n Things To Do With A 1/72 Monogram P-36

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TheRealMrEd

Airman 1st Class
118
219
Aug 2, 2017
While plugging away on other recent bigger projects, I've been spending some time working on an old 1/72 scale Monogram P-36. I thought it might be interesting to not just mention that aircraft, but some of the other, related builds done with the same kit over the years.
I'll begin with a plain old out-of-the-box, kit decals and no-mods build I did many years ago. Out of the box, you actually get a P-36C. Mine looks like this, I think, painted with Metallizer, but I can't remember for sure:

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2v2J7nnMoxfzdhW.jpg


There you go, just a clean, simple out-of-the-box build.

Of course, there are other things you can do with the kit. With a little hacking and slashing and a little plastic card, you can make a passable XP-40 from it. Mine was also done eons ago, with spare bin decals and Floquil Old Silver, as was the standard in those days. Also fairly standard back then, was that when you had chopped and sanded a conversion to the death, you normally didn't bother with re-scribing lines, etc. That is a more modern convention. Anyway, here's my old P-36 conversion to an XP-40, done much the same way that Curtiss did on the real thing:

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She's not all high-tech and modern, but I'm proud to have her in the collection.

Speaking of High-tech and modern, here's my newest addition. By dint of removing the wing guns and filling in the ejector chutes (and leaving off the cartridge collector boxes), and adding a different style antenna, you can come up with a P-36A version out of the same box. Mine is painted with MM enamels, and Alclad II metallic and gold colors. Various stripes are decals from the spares box. I have added the Starfighter P-36 upgrade, featuring engine, cockpit and wheel wells. I have also opened the cowl flaps, which ended up being such a major work that I wish I had documented it!
Done in the markings of the 18 Pursuit from Hawaii, I used two sets of kit decals to make the numbers and letters, adding an extra leg to the "P" to get an "R" for instance. The unit emblem was from a Starfighter I think P-12E set of decals IIRC.

Anyway, here's my high-tech and modern P-36A:

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Please forgive the variations in pictures, as I am experimenting with the camera...

And, finally, all three together:

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See boys and girls, what fun you can have with a few boxes of P-36 on a rainy day?
 
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Nice Mr. Ed, very nice. I agree with fubar 57. My favorite
of the bunch is the XP-40 conversion.
I consider my model building as very low average. I have
built about 20 car models various scales. About 12 WW2
1/48 scale aircraft. Somewhere around 300 to 500 1/72
scale WW2 aircraft. You might think I would at least be
somewhat competitive by now, but I consider my modeling
skills somewhere around the advanced beginner territory.:)
I always had something else that I should be doing and
never could find the focus needed to improve much.
Any way, I have built at least five aircraft from this kit.
I currently have four sitting on the shelf here. The
conversion to the XP-36F is my favorite. Wow, that was
a lot of blabber mouthing.

Anyway, my point is, I agree with MrEd. The Monogram
1/72 scale P-36 is a fun and versatile kit.

Keep on modeling, Jeff
 
Thanks, everyone!

Corsning, how about posting some pics of your XP-36F here? Don't think I've ever seen a model of one, and I'm sure we'd all enjoy it.
 
It is a very beautiful trio that you managed to arm. They do not deny being close relatives. ;)

Saludos y felicidades Mr. Ed :thumbup:

Luis Carlos
 
Excellent. Oddly enough, I am midway through building this kit out of the stash as well! Such a great little kit, with excellent fit even today.p-36a.JPG

I'm doing one of the Finnish Hawks like this:

Curtiss Hawk H 75A Finnish Airforce article Revi 35 Page 27

with the black under one wing.

Just for fun, I used one of the game skins on that site as a template for doing the cockpit and wheel well interiors. I just downloaded one of the skins as a pdf, then figured out the % reduction to 1/72 (I think it was about 68%?) Then I cut out the printed cockpit side and instrument panels, added a few bits of sprue and stuff for relief, and bob's-your-uncle - cockpit interior! Similarly, the wheel well inside has some nice detail. That I just cut out and super-glued inside the wing. Looks pretty good, and who's going to see it anyway but me? Will post other photos as I get to painting if there's interest.
 
Have a Finnish one, and hacked an early version for the ones the Norwegians used on Toronto Island
 
Excellent. Oddly enough, I am midway through building this kit out of the stash as well! Such a great little kit, with excellent fit even today.View attachment 611453

I'm doing one of the Finnish Hawks like this:

Curtiss Hawk H 75A Finnish Airforce article Revi 35 Page 27

with the black under one wing.

Just for fun, I used one of the game skins on that site as a template for doing the cockpit and wheel well interiors. I just downloaded one of the skins as a pdf, then figured out the % reduction to 1/72 (I think it was about 68%?) Then I cut out the printed cockpit side and instrument panels, added a few bits of sprue and stuff for relief, and bob's-your-uncle - cockpit interior! Similarly, the wheel well inside has some nice detail. That I just cut out and super-glued inside the wing. Looks pretty good, and who's going to see it anyway but me? Will post other photos as I get to painting if there's interest.

Follow up progress - getting there...

p-36a.JPG
p36b.JPG
 
The white is Vallejo Primer. The whole thing is brush painted. Many coats of Model Master acrylic to get opaque yellow .

BTW, that's an ancient Lindberg HS-129 in the background. A 30 year old (!) shelf queen I decided to finally complete.
I vowed I would do it completely OoB, but of course couldn't help myself after I discovered that for some reason (like it was totally inaccurate maybe?) I had sawed away the original cockpit area back in the day, leaving me with the task of scratch building a new semblance of cockpit and canopy. :oops:
Still hesitating on that. Maybe I'll just throw a tarp over the whole area in the end... But I will finish it!:salute:

Sorry to hijack the thread...
 

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