Monogram Mafia Group Build

Yeah.. It...sings...

stikpusher

No such good numbers in Munich or Nurenberg... I guess I should have ventured north on the Bundesbahn

Heh..  I married a half-Japanese chick (1st Ex-wife...  Told my Uncle John, who was a P-39 driver in the Cactus AF at Guadalcanal she was Hawaiian, lol), and my current wife (#4) is first-generation German American..Her dad was WW2 Luftwaffe and an ex-POW) If I'd have ever been stationed in Italy, I'd have been married to the whole freakin' Axis, lol... 

LOL! My buddy brought home an Italian wife when he was stationed in Vicenza with the 2/325, SEATF... I married a domestic model US Heinz 57 mutt myself Still on #1... why she stil puts up with me and my antics...

Thanks Vetteman !

DOn Hammmer.. where was your wife's father interned? They kept lots of POW's here in Maine during WW2

Owl,, now you leave the Don alone.. he's spoken for

p38jl

DOn Hammmer.. where was your wife's father interned? They kept lots of POW's here in Maine during WW2

Camp Swift, Texas, September of 1943 thru January,1946... He was captured in Sicily, not long after Husky kicked-off.. Their AA guns were overun and they were captured by the 82nd on D+3, I believe he said... He got to Texas via N. Africa &  England, and his troopship was almost torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Atlantic (A destroyer got Das Boot)...

 He emmigrated to the States with his wife in '55 to Austin, TX, which is about 30 miles from Camp Swift, north of Bastrop, my "hometown" (as much as an AF Brat can have one, that is. I graduated HS there, and it was my Home of Record when I enlisted back in '76,  so that's why I call it that)....   He and Hannelore ( my M-i-L) were both naturalized in '59, same year I and my wife was born, lol...

Camp Swift is still an operational training area for the Texas National Guard.  The POW camp area there still has the tent pads (Mil-speak for concrete slabs) and a lot of them have been purchased by locals to build on for cottages, since it's right at the edge of Lake Bastrop and Bastrop State Park...

I took him up there a few times before he passed away back in '97, while I was (back) at Ft .Hood... He talked a lot about the camp life, the locals who would hire them (the POWs) to work in the cotton fields and gardens, and sawmills...  It was pretty good, and they even got paid..  Way better conditions, by leaps and bounds, than what our POWs had in Germany...  He also said that he was sent to Texas because he was captured in a warm climate.. The US sent German and Italian POWs to camps that were comparable to the weather and climate that they were captured in, believe it or not.... 

He even spent a few weeks at North Ft Hood, where the German and Italian POW classification camp was located.  They separated the Officersand NCOs/Enlisted men there...  I took him up to North Fort too, and he said it hadn't changed much and was shocked at first, lol.. Said the same corrigated steel huts they lived in in 1943 were still there... (Not really... The Army built new steel huts on the tent-pads in the '70s for the Guard lol..) It was kinda ironic that I was stationed Ft Hood too, lol...

That's when I told him about "Ft Hood Syndrome"... See, FHS means that,  if you have EVER been to Ft Hood, Texas at any time in your military career, you WILL return to Ft Hood at some later date...  I'd been at Ft Hood from '76 to '79, then was back there from '85 to '88, then again from '95 to '98..He thought that was pretty funny..  It took over 50 years, but FHS got him too, lol...

EDIT: Sorry for being so "wordy", but wifey was reading over my shoulder and making me get it right, lol...

Owl,, now you leave the Don alone.. he's spoken for

More like "spoken to"... Loudly... A LOT ...

Just a head's up.. I dropped the P-38 and F-80, added the A6M5 Zero and P-51B "Ding Hao! (white box kits). Also, need you guys to keep me updated on kit progress so I can keep the front page current. Grazi...

Hans von Hammer

Just a head's up.. I dropped the P-38 and F-80, added the A6M5 Zero and P-51B "Ding Hao! (white box kits). Also, need you guys to keep me updated on kit progress so I can keep the front page current. Grazi...

Len

Hans von Hammer

Just a head's up.. I dropped the P-38 and F-80, added the A6M5 Zero and P-51B "Ding Hao! (white box kits). Also, need you guys to keep me updated on kit progress so I can keep the front page current. Grazi...

you have my P-51 as "started". I finished it a while ago

Don Hammer and "The Family" got more work done on the P-51 and am ready to close the fuselage up, so out of respect I am posting these humble pictures for your consideration.

