Best 1/48 A-37/T-37: Monogram or Trumpeter?

[Dutch]

My goal is to build a 1/48 T-37 Tweet like Mr. Gormley did here.  I am not going to use the old Aurora kit, but was looking at converting a Monogram/Revell/Encore or Trumpeter kit.  So which is the better kit / best value?  Monogram or Trumpeter? K/r, Dutch

[Vince Maddux]

Monogram.

to make a T-37 you will have to:

add a bulge in front of the intakes

find make flat main gear doors

remove the gun and the camera in the nose

fill in areas where the intake screens go.

fill in the pylon slots

build wing tips.

also the T-37 doesn't have the large trust deflectors

That's the basics. For extra credit you can:

fix the belly the engines on the T-37 and not as deep as the A-37

and the main wheels are thinner .

 That's all I can think of off the top of my head when I did my conversion. Alot of this, if not all would apply to the Trumpeter kit.

[Dutch]

Thanks Vince.  I'll be looking for a Monogram Dragonfly then.

[Vince Maddux]

Also the dorsal hump is molded to the fuselage on the Trumpeter kit.  On the Monogram kit, there is a slight raised area for it.

[Tato]

Hi Dutch,

 

Have you seen this?

 

Britmodeller T-37

 

Scroll down after the first post. The modeller shows some photos of the modifications he made to transform the Trumpeter A-37 into a T-37.

 

I hope this helps you.

 

Regards,

Tato

 

[RedHeadKevin]

You might also keep your eyes open for the Encore T-37. It's the Monogram plastic, but with resin parts for the wheels, cockpit, bombs, and some other details.

[Dutch]

Thanks everyone.  I will keep all this in mind as I plan. K/r,  Dutch 

[Vince Maddux]

Crap, I just looked through my Trumpeter kit and it has two sets of wing spruce and no fuselage  spruce !!🤬🤬

[Paul Boyer]

There must be someone out there with two fuselage sprues and no wing sprues. Hope you can find 'em!☺️

[Vince Maddux]

11 hours ago, Paul Boyer said:

There must be someone out there with two fuselage sprues and no wing sprues. Hope you can find 'em!☺️

Errrrr,  This is what I get for drawing airplanes in English class in school. Plus I'm a bit LD.

[JohnEB]

A question on kit history...

Was the Monogram A-37 a rework of the Aurora T-37 (not sure why they'd do that with all the necessary changes)?

 

How about the even older Strombecker kit...different tooling than the Aurora? It's so old, I've never seen one in the flesh.

 

Anyone know if the Aurora tooling, if not reworked for the A-37, survives, if so any chance it was sold to Atlantis?

 

 

[seawinder]

According to Scalemates, the Monogram kit was a new tool initially released in 1993. The Aurora kit (1/43 scale according to Scalemates) looks as if it originated as Strombecker.

[Vince Maddux]

The Monogram kit has noting to do with the older T-37 kits or the Aurora A-37 kit.

[JohnEB]

Thanks.

Just curious, I love kit history.

[Vince Maddux]

2 minutes ago, JohnEB said:

Thanks.

Just curious, I love kit history.

Me too, But I also love the T-37/A-37 and the Monogram kit

[Spruemeister]

TanModel has a T-37 planned, but comet Neowise might return before we see it. 

 

Rick L.

[JohnEB]

5 hours ago, Vince Maddux said:

Me too, But I also love the T-37/A-37 and the Monogram kit

I'm crazy enough to wish I could still get an Aurora example...a nice basic kit, good enough for a desk model (in other words something without $30 worth of resin or photoetched  accessories and a $20 decal set). 🙂

 

Come to think of it, I have something similar, a 1/40 scale (10" wingspan) Topping desk model I got back in the '70s from the Williams AFB, BX.

 

I almost had a chance to do a media flight in one out of Laughlin in 2004, but the Air Force wanted to highlight the new T-6. Fair enough. At that time the base was half Cessnas, half-Beech.

