Monogram P-61

[jeaton01]

I got interested in doing one of these because of one built on another forum. The idea in my head is that perhaps the age of the molds was causing poor fit in newer releases of the kit. I have a couple of the original issue white box kits so I thought I would try building one and see if the issues were always there, or are the result of tired molds. So far it has gone together pretty well, although like with a P-38 there are plenty of things to keep checking as the build goes along. I am doing it out of the box except that I have added a pilot from a Monogram P-40B so I can pose it with an engine or two running up. I have replaced the prop shafts with music wire and brass tubing as I usually do. There is very little flash and parts formed in two parts of the mold match very well.

I found that the cockpit main transparency may be about .015 or greater in width than how I assembled my fuselage, and the top of the fuselage corners need to be reformed to have the correct increasing radius as they near the canopy, and the top of the fuselage is slightly high where it meets that canopy. All the other transparencies fit very well, and the Eduard masks also fit well. I can't imagine manually making masks, it took 4 or 5 hours to put on the Eduard set. I was able to make the changes to the fuselage just by filing and sanding. This kit had the Shep Paine diorama booklet, and you can see the fuselage to canopy discrepancy in the photos therein, as they were not at least fully resolved as well as in the photo for the box art where it is more apparent. One other issue was the sighting device for the second seater, which was too tall and touched the canopy so I shortened it. If the kit is built without the upper turret then that's not an issue since they were not installed. The back sight fit fine.

Today I taped all the major parts together so I could determine how much weight was needed to balance on the nose wheel. Turned out to be 63 grams so I formed that amount of lead to fit in the nose.

 

[moon puppy]

Really nice John.
I remember debates about how unbuildable this kit was back in the day, people getting caught up in what you're talking about. So are the newer releases long in the tooth? Fit worse or high expectation from more modelers expecting too much from an old kit?

 

[paddy]

Interesting project John re: comparing original mouldings to recent. I wounder what actually wears the moulds ? bearing mind the release fluid so they are not dry, maybe its cleaning them that does the wear .

 

[moon puppy]

I suspect it's just use Paddy. That molten plastic is hot then the cool down process, just wear and tear. Remember the old Monogram 1:48 bombers, I remember being able to read the stencil decals but now they are just blobs of lines. I know my eyesite has gotten bad but not that bad.

 

[jeaton01]

Perhaps the constant opening and closing of the molds and the movement of the ejector pins causes wear. The wear from the plastic may not be much but it probably is a factor in a mold that has been used as much as these.

 

[sharkman]

Hey, looking great so far John!