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Revell/Monogram Century Series

hurricane39

By hurricane39
in Aircraft Cold War

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Work In Progress Completely Obsessed Member

Work In Progress

Posted
Posted

I rather think they stayed with Revell USA.  The most recent issues of all the relevant kits (the F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105 and F-106)  were in USA-style Revell boxes and one of them is in background artwork for the Revell USA website. 

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Giorgio N Blabber Mouth

Giorgio N

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1 hour ago, Work In Progress said:

Who's this then? 

https://www.revell.com/

 

Whoever they are, they're advertising a 1/48 F-102, and revell.de isn't

 

 

 

Their own page explains something of who they are:

 

https://www.revell.com/about-us/

 

The market leader in Germany and Europe, meaning that it's the former Revell Germany, that today owns everything.

With the demise of Hobby Co, that at the time owned both the US and German branch of Revell, the German side and all assets of the US operation were bought by a German venture capital company, together with all the moulds. Later they opened a "new" Revell US that simply works as an importer of kits from Germany. Revell US may have in their catalogue products that are not available in Europe, but all kits are made by the "proper" Revell, that is today a German company (although actual production is IIRC made in Poland).

Of the moulds acquired by the new owners, a number were almost immediately sold to a US company named Atlantis. I doubt however that these would have included the Century series fighters, that I believe are all with Revell.

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malpaso Very Obsessed Member

malpaso

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2 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

 

DeltaDagger_1.jpg

 

Wow.  Until I saw this box art I never showed any sign of wanting a kit of an F-102!

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Corsairfoxfouruncle Blabber Mouth

Corsairfoxfouruncle

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On 11/05/2020 at 23:55, Work In Progress said:

It's good kit too!

Yes it is I’ve built a couple over the years. Heres the most recent one.

 

XKKoR9l.jpg

 

And with Monograms F-100D all of the century series kits are decent.

 

 CyKpi4R.jpg

 

Both are 1/48th scale the Hun was built when I first came back with rattle can and brush, the Deuce was all A/B. 


 

Dennis

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Silver Fox Very Obsessed Member

Silver Fox

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Some fabulous Monograms 10x s here. I had a phase of them  in the last 18 months or so, built five F-102s, two F-106s and an F-101. Great kits to work with and still have a 102 for the Interceptors GB.  Getting a bit harder to find in the UK. Hoping for a 'new' Revell re-issue.

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tony.t Very Obsessed Member

tony.t

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Wish they'd repop the F-106A with the original Red Bulls markings. Remember building it when it first came out in 1983.

The Revellogram Six has parts for both blown and the framed, flat-sided, canopy hoods. Trumpy only the former — a real nuisance.

 

The Thuds were pretty awesome too, albeit a tad wobbly on their long legs. Must try and get that T-Stick II edition to do a late 1970s Carswell AFB Air Force Reserve bird. 

 

Tony 

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71chally Completely Obsessed Member

71chally

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It always amazes me just how 'right' Monogram got these, and other kits 40 plus years ago, and yet some manufacturers still pump out obviously inaccurate and fiddly to build kits.

Enjoy building them, they are fun, they look right, and can either be built very nicely from the box, or treated as a blank canvas for rescribing and super-detailing work.

 

Edited by 71chally
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Giorgio N Blabber Mouth

Giorgio N

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, 71chally said:

It always amazes me just how 'right' Monogram got these, and other kits 40 plus years ago, and yet some manufacturers still pump out obviously inaccurate and fiddly to build kits.

Enjoy building them, they are fun, they look right, and can either be built very nicely from the box, or treated as a blank canvas for rescribing and super-detailing work.

 

 

I've always been a big fan on Monogram kits, but in my experience when it comes to fiddly builds they were often some of the worst offenders. Their F-106 may still be a nice kit, but the gaps that most modellers found during assembly were legendary while most other kits needed a good supply of filler. Not to mention their 1/72 A-10, that still sends shivers down my spine when I look at it as reminds me of some of the widest gaps I've had to fill on any model ever...

Monogram's Century series kits were issued between 1978 (F-104) and 1990 (F-102) and while the F-104 was state of the art when first issued, by the time others followed the competition was doing better kits. In 1982 Hasegawa presented their F-4 series, still raised panel lines but a much better level of engineering and fit. The F-16 followed one year later, with very good fit, very sharp moulding and recessed panel lines, a kit that is very acceptable even today.

As for accuracy, even Monogram had their bad moments and while some are well known (F-16...), others are less often mentioned but those really into the specific subjects may come with plenty of comments. Now of the Century series the only one I know to have been criticised is the F-105, the rest seem to be good.

I also remember very well that Monogram decals were some of the least user friendly around, being very thick. Reason why a Revell rebox is often more desireable than an original Monogram issue.

Said that, all Monogram kits of the era always had that "something" that made them special. Often it was the very detailed interiors, sometime it was a certain detail, the right configuration of the control surfaces, the right stance on the wheel, sometime something impossible to clearly describe that however gave the modeller the feeling that the kit was made with passion by someone who knew the subject and knew what modellers wanted. In my experience this was part of the magic of these kits and was what kept me going with the assembly even with their worst fitting kits. I knew that at the end I'd have had a model with something special

 

Edited by Giorgio N
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tony.t Very Obsessed Member

tony.t

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The Thud was very accurate except for the overly large gun gas vents. The D suffered from poorly pulled clear parts which sometimes had a stressed look (absent on the later Revell releases, so probably the circa 1985 clear styrene Monogram used).

Like the Six, it required a tad of filler (the Six mostly needed hot water unwarping for a perpendicular fin), but removing most of those raised panel lines required a pretty thorough smoothing down and polishing anyway. I used to just selectively rescribe, mostly on the wings and around key access panels. Lovely models that were well served by Microscale decals, inter alia.

 

Have been hoping Trumpeter would do more 1/32 Century Series, especially the Six, Deuce and long-nosed recce One-O-Wonder — the latter being a subject Monogram sadly neglected, so thanks Kitty Hawk (we can fix most of the errors). 

 

I have a recurring dream that Tamiya will release a 1/48 "Century Series Jets over Japan" series, and give us a super pair of Thuds, recce Voodoo and Deuce that will bring the same delight as Monogram's offerings did 30-40 years ago. 

 

Tony

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