Monogram Theme Contest - December 16, 2011

Monogram Theme Contest

December 16, 2011

Some thoughts on the December theme contest:

We would like to challenge the members to select a Monogram pre-merger (Revell/Monogram) kit of any type, air, sea, armor, auto or anything in their line and build it using some of the techniques you have learned, the skill you have acquired and the material you have collected to build the best representation of the prototype you can. See just how good some of these kits really were.

A chat between Jimmy M., Frank C. and myself at the March meeting with regard to some of the models displayed for the ‘my favorite model’ segment led to the idea that maybe we should encourage the members to build some of the ‘older’ kits we built in our youth.

Frank’s Monogram Phantom became the focus of our discussion as Monogram produced some of the first really accurate (outline) and really detailed (variant choices) models available to us in the 60’s. They began to move away from the toy-like features like bomb drops and retracting landing gear and on to cockpit detail and multiple variants.

True they all had raised panel lines and details, but that was the state of the mold-making art at the time. It cost far less to remove small areas of the mold to create the detail than to remove vast areas of the mold to leave the detail behind.

Truth be told, when some of the early models are finished with care and painted with some shading and weathering they are as good visually as any kit today. It is only under close scrutiny that their age becomes apparent and the way the detail is depicted becomes evident.

We would like to exclude kits from molds after the merger with Revell and any kits from 3rd party molds acquired by Monogram. We would also ask that you limit the aftermarket ‘stuff’ to a minimum. Why put $40.00 worth of PE on a $5.00 kit. Use your parts box and take a shot at scratching some extra detail.

If you have any doubts about a particular mold call one of the sponsors (or email) and we will do a little research and let you know. Frank C., Frank T. Rich B. and Jimmy M.

To sum up – will these kits build into models that will compete at the contest level – probably not without a lot of work – but considering what they can be had for in $$, when compared to the TamyGawa or limited run kits go for, they can be built into very respectable likenesses of the prototypes. There seems to be a pre-conceived notion that these older kits are not worth building – that notion is BS. The majority of us don’t build for the ‘CONS’ so give it a try.

~Rich B.