Small Scale Military Headquarters

Well, we finally have a P-61 in 1:72 diecast I got mine yesterday from The Flying Mule and will get some pictures up eventually, though the ones on TFM's site are accurate to the actual model: http://www.flyingmule.com/products/AF-00113A

Here's my basic review:

Overall, there are some good points about the model: A good amount of diecast (wings fuselage, engines & tail booms). Markings are painted on and appear to have the correct color tones. There is basic cockpit detail with the seats, controls, etc. Landing gear parts insert easily and sit flush and go in facing the correct way. Good heavy-duty display stand. The engine cowl flaps on my plane were not severely bent and the one that was was easily pushed into the correct place. I also like the box art and they provided a ton of background info on the particular model and the P-61 in general. Always nice to have something educational on the box!

However, there are some drawbacks: The upper turret does not rotate (at least on my plane). Its not a big gripe for me as the turret was usually always pointed forward, but still a little disappointing. Cockpit detail is pretty basic, especially considering what other manufacturers can do in the same scale. No figures, though it was easy to pop off both canopies and install some Hobby Master 1:72 pilot figures (I like my model planes crewed!) There were also some "childish" inaccuracies - the US national insignia on the underside was placed under the wrong wing. They had the upper and lower insignia both on the left wing and nothing on the underside of the right wing. At first I thought this was an individual flaw with my model, but you can see the same issue in the TFM pictures. Some fuselage details could be sculpted just a little better. My model is also tail heavy, but I think that's unique to mine as the TFM site pictures show it sitting correctly on the gears. I actually had a "freak out" moment when I first went to install the extended gears - the tires were facing inward on both sides! I figured this was a lazy mistake on the part of the manufacturer, so I went out to the workbench, pried out the landing gear struts from the wheel well part getting ready to switch them around. Then it donned on me to look at a picture of an actual P-61... Sure enough, the wheels faced inwards, so AF1 got it right.

In conclusion, the $90 price tag for the unsigned version of this model is really too high for what one gets. It should have been in the $70 range at most, IMHO. I really like that I now have a pre-built P-61 in 1:72 scale (something long missing from my collection) but there are a number of things that could have been better. Really too bad Hobby Master didn't tackle this as they could have made a truly killer model. However, I won't go so far as to say this is a model one should not get. Its currently the only diecast P-61 in 1:72 scale and likely to be the one we get for a while. You will save money by getting the eventual MRC Easy Model P-61 in plastic, but the AF1 model is likely to be more detailed and have that important diecast construction.

Did anyone else get the AF1 P-61? I'd like to hear other's thoughts!

nice concise review Tman. The national insignia under the wrong wing REALLY bugs me. It's pretty easy to fix with a bit of paint and a decal but at this price point stuff like that should never happen. It's worse on the AF1 Reaper model. The stars and bars on on the wrong wings upper and lower. Terrible mistake for models that are supposed to be high quality diecasts.

I agree it's over priced by about 50% in my view, however they have tackled a few subjects now that others have not (black widow, reaper, x-47b) and perhaps we're paying a 'premium' for more obscure, for lack of a better word, subject matter.

It will be interesting to see how it compares to the Easy Model P-61 (if it ever gets made.....they've been promising one now for years and there still isn't a Hobby Boss 1/72 P-61 that the Easy Models are built from). Easy Models can be nice but they've made some real clunkers too and the clunkers have often been the larger more expensive planes, (like modern jets) and with the P-61 being a larger plane i'm not optimistic about the quality of the eventual Easy Model.

Yeah, the wrong placement for the insignia was easy to fix, luckily! It helps that the P-61 is pretty much all one color. But the fact it happened at all is rather amateurish... 21c never made that mistake in any scale, to name a company "renowned" for QC issues. And this costs well in excess of most of the items 21c ever sold in any scale! But there's other positive points with the model and I at least now have a P-61 that looks the part! I think the Easy Model version will have a decent exterior paint job, but be overall minimalist on the interior detail. It will also have only extended gear, per all their other models. The EM P-61 profile artwork is being shown on the boxes of their new large scale items (i.e. the 1:48 scale WWII aircraft) so it can't be too far away...

I got the signed version yesterday. I really like it. I didn't have any issues with mine either besides what you pointed out Tman. I'm very pleased with it. I pre ordered mine back in july with the HM BF-109 and used a 12% off coupon code to get mine for about a $100. I know its not perfect but I am happy with it. Was it easy to get the back hatch glass window off? Nice review by the way.

It was trickier to get the glass on the rear of the plane off. The part actually should slide out (more or less) after it's loosened. It's funny, but I was just reading the descriptive info about the P-61 on the back of the box and thought it sounded familiar... I pulled one of my reference books off the shelf and found the exact same text in the book "Aircraft of World War II" copyright 2004 International Masters publishers/Thunder Bay Press. Apparently the Chinese don't believe in copyrighted material

Greetings:

For something of this price point, it should be right. And forgetting a code letter or something is a whole lot different than putting the national insignia on the wrong wing. That's just inexcusable.

This company is very inconsistent. That's the best way to describe it. On one hand, they are doing unusual subjects, making excellent boxes, a quality display stand and the models are mostly metal content. On the other hand, the models have inaccuracies, paint flaws and in some aspects poor detail (various complaints about the pilot figures on some models and terrible looking pitot tubes). You'd think a company who gets one part right could get the other right and vice versa.

Corey

national insignia on the wrong wings is becoming an AF1 trademark. So far, the P-61, Reaper and X-47B at least, have one or more insignia on the wrong wings. I haven't bothered to check out their F-16s. It does seem the F-35B is correct, although i've only seen a fuzzy picture of the underside, so not 100% sure. Their F-35C, i don't know if it's correct.

Pretty poor track record. Someone should email them and tell them they go on the TOP OF THE LEFT WING and BOTTOM OF THE RIGHT WING. Then they can put a stick 'em over their work station with that written on it.

Here's how my AF1 P-61 looks after being modified to look like a sand blasted bird operating from Iwo late in the war:

And the other side, with some new decals replacing the amateurish artwork:

Looks great! You need to get a crew in there as well