Set your Wayback machine to 1935. The USAAC is looking for a new fighter. It has to be modern, all metal, retractable landing gear with decent armament. Oh yes, it also has to be cheap as the country is in the middle of a major depression and bucks are not easily obtained. Two finalists in the competition are preparing aircraft. One is Seversky with their P-35 and the other is Curtiss with the P-36. Though the P-36 is the more promising design, it is not ready in time and the P-35 wins the production contract.

The P-35 is a good plane, but the P-36 is even better. When it is finally completed, it is shown to Air Corps officials who order a production contract for the Curtiss aircraft as well. This is pretty unusual for the time and I'm sure the folks at Seversky were less than thrilled as it meant that Curtiss was getting money that wasn't going for more P-35s. The rest is, as they say, history. Seversky never got a follow on order and the P-36 was not only reordered, but developed into the P-40, Curtiss' last really successful fighter aircraft.

There has already been a kit review of this model, but I thought it would be nice to see what the naked kit looks like. As you can see, there really isn't that much to it. This kit is part of a series of 1/72 kits that Monogram produced. Others in the series are the F8F Bearcat, P-6E, F4B-4, F11C and P-51B. All are quite similar in engineering in that they are quite accurate in outline, but are definitely 60s kits. Raised panel lines, no real options, no real cockpit, no wheel wells, and all come with the same shaped stand.

However, they are still very neat little models. The more experienced modeler will like them for all the possibilities and the new modeler because they are easy to build. Instructions are more than adequate enough to build the kit. There are decals for just one aircraft as shown on the box art.  Because this is a 1989 boxing, the decals are probably much more useful than those of the late 70's or early 80's boxing.

This kit was last issued in 1989 and is a bit overdue for a reissue. It and the others in the series are really very neat little models and are perfect for the youngsters. We older modelers will like them because they remind of us our misspent youth!

Review kit courtesy of my kit collection.

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