Okay, so the Avenger was a total loss.  The plastic was just too fragile to repair.  So I pulled out one that should be a relatively qquick build.  Monogram 1/48 F4F Wildcat.  I started it last night.  Made by Monogram Models Inc.

Here are some images so far.

Still some cleanup to do.  This one is going to be done completely OOB.  I should have construction finished tonight.  It is a really fast build kit.

Rich

Well I finally got done with the Red Baron...it is an OOB and I did absolutely no modifications, other than using metallic paint.  This was a fun build...more as a reminder of the one I built as a kid.

The photo below has the just completed kit with a few other related trinkets.  The tie-in to my last kit is the original hot wheels red baron car with red wheel stripes (quite the collector piece)..it was included in my model from 35 years ago.  Then there is the most recent hot wheels car from the Highway 35 Hot Wheels series (pretty lame in comparison to the periods)...it is my son's.  In the back ground is an Estes rocket Red Max theme.  I built one of these 35 years ago as well and this is the new remake.  I bought an aftermarket conversion for it and it boasts an "E" engine!!! 

So, Hans, you can scratch this one off for me.  As for the F-86, it is in a hold pattern with major problems (self induced)...I will like sport my son's version on completion!!!

Well done on the RB car... I probably woulda hollowed those headers though, but I love it, especially with surrounded by it own little "Family".. Curious though.. Where's the Dr 1?

Gotcha fixed up, Owl.. Thanks..

Looks ok to me, Vetteman.. You too Sparrow!.. Take it easy on that 'Cat now...

hey hutch ! nice collection man ! I had the rocket version as a kid to., still have my rocket stuff..

PS,, if you ever build/built the SR-71 Blackbird, it WILL fly straight and level/parallel to the ground if needed..( found out ,accidental lauch pad incident.. C engine.. 6 ft off the ground across a shool yard.. )

Hans von Hammer

Well done on the RB car... I probably woulda hollowed those headers though, but I love it, especially with surrounded by it own little "Family".. Curious though.. Where's the Dr 1?

Point taken on the headers...I finally found my Dremel, after our move of over nine months ago!!  I'll hollow those babies out this weekend.   As for the Dr 1, still on sprues, but painted...will assemble this week.  I don't remember, was the small Dr 1 in the original?

p38jl

hey hutch ! nice collection man ! I had the rocket version as a kid to., still have my rocket stuff..

PS,, if you ever build/built the SR-71 Blackbird, it WILL fly straight and level/parallel to the ground if needed..( found out ,accidental lauch pad incident.. C engine.. 6 ft off the ground across a shool yard.. )

I attempted to build one, but couldn't get the alignment right.  But a few years ago, we had a launch with some Cub Scouts and there were two of them to launch.  One flew well...quite nice.  The other went very wrong as it went up and immediately headed for the crowd....funny how the failures are more exciteable to the boys!!!

Awesome chrome job on the helmet, Hutch! Cool group picture!!

Looking good, Vetteman; how will you mark your Mustang?

Tal Afar Dave

Awesome chrome job on the helmet, Hutch! Cool group picture!!

Thanks...helmet came with the chrome on it, but was damaged by some of the chrome being rubbed off from obvious contact with kit materials.  I sprayed the areas with Alclad Chrome and then polished it.....shined up real good!

hutchdh

Point taken on the headers...I finally found my Dremel, after our move of over nine months ago!!  I'll hollow those babies out this weekend.   As for the Dr 1, still on sprues, but painted...will assemble this week.  I don't remember, was the small Dr 1 in the original?

Excellent job, Hutch!  The Red Baron is the coolest rod ever!

I have that rod in progress for yet another group build, but I had to strip all of the chrome, because I couldn't get around cleaning the seams, and some parts had wicked sprue gate marks.  The helmet was scuffed, too.  I used Super Clean, which removed the chrome in under 2 minutes, and used Krylon or someone else's chrome.  And yes, I succumbed to AMS and drilled out the exhausts.  Be careful, if you do, it's easy to slip and grind right through the material, though some putty and CA worked really well to fix it.

Regarding the Dr. I sprues, if I remember correctly, they were added after the first issue, but I have to look that up to make sure.

