Monogram P-47 Thunderbolts
A few years ago I came across some P-47 decal sheets that had some nose art I really liked.
Inspired by my daughter , Erin's , interest in wolves, I built the one with the wolf first.
Recently I completed “Dallas Blonde”.
Both came from Barracuda decals.
The pilot of “Whoooooooo” was from Shawnee, Oklahoma. His high school's mascot was a wolf.
The new decals are sure an improvement over the decals originally in the kits.
They really dress up these old 50+ year old Monogram kits.
I'm tempted to build a Hasegawa P-47 kit just to see how much more advanced it is over the Monogram kits
Nice work on this. How advanced is a Hasegawa P-47 over these? Not that advanced. If you want the best of all, get the Tamiya kit - worth every penny. How different is it from these 50 year old kits? How different is a modern car from some 1968 Detroit scrap iron? 🙂
I wouldnt go as far as to say cars that old are scrap iron, but your logic is perfect lol
Autos have come a long way alright. I bought a '66 Oldmobile F-85 (The poor man's Cutlass) in 1973 and the friggin' thing was already a complete rust bucket. Surface rust on all upper surfaces and rotten fender edges, after 6 Northeast Winters. Now the little plastic devils take forever to rust. And spark plugs get changed at 80,000 miles.
Nice pair of Monogram Jugs. T-bolts are well decorated things indeed.
Jay, nice work on those Monogram P-47's. I love your marking selections, good stuff. As for the comparison to "scrap iron" I will second the motion that the Tamiya kits are absolutely stunning and the best to be had in 48th scale. As for the "scrap iron" remark, no feelings hurt, but for my self I have never purchased a car newer then 1965 to drive. I drive them daily to work, across country, anywhere I need or want to go. Just takes some extra care to keep them going. Here are some of mine.
4 attached images. Click to enlarge.
1. Drove this care for 30 years before selling it.
2.
1. Put 50,000 miles on it in 4 years driving to work.
1. My current daily driver.
Those are some beautiful wheels ! Is it difficult to track down parts to keep them running?
I’ve been thinking getting a Tamiya Me-262. I’ve read it’s a fine kit.
Nothing wrong with the classics and a little TLC. If you live in a climate with cold weather ,below freezing temps and salt you park them or block them up for the winter. I have ridden in a few VW's in the winter and have seen holes in the floor boards from salt and elements. Not to mention froze my behind off. They are fun in warm weather climes.
Fantastic builds, Jay.
The rocket launcher tubes on the Razorback, at least I think they are for rockets, are impressively long.
those rocket tubes look pretty cool. I imagine they were often used against things like tanks , pill boxes & bridges.
Lovely kits Jay!
Thank you !
Nice work, Jay. They both look great!
Thank you, John ! 21st century decals really doll up these old 20th century kits.
Yes, lots of choices. The kits themselves are no slouches either. Carefully built, they are hard to tell from the Tamiya kit. Ive compared the parts of both kits and they’re almost dead matches. The Monogram cowling is a bit narrower, and the gun barrels are angled wrong. Those are the only flaws I see. Like you, I built two Monogram kits earlier this year and have picked up a few more used ones as well. The Bubbletop came out in 1967, razorback in ‘77. Amazing.
Really good result. A bit of modelling skill can still make the old Monogram kits shine.
Those are fantastic models of the classic Monogram kits, Jay.
I like them a lot!
Bring on your next one!
Thank you Spiros...
I’ve got a few more Monogram kits in reserve waiting to be built ( TBD, P-51D, EF-111, F-105F), but have just started building an ICM P-51 . It will be Major James Howard’s “ Ding Hao !” Seems like a nice kit so far.
That's a wonderful choice, Jay @ssgt!
I've heard that ICM Mustangs are Tamiya clones.
If so, your ICM Mustang wiil be a very pleasant build!
Monogram P-47's are like potatoes and gravy. Modeling staples you grew up with and learned to love the hobby with. With a little TLC and some elbow grease and modeling skill they can be presentable and fun. If your on a budget or just like working on them why not?
Tamiya kits are like apples and oranges when it comes to the Monogram kits. Cost a little more and offer more details and have more accuracy's and are fun too. If your goal is to have fun and relaxation and to get away from it all both kits serve the same purpose.
Two thumbs up Jay.
Thank you for your words of wisdom, Stephen ! I’m mostly a nostalgia modeler and primarily build the kits I knew in the 1970s... however sometimes a more modern kit catches my eye. I’ve never built a 262 that I really liked, and I’m going to acquire a Tamiya 262, I’ve read a lot of good reviews on it.
Monogram kits taught me the fundamentals of modeling... to dry fit all the parts, check for warping and use putty. Tamiya kits can remove some of those steps but, I still apply that knowledge learned from the Monogram kits to them. Yeah, the Me-262 is a good choice. Looking forward to seeing your next build Jay.
