Wanted Monogram Balsa Ship Plans Scans

[dave_t]

The cross-section templates are definitely missing. You can see the station lines on the drawings. Monogram probably supplied a block of wood pre-sized for the hull. Maybe the superstructure parts were done the same way.
http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=9207&mat=balsaship

[Jim]

Dave:

Pre-sized or sawn to rough shape, perhaps, but you still need something more to go by in shaping the contours. Interestingly, the link you provided to the Monogram LST kit reads (in part):  "The hull is precarved. The rest of the kit is wood, printed wood, cardstock and wire."

That's probably the answer right there:  The superstructure pieces were probably "printwood". There are hull templates with the Missouri plan, but even so, all these models are essentially "un-buildable". Interesting as artifacts, but not sufficiently complete to be practicable or accurate.

Too bad. I would like to have taken a crack at them...

[Oceaneer99]

You are all correct.  I've seen some of these kits come up on e-bay, and they have a "pre-molded" hull and printed sheetwood.  We have only the plans here, so are missing all that key information.  They are a little like the old Comet balsa-and-tissue plans, which do not show the printwood patterns.  I think the hulls actually were molded out of sawdust and glue, so a little bit like particle board, and not carved out of a solid block.  I tried a few home-brew recipes of my own, but never had any success, unless I used epoxy and wood flour, which makes for an expensive hull.

As Fingers noted, the older Strombecker ship plans have enough information to build them from the plans (the models were simplified anyway).  This contrasts with their later airplane kits, which had pre-carved pieces, so their airplane plans aren't sufficient to build from.

[animek]

Me, I don't care if there are "missing" or "not any key information", I am very great-full "Hurray" to all of you who brings those nice plans here, it is a  lot of work to post all this!
Thank you all!

Ben

[dave_t]

Ben,
  With a little research, I don't think it would be too difficult to create a model of the LST using the Monogram drawing. The hull is not that complicated, especially if you made a waterline model. There are many photos of them online and some two view drawings of a camouflage scheme (see below). My ships of the fleet reference book says nearly 70,000 LSTs of different classes were delivered by 1944.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g100000/g172986c.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g100000/g172985c.htm

[Jim]

They are a little like the old Comet balsa-and-tissue plans, which do not show the printwood patterns. 

Actually, most of the old Comet stick-and-tissue aeroplane plans I've seen and built DO show the printwood patterns, which is why you can still build them. Like this Bristol Fighter...

[R.F.Bennett]

What good is showing a picture of a completed model then, Only that it may inspire.

[Jim]

That's my point. It's a pity, because these are really nice-looking models, judging by the pictures. I'd have loved to have been able to try my hand at them, because my uncle built these same models back in the 40s when he was a kid, and did a beautiful job on them. He still has the Warrington and Gambier Bay models, which I've admired since my own childhood. He also built the Missouri, which he gave to me to play with as a child. Needless to say, it suffered from the experience! I was excited when I saw the plans here, because it would have been nice complete the circle, so to speak, by building them myself. But if there's one thing I DON'T need my avocation to be, it's a source of frustration, and I can't imagine anything being more frustrating than getting part-way into a build, only to find that I couldn't accurately replicate the parts needed to complete the job with any acceptable degree of accuracy.

That being said, I do realize that this site serves more than one purpose, and that everyone comes to it with different expectations and needs, and may find pleasure in it in different ways. For some, it may be enough just to be able to see and collect these wonderful old plans, however complete or incomplete they may be. That's fine for them, and I applaud both those who find fulfilment in that way and those whose generosity in sharing their plans with all of us here enables them to do so.

[dave_t]

I'm not sure that the Monogram LST kit was all that accurate to begin with anyway. I know some of the Strombeckers were way off, but since these kits were manufactured primarily for a younger audience, extreme accuracy wasn't the goal (notice the tank). A perfectly acceptable reproduction of the kit could be done with the materials provided along with reference photos.

