Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Your forum dedicated to 1/32nd and smaller plastic and metal figures and vehicles.
Post Reply
Rowsdower
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 8043
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:33 pm
Location: Ocala, FL

Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by Rowsdower » Thu Jan 23, 2014 2:01 pm

Well I finally had time to put it together.

The Good

Over all a great looking P-38. The polished aluminum finish is really nice and the painting and printing is crisp and well done. The nose art of Marge on the nose looks great. Lots of detail in both the die-cast and plastic portions of the model. The exposed .50 cal barrels in the nose have good detail. Cockpit and bong himself do as well.

There are a number of small detail parts you must put on yourself. While these look great and add to the realism, with my hand tremors this was no easy task. The antenna on the nose underside and pitot tube weren't bad but the counter-balances on the tailplane were just about impossible, very tiny, a difficult shape to apply pressure to get it in the hole firmly, and when you put one in, the other would push out. These pieces should have been attached at the factory as they are on my other models. Not enough to warrant being on my "bad" list, but an unnecessary pain in the arse.

The Bad

I love the look of the P-38 with the drop tanks inboard the engines. Unfortunately, they just freely slide in and out of the large slots under the wings. There is no way to keep them in there besides glue. What kind of design is this? So basically they are useless unless you glue them and then you cant fit the thing back into the plastic clam shell for storage. This made me upset. I may try a little piece of Plasti-Tac on the post. It is removable and has helped me solve a lot of problems on models without glue. The rockets attach the same way but I didn't even bother with them as I don't want them on there and it is the same arrangement anyway.

I display my models wheels-up, so I can't speak on the landing gear, but all three of the closed door pieces attach via pegs and will fall off if you sneeze in the next room. I will likely just glue those but again, seriously? A minor nitpick is that the main gear doors have no detail molded into them there the two doors join together

And now for my main grief. I can deal with or fix the problems above but the included stand is a POS failure! It is basically an up-scaled Easymodel stand, except even though this aircraft weighs a hell of a lot more than an plastic Easymodel plane the stand is even flimsier and the attachment method is laughable.

Basically, you get a thin plastic triangular base with a flimsy support arm. But the kicker is that the point of attachment to the model is nothing more than a plastic peg that sticks into a hole at the rear of the fuselage. There is no rubber as on Corgi stands, no friction at all, in fact the peg wants to squeeze itself out of the hole. The only thing keeping the model on the stand is the weight of the plane itself! Unbelievable for such a large model!

There was a removable plastic piece at the front of the stand much like on, again, Easymodel stands where it states the name of the aircraft, except it is blank. Kind of leads me to believe this stand was reused from a much smaller model. I shaved it down a bit which helped as I believe the peg is not the correct shape for the socket in the plane. I suppose I might again try a little bit of Plasti-Tac to hold it together.


So I finally put down the tweezers and gave up on the bottom counter balance, just leaving the top on installed which isn't so bad since you really can't see it. I cleared out a good space on my shelf and carefully set the whole thing down. The stand fell off and one of the gear doors fell off. :roll: I fixed the door and carefully lowered it onto the stand, as I said before the only thing keeping it attached is it's own weight.


Once you get it place where you want it, ad the whole thing stops wobbling back and forth after about a minute, it really is a nice looking P-38 and looks great next to my P-47 and P-51. I'm a little bit disappointed but since I got it as a gift and didn't pay for it myself I am ok with it. Being used to Corgi and now seeing this, I'm not sure I would get another Witty aircraft however.
This message brought to you in part by Adderall.

snake
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 3657
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:28 am
Location: Victoria,B.C. Canada

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by snake » Thu Jan 23, 2014 9:12 pm

Good review, Rows.

I have the Corgi Bong P-38, and my Witty are limited to a couple of jets.

Does sound like a bit of a PITA to get ready for display, and know a few companies are guilty of this.

Overall, it does sound pretty good, once you have it "assembled", but like you, why do I need glue?

Rowsdower
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 8043
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:33 pm
Location: Ocala, FL

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by Rowsdower » Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:55 pm

snake wrote:Good review, Rows.

I have the Corgi Bong P-38, and my Witty are limited to a couple of jets.

Does sound like a bit of a PITA to get ready for display, and know a few companies are guilty of this.

Overall, it does sound pretty good, once you have it "assembled", but like you, why do I need glue?
Exactly. If I want to glue tiny parts onto a 1:72 model I will buy a kit from my hobby shop.

I went over to look at it this morning fully expecting it to have fallen off the stand, but amazingly it was and is still there. Like I said, just it's own weight keeping it on there. Strange how they could give it so many nice touches and then drop the ball on something as important as the stand for a heavy arse P-38 and making payloads and gear doors whose connections actually have some friction between them and the model.

I think I will stick with Corgi, I've had enough of their stuff to more or less know what to expect.


