A Couple of Monogram Blasts From the Distant Past

I needed a quick build (or two), so I dug deep into my stash for these two oldies:

Over a number of years, I have obtained all of these old Monogram kits that were released in the late 60s and that are among my earliest memories, in these baby blue boxes. I actually picked these two up from King’s Hobby in Austin, Texas a couple of years ago, having forgotten that I already had them in my stash. Oh well, easy builds they are. Maybe I will let my grandson build them when he is old enough (he’s only a year old now).

Given the kits’ age, I didn’t trust the decals to still be viable, so I grabbed decal sets from eBay. I also scratched out the wheel bay on the Mustang, but opted against any further such detailing given the complete lack of visibility of such work in the cockpits of either of these tiny birds.

The Mustang was missing the tail wheel. I considered trying to fashion of wheel but decided the effort wasn’t going to be worth it. Consider it to have been broken away on a rough landing (but pay no attention to the lack of surrounding damage that kind of rough landing would have likely caused).

I’m curious why Monogram didn’t include the little stand for the P-40. These were typical in the 1/72 kits they did in those days - the P-36, P-51, Bf110, F7F, F8F, and at least two of the three 1930s biplanes all have them. But not the P-40. I would have built it wheels up with such a stand.

Oh well, these were a fun and quick trip down memory lane.

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The box art on that P-40…

It really helps to keep the enthusiasm going to tackle fun builds like these, doesn’t it. And it’s also a good way to keep the skills up as the build speed forces us to plan ahead and avoid mistakes.

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Nice builds, and those are nice kits!
I built the P-40N as one of my first kits when I got back into building (gee! that was over 25 years ago now!)

A lot of Monogram’s 1/72 catalog was very nice indeed. The F4B-4 and F11C were pretty little kits, too. Accurate Miniatures later re-released those kits, and Starfighter produced some detail sets for the Navy planes.

Do you have any more in the stash?

I’m pretty sure I have the entire 1/72 line either in my stash or already complete. I have the 3 biplanes, a Bf110, and a couple of Bearcats already completed, along with this P-40 and P-51. In the stash there are 2 Badgers, a Tigercat, a Do17, a P-36 (with the Starfighter set you mentioned), another P-40/P-51, another Bf110, a Skyraider, a Vigilante, an Albatross, the pair of Cobra helicopters, and the Pylon Racers (Bearcat/Mustang).

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Wonderful to see these classic kits. The P-40 seems to have a real good outline, compared to other kits from the era. The P-51 is great.

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Those two came out great! Seeing those brings back some fond meteorites. Don’t forget their Do-17Z in 1/72. I remember building that one many many years ago.

The memories of distant past. Great builds on these two oldies

These are great examples of modeling to have fun and both turned out good. There are times when I go back to my roots of model building, and I’ll dig a nostalgic kit like these out and just have some no-frills fun. I’d love to see that Bf110 you’ve got built @Aggieman.

They look great,im pretty sure that old Monogram Build Thread is floating around here somewhere

@mustang1989 Here is the Bf110E-1 that I did back in 2018.

For the P-51 and P-40, I had planned to scratch build cockpit details, but those ended up being way too small and it was clear nothing would even be visible through the tiny cockpit openings or overly thick P-40 canopy. I did scratch build the wheel bays on the 'stang.

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Thank you for posting this one up @Aggieman . This is indeed a good turnout of a cool looking bird. I have GOT to build one of these. I’ve got a 110 in the stash with ALL the goodies. You have definitely inspired me to say the least.
Hey…I’ve known you for a long while and still don’t know your first name.

I’m Joe

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@mustang1989

I’m Steven

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Good to formally meet you Steven. I know we’re both Texans and I’m down the road (quite a ways) in Corpus.

Glad to meet you Joe. I’m in Katy, roughly 3 hours away.

I have the old bluebox A-1E Skyraider. Just looking for a set of appropriate decals

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