I bought a couple of car kits from Ollie’s for $7-9 per. I can’t even remember what they are. They are at the back of my stack. I do remember opening them and being presently surprised that they look pretty decent. I might change my mind when I finally tear into them.
Was it the original Revell 1/32 P-40E, the Revell 1/48 P-40E (pantographed down from their 1/32 kit, and which was the basis for the ProModeler P-40E kit), or the Revell 1/72 P-40E? Or was it Monogram’s P-40B reboxed under the Revell label, post-merger? I’m curious to know more specifically, because Monogram’s 1/48 P-40B isn’t a bad kit at all. But each has its own quirks, and I’m curious to know what problems the kit gave you.
I built the landing ship when I was a kid. Since I got back into modeling, I’ve built the F11C Goshawk. Not a bad kit, but it really does need some additional details added and some of the kit engineering (eg, the radial engine with detail only on the front) needs to be corrected.
As others have mentioned, Lindberg was never really noted for being on the cutting edge of detail or for manufacturing the most accurate kits. But they can be fun, and they can be found on the cheap. Lindberg also bought up the lines of other makers, such as Life-Like/Pyro, whence come the old dinosaur kits, and the 1/1200 “Table-Top Navy” ship kits.
Here in the Mid-Atlantic region, we have a chain of discount stores called Ollie’s. Ollie’s is almost an indoor flea market; they buy up discontinued lots, merchandise from stores going out of business, etc. But they also sell Lindberg kits, which are produced and marketed through Round2. That includes aircraft, cars, dinosaurs. It’s always worth stopping in at any location, just to see what they might have on hand. Lindberg kits are always good for a quick build.
It was the 1/48 P-40B Tiger Shark. I had trouble with all the seams, especially the wing root and the top of the nose. At one point I guess I squeezed the exhaust assembly too hard and it popped into the closed fuselage to rattle around for eternity! That said, it was my very first kit and if I tried it now I would probably do it more justice.
I was at Ollies a few years back and saw a Lindberg motorized Fletcher class destroyer for $40. Still kicking myself for not buying it. You have got to love Ollies, at the least I end up buying a book or two…and a big bag of gum.
Doing one now,sub-par fit,flash,pin marks,but not reprehensible.
Thanks for replying! Yeah, it’s not a Revell kit, it’s Monogram. It sounds like you got a newer boxing of the kit, and those molds are almost as old as I am. I like to pick up older boxings, from the 70s. I sometimes do install a spacer in the nose opening, to prevent a potential step between the nose piece and the fuselage halves. Otherwise, it’s a pretty good kit.
Lindbergh kits makes a better modeler out of the typical modeler.I took the Lindberg 1/48 scale F-100D and turned it into a contest winning model.Re-doing the panel lines ,scratchbuilding and so on.Its a good practice for anyone.
Matchbox kits are the same.Airfix a clove 3rd.
MMMM;
Good Question . Yes , I still do . Why ? Well , let’s put it this way . I have more fun on these than the more expensive ones . I have built many over the years . They still test my skills .
My main pleasure in these rough cut versions of models is twofold . One I just plain like them for a mindless build . Second and most important , they remind me of the link I had with the one time CEO of said company and the heart-break I’ve seen him go through on the company’s behalf .
Besides , where can you get a good starter kit for the uniniated that will still look good if they mess up a little . And they offer subjects no one else does , for the most part . Can you say that for Tamiya , Hasegawa or Revell of Germany ? No , of course not .
There are Revell of Germany kits that give me nightmares . I think on some , the test shots must’ve been better , than what hit the market . Fit issues galore . On ships anyway !
Hi Don ;
I shall make this short .The Lindberg / Pyro/LifeLike / Round 2 " Shrinp Boat " is NOT a compendium of types . In the late fifties early sixties , all the older boats looked like that ! The boat modeled is the type found in South West Coast , Florida ,many owned and operated by members of the Seminole tribe .
They were then , Most , if not all , Forty year old boats ! I think they were turned out assembly line style in yards in Northern Florida and Louisiana . Last time I visited the relatives of my late first wife ( She was a Seminole ) , Uncle Carl had two . One with an engine similar to the old flywheel type found in Monterey fishing boats in California !