Plus I forgot to add that the wings and fuselage have this oily residue on them. Sort of reminds me of the mold release crap that you had to clean off plastic model kits before you painted them. Not sure what the deal with that is. Oh well, this is definitely a "set it up and look at it but never attempt to handle it unless absolutely necessary" type of model. :roll:
This message brought to you in part by Adderall.

Dauntless
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 4107
Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:18 am
Location: Albuquerque

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by Dauntless » Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:05 am

Thanks for the review Rows.

They probably put the oily substance in there to protect the polished finish.

I was thinking about getting one of those, but now re-thinking I may not.

I have read that some die cast collectors with difficult parts to assemble use white glue (Elmers) because it is not permanent if you want to put it back in the package. It holds the parts nicely, yet when you disassemble is dry enough to scrape off easily, and won't permanently stick to the parts. I have used it already on a few models but I haven't disassembled them yet.

I have used it on a few Corgi models too as not all the parts stay where you want them too.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>=}:
Good trader list: hworth18, Threetoughtrucks, mikeg, cjg746, jlspec

tmanthegreat
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 11237
Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 7:38 pm
Location: Central California

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by tmanthegreat » Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:56 pm

My local Hobby Town USA store has the Witty Wings version of McGuire's "Pudgy" P-38. I thought about it, even looking at it again last night... My only 1:72 P-38 (still) is my old Matchbox Collectibles model from a dozen years ago. On the Witty Wings P-38, I saw the same things you did, Rows, with the extra small parts needing to be installed. I'm not worried about having to install landing gear doors or ordinance, but the tiny stuff like antennas, etc. can be annoying... After your review, I may not consider the plane.
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Rowsdower
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 8043
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:33 pm
Location: Ocala, FL

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by Rowsdower » Sat Jan 25, 2014 1:19 pm

Yeah, installing the gear doors and ordinance is a snap. You just snap the tabs into the slots and they snap right back out on their own five seconds later. Then you throw them at the wall. :roll:

The white glue is a great idea Dauntless, I used to use that trick for canopy's on 1:48 aircraft kits. To bad I don't have any around or I'd try it now. I will have to hit the school supply section at WM Monday.

And the oily residue may in fact have something to do with the polished finish. Kind of lame since it will attract dust like mad. They could have at least enclosed a disclaimer explaining what it was. My fingers were sliding all over the wings which didn't help. What's the deal Witty? Along with all this other stuff I have to go over the whole model with Goo-Gone? :lol:

Seriously guys, like I said, if I didn't get it as a gift I'd be even more upset with it. With all the faults, I just couldn't recommend it to anyone. Yes it looks nice but the guys at Witty must have been hittin' the bong when they designed this mess. :roll: :lol:
This message brought to you in part by Adderall.

Dauntless
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 4107
Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:18 am
Location: Albuquerque

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by Dauntless » Mon Jan 27, 2014 6:12 pm

Hey Rows, on a side note, I decided to check out the Corgi Recon Spitfire PR XIX after seeing yours, and it's not at all like most of the Corgi Spits. Really crisp lines for a Corgi and very nice details like three clear camera ports, propellor markings etc. You barely blow on the five bladed prop and it spins like a charm.

I'm guessing the Griffon powered Spitfires are a newer mold with less gaps and flaws.
Bought one, very pleased with it. A good value.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>=}:
Good trader list: hworth18, Threetoughtrucks, mikeg, cjg746, jlspec

Rowsdower
Officer - Brigadier General
Officer - Brigadier General
Posts: 8043
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:33 pm
Location: Ocala, FL

Re: Rowsdower's 1:72 Witty Wings Bong P-38 Review

Post by Rowsdower » Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:32 pm

Dauntless wrote:Hey Rows, on a side note, I decided to check out the Corgi Recon Spitfire PR XIX after seeing yours, and it's not at all like most of the Corgi Spits. Really crisp lines for a Corgi and very nice details like three clear camera ports, propellor markings etc. You barely blow on the five bladed prop and it spins like a charm.

I'm guessing the Griffon powered Spitfires are a newer mold with less gaps and flaws.
Bought one, very pleased with it. A good value.
I think so too Dauntless. There is definitely a lot more detail there and the intricate prop blades were one of the first things I noticed. It is a superb model especially for the price, and I am totally satisfied with it. Love the paint scheme and I've always liked the longer nosed Griffon Spits, plus a five-bladed prop, how cool is that! Plus all the parts stay attached! :lol:

The Corgi Night fighter Mosquito I also got is great as well, with the cannon and gun nose and radar antennae, it was always one of my favorite variants. But next to the new Spit, you can see the difference in detail. Blades are a little too wide with no markings besides the yellow tips, a few gaps, less detail... etc etc. Still a great model though.

BTW, I picked up a bottle of Elmers at WM today. When I get around to it I will go to work on that Lightning. I just don't feel like screwing around with it now.
This message brought to you in part by Adderall.

Post Reply