 

[Dutch]

My Monogram 1:48 A-37B Dragonfly kit has arrived.  So far, I am happy with the base kit. Does anyone have good 1:48 scale drawings for the T-37? Specifically for the wingtips, nose, engine inlet and exhaust and cockpit? I read a review of the Squadron T-37/A-37 Dragonfly in Action book that said it was not much help to the modeler.  I have downloaded a  couple of simple three view drawings.  Not much else out there. Any help is truly appreciated. 

K/r,  Dutch 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Dutch

[Ben Brown]

2 hours ago, Dutch said:

My Monogram 1:48 A-37B Dragonfly kit has arrived.  So far, I am happy with the base kit. Does anyone have good 1:48 scale drawings for the T-37? Specifically for the wingtips, nose, engine inlet and exhaust and cockpit? I read a review of the Squadron T-37/A-37 Dragonfly in Action book that said it was not much help to the modeler.  I have downloaded a  couple of simple three view drawings.  Not much else out there. Any help is truly appreciated. 

K/r,  Dutch 

I have a scan of a sheet I got from Cessna many years ago to do what you’re planning. I never had a chance to have a go at it. The drawing has sectional shapes of the fuselage and I think the wing tips. The most difficult work will be on the underside of the fuselage (basically everything between the main gear struts is different ) and around the intakes. Next time I go by my computer, I’ll put them up on Dropbox and post a link. 
 

Ben

 

EDIT: Here you go!  LINK

Edited August 20, 2020 by Ben Brown

[ChesshireCat]

On 7/28/2020 at 11:44 PM, Paul Boyer said:

There must be someone out there with two fuselage sprues and no wing sprues. Hope you can find 'em!☺️

Awhile back I grabbed an LRDG truck off the shelf. Noticed the box felt heavy and seemed to really be stuffed before opening it (factory sealed). In it were all the parts to build three trucks minus the back half (bed, etc). There were enough tires to do four or five kits! Going to try to get Tamiya to sell me the needed sprus (six altogether). That kit was an original boxing (first issue), and figure somebody just filled it with left over parts laying around

gary

[Dutch]

1 hour ago, Ben Brown said:

I have a scan of a sheet I got from Cessna many years ago to do what you’re planning. I never had a chance to have a go at it. The drawing has sectional shapes of the fuselage and I think the wing tips. The most difficult work will be on the underside of the fuselage (basically everything between the main gear struts is different ) and around the intakes. Next time I go by my computer, I’ll put them up on Dropbox and post a link. 
 

Ben

 

EDIT: Here you go!  LINK

Thank you  Ben, that's perfect! K/r,  Dutch 

[Ben Brown]

You're welcome!

 

Ben

[BWDenver]

On 8/20/2020 at 4:38 PM, Dutch said:

Thank you  Ben, that's perfect! K/r,  Dutch 

Out of curiosity have far along have you gotten on the A-37 kit Dutch.

[Dutch]

Brian,

Sorry. I sold that kit and my other 1/48 scale 366th Wing projects when many of them were water logged during the Idalia flood last year. So I never got past the planning stage.

Kind regards, 

Dutch 

[BWDenver]

12 hours ago, Dutch said:

Brian,

Sorry. I sold that kit and my other 1/48 scale 366th Wing projects when many of them were water logged during the Idalia flood last year. So I never got past the planning stage.

Kind regards, 

Dutch 

That is unfortunate! 

 

When I finish the series on T-33 seats in the Jet Modeling\Jet AC ejection seats thread, it has taken on a life of its own, I plan on doing an article on T/A-37 seats.

 

In Jan 1990 I did a two-week currency tour flying UH-1H's at NAS Glenview and on the way home stopped at Chanute AFB and the Egress Tech School.  Got lots of shots of the final Webber OA-37B seat.  then made the pilgrimage to Peoria and shot some of the birds on the ramp.  Most of those birds were shipped into S America, some as parts birds that never flew again.

 

Fortunately, the Webber Tweet seat did not go through as many changes as the seats in the T-33's.

 

Bryan