Dave J

PA & PB Sprues Across these four sprues (two of each sprues), you will find the parts required for the two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines, the power plant of the "Widow" and the engine mounts. Across the two sprue are the Front and Rear bank of cylinders that are broken down into rings that feature very fine cooling fins. Valve covers are molded as separate parts, which have been molded using a slide tooling to capture all the detail on the top side of the valve cover. Engine mounts are constructed from a 5 piece tubular rods setup, that locate onto the engine mounting ring on the rear of the engine. Looking across all the sprues, I did notice that Hobby Boss has missed something important... The exhaust! There are no exhaust stubs provided in the kit... This isn't a problem if you are planning to use the closed engine cowl flaps as they aren't visible. But if you are using the open set, you will either have make your own, or wait for some resin from the likes of Quickboost or even Eduard perhaps. Q Sprue One of the kits smaller sprues which the carry the Cowl Flap's. The Cowl Flaps are provided on this sprue in opened or closed positions. The retractable aileron arms for both wings can be found on this sprue. RA Sprue This smaller sprue carries the four-bladed Curtis Electric propeller. The shape of each prop seems to be a bit to narrow and pointy to my eyes when comparing to photos of the real thing. If they are not to your liking, Relish Resin the UK have already released an prop replacement set. The blanking off plate for the upper turret for the airframes that it wasn't fitted to, is also on this sprue. However there is no surface detail to it. Also there are two squarer bulkhead that is not called out for the instructions, which can only be intended for F- 15 Reporter, as the F-15's had a new centre fuselage pod fitted to it. RB Sprue Again, this sprue has another set of the four-bladed Curtis Electric propellers that are intended for an F-15 Reporter. So I would expect to see an 1/32 Reporter coming out of China in the near future! Also found on the sprue is the bulkhead that radar dish mounts too and a small bulkhead for the nose wheel bay. These parts could have been easiest swapped with the not used parts on the RA sprue and this sprue could have been left out. U Sprue The U sprue contains the parts for the upper turret. A total of 33 parts comprise the turret. The four .50 calibre machine gun bodies are split into two pieces with separate barrels. You have two options of barrels for you to fit to your machine gun bodies, a perforated or solid options. All the barrel muzzles have the hollow breach molded into them. V Sprue V sprue carries the nose gear bay doors, part of the nose strut and the wing support spars. Both nose bay doors have surface detail on both sides, in the way of rivet detail and there are not one injector pins marks on either side of these parts! The upper part of the nose gear strut is split into two half's, and the lower piece (not on this sprue) sandwiches between the upper half's. There is no metal reinforcing rod that is inserted into the plastic part. This does worry me a tad with the weight required to be added to the nose, the plastic strut may not hold up... Not to worry, there is the metal strut option as mention earlier. Wing support spars are large plastic slabs that get sandwiched between the wing half's, with a tab roughly about 5mm hanging outside the wing to slot into the fuselage pod. Personally, I would like to see the tab to be a little bit longer as it will be supporting that weight. Maybe it is possible to slide the plastic slab out a little bit further to create more on the mounting tab. W Sprue Two of these sprues are included and carry common parts for the cockpit, drop tanks and the 20mm Cannons. The common parts are for the Front and Rear gunner seats. You would normally think that WW2 fighter seat would be pretty basic, but both of the Black Widow gunner seats are comprised of 20 plastic parts! The 20mm Cannons are molded as 7 separated parts, which include mounting brackets for each cannon. Using slide mold technology, the cannon barrels have been tooled so muzzle's have an hollowed out ends. Clear Parts The clear parts are spread across five sprues and two separate engine cowls. As you are well aware the Widow has a lot of window space on the fuselage pod. Clear transparencies have been molded as large single items, so there is no need of trying to fit single glass panels into the fuselage framing. The radome/nose is molded as single piece and unfortunately is incorrect for a P-61B, as it represents an P-61A version. It can be corrected if you fill and sand most of the detail off the radome. Vinyl/Rubber Parts Hobby Boss love to supply rubber tyres in their large scale kits..Personally I hate them with a passion, as I am sure most other modellers do. The kit's tyres are made out of a hard rubber that has a very soft tread pattern cast into them. There is a seam line that runs down the middle of each tyre which can be frustrating to remove at times. I think this is really sore point of the kit for me, so an aftermarket resin replacement is the way to go on the kits wheels. On a separate rubber sprue, the oxygen hoses and ammunition belts are supplied. The ammunition belts could have been injected as plastic items, but I do like how they look with a small gap between each round. White Metal Parts As mentioned earlier in this review there are white metal landing strut options included, they are a direct copy of the plastic parts. Personally I think these are better option as they will provide more strength to hold up the kit. There will be a small amount clean up to remove the mold lines with a file and then they would require to be buffed using a Demel or likewise tool. Also included is a set of ballast weights, which is a great addition and I wish more manufacturers would include in there kitset's to insure your completed build is not a tail sitter. The Transmitter and Receiver cylinders parts are also included as white metal parts, as well as an plastic option.

