billings Boats

In the early 50s Mr. Ejnar (Ed) Billing, a former RAF pilot during WWII, was working as an Architect in the town of Esbjerg in Denmark. His wife was running a Hobby
shop called Vestjydsk Hobby and Mr. Billing was proudly displaying his build up
model of a Danish Fishing Boat. At that time there were no actual modelboat kits
around, from which you could make a boat. One day a Danish magazine saw this
beautiful model in the window of the Hobby Shop and were very interested in buying
50 “build ups” of this Fishing Boat for a competition the upcoming summer.
Mr. Billing was very keen on the idea, but it was a huge undertaking
making 50 models, so he came up with the idea to make the model as a kit, exactly the same way you would build a real ship. This was when the concept “plank-on-frame” was invented by Mr. Billing, which is now used by all modelboat manufacturers around the world.