Monogram 1961 Curtiss SB2C Helldiver Vintage Model Kit Unboxing Review

[@63bbray]

Great kit in it's day, built one sometime in the 70's.

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@63bbray How else could you dive bomb the cat without Monogram!

[@WAL_DC-6B]

My "old man" was a U.S. Navy sailor (electronics mate) on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV10) during the last few years of the Pacific campaign of WWII. Consequently, he witnessed Curtiss SB2C Helldivers taking off and landing aboard his ship (along with Hellcats, Corsairs and Avengers). In 1967 he took me as a 9-year-old kid to Stanton Hobbies on Milwaukee Ave. on Chicago's northwest side (Jefferson Park area). He took from a shelf in this hobby shop the Monogram Helldiver kit and said, "Here, I'll get you this. It was on my carrier!" The Helldiver was the first model I ever built without the assistance of my dad. I was proud of the fact that everything worked from the prop spinning to the landing gear retracting to the best feature of all, the trapeze dropping through the opening bomb bay doors (which also functioned) to clear the prop for a dive-bombing attack. Nope, it didn't have a dab of paint on it, but it looked like a "million bucks" to me at the time. I have a Monogram Helldiver kit today in the same mid 1960s box still in its original crinkle, cellophane rap. Thanks for renewing happy memories of my model building so many years ago!

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

This is what the channel was created for! Thanks for watching!

[@sanseijedi]

I made plastic models in the early-mid 60s. Kits from Revell & Airfix were 50 cents for 1/72 scale. Monogram for 1/48 were a buck. Monogram were the best! The working features were amazing. Went to other things, partly when in my area, they made it a law that to buy model glue, you had to buy a kit. There were other workarounds that I don't recall. But I assure you, NOT from sniffing glue! Never knew any kid who did. Oh well.

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

There’s always some busy body trying to ruin our fun!

[@mohammedcohen]

...I found that the liquid glue was far netter than the tube glue, which got on everything

[@chrisnichols4962]

My first kit build. ❤ Thanks, Dad. I have a lifelong hobby and many friends across the country, and all are a result of your teaching me how to build the Helldiver. 😀

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@chrisnichols4962 My dad started me with the SBD Dauntless after we saw Midway at the theater. Great kits to start with! Thanks for watching!

[@mohammedcohen]

...my late dad's business partner was a radio man on a TBF/TBM Avenger...he was the one who gave my brother, Tim, his first Monogram kit...quite naturally, an Avenger

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@mohammedcohen The SBD Dauntless was my first, followed by the Avenger and the Corsair

[@DonGardner-ry5di]

I can recall building that kit a long time ago in the late 60s. Tkx for the memories!

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

That’s what this channel is all about! Thanks for watching!

[@MrTelecasterIV]

Love the small bombers from the Pacific Theatre, the TBF/TBM Avenger looks so great with the sleeker nose and "round" gunners turret.

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@MrTelecasterIV Best series ever! Be n the lookout for the TBF in a future video.

[@jcwoodman5285]

Beautiful! Love the 5 star boxes!

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@jcwoodman5285 Thanks for watching!

[@paulbervid1610]

Those box tops are awesome.

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@paulbervid1610 Gotta compete with Aurora and Revell for that paper route money!

[@mohammedcohen]

...between myself and two brothers, we built all of the Navy aircraft...I saw one if these a few years ago at the annual Stuart, FL airshow...

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@mohammedcohen the whole series will eventually be featured on the channel.

[@garyleblanc2170]

Another nice vintage Monogram kit! I've always loved Monogram aircraft kits, and I've always liked the Helldiver, seeing this I have to get one for my stash!😊

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@garyleblanc2170 Every kid on the block has one, why don’t you?!?!