A nice pair of... I'm not going to say it. Great looking Thud craft! You've got some great looking classic cars Walt B.
Lol... I was going to say... that too! It’s been said so often I thought it might sound trite.
Jay, @ssgt
These old Monogram kits look very good. This is what we cut our building teeth on as kids. Granted they have been outclassed by the newer Tamiya, Hasegawa and Academy versions, but they are still fun model to build despite what the one bad apple thinks with his comment about 1968 scrap Detroit Iron...
Personally I'd take a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T any day over the most of the new cars, with the exception being a Hellcat or Demon Challenger that Dodge recently released. If these iconic old muscle cars are so horrible, then why did all of the big three devote so much time and effort to bring them back ? Now we have the best of both worlds. Looks, performance, reliability and safety all in one very neat package.
Those are some nice Corvair's that Walt B posted... even if they were called "unsafe at any speed" by Ralph Nader. There's one in every crowd, even back then.
Hasegawa makes a very good P-47 too, much better than the Monogram as far as fit and details, but it should be. I do agree however that the Tamiya kit is the best one out there...
Your T-Bolts look very good ! Thanks for sharing these with us.
I appreciate the compliment, Louis. They aren’t world class builds, but I enjoyed building them and they look nice on the shelf.
As for cars, I always like Corvairs, but I’d sure like to have my 1986 Subaru Brat back. Lol...
Jay, @ssgt
I like the old Mopar muscle cars from the 1960's through the early 1970's. I restore them and have done a lot of work to many over the years. Here's one I worked on that I wish was mine. 1969 Charger R/T
I restored this one. It was a nut and bolt rotisserie job where I stripped it down to a bare metal shell. 1970 Challenger R/T,
This is the original colors on both of these cars.
This 340 Plymouth Duster is the last car I finished. It was also a rotisserie build.
Those Subaru's were fun to drive out in the desert... One of my Army buddies had one. It was a blast !
Those are impressive project cars! About how long , on average does it take to complete one start to finish?
I had a 1973 Pontic Ventura II, that’d be close to a muscle car? It had a 350 engine. At $1 a gallon it was an expensive beast to feed, as I recall it got about 12 mpg.
Jay, @ssgt
Thanks for the compliments. I sincerely appreciate that. I remember those cars very well. Years ago I worked in a machine shop, rebuilding engines for a living. One of my neighbors had a car almost identical to the one you described, and he had me build him a nice engine for it. He drove it everywhere, and the last time I talked with him, he had well over 300,000 miles on it ! I'm not bragging, but it still ran perfect, and he never suffered a single mechanical breakdown with the engine after I built it.
I have built two other similar engines, where the owners have driven them well over this number of miles and they never had to touch them other than routine maintenance like tune ups and frequent oil changes. That's the key to engine longevity...
The Pontiac Ventura was Pontiac's version of the Chevy Nova. The 350 engine in them made them a fun little car to drive, as they didn't weigh too much and the engine was of decent size. Unfortunately, these engines were also "smog" engines and suffered from the performance that was available a few years earlier. The EPA stepped in, and the early pollution controls were horrible, and the engine performance suffered drastically because of this. Fuel economy also suffered because of this. During this era of the mid 1970's to the early 1980's all cars were no longer performance oriented. In fact, the closest thing you could get that could be considered a "hot rod" was a Dodge pickup truck called "The Little Red Express". These were trucks with a 360 (5.9 Liter V-8) cubic inch engine under the hood. Because they were a pickup truck ,they were exempt from the EPA emissions standards... That's a sad day when the best hot rod you could get brand new was a short bed truck...
Now in today's world, the emissions standards are being met and performance is still there, all with the help from the computers that all cars have. Safety, braking systems, and handling have also drastically improved.
On average, I can spend several years doing a complete restoration on a car. It's very easy to spend well over 1500 plus hours on the restoration of each one. You often see TV shows where they will have a car done in a week or less. That's TV for you. It can be done, but you don't get the same quality that I strive for with my builds. Every little bolt and nut is taken apart when I do a car. Then it either gets replaced, or replated. I take every item completely apart and start fresh, from the ground up. Body work is what takes most of the time. You can easily spend several hundred hours getting the panel lines laser straight, and the surface smooth as glass. But it really shows up in the end when you see a flawless paint job. I paint all of the little nooks and crannies better than they did at the factory when these cars were built new. I also replace all of the wiring harness, and rebuild everything, from the engine, transmission, suspensions, heater boxes and dash assemblies, to the rear end. Nothing is left "as is" and these cars are better than new when I get done with them.
Nice pair of T-bolts - they look great!`
Thanks Greg... I enjoyed building them. Someday After I work thru my stash of ancient kits, I may try building a more recently released model kit.