Admiral's ME262's VS. 21st ME262's

Barbarian333 · Post by **Barbarian333** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:40 pm

Now that all these 262's are available at halfway reasonable prices, what are your opinions? I see Admiral has the white 7 and the white 8. 21st has the yellow 7 and the red 10. I have pictures of the actual yellow 7 from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC. It's nice to have pictures of the original. I've never seen either the Admiral or the 21st 262's in person. I'm getting ready to get one but dont know which one. What are your favorites and why? Thanx for any info.

pcoughran · Post by **pcoughran** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:00 pm

Here's a link to my thread on same subject:
viewtopic.php?t=14440&highlight=

I now have the Yellow 7, The Admiral dark blue one, and the 21st Night Fighter. I like the Yellow 7 the most. 21st's version is more substantial but like many instances in the this hobby, once the bug has bitten it's hard to stop at just one.

Ferrari250GTO · Post by **Ferrari250GTO** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:01 pm

The main reason why I got the Yellow 7 is like the reason you have, you saw it. I got it 2 months before I went to see the real one. It is hanging up in front of a picture I took of the real one, which is truly awesome.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:24 pm

I got the AT "White 8" version first because it was the first 1:18 ME-262 to come out. Its detail and accuracy level is good - similar to what might be found on a 21c plane produced between 2002 and 2004 in that you have a pretty accurate representation of the plane, but one that is not perfect. The paintscheme is good, but a bit simplistic, even for the actual aircraft it represents. The model has the basic working features, a detailed cockpit, some (but not all) moving control surfaces, decent panel detailing, and some attempt at detail in the landing gear bay and gun bay. There is also a wire antenna running from the cockpit to the tip of the tail. The figure is less than spectacular. The AT plane is easy to asssemble and disassemble, making it easy to store.

Then you have the 21c ME-262s. 21c has essentially made two different variants from the same tooling to give us a standard ME-262A and a 2-seat night fighter ME-262B. The detail and paint work on both is outstanding. The "Yellow 7" ME-262 looks very much spot-on with the one in the Smithsonian. The 21c ME-262 cockpits are detailed right down to the labels on the controls and seatbelts for the pilots. All control surfaces work and the detail in the gun bay is fantastic. Landing gear bays are detailed and the wheels look correct. The 21c ME-262s are a pain to put together, however, with a lot of pieces that must be screwed into place. Once they are together with screw caps in place, they pretty much cannot be taken apart easily. The landing gear doors on the main gears are also fragile and the hinges can break easily. The rest of the plane is quite durable. The 21c aircraft come with a lot of accessories: a nicely sculpted and articulated pilot figure (and radar operator with the ME-262B) as well as droptanks, bombs, bomb pylons, and JATO tubes.

The 21c ME-262s can suffer from QC issues. You will likely notice a gap in the fuselage behind the cockpit on the Yellow 7 plane where 21c made an insert piece to cover over what is the rear seat on the ME-262B tooling. That leaves a gap that is less than attractive and a potential source for glue stains. The gap is not there on the Red 10 ME-262B. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the landing gear doors can be weak. I had to go through three Yellow 7's until I got one with no issues, but have had no problems with my Red 10 ME-262B. Guess it is just luck of the draw.

If I had had to choose one from the other, I would go with the 21c ME-262 on the grounds of accuracy, functionality, and beautiful looks. In fact, I would look into getting both the A and B variants

Barbarian333 · Post by **Barbarian333** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:53 pm

That's alot of great info. Thanx for all your responses. I'm sure at some point i will end up with all the 262's. I'm moving acrosss the country in a couple of months so i have to limit myself in the short term. As soon as i get moved and settled i'll really be able to expand my collection

scobot · Post by **scobot** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:48 pm

late to the party .. I have all the 262's and the nightfighter is definatley the standout , but when I get them all out I actually appreciate AT's white 7 alot , its simplicity and colours are lovely + I think ive mentioned once before the AT 262s have slightly better camber to the wings

Barbarian333 · Post by **Barbarian333** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:33 pm

So i just recieved the Admiral White 8. I got a real good deal on it on ebay,30 bucks. Was listed as new in box. I have no reason to believe it wasn't, but its missing the inner right side trailing edge, between the engine and the fuselage. I messaged the seller only minutes ago.Not sure where to go from here. Dont really want a refund .Just want my plane complete.