[@garyleblanc2170]

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits oh I don't know, but maybe Santa Claus will leave one under my Christmas tree this year. 😁

[@basilbean5085]

I've got the 1999 release with the collectors patch, very impressed by the overall finesse of the kit and WOW those rivets! I find rinsed panel lines, a subsequent ''poor man's'' take on rivet lines, neither are far from perfect....but WOW I'm a rivet man till the day I die!! Amazing instructions and catalogue, I don't suppose you have the Monogram Sky Stick?😻

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@basilbean5085 Sky Stick?

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@basilbean5085 Oh I remember now what you’re talking about. No i dont have one. I did see one at the last Kit swap meet

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@basilbean5085 I remember reading about how that was the idea of the Mattel execs when they bought monogram and fired a bunch of the old Monogram people. Mattel knew toys but not models.

[@JMdfcv]

Very nice kit (even for today); fan of Monogram kits! It would be awesome if Revell or Atlantis repopped the Phantom Mustang.

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@JMdfcv That would be nice if they did. Its an expensive kit when you can find it.

[@amuxpatch2798]

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits there a "old model kit" website that sells classic out of production model kits,

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

He has top notch vintage kits at premium prices. Great for when there is a very specific kit you want thats hard to find. Some good history on the makers and specific kits as well.

[@collinmccallum]

excellent!

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@collinmccallum thanks for watching!

[@petermoscone3115]

As a 9 year old kid I really did not think it unfair to have the Monogram Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, Wildcat, Hellcat and Corsair fighting a lone Monogram Zero. Remember Pearl Harbor. Lol

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@petermoscone3115 Fair enough! If the 1976 Midway movie can show all those planes and more(even a F9F Panther!) why cant you?

[@mohammedcohen]

...VERILY...this was the first 'Golden Age' ofg model kits (pre-Hasegawa/Tamiya)

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@mohammedcohen This series of naval aircraft in a consistent 1/48 scale definitely set a new standard in the late 50s

[@scurvy8895]

As a sidebar on this review I was very interested in the small catalog included in the kit, I was unaware of the entirety of the range of 1/32 armor kits . I was a kid in a “flyover “ state and had only encountered and built the StuG IV , Thanks for the mini-review!

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@ The Monogram armor kits seem to have developed a sort of cult following and can fetch pretty high prices today. Pretty impressive when you think they only made new molds of armor for a couple years.

[@mohammedcohen]

@@scurvy8895 ...Monogram's 1/32nd M48'Patton' was the reason I picked Armor as my branch when I enlisted in May, 1971 under the then new 'Volunteer Army' (VOLAR) program...this is the God's honest truth - I was in the process of painting/detailing the tracks and needed to get close to the real thing to find out if the tracks were steel, rubber, or a combination of both...honest to God...I certainly got my fill of armor...and those track details... proud to have been an 11E!!!

[@JustwingitRC]

This is ABSOLUTELY MAGIC my friend! I too am a fan and collector of these fine kits (as well as Aurora, Hawk, and Lindberg Line), and have many unbuilt models in my personal collection. I was born in the mid-sixties so I built many a Monogram model as they were (in my opinion) the Gold Standard by which others were judged. Although I don't recall building this particular model, it's very likely I did as I built most of the Monogram range, to include the gorgeous little 1/72 scale as well: kzbin.info/door/VW_Zrl2LHACqqgewoBwTawcommunity?lb=Ugkxv4mJIINNEzRe936N2eZeark9NSDuNxGS Thank you so much for posting this, as I recently discovered your channel and am a new subscriber!

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@JustwingitRC Thanks for the kind words! Subscribed your channel as well. Some nice work!

[@JustwingitRC]

@CelebratingVintageModelKits 😊👍🏆

[@mohammedcohen]

...ca the 70s or early 80s the US military (forget which branch) issued a study that showed that men who built model kits in their youth made the best mechanics/technicians...they had an innate ability to follow instructiods & read schematics/blueprints...

[@CelebratingVintageModelKits]

@@mohammedcohen Makes a lot of sense.

[@mohammedcohen]

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits ...wish I could remember where/when/which publication...