Northrop P-61A Black Widow 1:48

[Mike]

Northrop P-61A Black Widow
1:48 Great Wall Hobby

The P-61 has the distinction of being the first dedicated night-fighter, and was designed from the outset to utilise radar to intercept enemy aircraft in the dark. Its twin boom format, with two powerful Double Wasp radial engines propelling it (excuse the pun) to speeds that bely its large size.

It first flew in 1942, and went into production in 1943, entering service over England in the summer of 1944, where it acquitted itself well advancing into Europe as suitable bases were liberated from the retreating Nazi forces. The A-model was first built with a turret on the central gondola, but this was deleted for the majority of the production run, being reinstated in the later B model. Later in the production run of the A model, hardpoints were added under each wing inboard of the engine nacelles to accommodate fuel tanks to extend the loitering time, however only 20 of these aircraft were made before the B model replaced it on the production line.

The GWH kit is their second aircraft release following their successful Focke-Wulf Fw.189. It is a large kit, and arrives in a well stocked top opening box, with an attractive painting of an olive-drab machine strafing locomotive as it leaves a viaduct. Inside the box are nine sprues of mid-grey styrene plus four more circular spruelets containing the cowling flaps, a clear sprue, a separately boxed clear part for the nose radome, a Photo-Etched fret of parts, three small sheets of decals, a resin gun-sight attached to an addendum sheet, and of course a full-colour glossy instruction booklet. A glossy reproduction of the box art is also included for those of us that like to keep that sort of thing.

There appears to have been a little confusion over the incorrect nose being supplied in early batches of the kit, but this has been resolved, and by the time you read this the right parts should be included in your box. Our review sample was delayed by the volume of initial sales, so don’t hang around if you would like one – they’re selling fast!

The build begins with the large interior, with full detail in the front and rear crew areas, with only a small section in the middle of the fuselage gondola empty, where the turret mechanism would be (if installed on this edition). The pilot’s area is well detailed with multi-part seats for him and the navigator, further enhanced by a set of PE seatbelts. The rear Bulkhead is enhanced with additional parts, and the instrument panel has individual decals for the dials and PE rudder pedals to replace the moulded in plastic sections. A resin gunsight is installed to his instrument panel in an addendum sheet, presumably because this was missed from the sprues on the main production run. Under the cockpit is the gun bay, containing the four M2 Cannons and their support equipment, and the barrels all have slide-moulded recessed ends.

The radar operator’s compartment has a forward facing instrument panel, and a swivel chair that again has a set of PE belts. The cockpit sidewalls are detailed with extra parts, including a pair of panels to hide the wing-roots, very similar to the earlier Fw.189. Paint call-outs are made throughout, and there are even a number of decals to detail the instruments on the side walls. The crew access hatch in the floor between the pilot and navigator can be posed open or closed, with the ladder extended or retracted into the hatch door, as can the radar operator's rear door on the underside.

Once all this work is complete, the fuselage can be closed up, but the nose gear wheel needs sandwiching between the two halves if installed at this stage, but I would be tempted to adjust the location lugs to allow later installation to simplify masking and reduce the likelihood of damage to this delicate part. An addendum page advises you to put some nose-weight into the small space under the nav/gunner’s chair to prevent the completed model tail sitting. Other than filling the painted radome area with weight, this is pretty much the only part of the fuselage that is forward of the main gear legs, although it may be possible to glue more weight on the bulkhead behind the nav/gunner.

The nose mounted radar is built up next, comprising 9 separate parts on a bulkhead that slots inside the nose of the fuselage. It almost seems a shame to hide all that detail underneath a coat of paint within the clear radome, but unless you want to expose it as a “cut-away”, it will disappear forever. The canopy of the Black Widow is stepped, with windscreens for both the pilot and the gunner. As usual with GWH kits, the canopies are crystal clear, and the framing is very well done, frosted over for easy recognition, and with some delicate rivet detail here and there. The large hatch above the pilot’s seat is a separate part, as is the side hatch for the gunner. The rear cockpit has a similar side-opening hatch in the bulged canopy, and the glazing is finished off with the transparent tail cone. There are no masks included with this kit, which doesn’t bother me in the slightest, as the Fw.189 masks were a bit of a let-down, and the complex curves would have made pre-cut masks a nightmare. The crisp canopy lines lend themselves perfectly to Tamiya tape and a brand new #11 blade.

A few aerials and bumps are installed at this point, but they would doubtless bite the dust during the rest of the build, so are better left off to the end.

The wings are full-length and include the top of the engine nacelle/boom, giving the assembly better strength at the expense of a couple of joints on the top surface. The wing halves are further strengthened by a number of ribs running chordwise inside each part. It’s difficult to see why these were added from a lay person’s point of view, but if fore-aft flex would have been an issue for the wings, it won’t be now! The full-span flaps are sandwiched between the wing halves allowing them to be posed retracted for flight, or deployed for landing. The P-16’s Spoilerons controlled the aircraft’s roll, and rotated out of the wing to reduce lift over that side, causing the aircraft to roll. These are depicted as PE parts, which can be displayed open, or closed by cutting off the triangular deployment mechanism. The interior of the bays have a little detail engraved, and the bulges on the underside of the wing are nicely detailed with rivets. The intakes for the updraft carburettor are moulded into the leading edge, and small inserts hide the join line, adding extra detail in the shape of vertical strakes. In reality these intakes are deeper, with detail inside that is outside the abilities of injection moulding, so correcting that would be down to an enterprising resin company.

