Blast from the past.

We have a tendency to forget seemingly small things in life.  Last night I found out how true that statement is.

When I was younger, ALOT younger, I had a fairly good sized model collection.  When I was a teen, I lost the entire collection except for a couple of old plane kits.

Last night, I decided to take a break from the more complex kit I am currently working on, and try to find a quick build in my small stash.  I looked through the kits and saw something I had actually forgotten I had.  I am speaking of the early Monogram P39 Aerocobra 1/48 scale kit.  This is the Confederate Air Force Ghost Squadron version, made in 1969.  One of only two kits what survived from my old collection.

Well, I snapped it up and decided to build it.  Now this isn't a collectors kit by any means.  The box was unsealed but it was complete and the decals and instructions were in really good shape for a kit that old.

This is a pretty quick build, even if you do some detail painting to it.  After about 8.5 hours of actual build time, I have it ready to go out on the porch for it's paint job.  I left off the landing gear to avoid having to mask them, and I have masked the canopy with Ambroid liquid mask.  I have one can of OD flat Model Masters enamel in my box, which should do fine for the kit.  That's if I don't decide to risk a horrible fate by turning on my el-cheapo silver elephant air compressor and using my equally as el-cheapo airbrush..

Now I have a few comments of things I have noticed.  This kit cost about $2.00 when new.  And it has better fitting parts than new kits costing 10 times as much or more.  I didn't have to use a single drop of CA Zap a Gap.  The parts went together in a logical order and in general, the kit wuality was excellent for a small 1/48 kit made in 69.

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.

Happy builds.

Rich