Blast from the past.

I built that kit when we were both ten years old. I seem to remember it had quite a bit of detail for such an old kit and I remember getting the engine, guns and prop shaft installed to be quiet horrific for a ten year old. That same kit today would be $50 were a company make it exactly as it comes out of the Monogram box.
I vow to add a few more of the old Revelogram kits to teh stash.

 I keep trying to think of things that I forgot, but I just can't remember!!!

I Revellogram!!!!

I built one of those last year for a GB on here. I added a few bits and pieces to make it shine a little more than straight OOB. But yes, it is one of those true Monogram 1/48 classics, like the TBD, Typhoon, Mustang and Thunderbolt, that have held up well over the decades.

Well, this one didn't have an engine to speak of, it was sort of formed into the starboard fuselage and had a panel you could put over it or leave off if you wanted to paint the "engine" area.  The gunbarrel/propshaft are a one piece arrangement and are actually molded onto the front of the main fuselage.  The only real detail is in the cockpit and inside the front gunbay.  But I wanted this kit to be in flight so I didn't mess with the gunbay.  It's a simple kit, but fun.  This one is long before Monogram was bought out by Revell and started to go downhill.

Rich

hkshooter

I built that kit when we were both ten years old. I seem to remember it had quite a bit of detail for such an old kit and I remember getting the engine, guns and prop shaft installed to be quiet horrific for a ten year old. That same kit today would be $50 were a company make it exactly as it comes out of the Monogram box.
I vow to add a few more of the old Revelogram kits to teh stash.

Great kits.  I miss the old high quality Monogram kits.  I have another plane from that series, but this one is a lot newer, the Monogram TBF Avenger in 1/48.  This is another Ghost Squadron kit, but it was made in 1988.  I might do it soon.  It's parts are still in their original plastic wrap, but the box is open.  I was also thinking I may need to sell it on eBay.  I need to get some cash for Xmas for the Wife and Child.  It's probably not worth enough to make it worth selling though.

stikpusher

I built one of those last year for a GB on here. I added a few bits and pieces to make it shine a little more than straight OOB. But yes, it is one of those true Monogram 1/48 classics, like the TBD, Typhoon, Mustang and Thunderbolt, that have held up well over the decades.

Oh, God...Hammer is gonna marry this thread...

Mansteins revenge

Oh, God...Hammer is gonna marry this thread...

LOL

I built so many Monogram kits in the day: Hellcat, Corsair, Spitfire, Dauntless, Corsair, Bf 109, FW-190, Helldiver, Avenger, Warhawk, Zero, Wildcat, Many twice! Never painted them. LOL I thought they were close enough. In my defense, I was around 9-12. I didn't want to ruin them.

Sparrowhyperion

 

Have we just forgotten the simple fun of assembling a simple well made kit in today's realm of PE parts, custom decals and resin?  Do yourselves a favor.  Look  in your stash, pull out an old Monogram kit and build it, then you decide.

 

You know, Rich, that is the same realization I came to last week during the Weekend Madness build.  The kit I built was straight OOB with no PE or aftermarket.  In 48 hours I produced a nice looking piece and I really enjoyed the experiece.  I didn't over think or over finesse.  It inspired me to do more of the same on future builds.  In another thread, yesterday, I shared my frustration with a kit that I tried to do way too much with and didn't enjoy it, so I shelved it....bottom-line is I am refocusing to get back to the roots of enjoying the hobby.

Back then I used to do ship models as well as aircraft.  I seem to remember getting and building a huge kit of the Bismark that I think was Monogram.  The painting took longer than the build. lol

Rich

tigerman

 

Mansteins revenge:

 

Oh, God...Hammer is gonna marry this thread...

 

 

LOL

I built so many Monogram kits in the day: Hellcat, Corsair, Spitfire, Dauntless, Corsair, Bf 109, FW-190, Helldiver, Avenger, Warhawk, Zero, Wildcat, Many twice! Never painted them. LOL I thought they were close enough. In my defense, I was around 9-12. I didn't want to ruin them.

