Monogram Mafia III

Nice work, guys!  Love the F-15, and M-vol, the engine looks great!

B_one; well done, sir!

PJ, that's coming along really good!

Made some progress with the Voodoo so here's where I'm at for now.

Took a lot of careful sanding and blending with a little thick CA to get rid of certain low spots along the top seam.

The wing parts went on. Molded detail is super.

I read somewhere that this kit was the first on the market featuring trunking.

Great job. Speedy you are!

thanks all, I think I am going to go all out on the E model. So that one will be "normal" pace.

Dang B-1!!!! That was very fast! We need a speedy Gonzalez badge just for you! Well done sir!!!

Excellent looking eagle you've built! I vote all out on the next one ;)

Well after building like the wind(a really fast howling wind) here is a follow-up with my first build, the Monogram F-15C. 

After letting the glosscoat dry I applied the decals, glosscoated, then started my weathering.

I then taped up the canopy in prep for applying some testors dullcote to seal in the weathering and bring the gloss down. When the Dullcote dried I then attached the weapons and the fuel tanks. I am calling this one done, here is the results:

Overall this was a pretty easy build with no fit issues. The only pain was the re-scribing. I tried to keep this one simple with minimal scratch building and AM parts which is why this build went by so fast, one of my fastest actually. My second build will take a lot longer due to more parts and I am still not sure if I want to keep it out of box or go all out with it. Thanks for looking

I don't know what's up with GM, even my models of their cars leak....

Yes, they have fallen from where they used to be... Sad sad sad

Stik, just stay away from Gov't Motors, there's a track record which is less than enviable.

MV, that is one good looking motor! I'm a Chevy man myself as well, although I have not owned a GM vehicle for a few years now. And driving a Ford at work every day for 10 years or so does not have me dissing them anymore... Lol! Of course I really have to ask the top brass at GM what are they thinking nowadays about some of their antics...

Rex, nothing was cooler than the mid-90's tbirds. Yeah, 80's in July, don't make any bets against "a snowball's chance in July"....

AJ....oh, yes!

So today in the mail I recieved a package that contained, among others, a Promodeler F-84G, Monogram F-84F, Monogram P-61, and a Monogram TBD-1... I'm now in Monogram heaven!!!!!!

awww wot a pwetty wittle Mouse Motor,,,,,,come over here and sit next to the Baby Rat (nickname for the 351 Cleveland)

yeah, I was Ford during the Chevy-Ford battles

that is a nice looking engine, though, all kidding aside

we are getting thunderstorms right now, but, then we also get that 3 or 4 days of "only 80s" in July, aka "forget the grass, I have painting to do"

Rex

Besides, this year the grass grows so fast I can almost hear it,,,,,just like the corn fields back home.

Got the motor runnin'; btw, this is all OOB for time so all the pieces are from the kit.

The mid-90's Lumina(Terry Labonte Kelloggs car was the first time I'd seen them)/Monte Carlo kits received molded plug wires. They only went to the heat shields. The 3rd gen T-bird kits (that represented the '94-97 model years) introduced plug wiring that went all the way to the heads, and glued into boots molded into the heads. Love the Chevrolet scripting on the valve covers, thought my dry brushing looked better than that...oh, wait...from 4 feet it looks ok again!

Now it's a race against time and weather to paint the body. Low 80's in Mississippi in the middle of July is too good to pass up.

B-1

Somehow I missed your post. That paint on the Eagle looks great. I have the Pro Modeler Eagle that has a ton of weapons and hope the sink marks are not there. I have to peek and check. The model itself is very nice with great detailing.

MV

Looks like you are making speedy progress with your MC. I have a couple of cars in my stash to build and find the body's paint the most challenging to get a smooth even glossy coat. I have seen some very nice builds but have been ruined by a pebbly paint job.

K-1

the old 1 /72 Monogram model was huge.  I built one eons ago and recall using tons of paint on that beast. Imagine doing one NMF in Alclad $$$!

68GT

Those are nice kits. You can make some really impressive improvements with available PE sets. Some kits regardless of age, still make decent displays.