1/32 Northrop P-61B Black Widow Hobby Boss Catalogue # 83209 Available from Creative Models for £119.99 Since I have got back into modelling back in 2005, the P-61 Black Widow has been one of my favourite twin engine aircrafts due to its patchy black paint job and its menacing look... In the past, I have purchased the old 48th offering from Monogram/Revell with all the aftermarket I could source, then I had to sell that to fund the Great Wall Hobby offering that was originally released back in September 2011... Now, Hobby Boss has gone and release the Black Widow in 1/32 scale which is my preferred scale, so when I was asked by our Editor if I would be interested taking a look at this kit... How could I say no to it! History The Northrop P-61 Black Widow became the United States' first aircraft specifically designed from the outset as a platform dedicated to the fine art of night-fighting. Enabled by its complex through highly-effective nose-mounted radar, a distinct overall black paint scheme, its trained crew of three (though sometimes two) specialists and a heavy base armament made up of cannon and heavy machine guns, the "Widow" made its way into all major theatres encompassing World War 2. The P-61 could operate in total darkness, aided by its onboard systems, and move into position to deliver an enemy aircrew's final moments. The Black Widow appeared in quantity during 1944, then under the command of the US Army Air Force (USAAF) and soldiered on well past the war years into 1952, retiring with the newly-minted United States Air Force. The P-61 became one of Northrop's most successful products of all time and essentially put the corporation on the map. In a way, the P-61 was unofficially credited with the last Allied air kill of World War 2. Unofficial in that the enemy aircraft - a Japanese Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (Tojo) - was reportedly in evasive manoeuvres after having encountered an American P-61, its guns blazing on the Nakajima fighter. The enemy fighter flew defensively just feet above the waves and eventually crashed itself along the surface of the ocean, ending the life of the pilot and his mount in a fiery explosion. The P-61 in question was a P-61B-2 aptly-named "Lady in the Dark" and under the control of Lieutenant Robert W. Clyde. The event occurred sometime between 14 -15 August 1945. If credited, the kill would have been accomplished without a single shot being fired. The P-61 (later redesignated to F-15 as a photo reconnaissance aircraft) was no longer in operational service by the time of the Korean War, missing the conflict by small window of opportunity. While replacing the aged Douglas A-20 Havoc and D-70 systems in World War 2, a total of 702 P-61 Black Widows were built when production was halted and the P-61 was replaced by the North American F-82 "Twin Mustang" before the Korean conflict. The Kit - Adorned on the large lid of the top opening box is a beautiful artwork by Kostas Kavvathias (www.kostaskavvathias.com) of P-61B "Lady in the Dark" on the prow in a sunset or sunrise (you decide) sky with a Japanese Mitsubishi G4M1 Betty bomber below looking to be the next victim... The artwork surely stands out for itself and will grab anyone's attention or money! So now onto the important part... What's in the box? The Hobby Boss kit is molded in light gray styrene plastic as per normal with their past releases. All the parts are laid out across twenty two sprues plus four sprues containing the clear parts, two separate clear cowlings, one set of white metal landing gear struts, one set of white metal ballast, two brass frets of photo etched parts, one sprue of flexible black vinyl parts, and one set of rubber/vinyl tires and of course the Decals, instruction manual and the painting/marking guide. According to Hobby Boss website and outside of the box there is over 550 parts crammed into this kit! Having a quick look over the sprues, its apparent that Hobby Boss has mixed parts to be associated the P-61A variant with this kit which clearly marked as P-61B. While this is not a totally bad thing, as the adjustments to each variant is easy to do, and at least opens more options to us modellers for marking options. We will cover these items while looking at the sprues... A & C Sprues A and C sprues carry the main wings. Both wings are molded as a two half affair which is standard practice for modern manufactures these days to reduce sink marks and shortage of material being injected into the mold. The wing spoilers are depicted up and will need some work to mount them closed. The wing spoilers operated in exactly the same manner as normal ailerons, so would have remained flush within the wing surface when the control column was in the in the neutral position. So a bit of filling of the recessed areas and rescribing would be required to correct this small error. The first set of hard points for the external fuel drop tanks are molded on the underside of each wing. If you are planning to build an P-61A or an early B, you will have to file the mounting points away and restore the panel lines and rivets to this area. Rivet detail is very fine and panel lines are crisp. E & F Sprues Both sprues mainly carry the tail booms. Again rivet detail is very fine and panel lines are very crisp, but some of the rivet detail is soft (due to tooling limitations) and will be lost around the mating faces when cleaned up. Also on this sprue is the air intake ducts and two rudder half's. The rudders attach onto the tails via the hinges, so you are able to pose them outside of a neutral position, if you wish. G Sprue The G sprue carries most of the parts for the main gear bays/wells and landing gear. The wheel bays are constructed from 4 parts to make a pod that fits into each boom. Detail in each of the wheel bay's is minimum and only framing and a couple of fluid tanks/bottles are present. The Main Gear landing struts are offered in plastic and white metal options. The plastic gear struts are solid plastic, which will be able to hold up the completed kit once finished, but personally I would use the white metal option as it designed to fit into the kits locating holes, will give you a bit more piece of mind holding up that weight. The main wheel hubs are nicely done, but are lacking the hose connector on the outside of the hub. True Details has already come to the party are released a wheel set for the Black Widow, which we have reviewed also. The main leg doors are single-piece items which is representative of a P-61A. If building an P-61B scheme you will need to section off the doors to make it into 4 pieces to be correct for an P-61B H Sprue H Sprue contains fuselage pod and front gun bay covers/doors, not a huge amount of parts are located on this sprue, as they are large items. The fuselage pod is split vertically into halves. There is no cockpit detail on the sidewalls expect for framing in the rear gunner/radio operator compartment. J & K Sprue Both sprues carry a mixture of components for the Cockpit and Radar Dish in the nose. The cockpit panels and radar boxes feature finely detailed knobs, switches and dials. These will really pop out once painted and detailed. K sprue carries the cockpit sidewalls and once these items are built up, you will have a good looking office straight from the box. L Sprue The large cockpit floor base plate is molded as single piece, on the underside is the gunbay roof. This area has a few deep injector pin marks that may require a little more than some putty, but it does have some fine rivet lines running next the frames. Nose gear bay builds up to separate component, which includes the crew access hatch. M Sprue Inner wings half and flaps are found on this sprue. The second set of hard points are included on the lower surface. You will need to check your references on your chosen scheme, if your building you are planning on a B variant. The first 62 P-61B had no hard points on the lower wings. The following 38 P-61's that were built only had the inboard points fitted. From the B-10 variant onwards all them were fitted with four hard points as per the kit. The upper access panel to the rear of the engine is an separate panel. Hobby Boss has you to fit this panel in the instructions, but looking at the instruction manual you could leave it off and see the rear cylinders and gearbox in the engine bay. N Sprue The Horizontal stabilizer and Elevator are the main items are on the sprue. Both items are horizontally split into half's with sturdy internal bracing strips to aid the mating of the half's together. Other parts that are included on this sprue are the Radio Antenna and conventional ailerons. The rear gun bay doors are also on this sprue which feature the internal framing, if you decide to have the gun bay open and display this area.

