Old Monogram kits...

One of my favorite Monogram car kits was a silver station wagon hot rod, I think it was called Quick Silver. I'd love to stumble on one of those in an old thrift shop.

That's so cool, Aggieman. I think most of us have experienced the hobby much the same way you have. I know that's why I have so many old Monogram kits in my stash today. Route62 recently bought someone's collection that apparently has a lot of vintage Monogram kits. I'm going to visit him tomorrow to see what kits he has that will find their way into my stash. Great story. Thanks.

One of my earliest memories is building the Monogram P-40B Flying Tiger.  I was three.  I am quite certain that it was the box-art that made little me simply have to have that, certainly did not know exactly what was in the box but that started me on a near life-long hobby.

Monogram was a staple in my childhood.  I built very nearly every Monogram warbird, as well as some cars, a few ships and even a tank or two.  Also built most of their science fiction, dinosaur and movie/comic character releases as well.

Of course, at some point I lost interest in this hobby, and spent a lot of years playing baseball, going to school, pursuing girls, non-interesting stuff like that.  But after I finished my education and got the girl, and my athletic days were largely behind me, I noticed a desire to return to the hobby of my childhood.  So one day I was in a store and came across a row of kits, some of which I had built as a kid.  Something snapped, and I walked out of that store having spent a nice chunk of change on about half a dozen kits, as well as some glue and paints.  All of those kits were either Monograms or Revells.

Initially I got back to building as I had built as a kid, with similar results.  But I discovered Squadron Mail Order and Fine Scale Modeler, which opened up a big new world, and slowly, over time, I built up my skills and added kits from manufacturers that I had never heard of ... Tamiya, Hasegawa, Nichimo, Accurate Miniatures ... but I always had a soft spot for those old Monogram kits.  The Monogram Pro-Modeler kits were great, but they were not those older kits.

A few years ago I decided that I just wanted to build all those old kits again.  What I remembered was the baby blue boxes that Monogram kits came in in the sixties, so I scoured ebay until I found just about each and every one of them.  My stash includes a bunch of Monogram kits, the majority those old baby blue boxes.  I am building those at a steady rate, 1-2 a year along with the many other kits that I build each year.  I am keeping the boxes with a goal of displaying them somehow.

While I think Tamiya makes the best, bar none, kit available, I have a soft spot for the Monogram kits.  These days I enjoy building those as much as ever, but I also enjoy the challenge of upgrading them with some scratch-building in the areas where they simply didn't provide much, if any, detail (cockpits and wheel wells mostly).  They are mighty fun to build.

I have always thought Monogram kits were the Bomb !

 Their Classic Cars couldn't be beat and planes ? That Century Series F-100 was the gotchya for me .I think I have built and foiled at least eight of them ! The older W.W.2 planes were great too .In fact I have the Helldiver , Hellcat , Tigercat and a few more.Must not forget the TBM. And the Connie and Albatross .

    The only Armor kits I still have are Pattons, Weasels , Halftracks and Jeeps . Oh, and an old Stug 111 that has the Shurzen and such .That one I built and weathered .It still looks mean to me and it's over fifty years old !

Monogram kits were my staple in my early years of modeling. They made the best tank kits and coolest car kits at the time. And their 1/48 scale aircraft kits were the bomb. I built the B-24 Liberator and B-29 Superfortress, Avenger, P-61, P-40, P-39, SBD, T-28, and many more.

Then they did some great science fiction kits from the TV show Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica and reissued many Aurora science fiction kits and the large super hero kits. They aimed their sights on the younger crowd with cartoon model kits from He-Man and Go Bots in the 80s.

I built their entire line of US armor vehicles like the M48 Patton tank (still have my original one), Amphibious Weasel, M34, Jeep with towed gun, both Sherman tanks and that funky halftrack.

I have several in my stash, F80, F104-C, several phantoms, FW190D, P51Ds, B17G, two A4s, A64, Hind, F15E, Fokker DVII and old Camel kit.

I may be missing a couple more.

GMorrison

Funny, no one's waxing poetic about the P-61...

My favorite is the C-47, then the F-86.

 

I remember that back in the day, that P-61 kit was bought just to grab the complete 2800 out of it for other projects.

I've built the "Black Widow" the P-61 a couple of times over the years.  I liked it!  It's not as bad as I've heard.  Like all Monogram kits you have to use your modeling skills to do it good.  The underside on the B-17G are of concern to me, but are fixable.  So the P-61 is  nice kit.  I do remember how excited the hobby guys were when came out. Gosh, it was back in the early 1970's when it came out.  We learned how to do modeling from Monogram, Revell, Airfix, Heller, Auroa and others.  I still build them.  It's nice take a break from the lots of parts kits I've been doing recently.

Tony, that thread is alive and well. A few entries added a day or three ago....

We won’t hold the Tamigawa fetish against you

There is that old "Post Your Mongram Builds" thread floating around,that can always be resurrected and added to.I thought I saw it recently.

As for me some of you guys remember that I dont waste my time on cheap kits,only expensive Tamiya or Hasegawa for me 

Here is Stik's old thread

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/134679.aspx 

Funny, no one's waxing poetic about the P-61...

My favorite is the C-47, then the F-86.

Johnny, I have the 1/48 B-17F and the 1/48 B-24D up in the closet. What keeps me from building them is where will I put them when I'm done? I just don't have the hangar space for anything that big.

I really like the Monogram/Revell 1/48 big bombers, such as the B-17G, B-29, B-24J and the B-58. Unfortunately these are getting difficult to find at a reasonable price. I have been working on the B-58 since Summer. It has issues, but I think it will turn out okay. 

Yeah, the older Monogram 1/48 scale kits are good kits. Good detail even though the detail is raised. Sometimes the construction is a little too fiddley though. Like the folding wings and landing gear in the Hellcat and the bomb swing on the SBD. The construction on the F-84F is going well. A lot of the little fiddley parts need to be painted before they can be assembled and attached but that's OK. I think after Christmas I'm going to look at the Century Series fighters Monogram offered way back when. Since I've been watching Steve Canyon, I'd really like to build an F-102 Delta Dagger and put his name on the nose.

Thanks, Stik, I'll take that -- being an associate member of the family.

Yeah, ya gotta love those classic kits, no matter what genre you build. I’m a big fan of their 1/48 aircraft and 1/32 armor. Who can forget the Shepadd Paine ”how to” diorama flyers that came in those kits back in the 70s? So informational and inspirational. I have built so many, and have many more in my stash. 

So ya wanna  be a part of the family? Well I have no plans for running a new MM Group Build anytime soon. Running one off a phone and iPad under the current forum format does not work. But we can make you an honorary associate for the time being

I particularly grab old Monogram kits of their classic cars.  I have several right now in my stash.  They are some of the best kits old Monogram put out- accurate and with molding that was ahead of its time.  Great builds.

I have several of the Monogram its myself, especially a few of the F-106, because I used to be in a 106 squadron.  I also have the P-39, F-102, F-102, HU-16, and a few others.

I hear ya. Who doesn’t love a vintage Monogram kit from the 70s and 80s? I’ve done alot of them in my youth years and would love to do them again.