Great looking progress all around guys

stikpusher

Making some very rapid progress there B-1. Is there any particular reason you opted for those specific markings as a replacement for the kit decals?

Hey Stick,

    Yeah I chose to go with the STL birds being thats where they are built. Since I am doing a pair of Eagles for this build I thought it would be fitting  It's sad that the MO ANG does not fly eagle's anymore though.

Excellent progress, B_one! The St Louis birds are cool, I built one that celebrated the Cardinals winning the 06 World Series.

Wow Stik, I just read the Fokker info and had totally forgotten that I have 2 Fokker DVII's and one Camel that I bought as bagged kits from Squadron in the mid 80's for under a buck each! Had no idea there were ex Aurora molds. They are really nice kits for their age. I have some of Tom's Modelworks PE sets for them. I just may build one of them as the second entry. Just have to hunt down the pe sets somewhere in the garage.

Making some very rapid progress there B-1. Is there any particular reason you opted for those specific markings as a replacement for the kit decals?

Here is where I am at with my first build

I had to fill all these holes in the sides of all the sparrow missiles

Got the exhaust cans painted and mounted

scrounged up some wing tanks from a scrap f-15 I have in my boneyard for use on this build

Since the kit decals were a toasty shade of yellow I ordered some Missouri ANG decals from two bobs for use on this kit. Right now she is drying with a couple coats of future on her in preparation for decaling. 

68, yes, the SE5 is another former Aurora mold. That one would work nicely as well. Aurora had a very large WWI line, of which Monogram only released some. Among those were the two you posted already, a Fokker Dr.1, Sopwith Camel, Nieuport 11, Albatross D.V. Glencoe got many of the molds as well. And some, such as the Gotha and DeHaviland bombers have not been re issued since Aurora went under, and can fetch a high price online on eBay and such.

MV, you're making great progress so far! Keep it up!

Well, alright, I guess it's time to get into the game. Started the Monte Carlo stock car kit seen here. Glued the roll cage and some of the suspension together the other night, then spent the afternoon yesterday and today painting it up to finish it out. Still some brush paint detailing and assembly to go, and I might swap out the tires with some other preprinted ones to hurry it up. It's going to be pleasant weather (really low-80's) this week in good Ol' Dixie so I'm going to finish body prep in order to paint on Wednesday. Just some pics to verify that I'm actually working on it, there's nothing really special going on at this point, and a lot of the detail up stuff that I'd do isn't going to happen because of time restraints on my part. As far as "shake and bakes" go, these stock car kits are pretty much there:

Had no Idea the history of the mold.  I have a bunch more to build as time goes on.

Is the S.E. 5a an Aurora mold also?

68GT, that Fokker (oh that sounds borderline) is originally an Aurora mold, later obtained by Monogram when Aurora folded, and somehow making its way to the most recent Revell Germany boxing that you have. Under the rules of this GB, it qualifies, and I personally would love to see it built for here!

Darrin, that is excellent rapid progress! Especially for such a big beast! I look forward to seeing some paint on it soon!

Howdy folks! here's a small update. Things are going pretty well, I'm to the final stages of prep and then I can get serious about some paint. Woo hoo. The fit of this thing is incredible. Probably the only places it will need filler is at the upper wing roots. Monogram designed in some cleats to hang the thing by. One on each wing and one right in front of the vertical stabilizer. I'm thinking about leaving them so I can hang it.

I have this Revell Fokker DVII is was going to build so this might be the place for it.

Thanks guys for dropping in and commenting. The one thing I like about this site is the techniques and knowledge we exchange to help us improve our builds. I learn something new every time I go thru this site.

TAD, don't be afraid of the NMF, it just takes a lot more care in prepping the surface for the Alclad! I'm not nervous one bit either, just think about it once in a while........

All kidding aside, I had to use some thick CA to fill in a thin valley along some parts of the top seam. And of course it had to be on the most visible area, it never fails. The area needs very careful sanding and polishing to make it look right. I'm trying not to destroy any raised details.