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G-12 Monogram Speedee-Bilt Grumman F6F Hellcat Flying Scale Model Good++ Wood old Early issue scale flying wooden rubber powered model from the early 1950s. Can be rubber, CO2 or small gas engine powered. Very nicely detailed pre-fabricated kit with completely finished parts, Monofoil wing, cut out fuselage, plastic cowl and prop, detailed instructions and plans and more. The kit has never been started. Inventoried 100% complete with instructions. NOTE: instructions are graded 'good'. Before there were plastic models, there were wooden aircraft kits. These usually came in two types - solid and stick and tissue. The solid models were static and usually contained a few blocks of balsa and sometimes a detail part or two. These 'Make Wood Blocks Look Like Plane' models required a very high level of skill in carving and finishing. The stick and tissue variety were slightly easier to build and provided the ultimate thrill - they could fly when complete with rubber power (and later with free-flight gas and eventually RC). They still required a great deal of skill, so manufactures sought ways to make model building more accessible to everyone. One idea was pre-carving and/or prefabrication. This raised prices, naturally. Many manufactures launched lines of 'easy' to build flying models but only Monogram succeeded in making an entire line at an affordable price that would actual fly. The original 'Speedee-Bilt' kits, such as this one, were in one-piece two-color boxes. In the early 1950s, shortly before plastic kits were available, Monogram changed to the 'hardbox' with a lithographic slick glued to the top as this kit. Speedee-Bilt kits contained die cut and pre painted wooden parts, completely formed airfoil wings, carved wheels and numerous plastic details like cowling, pilot, missiles, prop and more. Assembly was by detailed full size plans. $165.00 |