Well it was only a matter of time! Website says June release! I wonder if they will move onto the F's next after they do an E1?

Love your Wugers! They are fantastic!

Not a Russian Jet type of guy... but that is beautiful indeed!

Nice score Matt! So when is this one hitting the bench?

Another Masterpiece Jeroen!

Fantastic Work Darren! Don't for get to send it into Wingnut, so it can be added to the Customer Gallery!

That Digi scheme is sick Matt!

Yay Mike another one finished! Fantastic work!

Glad to see that you have found our corner of the internet Dave! Yes I know what you mean... you could go crazy on this kit!

Hi Nick, First... Welcome to LSM! To answer your question, I have heard number of dates... But the one that I keep hearing is Mid July, beginning August.

Tony! About time you logged in!

Ok... I am not a huge fan of Tamiya decals and try to avoid them as much as I can... But I did find out the other day... that if you have a nice smooth gloss coat, they will go down nicely with a bit of heat using a hairdyer.. I have heard in the past, why Tamiya doesn't out source their decals... Appartantely they got burnt years ago by some faulty decals that they out sourced, and that why they have kept decals inhouse since... How true that is???I don't know

I would think it would come down to how late in the war it was and the airframe was maintained. Personally, I normally leave off stencils if there some sort of markings over it... unless there is a reference photo of the said subject showing different. I do beleieve there are some good photos of Blondie on the net..

That didn't turn out to bad Mike! I can't see what all the complaining was I must say... I think this is the second Harrier that I have seen completied. Good Work!

Happy B'day Martin!

I think it will be a while before Revell think at looking at it..

Great Looking Snipe!

Again Wow! Just fantastic work!

Yeap... I called it quits at 12.30am Thanks Cees, I don't have many on the Shelf of Doom... I had a huge clean out late last year, and only kept the ones that could be "Saved"