A future cook-up maybe?

[dave_t]

Monogram's Fighting Ships. Links with pictures of what each kit looked like, including cross-section templates.
http://www.philsaeronauticalstuff.com/oldmodels/usfighingships/usfightingships.html

[Oceaneer99]

Fingers, you are correct that the older Comet balsa and tissue plans, such as the classid "Dime Scale" plans, did have fun patterns.  I should have been more specific.  The later kits, which I bought as a boy, usually did not have the printwood patterns on the plan.  This was always an aggravation for me when it came time to make major repairs.

I also misspoke earlier about the moulded hulls.  Those were in the Ideal ship kits, not Monogram.

Garet

[animek]

..... For those that are not already on the site, I'll try to get them all posted in the next week or so.

Airway USS Hull
Amco Aircraft Carrier
Amco Cruiser
Amco Destroyer USS Blue
Amco Submarine
Comet Battleship
Comet PT-9 (larger model)
Comet USS Gridley
Comet USS Indianapolis
Comet USS Perch
Comet USS Saratoga
Craftokit Cruiser
Ideal USS Farragut
Ideal USS Preston
Megow USS Constitution (low quality scan)
Megow Seth Parker (low quality scan)
Monogram USS Hobby (partial plan)
Strombecker USS California
Strombecker USS Indianapolis
Whitman Sub Chaser
Whitman USS Brookyln
Whitman USS Lexington
Whitman USS Ramsay

Garet, like I said earlier, if you need help re-assemble those and clean them, I'm not to bad with graphic tools, send a couple of those raw scans my way, and I'll resend them clean and all

Ben 

[Oceaneer99]

Ben,

Thank you for your offer to help with the plans.  I'm trying to get a bit more organized regarding both the plans and the volunteers.  June/July have turned into a wild set of months for me this year, so it may be late summer before I can get some of these plans farmed out for volunteers to work on.  But I certainly appreciate the offers and intend to follow up on them.

Garet

[Lotus-14]

It's too bad that "philsaeronautics" didn't scan the plans, and other patterns. 
The Monogram plans give you all the information you need to replicate the models.
They are all about the same length; like Strombecker they were "box scale," but were much more accurate.
I made all of them as a kid.
To answer some of the comments.
1. The hulls were cut to outline side and top view. There was some shaping of the hull, but to get to the final shape, you needed to do some sanding to match the templates.
2. The superstructure build depended on the size of the model. The Missouri's superstructure was mostly printwood to be cut and stacked bread and butter fashion. As the relative scale increased the superstructure became a mix of blocks cut to plan and printwood for smaller parts. Paper card was used for smaller parts or such things as the AA tubs.
I have checked the plans against photos and other plans, and they are quite accurate.

I have built model ships as well as airplanes all my life, and the most common wooden ship kits were Strombecker, Ideal, Comet, and Monogram. Strombecker was the least accurate, but still built up into a good looking model. Ideal models varied as to accuracy with simplified superstructure, and the unfortunate pressed wood hulls. The models originally didn't have the press wood hulls but a shaped balsa hull. I'm sure they went to the press wood for cost reasons. The pressed wood hulls were bad because Ideal made a generic hull for each of the kit size ranges so the hull for the SS Normandie would be the same as the hull for the U.S.S. Wasp. Also the hull material was very hard, and difficult to work, unless you had a Dremel type tool. In the sixth grade the Dremel was out of my reach. Nonetheless they made a good looking model with much more detail than Strombecker, and could easily be improved. Comet made models which were more or less balsa versions of Strombecker, at least as to philosophy; a simple model with a pleasing outline, but not necessarily accurate, but again because of balsa they could be made more accurate with a little work. Monogram's ships came out very near the end of WW2, and they intended them to be accurate, and they were. Monogram seemed to be experimenting with different types of model lines, as they  had ships, Speedibuilt, CO2 powered, and control line models at the same time.