I think that modern kits, while making some very nice builds, seem to have gotten so complex, that they are way too intense when you just want a quick fun build.  I also think that modern manufacturers could take a few lessons from those old monogram kits.  They were affordable, and the fit and finish of them was better than about 90% of the new kits.  It just seems to me that big companies like Hasegawa, Trumpeter, Academy etc., have started putting features before fit quality.  I suppose they figure an advanced modeler can deal with a few gaping 1/32" gaps in no time with some Zap A Gap.  My point is that nobody should have to....  Especially at the premium prices they charge for their kits.  I just got a deal on eBay for my Daughter.  She has wanted the 1/32 Bell X1 kit for quite some time though and I got it for (get this), $2.00 and $3.00 to ship.  I almost dropped my jaw to the floor when I got the email that I had won the auction...  I had put a max $5 bid on it as a "well, ya never know." Bid.  Now at least she will have one thing on her list under the tree this year. LOL  But I will give you ten to one odds that it won't fit nearly as well as the old kit I just did.

Rich

hutchdh

 

 

 

You know, Rich, that is the same realization I came to last week during the Weekend Madness build.  The kit I built was straight OOB with no PE or aftermarket.  In 48 hours I produced a nice looking piece and I really enjoyed the experiece.  I didn't over think or over finesse.  It inspired me to do more of the same on future builds.  In another thread, yesterday, I shared my frustration with a kit that I tried to do way too much with and didn't enjoy it, so I shelved it....bottom-line is I am refocusing to get back to the roots of enjoying the hobby.

I am tracking with you.  I was carping about a Roden kit I am building.  They have very accurate kits with good detail, but there was a lot of flash I had to clean and there were a few fit issues.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but at $50 for that kit, I expected a little better.  But I am whining....I shouldn't whine because I was willing to fork out the dough.

I think if I ever spent $50 on a kit, my wife would remove body parts that are near and dear to me.. lol.  There was some flash on the sprues on the P39 kit, but almost none on the parts themselves.  Weird.  Right now it's out on my porch drying.  I had to spray it with a ratle can.  The el-cheapo airbrush I had kind of self destructed a minute or so after I started using it.  Now I have to do some weathering with drubrushing and maybe a light wash to bring out the rivet holes and detail a bit more, then gloss coat it and then Decal it.  After that I will finish up with a nice coat of future.  Naybe I will snag a Roden kit someday.  I haven't done a lot of Japanese planes.

Rich

hutchdh

I am tracking with you.  I was carping about a Roden kit I am building.  They have very accurate kits with good detail, but there was a lot of flash I had to clean and there were a few fit issues.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but at $50 for that kit, I expected a little better.  But I am whining....I shouldn't whine because I was willing to fork out the dough.

Actually, the Roden kit is a WWI Siemens Schuckert in 1:32....it is nice, but will be my first attempt at rigging.....I'm afraid...very afraid...

OK. I got it mixed up with the Raiden.

hutchdh

Actually, the Roden kit is a WWI Siemens Schuckert in 1:32....it is nice, but will be my first attempt at rigging.....I'm afraid...very afraid...

The P-39 has always been a favorite of mine. How many aircraft have car door with roll down windows?  The Monogram kit, of which I have at least two more in my garage, came out in the mid to late 70s.   It was quite a surprise with the amount of detail it had.  When I have finished with my current build list I intend to start on one for the 2012 Nationals here.  If the world is still here then.

Well the kit I have here has 1969 for the date on it.  Yeh my Wife noticed the doors too. LOL    I don't think my build is anywhere close to competition quality.  These days, I am happy just to get a passable result.

ikar01

The P-39 has always been a favorite of mine. How many aircraft have car door with roll down windows?  The Monogram kit, of which I have at least two more in my garage, came out in the mid to late 70s.   It was quite a surprise with the amount of detail it had.  When I have finished with my current build list I intend to start on one for the 2012 Nationals here.  If the world is still here then.

Sparrowhyperion

OK. I got it mixed up with the Raiden.

