Photo Review: New Ray 1/32ish World War I Aircraft
Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:28 pm
Greetings:
I was up to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome a couple of weeks ago in the Hudson Valley of New York to see one of their airshows and museum. For those who do not know, Old Rhinebeck was started by a man named Cole Palen who enjoyed World War I and Pioneer airplanes. What started as his own collection and entertaining friends in weekend airshows became a museum of pioneer airplanes, World War I aircraft and weekend airshows. Some of the planes are authentic and some are replicas. The museums also offers biplanes rides over the Hudson.
While browsing in their gift shop I noticed they were selling the New Ray 1/32ish World War I Quick Build planes. I had also seen a father putting one together for his son during the airshow. They were priced at $12 and considering this was a museum and they can always use the sale I bought the four different planes in the set. New Ray offers a Sopwith Camel, Spad 7, Fokker D-7 and a Fokker Dr. I triplane. This is nice for the Rhinebeck Aerodrome because they have replicas of each of these planes in their collection and they fly in the airshows. I observed that they were selling these at a good clip following the airshow. These have been around awhile but here is a review of these little aircraft.
The four planes come in clear window boxes that allow you to see the bigger parts. On opening you will find the screws, steel rods and smaller plastic parts needed to assemble each model. The model parts come prepainted and for a $12 toy the paint job is decent. It is better to buy these in person because you can then avoid any serious paint flaws.
These are the parts for the Triplane prior to assembly. The parts are fairly large and easy to work with but given the screw together nature there are major inaccuracies to the real parts, especially in the struts and landing gear areas. A screwdriver is provided to assemble the airplane and it does work but go get a screwdriver from your tool box that is a bit stronger. (I loaned my Swiss Army knife to the Dad at Rhinebeck so he could put his son's Triplane together so the son could fly with the airplanes in the show). The screws are of good quality and didn't strip during assembly. There are steel rods that help hold the fuselage together. These are very difficult to get in place with holding the smaller parts in. There is no way a younger builder could get the steel rods in correctly by themselves. By the fourth plane I had perfected it but really struggled on the D-7 assembly and the Triplane assembly with this.
This is the Sopwith Camel prior to assembly. The struts are a weaker plastic than the rest of the parts and will bend and break easy. On both the Fokkers, the tail assembly is loose and can easily fall off. In fact, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome gift shop had a Triplane on display that was missing its tail...most likely it fell off due to being loose. Fit problems are to be expected with a kit like this. Of the four planes the Spad is the easiest to assemble and the D-7 the most difficult. The D-7 takes some time to figure out how it goes together and to get some of the push-in struts in place as the fit is very tight. Despite these problems I must commend New Ray, they successfully managed to put 4 World War I aircraft into a screw together kit format and the planes look basically like the actual aircraft they represent.
Instructions in the form of illustrations do come with the planes. Instructions for each plane are included on the same sheet. The diagrams help but any person who has built models should be able to figure out how these go together. Kids would have trouble putting these together without parent help, especially with the steel rods and attaching the wings. So this would be a good parent-kid, grandparent-kid project.
The four aircraft assembled. Assembly for each plane took about 30 minutes on average. The worst portion of assembly was the joining of the fuselage halves as mentioned before. A display stand is included for each model but the planes fit loosely on the stands. The planes are light and youngsters would have no problem becoming World War I aces and flying them around the room.
The Fokker Dr. I. The aircraft have some nice accessory details such as the machine guns and the Fokker has the correct step pieces as well. For an aircraft in this price range, the detail level is acceptable and it has to be realized these are never meant to be award winning display pieces. In my opinion, the Triplane is the best of the bunch and the Camel is the worst. All the markings for each airplane are authentic markings and do represent an actual World War I plane.
The Spad 7 closeup. Overall, my review for these models is positive. Although in accurate on finer details and quite simple in nature and construction, they are an affordable and easy way to own 4 World War I airplanes in the 1/32 scale range. They are cheap, come prepainted and would be enjoyable in the room of a child or youngster. They also would make a nice project for a rainy day. The fact they are World War I airplanes in this style of a kit/toy is also very unique and a welcome sight. I am glad to have bought them and supported the Aerodrome in the process. I am planning on buying a second set of these and putting them in my classroom. At the price, I won't worry about them being broken and they are attractive in that they will generate the interest of a younger audience.
