Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

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tmanthegreat
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Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by tmanthegreat » Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:50 pm

Here's another product review... I also recently purchased the Air Force 1 B-29 model from my local Hobbytown USA store. I don't collect 1:144 as much as other scales, but do have a few items and very much wanted to get this particular B-29 model as I've got somewhat of a personal connection. The actual plane is on display at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California, about an hour's drive from my house, and I've actually been inside this B-29 8)

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The AF1 model is mostly diecast with metal used in the wings and fuselage. The model does capture the look of the B-29 and in 1:144 scale, its easy to display. Its not the most perfect B-29 tooling, however, and I would love to know what AF1 used as their basis (i.e. was it a new tooling they developed or taken from the old Corgi or Dragon toolings, or something else?) There are some issues with the plane: the turrets are mostly oversized and the antennas look a little wonky. Upon taking it out of the package, I saw there were no tail guns, though there were holes for them. Thinking that was a QC error, I replaced them with some tiny plastic tubes I had in my parts box. Then I found out AF1 did include a couple small metal pieces for those guns - but I like my mod better :wink:

Markings and paint apps are generally good and are accurate to the real plane. However, they do have some blemishes. The cockpit is detailed (as much as 1:144 scale can get) with the pilot and co-pilot seats, controls, and bombardier station with bombsight visible. The cockpit glass was loose on mine and there's something of metal "bulkhead" at the front end, left unpainted, walling off part of the glass nose and looking a little cheap. As my canopy glass pretty much fell off, I painted the "bulkhead" so its less noticeable and blends with the darker interior of the cockpit.

Overall, I'm glad to have a model of a plane I've been seeing at a local museum for years and have been inside of, but I feel that AF1 (as seems to be typical) cheapened out on some aspects of the model. The $65-$70 price range seems a bit much for this and its something that you may want to see in person before purchasing...

Here are some pics of the model. Enjoy :D

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The Actual B-29
The aircraft on display at Castle Air Museum is made of parts of three B-29s recovered from the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake: B-29-75-BW 44-70064 ; B-29A-35-BN 44-61535 (the original Raz'n Hell); and B-29-50-BA 44-84084. The fuselage and tail sections were trucked to Castle; the wings were lifted over the mountains by helicopter. It was restored entirely on the Museum grounds. It has the markings of the 28th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb. Group in the Korean War era, when the group was at Kadena AB, Okinawa. The nose art is an accurate reproduction of what it had in 1950.

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dragon53
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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by dragon53 » Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:45 pm

TMANTHEGREAT:

Good lord---AF 1's 50 cal. machine guns look like 75 mm cannons. :shock:
I have Dragon's "Enola Gay" and "Bock's Car" which are enough for me.

I see you also have HM's B-24 "Lady Be Good----which was the inspiration for Rod Serling's classic THE TWILIGHT ZONE episode "King Nine Will Not Return".

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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by aferguson » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:05 am

i have interest in this piece, not to purchase but because it may shine a light on the upcoming 1/72 B-17. While the model looks ok, i would say it is definitely overpriced, which i find odd because most of AF1's models i consider fairly priced. The 1/72 B-17 for example, has a MSRP of $99.99. This model got ripped apart on the Yuku forum (surprise, surprise) but looks better than i expected from the pre-pros, albeit, those turrets are not great.

Fingers crossed for the B-17...
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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by tmanthegreat » Thu Sep 24, 2015 11:26 am

aferguson wrote:Fingers crossed for the B-17...
Have to agree with that... The P-61 was good, though not perfect. I'm hoping the B-17 can at least match or exceed the Black Widow's quality. Would be a shame if it looked worse than the Corgi version!
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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by aferguson » Thu Sep 24, 2015 1:42 pm

i was going to say it's got to be better than the Corgi, which really ain't great. I have a good feeling about it. We'll get a better head's up on it when the B-25 is released a couple of months prior.
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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by snake » Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:13 pm

Pretty terrible effort from AF1, and extremely disappointing.

A real blemish on the brand, and does not bode well for future releases.

Not much else to say.

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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by pmmaker » Sat Sep 26, 2015 7:41 am

I love the B-29 as well.

This model had SO MUCH potential! Unfortunately, the bulbous gun turrets really ruined it. Too bad as I would have definitely spent the money even if it was only 1/144th scale.

BTW - I love the B-29 pictures. I live in Connecticut and we have the New England Air Museum nearby. They have a restored B-29 in a special hangar. The size of that plane never ceases to amaze me!
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Re: Product Review: Air Force 1 1:144 B-29

Post by Dauntless » Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:33 am

Yeah, folks were pretty brutal on this including me, but it's like they didn't even try to make it right.
Something got lost in translation at AF1. It doesn't bode well for the upcoming 1:72 WWII birds if this is the attention given to the B-29. Who did they think would buy this? It's a kid's toy at an adult price.
This sort of thing is an insult, and quite frankly makes me angry when getting any sort of WWII bird is a rare thing these days. They say there's not enough liveries for a B-29 to make it viable and profitable at least in 1:72 because they all look the same, but how many different Screwtops are you going to buy? :roll:

You can get a New Ray at Hobby Lobby for under $20 that looks close to this quality or lack thereof.

Epic Fail. :?
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Nice shots of the 1:1 scale birds though guys.

There's one parked outside at the Atomic Museum here in 'Burque, but it's painted all grey with the windows blacked out, in pretty much boneyard condition, which is a shame.
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