Small Scale Military Headquarters

This has probably been explored in the past, but here goes. Of 21C's 1/32 scale airplanes, which one do you think was best made, not in terms of subject matter but in terms of design and execution. My vote would be the P-47. A few weak points, such as the pilot sitting too low in his seat, and the main landing gear tires look kind of skinny, but overall I think they did a great job with it (especially for the price at time of release). I'd nominate the Stuka as a close second. What do you all think?

In my opinion, the best engineered 21C 1/32 plane would have to be the Fw-190A/F.
I can find no faults with that mold.

A close second would be the re-tooled P-51D.
The skinny tires are my only complaint.

The P-47 is a nice plane, but I think it could have been tooled better.
21C planes started getting better in late 2005 when the A6M3 Zero was issued.

RAD 2112 wrote:In my opinion, the best engineered 21C 1/32 plane would have to be the Fw-190A/F.
I can find no faults with that mold.

A close second would be the re-tooled P-51D.
The skinny tires are my only complaint.

The P-47 is a nice plane, but I think it could have been tooled better.
21C planes started getting better in late 2005 when the A6M3 Zero was issued.

I agree, The Fw190-A/F is superior, and the Zero can be added to the list as number 3.

RAD 2112 wrote:In my opinion, the best engineered 21C 1/32 plane would have to be the Fw-190A/F.
I can find no faults with that mold.

A close second would be the re-tooled P-51D.
The skinny tires are my only complaint.

The P-47 is a nice plane, but I think it could have been tooled better.
21C planes started getting better in late 2005 when the A6M3 Zero was issued.

Agree on the 190 series, they're essentially perfect.

The Mustangs are a mixed bag. The fuselages of the retooled -D and the -B series look great, better in fact than Trumpeter's or Dragon's kit versions. The wings, otoh, are a disaster. Wingspan is too short, they don't have enough dihedral, the leading edges are waaaaaaay too blunt, and the landing gear is far too long.

I like the Zero a lot. I wouldn't mind some more, or variations, but yeah the 190 is the best so far. The Spitfire would be almost great if it weren't for the loose canopy, but a good one too.

What about the BF-109 F/G series?

Dauntless wrote:I like the Zero a lot. I wouldn't mind some more, or variations, but yeah the 190 is the best so far. The Spitfire would be almost great if it weren't for the loose canopy, but a good one too.

What about the BF-109 F/G series?

The 109 G/F's are great and rank right up with the Zero's.

I agree with the general consensus that the FW-190A/Fs were the best in terms of accuracy and detail, probably seconded (in my book) by the Bf-109s, and the P-51 B/C/Ds, the Zeros, and the Stukas.

A number of the toolings were scaled-down versions of their 1:18 cousins: the S1 P-51D, ME-109E, P-40, P-47, FW-190D9 were all this way. Some, like the Stuka and Corsair, had superior detail than their 1:18 counterparts. The ME-262 and Spitfire were both toolings that could have been great, but either came too early or too late in the design process to have achieved their true potential. I'm not even sure where to fit the Macchis. They were such an odd, but cool choice and probably the poorest-selling of all the 32x aircraft

Have to go with the Fw 190 A first. The Dora second.

And the P-51 B/C third.

Happy that P-47 was done, as well as the Corsair.

Greetings

Personally, I did not think any of the 21stC aircraft in 1/32 were that great at all. The poor QC really led to a lot of aircraft being broken before collectors could even enjoy them, and even out of the box, many were very fragile.

I understand where people are coming from on the Fw-190A being neat and good looking, but the small parts included and the detail which they had to be assembled really pushed that aircraft into a pre-built model kit more than a toy airplane. The Spitfires were nice but suffered from severe QC problems especially on the paint application. All were decent, but none really stick out for me as being the #1 entry in the list. I'd say my favorites were the P-47 and the FW-190A, had the Spitfires been better, they'd be up there too. The worst I'd say were the early mold P-51D, the P-40 (just horrendous) and the early 262's didn't look that great.

The one aircraft that was really in the middle for me was the Corsair. Very cool, lots of moving parts but it suffered from very easy to break parts, especially in the landing gear setup.

I personally feel in overall quality, all 3 of the BBI aircraft were better. They were better designed, better built and had way fewer QC problems out of the box. Sure they gave up some features, but they were nice and sturdy. I owned all 3 of them at one time and never had a problem with any of them. That is more than can be said about the 21st aircraft.

Regards,

Corey

Coreyeagle48 wrote:Greetings

Personally, I did not think any of the 21stC aircraft in 1/32 were that great at all. The poor QC really led to a lot of aircraft being broken before collectors could even enjoy them, and even out of the box, many were very fragile.