 

 

 

I was wondering if you got it mixed up with Rodan from Godzilla fame

Naa...  If I did, My Daughter would have had my head on a platter.  She is arguably the greatest Kaiju (Giant Monster) expert in the western world.

hutchdh

 

 

 

 

I was wondering if you got it mixed up with Rodan from Godzilla fame

Perhaps that's the question which guided my re-discovery of this hobby. About 6 years ago, some gentlemen moved into retirement homes, and their huge collections were put on the market. My first buy was the old Monogram F-86, and I ended up buying 5 out of those mega-stashes (one stash alone was  reputedly 50,000+ kits. When you see a dozen of the same kit from the same stash stacked up, with other piles of kits all around, it's hard to argue the figure). The hobby shop that bought those collections has closed it's doors since, but I was able to rapidly recover much of my childhood collection between 2005 and 2008 for about 30 cents on the dollar.

An online retailer of older kits who often advertises in FSM provided me with rather pricey but necessary replacements for models I couldn't find on EBay - well, at least when the urge struck they weren't on Ebay. But in the end, the prices averaged out and I could afford the expensive items because of my previous savings.

As for a simple Monogram kit, this year I found the "Bomber Group", three tiny, mostly solid injection molded planes - a B-58, a B-66, and a B-57. That was my second ever model kit, a present I got in 1963. I think all l three planes totaled 14 parts. 

But I wouldn't trade a 1/24 Mosquito for it.

Eh, I don't know. 

The old Monogram kits are fantastic for their age, and in general yeah, they're much simpler builds than more recent kits, but I'm not sure that's a reason to bag on said recent kits. Honestly, I think it requires a kit-by-kit comparison.

I'm currently painting Monogram's P-47 bubbletop. I remember building it when I was a kid, so it's definitely fun to revisit it for nostalgia's sake. And, coming off Zvezda's La-5 (great kit, btw), it's kinda nice to go from cockpit to mostly-complete build in about 8 pieces. 

But it has its downsides. A lot of the detail is kinda soft. The blast tubes were awful, and I'm replacing them with tubes taken off a Tamiya kit. The cockpit's pretty nice, but molded as a one-piece tub that makes detailing kind of challenging. The gunsight is laughable. The engine and intake separators are molded to a single insert that jams into the cowl. Detail on the engine face is decent, but falls way short of modern approaches. Then there's the flash, the ejector pin marks that run along all the major seams and have to be knocked down, ejector pin marks on external surfaces, heck, even the copyright is molded onto the underside of one of the stabilizers. 

The fit is...decent. The fuse goes together well, but there's a small step along the entire central spine that has to be dealt with. The wing root gaps are so bad that I had to tack strip styrene to the top of the wing join before welding them to the fuselage. And there's probably a 1/16" step between the wing undersides and the fuselage. 

I'm not complaining - I'm having a lot of fun with this kit - but it's not the Tamiyabolt. I don't even know if I'd say one's "better" than the other. They're both great kits in their own way. But it's kind of apples to oranges. 

When I was a teen, my Dad who would not win any Mr. Congeniality contests divorced my mom.  As aresult, the old house had to be sold.  I moved in with my GF and a couple of days later, had to go back to the house to move my stuff out.  Well, I found everything from my room strewn all over the porch.  Mostly gone.  My entire collection of kits (Over 200) no longer there.  I only found 2 of them still in what was left of my desk.

It was heartbreaking, especially seeing my already built kits destroyed all over our lawn.

Years went by and I played around with a couple of kits, until a couple of years ago when I suddenly had way too much time on my hands.  So I started collecting again.  Now I have a very small stash.  Enough to keep me going for while, but I know I am never going to be able to replace those kits.  They simply are too expensive for the most part.  I try and snag one if I can every couple of months, but the wife and I have an agreement and I can't spend over $20 including shipping so 90% of them are way out of reach.

I love the old kits.  The kits that nobody else seems to want anymore, and the ones you can find a dime a dozen like the Monogram / Revell P51 kits, or the ubiquitous ME109 or Spitfires.  I miss a lot of them like the old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Flying Sub or Seaview, which are no longer financially accessible to me unless I get real luck on eBay.