I was up to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome a couple of weeks ago in the Hudson Valley of New York to see one of their airshows and museum. For those who do not know, Old Rhinebeck was started by a man named Cole Palen who enjoyed World War I and Pioneer airplanes. What started as his own collection and entertaining friends in weekend airshows became a museum of pioneer airplanes, World War I aircraft and weekend airshows. Some of the planes are authentic and some are replicas. The museums also offers biplanes rides over the Hudson.
While browsing in their gift shop I noticed they were selling the New Ray 1/32ish World War I Quick Build planes. I had also seen a father putting one together for his son during the airshow. They were priced at $12 and considering this was a museum and they can always use the sale I bought the four different planes in the set. New Ray offers a Sopwith Camel, Spad 7, Fokker D-7 and a Fokker Dr. I triplane. This is nice for the Rhinebeck Aerodrome because they have replicas of each of these planes in their collection and they fly in the airshows. I observed that they were selling these at a good clip following the airshow. These have been around awhile but here is a review of these little aircraft.
The four planes come in clear window boxes that allow you to see the bigger parts. On opening you will find the screws, steel rods and smaller plastic parts needed to assemble each model. The model parts come prepainted and for a $12 toy the paint job is decent. It is better to buy these in person because you can then avoid any serious paint flaws.
These are the parts for the Triplane prior to assembly. The parts are fairly large and easy to work with but given the screw together nature there are major inaccuracies to the real parts, especially in the struts and landing gear areas. A screwdriver is provided to assemble the airplane and it does work but go get a screwdriver from your tool box that is a bit stronger. (I loaned my Swiss Army knife to the Dad at Rhinebeck so he could put his son's Triplane together so the son could fly with the airplanes in the show). The screws are of good quality and didn't strip during assembly. There are steel rods that help hold the fuselage together. These are very difficult to get in place with holding the smaller parts in. There is no way a younger builder could get the steel rods in correctly by themselves. By the fourth plane I had perfected it but really struggled on the D-7 assembly and the Triplane assembly with this.
This is the Sopwith Camel prior to assembly. The struts are a weaker plastic than the rest of the parts and will bend and break easy. On both the Fokkers, the tail assembly is loose and can easily fall off. In fact, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome gift shop had a Triplane on display that was missing its tail...most likely it fell off due to being loose. Fit problems are to be expected with a kit like this. Of the four planes the Spad is the easiest to assemble and the D-7 the most difficult. The D-7 takes some time to figure out how it goes together and to get some of the push-in struts in place as the fit is very tight. Despite these problems I must commend New Ray, they successfully managed to put 4 World War I aircraft into a screw together kit format and the planes look basically like the actual aircraft they represent.
Instructions in the form of illustrations do come with the planes. Instructions for each plane are included on the same sheet. The diagrams help but any person who has built models should be able to figure out how these go together. Kids would have trouble putting these together without parent help, especially with the steel rods and attaching the wings. So this would be a good parent-kid, grandparent-kid project.
The four aircraft assembled. Assembly for each plane took about 30 minutes on average. The worst portion of assembly was the joining of the fuselage halves as mentioned before. A display stand is included for each model but the planes fit loosely on the stands. The planes are light and youngsters would have no problem becoming World War I aces and flying them around the room.
The Fokker Dr. I. The aircraft have some nice accessory details such as the machine guns and the Fokker has the correct step pieces as well. For an aircraft in this price range, the detail level is acceptable and it has to be realized these are never meant to be award winning display pieces. In my opinion, the Triplane is the best of the bunch and the Camel is the worst. All the markings for each airplane are authentic markings and do represent an actual World War I plane.
The Spad 7 closeup. Overall, my review for these models is positive. Although in accurate on finer details and quite simple in nature and construction, they are an affordable and easy way to own 4 World War I airplanes in the 1/32 scale range. They are cheap, come prepainted and would be enjoyable in the room of a child or youngster. They also would make a nice project for a rainy day. The fact they are World War I airplanes in this style of a kit/toy is also very unique and a welcome sight. I am glad to have bought them and supported the Aerodrome in the process. I am planning on buying a second set of these and putting them in my classroom. At the price, I won't worry about them being broken and they are attractive in that they will generate the interest of a younger audience.
