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This was one of the first, if not the first, 1/72 kit from Monogram, back in 1967. When I took up modelling again, I laid in several of these, intending to build some as Twin Wasp examples and to convert at least one to a Cyclone version. It became a 'someday' stack in the stash, and with the appearance of the AZ kits, those remaining became surplus to establishment. I remain fond of them, however, and I decided a while back I'd go ahead and build one to box-top specifications. It doesn't get much more 'build one like you did when a kid' than that. And a kid looking around for information to supplement the box-top would have found the very box-top itself looking out from the Profile number on the type, as its marquee illustration: Here's how it came out... Foiling is not so new. In a late-sixties (Fine?) Scale Modeller magazine I saw a feature where someone had converted a Revell 1/72 B-17 into an early 'shark-fin' model (said fin being part of a P-47 kit's wing). He had covered it with aluminum foil rather than paint it silver. I don't recall how he stuck it on, but have read that shellac would serve, if the right point in its drying was caught, and I suspect the modern MicroScale adhesive is related to those long used in applying gold leaf. I do a lot of foiling, and had old tag-ends of aged foil to hand for this. But most of the color variation in a bare metal surface owes to differences in strength and angle of light, and reflectivity of the surface. In the pictures above it should be obvious which were taken with flash and which without. The only thing I did on this I would not class as 'old school' was replace raised with scribed panel lines. The kit is configured as a P-36 C, with wing guns, while both the box-top and the five-view correctly show a P-36A, with only the synchronized guns, and it's a trifle to fix. The great flaw of the kit is the undercarriage arrangement. There's nothing for the legs to fold back against, just a big slot extending from the open wheel well. Index card stock would have been the old material, though I used styrene sheet. I made no attempt to correct the inadequacies of the cowling when I built this. It's far too narrow, the widest point of the cowling scales to a hair less than the diameter of a Twin Wasp radial. It's a major undertaking I took a run at some time ago: That said, I think this is a great kit, viewed as a kit to assemble. Its fit is essentially shake-and-bake. I foiled wings, fuselage and stabilizers separately, and barely needed adhesive to mate them all together. It was a real treat. They were mighty men, those mould-carvers of old.... James

Got to love a Javelin, and I was pleased to find this airframe-- the CO's ride at Leuchars. Not only avoiding the messy splodge camo, but actual buffed up bare metal. Sticky back Ali foil used, with a section or two of inverted kitchen foil. Straight out of the box (bag), kit decals augmented with letters and numbers harvested from the spares pile. Intakes scratch built, horizontal tailplane sawn, and a bit of fiddling around with the seats. I haven't seen a picture yet of XH898 with the tanks fitted. Oh yea, gun barrels replaced with Ali tube. More pics in the next post..... don't trust my phone to not dump all that