It was his oldest , de-rigged from shrimping to being a supply boat . I imagine she , by then , had every plank below the waterline , replaced at least four or five times . Oh , and she smelled like a shrimper too !
Some of the nineties car kits were good and some were recently reboxed as AMT kits by Round Two. While they some times take some work the classic fifties IMC car kits are also very good. Then there is the found AMT 34’ Ford Pickup released, during the nineties, as a Lindberg kit. Then there were the Testor’s Dodge police car kits.
The sixties (50s" hot rod kits, on the other hand, are often enough to make one want to swear off modeling. Many were designed to be motorized which did nothing to improve the level of detail. Recently one of the kits was released as a rat rod photo etched parts. It would take more than that to interest me.
The ship models, in many cases, were tooled during the fifties. Many were Pyro kits from early in that decade. The fleet type submarine was originally released by Varney in 1946 making it the oldest plastic kit ever marketed.
Another kit with a long history, returning to the Lindberg lineup in the near future is the Flying Soucer/UFO. released during the early fifties it was arguably the first science fiction model. It was known, infamously, for its use in “Plan Nine From Outer Space”.
If you mean styrene plastic model sea vessel no argument though Richard Lines & Leif Hellström write in FROG Model Aircraft (New Cavindish Books 1989 IBSN: 0-904568-63-6 Pages 27-35 et. al.) International Model Aircraft Ltd. marketed the first injected-moulded cellulose acetate “natural plastic” airplane kits in 1936, i.e. 3:1 scale Hawker Fury, Blackburn Shark, Gloster Gladiator, gloriously wonderful color photograph of original issue kits in boxes is shown on Page 27.
I’ll say one thing for Lindberg, they came out with some subjects that nobody else did. Still looking for a XF-91 and maybe a XF-88.
Amazon: XF-88 Voodoo Jet Fighter 1-48 Lindberg Firepower Series
Three left in stock…
I’d Missed This One [:'(]
Youtube: 1959 Post Cereal Premium Lindberg B-58 Model Promotional
105 Parts -Whoa Mammie!
“Snaps Together…NO Gluing Needed…Send Box Top And 50-cents”
Drop In The Coins, Four Cents Postage…
Likely Kept Somebody Busy At Post Then!
Wonder If Came Plastic Bagged
Like That Renwal U.S.S. GEORGE WASHINGTON Kit
Mailed To Me In 1962?
I picked up a few Essex class carriers at Ollies as well as most of the planes they had. I practice on the Lindberg kits.
Marcs in Northeast Ohio got a whole bunch of Lindberg kits in. For $5 each i picked up the B-58 Hustler, a Junkers 88, a Handley Page Victor, Avro Vulcan, F-104C and a Hainkel He-111. Varying scales but all decent size.
They also had a USS Delong destroyer in 1/300 scale for $6.88.
All great for practicing with my new airbrush, preshading or metallic finishes.
I’m having a hard time grasping the pricing of all the re-releases of the Lindberg TableTop Navy kits. These were around a buck at the local drug store. Now they are retailing for $25 or more. Thats close to some 1/700 scale high end kits.
Hi,
I kind of agree with several other posters here that many (perhaps most) Lindberg kits aren’t necessarily highly detailed or perhaps all that accurate, but when I was a kid that really didn’t matter to me.
Gor me now, the fact that they do cover some interesting topics not necessarily covered by others, plus their relatively cheaper price than some other manufacturers though kind of make them potentially fun kits to mess around with.
In general when I see a Lindberg (or even an older Monogram, Revell, Heller, or Airfix) kit I kind of see “a lot of possibilies for doing different things and/or trying different stuff” whereas when I see some newer/more expensive manufacturers kits I kind of instead feel anxiety over whether I can do that kit justice, and I also end up a little intimidated over trying to do any major changes and/or mods that may end up messing up an already expensive kit
We need to mention, though, that those Table-Top Navy kits contain 2 ships in each box. That puts them around twelve bucks or so per ship, which is roughly comparable to the prices for Revell’s 1/1200 kits, the other main line of wargame-sized ship kits on the market today.