Ilove the large estate sale items on eBay and sometimes I can catch a great deal, but as for replacing my entire lost collection,...  It just isn't going to happen. 

Pobably just as well.  I doubt I could do a very good job on some of them nowadays.

But on the bright side, I have a few decent kits to keep me occupied, so all is well..

Rich

P.S.  if anyone ever sees a Spindrift from Land of the Giants which is painted fluorescent purple with fluorescent orange stripes, let me know... (Hey..  I was only 10 when I built that one and it looked sooo cool.. lol)

Bockscar

Perhaps that's the question which guided my re-discovery of this hobby. About 6 years ago, some gentlemen moved into retirement homes, and their huge collections were put on the market. My first buy was the old Monogram F-86, and I ended up buying 5 out of those mega-stashes (one stash alone was  reputedly 50,000+ kits. When you see a dozen of the same kit from the same stash stacked up, with other piles of kits all around, it's hard to argue the figure). The hobby shop that bought those collections has closed it's doors since, but I was able to rapidly recover much of my childhood collection between 2005 and 2008 for about 30 cents on the dollar.

An online retailer of older kits who often advertises in FSM provided me with rather pricey but necessary replacements for models I couldn't find on EBay - well, at least when the urge struck they weren't on Ebay. But in the end, the prices averaged out and I could afford the expensive items because of my previous savings.

As for a simple Monogram kit, this year I found the "Bomber Group", three tiny, mostly solid injection molded planes - a B-58, a B-66, and a B-57. That was my second ever model kit, a present I got in 1963. I think all l three planes totaled 14 parts. 

But I wouldn't trade a 1/24 Mosquito for it.

I think sometimes you gotta look at what your doing...

and what your trying to achieve..

100% accurate ?

100% fun ??..

or just build a reasonable facsimile,, the looks good when done..

A well done Monogram,, from viewing distance, will/can look as good as a TamiyahasagawaAcademycraft..

I love those old Monogram 1/48 F86 kits.  Well made (at least the earlier castings) and really fun to build and paint.  I also loved the F104 kit they made in 1/48, but I didn't like the pull off tail.  It was pretty ugly to have that big seam running around the fuselage.  I had two.  One was in a diorama, and the other had been built in flight.  I glued on the tail, and puttied the gap.  A bit of sanding and some nice silver paint and it looked like one continuous piece.

I'm working on the Smithsonian P47 1/32 scale now.  My Daughter begged me and I gave her a kit to do on her own now as well.  Which of course means that my time is divided between the P47 and her F100D ERTL/ESCI kit.  I need to watch her with this one since it's the most complex one she has done yet.  Unfortunately, work has halted on the F100 until I can find some aftermarket decals with the cockpit details on them.  The instrument is just a flat panel in a one piece tub and without decals, it looks really odd.  The stock decal sheet is badly yellowed and I know it is going to disintegrate as soon as I try to use it.I wish I could find an entire cockpit for it.  I really don't like the stock one.

The P47 is a nice kit.  A few issues to correct and I have to be very very careful.  The plastic is really brittle and breaks very easily.  I found this out when using my sprue cutter to remove one of the engine parts from the tree and it just snapped an entire cylinder head off.  I had another kit do that once, an old B17F.  It's an old kit so I guess you have to make allowances.  I'm hoping that when it's done and the final glosscoat is on it, that it will be sufficiently strong to hold together.  This kit was a gift, so I really want it to come out well.

DoogsATX

Eh, I don't know. 

The old Monogram kits are fantastic for their age, and in general yeah, they're much simpler builds than more recent kits, but I'm not sure that's a reason to bag on said recent kits. Honestly, I think it requires a kit-by-kit comparison.

I'm currently painting Monogram's P-47 bubbletop. I remember building it when I was a kid, so it's definitely fun to revisit it for nostalgia's sake. And, coming off Zvezda's La-5 (great kit, btw), it's kinda nice to go from cockpit to mostly-complete build in about 8 pieces. 