I understand where people are coming from on the Fw-190A being neat and good looking, but the small parts included and the detail which they had to be assembled really pushed that aircraft into a pre-built model kit more than a toy airplane. The Spitfires were nice but suffered from severe QC problems especially on the paint application. All were decent, but none really stick out for me as being the #1 entry in the list. I'd say my favorites were the P-47 and the FW-190A, had the Spitfires been better, they'd be up there too. The worst I'd say were the early mold P-51D, the P-40 (just horrendous) and the early 262's didn't look that great.

The one aircraft that was really in the middle for me was the Corsair. Very cool, lots of moving parts but it suffered from very easy to break parts, especially in the landing gear setup.

I personally feel in overall quality, all 3 of the BBI aircraft were better. They were better designed, better built and had way fewer QC problems out of the box. Sure they gave up some features, but they were nice and sturdy. I owned all 3 of them at one time and never had a problem with any of them. That is more than can be said about the 21st aircraft.

Regards,

Corey

I can think of two bbi 1/32 planes (SBD and F-4, but what was the third?

F-4 Wildcat.

The BBI aircraft were better than the 21C models, with the Phantom being easily the best in plastic 1/32 from these two manufacturers.

Picture by mikeyt.

I undertand that BBI may be better, but that wasn't the question was it?
I never bought any of the BBI planes because at the time, they were way overpriced for what you got. Now that prices have evened out, BBI appears to be the better option. Unfortunately, I don't think BBI is making anything else and AllGo/21st is..

Oh, I'd forgotten about the Wildcat!

Greetings:

Harry, you are right that was not the question, but it is also absolutely unfair to leave out the three BBI planes because they are basically the same construction techinques and idea as the 21st planes, just from a different company. The Corgi, King and Country, FOV offerings really don't fit into this equation because they used diecast in their construction, where the 21st and BBI planes were all plastic.

The arguement against the BBI planes has always been they were overpriced. However, in terms of the F-4 offered, that plane was much bigger than any plane 21st offered and the overall product was way better. Overpriced for what you got? I beg to differ there...for a bit of a higher price point, most people got a product that had all its parts, had good quality control and a nice finish right out of the box. I would take that ANY day for a bit of a higher price than to have to sort through 20 planes at Walmart, only to find NONE without broken parts or major paint flaws.

This is getting off topic...but I never understood why people continued to bail out 21st on the QC issues. It is almost as if to say "Well they are cheap...so it should be like that". That can't be farther from the truth. No matter if you are selling a product for $2 or $200, the product should be right for the customer out of the box. Now, granted, things do happen, and there is an "acceptable" rate of problems for products. Things get damaged in shipment, a parts slip occurs and something is missing, etc. It does happen, but it happened way too often with 21st products. It was just amazing that the collector base here, who seems to be very passionate about their collections and pieces, were willing to put up with so many product issues...quite shocking.

That is one thing I hope All-Go solves, the blatant problems in QC that plagued 21st. I do sincerely hope they fix those issues and present good products to us finally. I for one have personally had enough of the 21st and JSI QC issues in every scale andproduct. Get it right for once!

Corey

Corey,
My point was that the guy that wrote the post was asking about 21st products specifically, he wasn't asking about what is the best 1/32 plane overall.
I won't whitewash 21st's QC issues but I will praise them for what they have done as far as variety of subjects, and for the fact that even though you sometimes had to pick-n-choose, you got one heckuva deal for what you got.

Hello to all from a first time poster. After seeing all 21stC 1/32 planes, and having a 1:1 example at our Museum, I can say that the FW-190A-F series is by far the best. It is devoid of those annoying plugs that cover the screws of earlier units. The gear is actually like the picture on the box unlike the 190D which is horribly toylike on the model. The only flaws I can find are the cowling breach bulges are way too small and it would have been nice to have the blown hood canopy the D model has since most later F models had that. The quality and detail overall on the 1/32 units is often far better than their 1/18 counterparts. While some early ones are smaller clones like the 109E and 190D, the later ones, 109G, Stukas, etc are vastly superior in accurate detail. Dihedral has always been an issue with all 21stC planes. The 1/18 FW-190D is why I gave up on 1/18 and go exclusively 1/32.

Dennis

Welcome to the forum, Axis Nightmare.

See you have been lurking for a while now.

Great first post, and agree with you. At least in regards to the 1/32.

There are some good examples in 1/18, but some "less than perfect" ones as well. And unfortunately the FW 190D is not that great in 1/18. A shame.

The FW 190A and F. Hands down the best engineered. Better detailing than anything in 1/18 and all the while keeping those retractable landing gears spot on to scale. 2nd place for 21st 1/32 is tie between the Zero's and the 109 G.

snake wrote:F-4 Wildcat.

The BBI aircraft were better than the 21C models, with the Phantom being easily the best in plastic 1/32 from these two manufacturers.

Picture by mikeyt.

BBI with some of the black weathering removed click to open Webshots for more