Looking back...best holiday model gift?

[Rauhbatz]

Maybe this is caused by the holiday Squadron catalog I get...but what was the best holiday model gift you received?

I recollect my dad giving me three Aurora kits...Fokker D-7 was one of them with that non-PC artwork of it being shot down in flames and the other was that Zero molded in yellow...

The Spad 13 was out of stock due to its popularity...had to wait 40 years and $$$ on ebay to get one...

The Zero is waaaayyy out of my price range even today...

[The Inspector]

One Christmas I recieved the MONOGRAM AIRPOWER set and the MONOGRAM Missiles set, never seen so many teeny tiny decals in my life!
Wish I had them now

[spookythecat]

The Big, Bad and Beautiful boxing of the Monogram B-29. It still hangs in my parents basement done up as FIFI.

[the330thbg]

In early 70's my oldest brother, Chris, gave me the Aurora B-29.

By today's standards it was not a very good kit.., but to a 5 year old.., it was the most awesome kit on the planet.

Built it with him before he shipped off to the Air Force.

Built the same kit last year with my 6 year old son.

Last edited by the330thbg on Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Misterg97]

[quote="the330thbg"]In early 70's my oldest brother, Chris, gave me the Aurora B-29.

By today's standards it was not a very good kit.., but to a 5 year old.., it was the most awesome kit on the planet.

Built it with him before he shipped off to the Air Force.

Built the same kit last year with my 6 year old son.[/quote]

That's terrific ... He will remember that for many many years to come ... A tip of my hat .. and a toast as well.

[mazdaP5]

When I was about 12 or so, got a monogram 1/48th Battle of Britain set with a ME-109 and a Hawker Hurricane in one box. It was the first time I ever got models, and the skill to build it rather than just glue my fingers together. I can remember just how cool the decal sheets were.

[Steve Nelson]

Christmas 1975: I was 11, and my uncle gave me the then-newly-released Monogram 1/48 B-17G. I was totally hooked. I even tried to mix up approximations of Zinc Chromate Green and Olive Drab, although I didn't have access to flat paints, just a rack of a dozen or so gloss Testor's colors at the local supermarket (remember when they had model sections?) I lived in a tiny town of about 500 people, and the only reference our library had was a book called "Air War Against Hitler's Germany." Over the next few years I nearly wore the thing out..it's where I first read about places like Schwienfurt and Ploesti.

Fast forward about three decades: I received a package in the mail one day from the now-retired librarian (who has always been a dear friend/de-facto family member.) Inside was that book, complete with the original date card (with my name on it over a dozen times.) I had jokingly once told her that if the book ever went out of circulation, I wanted it. Apparently, she took me seriously!

SN

[the330thbg]

http://www.amazon.com/against-Hitlers-G ... B0006BM2TK

Pretty cool!!!!!!

[K5DH]

Aurora (I think) "box scale" Cessna 310. Sky King flew a 310. 'nuff said.

[The Inspector]

We'll never see the 310, APACHE, or AERO COMMANDER kits repopped, the molds were in a box car that went off the rails in an accident moons and moons ago, the car submerged and disappeared into a swamp and was deemed as not economically recoverable.

[the330thbg]

Some stories about the molds being lost, are started by people trying to sell their models. Like the myth about the Monogram B-24J being modified to nmake a B-24D. People were paying big bucks for a J, until it was reissued. Then, people started stories about the D being gone forever. The prices go skyhigh with the new rumors.

Last edited by the330thbg on Tue Dec 06, 2011 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[The Inspector]

Why do people pay $100 grand for a restored 57 BEL AIR rag top? A) it's the nostalgic kitsch connection to our youth in spite of the known original cars short comings like TOOTSIE ROLL shocks and 'sometime next week' brakes, and B) we know no one will ever mass produce kits of those now long forgotten real aircraft, when's the last time you saw an APACHE or a round bottomed 580 Commander or 'tuna tank' 310 for real? And perhaps a builder needs a CESSNA 310 to complete his mass build of AIR FORCE U-type aircraft.

Besides, with old kits sometimes the challenge IS correcting the obviously wrong bits and making the finished product look correct, filling and removing molded in markings or paint schemes making the windows 'just right', stuff that takes real creative modelling skills, not just squirting glue in the end of a $60.00 box and shaking it for the finished completed kit. Sometimes it's the journey and not the destination that's more of a personal challenge to yourself.

It's like the guy who built his 32 DEUCE roadster from a box of rusty parts vs. the guy who got out his credit card and dialed 1-800-dial-a-rod. The guy who scrounged and dug can tell you in deep detail how he pulled something off on the cars build where the guy who ordered his car can tell you 'well, it's got a 350 Chevy and a Turbo 350 trans' and that's about it. Talk to builders @ IPMS shows and they'll fill your head with how they modified this or adapted that to get this, and just maybe you'll pick up on a tip that could make you a better modeller or make your next build easier.

[Rauhbatz]

Great responses...thanks!!!

In my dreams I would get both the missile and aircraft group display Monogram kits.....lucky guy!

I save the birthday story when my Dad stayed up till 3:00am building me the Monogram clear Mustang...

Happy Holidays!

[Steve Nelson]

That Monogram "Air Power" set is one of the "Holy Grails" of kit colectors. I think the missile set has been re-released over the years, but I don't think the aircraft set has been released since it originally came out in the late 50s/early 60s. I don't know if the molds were lost or what.

SN

[Jerry O'Neill]

Robert Stanford Tuck's (Revell 1/32) Hawker Hurricane. It was my first "big" scale model and was really bowled over by the size!
Jerry