Best regards,

Brad

the Baron

 

hutchdh:

 

 

Point taken on the headers...I finally found my Dremel, after our move of over nine months ago!!  I'll hollow those babies out this weekend.   As for the Dr 1, still on sprues, but painted...will assemble this week.  I don't remember, was the small Dr 1 in the original?

 

 

 

Excellent job, Hutch!  The Red Baron is the coolest rod ever!

I have that rod in progress for yet another group build, but I had to strip all of the chrome, because I couldn't get around cleaning the seams, and some parts had wicked sprue gate marks.  The helmet was scuffed, too.  I used Super Clean, which removed the chrome in under 2 minutes, and used Krylon or someone else's chrome.  And yes, I succumbed to AMS and drilled out the exhausts.  Be careful, if you do, it's easy to slip and grind right through the material, though some putty and CA worked really well to fix it.

Regarding the Dr. I sprues, if I remember correctly, they were added after the first issue, but I have to look that up to make sure.

Best regards,

Brad

Thanks, Brad...looks like you went the extra mile by stripping the chrome.  I opted to just throw it together and give it to my son....the build brought back memories from my childhood and I rather enjoyed it.

I should have the Mack log truck done by the end of the week. It was full of problems. Has anyone else built these Macks before? I would be interested in their input.

 The instructions gave you sequences that would have caused major surgery to resolve so I ended up using them as a guide and changing steps to make the building easier. Another problem was warpage. This kit may have been subject to some external heat and many parts were thusly warped. Some of the rods had to be replaced from plastic stock.

At the same time I had acquired the MG-TC diecast set and I'll show pictures of both together and separate by saturday.

Mike T.

I'm no jet man p38 but that is a terrific looking build.

Ha, and Hutch, I think my brother built that thing years.... ago when was it released?

Reasoned

I'm no jet man p38 but that is a terrific looking build.

Ha, and Hutch, I think my brother built that thing years.... ago when was it released?

Original release was sometime back in the early 70's...Hans would probably know....the re-release was last year I do believe.

Reasoned

I'm no jet man p38 but that is a terrific looking build.

the Baron

hutchdh:

Point taken on the headers...I finally found my Dremel, after our move of over nine months ago!!  I'll hollow those babies out this weekend.   As for the Dr 1, still on sprues, but painted...will assemble this week.  I don't remember, was the small Dr 1 in the original?

 

Excellent job, Hutch!  The Red Baron is the coolest rod ever!

 

Regarding the Dr. I sprues, if I remember correctly, they were added after the first issue, but I have to look that up to make sure.

I'm not sure when the Dr 1 was added, but I remember I had in my copy back in 69/70... That's about when I got the Hot Wheels versoin too..

The Tripe was in 1/72 scale, according to the box..

Don Hammer this is my first part of the contract that I have entered into with the family. May I present my P-51D Mustang, "Miss Detroit". The decals are pretty thick but they went on with no silvering. They are at least 20 years old to boot.   

It was a lot of work but, I enjoyed it, now to finish the Devastor.

Pretty bird, that. Great job on the yellow esp.

Pretty Mustang, McKelley!  Nice work!    The boss should be pleased.

Ken

Hutchdh man does that Red Baron bring back memories, very well done, And a very nice collection you have of that car too 

Tal Afar Dave

Looking good, Vetteman; how will you mark your Mustang?

Tal Afar Dave these old kits are a blast to build. The markings I will be using are for Lt. Arval Roberson's mount " Passion Wagon" I built his P-51B Passion Wagon he flew before becoming an ace. The Don's fault BTW and now I am building the one he became an ace in. Here's a picture for ya of the D model, its OD over gray.

Oh and it will be the first OD over gray P-51D I have built. Another interesting note, this P-51 also helped another pilot become an ace, Cpt Charles Weaver. He also flew the Mustang as Passion Wagon but with different nose art. I may build that one sometime too as I have 3 more of these kits in the stash.

Hans did you by chance change my build from the air racer to this one ?

MKelly that is one bright good looking Mustang you have created there. Nice work on that gun bay too, I have yet to try detailing the bay. That bright yellow nose with the red nose art is really an eye catcher

Vetteman, Kbuzz01, Bondoman Thanks for the kind words. I have been impressed with the work in this group build. I am looking forward to seeing the Passion Wagon.  I may add another one after the Devastator, I have a Stuka, Corsair, F-100, F-105, B-52 that I am thinking about completing for the build. The Corsair is the front runner at this time.  Thanks again everyone.