But it has its downsides. A lot of the detail is kinda soft. The blast tubes were awful, and I'm replacing them with tubes taken off a Tamiya kit. The cockpit's pretty nice, but molded as a one-piece tub that makes detailing kind of challenging. The gunsight is laughable. The engine and intake separators are molded to a single insert that jams into the cowl. Detail on the engine face is decent, but falls way short of modern approaches. Then there's the flash, the ejector pin marks that run along all the major seams and have to be knocked down, ejector pin marks on external surfaces, heck, even the copyright is molded onto the underside of one of the stabilizers. 

The fit is...decent. The fuse goes together well, but there's a small step along the entire central spine that has to be dealt with. The wing root gaps are so bad that I had to tack strip styrene to the top of the wing join before welding them to the fuselage. And there's probably a 1/16" step between the wing undersides and the fuselage. 

I'm not complaining - I'm having a lot of fun with this kit - but it's not the Tamiyabolt. I don't even know if I'd say one's "better" than the other. They're both great kits in their own way. But it's kind of apples to oranges. 

 

I usually got for balance.  I want it to look good, but I have no illusions about my capabilities so I don't stress.  I just have fun building it.  Although, my skills seem to be coming back to me very very slowly, but they are improving.  Maybe someday I will get back to the point where I can put them together as well as I used to.  (I think I will need new glasses first though.. :)  LOL)

p38jl

I think sometimes you gotta look at what your doing...

and what your trying to achieve..

100% accurate ?

100% fun ??..

or just build a reasonable facsimile,, the looks good when done..

A well done Monogram,, from viewing distance, will/can look as good as a TamiyahasagawaAcademycraft..

p38jl

I think sometimes you gotta look at what your doing...

and what your trying to achieve..

100% accurate ?

100% fun ??..

or just build a reasonable facsimile,, the looks good when done..

A well done Monogram,, from viewing distance, will/can look as good as a TamiyahasagawaAcademycraft..

When I compared my old Mongram P-38 to the Trumpeter kit, I was surprised to find that the Monogram kit had a very accurate outline. Sure, Trumpeter has lots of details and rivet holes, but the old kit really captured the essence of the plane.

Given that hobby kits used to be a sack containing a whittling knife, a block of wood, a drawing, and some string, the old kits can provide a great starting point for advanced work, if that's what the hobbiest finds challenging.

I think that's one of the reasons I love this hobby, because you can start just about anywhere you want, and end up anywhere you want.

Tx

example....is it Monogram or Memorex ??[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

My Dad was being mean alright.  I am adopted, and throughout my life, he made it abundantly clear that he had wanted a girl, but my Mom won the argument.  Until I moved out, he knew better than to touch my stuff.  He was somewhat physcal with what he called discipline until I was old enough to fight back.  The instant he knew he could get away with it, blammo.  Everything I owned was gone.

I  miss a lot of the kits.  Some I can replace, not others.  But as long as I still have two hands to build them with, I'll be happy.  It's a good thing I never got that humongous Blue Devil motorized destroyer kit...

I try to look on the first set of kits as practice. lol

Bockscar

 

Sparrowhyperion:

Interesting you mentioned your dad, I found out that my own father was throwing my models away if  I left them in the wrong place, even if it was in my room. I would build a kit, and sometimes only a few days later there it was, gone. So I'ld work my paper-route and rake the lawn, then go to the hobby shop and get another one. He said he was trying to instill discipline, so after that I kept them in boxes rather than on display.  Egads.

I think my efforts to always be replacing kits is also part of my motivation today. I can't say the old man was trying to be destructive, but it would of been nice to know before I lost over a dozen kits.

An associate likes to quip that "we're rebuilding our childhood one kit at a time." I like to think of it a s rebuilding history, even if it's personal. That's why those old kits are so appealing.

Of course, I wouldn't mind that new Arizona kit either.

Tx

 

P38jl:

Yeah,

that's what I'm talking about alright,

looks fantastic! I like that anti-glare black on black.

-Great model.