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Remembering Revell Models Kits

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  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Lacombe, LA.
Remembering Revell Models Kits
Posted by Big Jake on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 11:29 PM
John Tilly,

Do you know if anyone has written a book on the history of the Monogram Model Co.? I picked up the revell one last week, it's great.

Jake

 

 

  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Switzerland
Posted by Imperator-Rex on Thursday, May 5, 2005 7:01 AM
And can you tell us when plan to release your new book Remembering Revell Model Kits 2: Filling the gaps (1978-2004) ? Smile [:)]
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Thursday, May 5, 2005 7:05 AM
Jake - To my knowledge there's no book about Monogram kits - at least not yet. We can hope. I wonder if Mr. Graham just might be working on one.

As you probably know, he's already published one about Aurora kits. I don't have a copy; one of these days I'll see if I can track down a used one. The only other kit company that's been subjected to that kind of treatment, so far as I know, is Airfix. I bought a little book about the history of Airfix quite a few years ago, and I think an up-to-date edition of it has come out since.

When my copy of Remembering Revell arrived in the mail my wife thought I'd gone out of my mind, because I spent so much time hovering over all those wonderful pictures - and the anecdotes in the text. That scandal over the "security breach" that led to the cutaway Polaris sub is downright hilarious. (The designers had taken a wild guess at what a reactor looked like; they actually had no secret sources of information whatever.) And the fact that the same guy who sculpted the 1/40 soldiers went on to design the Barbie Doll.

There are some things I wish the book had covered in more detail. (I've always wanted to see a picture of Revell's pantograph machine - the one that, somehow or other, reduced those exquisitely-carved human figures to different, incredibly tiny scales.) And Mr. Graham obviously was pretty careful to avoid some unpleasant parts of the Revell story. There's nothing in the book about the legal scandal of the late seventies, when Revell got sued for putting photographs of Hasegawa and Tamiya models on its boxes. And he manages to tell some endearing anecdotes about Royle Glaser, the widow of one of Revell's founders who took over the management after her husband's death, without stating the obvious: that her stupid decisions and her utter failure to understand what scale modeling was about came close to destroying the company.

I have to say I've found a few minor goofs in the kit list regarding ships. (Mr. Graham says the Seeadler kit was identical to the Eagle except for "two added deck guns [and] different lifeboats." In fact the Seeadler has a different mizzen mast to make it a ship rig instead of a bark. And I think he missed the fact that there were two Mayflowers on different scales - though I'm confused about that one myself. And the Kearsarge and Alabama don't share the same hull - though they share lots of other parts.) I blame this sort of thing mainly on my own eccentric interest in the subject.

It's a terrific, fun book. Maybe we can hope for one about Monogram. Another one that would be a fun subject would be Lindberg. It's fun to speculate.

Imperator-Rex - I wouldn't dream of taking on such a project. For one thing, I couldn't possibly do it as well as Mr. Graham did. For another, I suspect the documents about more recent corporate decisions and such things aren't available to researchers. And for another, I know so little about any phase of modeling other than ships that I'd be hopelessly out of my depth.

I do have in mind - very vaguely - a book about ship models that would integrate plastic kits, wood kits, scratchbuilding, and the conservation and restoration of old models. But that's a retirement project, and retirement is about eight years down the road. For the time being a full teaching load, three kids, four insane cats, fixing the sidewalk by the front steps, and some long-postponed model building projects are going to get priority.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Thursday, May 5, 2005 7:08 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Big Jake

John Tilly,

Do you know if anyone has written a book on the history of the Monogram Model Co.? I picked up the revell one last week, it's great.

Jake

I picked up the book "A Brief History of Monogram Models, Inc. The First 40 Years" several years ago. Here is a listing for one, but is out of stock/print at the moment.
http://www.tomdaniel.com/td_store/all_other_items/other_product_pages/td_mono_001_book.html
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Thursday, May 5, 2005 7:59 AM
Many thanks to Rob! I had no idea that book existed. I just checked the Barnes and Noble "Used and Out of Print" site; no luck. It will be fun to try to track down a copy; sounds like there may not be many out there.

B&N does have some used copies of Mr. Graham's book on Aurora. They're priced in the neighborhood of $30.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Switzerland
Posted by Imperator-Rex on Thursday, May 5, 2005 8:46 AM
It was only a joke jtilley! (hence the Smile [:)] ). Writing such a book would be a truly titanic work, and I guess you have other more interesting things to do than that...

Anyways, this site should help to fill "the gaps" a little: http://www.quuxuum.org/rajens_list/shiprevs.html . The site covers a large number of modeling brands (exclusively ships however). You sometimes get useful infos on the history of the kits... Just found this today.

Take care
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Lacombe, LA.
Posted by Big Jake on Thursday, May 5, 2005 11:20 AM
I found this book at Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/offer-listing/0760307318/ref=dp_olp_2//103-5859361-2085412?condition=all

Jake

 

 

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