Any merit in this thing? It's a lot cheaper than the Accurate Miniatures offerings.
- posted
16 years ago
Any merit in this thing? It's a lot cheaper than the Accurate Miniatures offerings.
how much work do you want? seams and detailing will make it ok. resin and pe will help. or buy the am....someone else is boxing it cheaper, sez the last squadron flier. wait till you know fer sher....
Merit? You bet. Monogram and Accurate Min issued different version; Monogram the H and J (glass & gun nose), AM the earlier B, C & D (I believe).
While the AM kit has better detailing, esp. on the surfaces, it includes a LOT of interior detail I doubt you'll ever see. Unfortunately they modeled the cowlings on one with a narrowed cowl opening, which is wrong for any WW II Mitchell. The nose in front of the windscreen also slopes too much. These problems may not seem like much (to a lot of people it's not) but to others it jumps out at you.
The Monogram kits have good detailing and more accurate shapes. You may have to spend more time with seams, although nothing bad. Also, the panel lines are raised. Again, more important to some than others. Prtsonally, I think the Monogram kits are much better value for the $ and easier to fix than AM's.
Curt
Sounds to me that it might be possible to sub the Monogram glass nose in for AM's. Some of the frames may not be correct but the shape should be more correct.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
Unfortunately, your Father in Law's response is not un-typical. Many of those who went through the war just want to forget it. I learned more about my Father's W.W.II service from two old buddies who showed up for his funeral than I ever heard from him.
Bill Shuey
I've got quite a few walkaround pics of the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's B-25J, "Briefing Time" posted on Photobucket. These may help you for a Monogram B-25J in particular, but you may also find some of them useful for the AM kits.
Don McIntyre
William H. Shuey wrote:
I concur. I'm a volunteer at the local air museum
HOWEVER, talking to a veteran is a GREAT WAY to discover fascinating stories that will never be published. I recently arranged for a WW II B-17 pilot on the museum staff to speak at our monthly IPMS meeting and he gave quite a presentation. Although on paper, he was a fully qualified B-17 pilot, he had never actually flown in the left seat by the time he got to North Africa. He had plenty of hours in the right seat when his commander asked him to be the aircraft commander for a newly arrived rookie aircrew. He said he wondered if the new crew was impressed by his meticulous adherence to the checklist on all the procedures and hoped that they didn't notice that he'd never actually "flown" a B-17 before. He also told a story of how they were assigned to destroy a bridge near a village in southern Italy. Their first mission wasn't totally successful. Their second mission wasn't completely successful either. On their third try, the noticed that the villagers apparently had blown the bridge themselves because they were tired of the aircrew's poor marksmanship and the errant bombs dropped on the village. He also had another amusing story of how they had repeatedly attacked a German airfield in southern Italy to put the runways out of action, which they did. As the allies advanced, their airbase advanced too and they ended up flying out of the very airfield they had routinely been bombing and now had to fix all the damage they had done!
Talking to veteran pilots is also a great way to learn about how they actually used their aircraft. I found out that a guy I work with was a Huey aviator with the HAL-3 Seawolves in Vietnam. Again, he had great stories that no one will ever hear along with some interesting information about the HAL-3 UH-1s. He noted that the older UH-1Bs were preferred over the newer UH-1Cs because the hydraulic system was simpler and would usually keep working when hit while the more complicated C system usually failed. He also said they used to pile flak jackets in the lower nose viewports to stop small arms fire. "I could see forward and down plenty good through the main windows and I didn't want to take any rounds from that angle, if you know what I mean" he said. So that's a little detail for a future UH-1 project (now I've got to figure out how to model a pile of flak jackets!).
One other way that you can get useful modeling information from veterans is to ask if they have any photos you can take a look at. I've gotten some great material for modeling details from photos in veteran's collections. In one instance, a former Army National Guard member that was an acquaintance of one of our IPMS members recently passed on and left a large unbuilt aircraft kit collection to be sold at an IPMS-arranged garage sale. One of the items was a box full of old photo albums which I quickly glanced through before deciding to buy a couple. When I got home and took a closer look, I found I had acquired a number of high-quality color photos taken in the early 60s on the flight line of the local ANG base. There were some beautiful color photos of 60s-vintage military aircraft markings that I had never seen before.
So my main point with all this is - Talk To A Vet. Be aware that some feel uncomfortable talking about wartime experiences with complete strangers so approach the subject "diplomatically". I usually start by asking about their branch of service, rank, their job, and where & when they served. Most modelers know quite about their particular area of modeling interest and most veterans are surprised and impressed with that knowledge and usually appreciate that they are talking to someone that is genuinely interested in what they have to say. Once you get past the preliminary questions above, that is usually enough to get them talking on their own. One of the things I became aware of early in my experience as a museum volunteer is that veterans are EVERYWHERE. I would work with guys who looked just like ordinary worn-out old men that turned out to be lively, fire-breathing young men in their youth who told stories of guts and courage that would curl your hair. It also taught me a lot about people and how you really can't judge a book by its cover (just like everyone always told you, right?).
So get out there and Talk To A Veteran!
Martin
Think I remember reading in an earlier thread that it's Italeri.
ddk
that's it.
Martin,I couldn't agree with you more.I started attending a new church several years ago and was approached by a man in his eighties who welcomed my wife and I to the church.He asked what i did for a living and I said at present I was a stay home dad,having retired from the US Navy a couple of years before.His eyes lit up at that and started tellng me he'd been in the Navy during WW2.I told him I'd been an airdale.He then got my interest by telling me he had been a radio operator/technician on B-24s at Guadacanal in
Ditto. There's the "official record", and then there's the personal stories of what happened (which I put far more stock in) - and there's no better way to get them than from the guys that were actually there. When and if you're fortunate enough to meet one of them.
in article _6Ykh.757$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.net, Daniel at snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAMAmeritech.net wrote on 12/28/06 6:07 PM:
I built the glass-nose J fifteen or twenty years ago. I remember it as a reasonable build with decent fit. I took the model out of the display case just now and noticed how heavy it is, which reminded me of the struggle to find enough places to put enough weight to keep the nose down, but that'd be a challenge with any brand. The panels lines are indeed raised, but they're pretty finely done. I used NMF on the undersides of mine; the panel and access hatch detail looks quite satisfactory. The one problem I remember having with the kit was getting the main landing gear anywhere near vertical. Now, after however many years of supporting the weight, they've splayed out a lot and look really odd. Be forewarned that you may want to modify the way they mount in the nacelles. HTH Pip Moss
Sounds like a case for metal gear. I had a Renzan do that for me in just a few years. That was one tail-heavy bird and took a lot of weight up front.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
Squadron has metal landing gear for Monogram's B-24, I bought a couple and they are nice. I am hoping they will continue the trend. I can think of a number of 1/48 and 1/32 kits that would benefit from pewter or even brass L.G. Tamiya's Lancaster is a prime example.
Bill Shuey
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