The two booms are built up around the gear bays, which consist of a pair of bulkheads at either end of an L-section bay. There is no detail on these parts, but a few ejector pin marks will need removing. Behind this structure the bay is open into the interior of the boom, which has lots of rib and stringer detail moulded into the inside. There are quite a lot of ejector pin marks here, so get your sanding tools ready for battle. The large bay door will show plenty of this interior, but it could be tricky finding detail pictures to fill in any blanks. A PE grille is installed just forward of the gear bay, and with a little care it looks like the main gear legs can be installed later in the build.

The huge R-2800 Double Wasp engines are represented in full in the kit, with both rows of cylinders, exhaust collector ring and push-rods all in plastic. The ignition harness is supplied as a PE part, and is held in place by the gearbox and final drive. Here you have to choose whether you want to show the cooling flaps open or closed, as they are attached to the rear of the engine, and the exhaust stacks for the opened flaps will complicate painting somewhat. If selecting closed flaps it would simplify painting, as the exhaust stacks aren’t installed and the rear of the engine would be protected from any overspray. The cowlings are single pieces, and nicely detailed thanks to a bit of slide-moulding, although I have the suspicion that the rolled fronts are slightly out in profile, but nothing too serious. It’s surprising how little of the handsome engines will be seen between the prop boss and the cowling, so I’m sure some brave modellers will be tempted to cut the cowlings to reveal all that detail. Another little bit of slide-moulding means that the exhaust stubs all have recessed openings, and it would be a shame to consign those to the spares box.

When bringing the main assemblies together, care must be taken to ensure that you include the small flaps inboard of the engine nacelles, as installing these later might be tricky. Here is where a source of major confusion occurs, as the diagrams show a traditional type locating tab at the end of each wing that fixes into a corresponding slot in the fuselage, but the plastic disagrees. Instead, the wing ends are open and affix to the root by butting up against some small ribs that should hold the wing and root in the correct position to avoid large steps. The ends of the wings have large buttressed locating pins to keep the wings from distorting, so everything should work well. My only concern is the long-term strength of this join, and how easy it would be to align both booms correctly as a result.

The horizontal tail fits between the booms as the second boom is installed, and it also has a movable control surface. I suspect many clamps, elastic bands and pieces of tape will be the order of the day when bringing all these parts together, and slow-curing glue will give the modeller maximum flexibility. Once the wings and tail are together, the modeller must choose whether to fit the drop tanks inboard of the engine nacelles, and then go on to fill the slot for the outer drop-tanks, which weren’t fitted to the A-model, but aren’t mentioned as needing filling in the instructions. You may want to tackle this job earlier in the build before joining the wing halves.

The Widow’s underside is a profusion of doors and hatchways, which are covered in one confused diagram. Take it slowly though, and it shouldn’t be too tricky, although the numbering of the nose-gear doors are reversed, which is covered on the addendum sheet. If you are closing the gear bays, you’ll need to snip off the attachment lugs, and the same is true of the rear accessway, which has some nice PE detail, which needs some thin styrene rod in between the two halves, but this is provided in the bag - a thoughtful touch.

The landing gear itself is nicely detailed, and the wheels have blocked-tread, with weighted flats on the bottom. The spaces between the spokes of the wheels are hollow, allowing light to pass through, which is exactly as it should be. I sincerely wish that the GWH designers would enable the parts to be added to the bays later in the build though, as this would prevent a lot of hassle adapting the mounting or masking the legs during painting.

The decals are nicely printed in China, and have good colour density, register and a thin carrier film. I usually have no problem with GWH decals, and don’t expect this sheet to be any different as long as they are applied to a suitably glossy surface. Mr Mark Setter from Gunze usually lives up to its name with their decals and lets them settle down nicely into panel lines and around detail.

From the box you can build one of the following aircraft:

• “Lady Gen”, Florennes, Belgium, December 1944
• “Sweatin’ Wally”, Myitkyina, Burma 1944

Lady Gen is Olive over grey, while Sweatin’ Wally is overall black, which a great excuse to try out Lifecolor’s new Blacks boxed set containing 6 shades of “black”.

A second Stork logo is supplied separately from the “B” sheet, although I cannot find any difference between the two and only one is required for the port side of the fuselage, unless it is simply a backup for a tricky but important decal?

Conclusion
The release of a modern tooling of this impressive and malevolent looking aircraft is good to see, and although there have been some grumbling about shape issues, if they exist they don’t seem to jump out and scream “wrong!” to this modeller. I am due an eye test though! It seems that lessons have been learned from the production of the Fw.189, and the nacelles are much simpler to build and attach as a result. GWH’s continued use of slide-moulding to enhance their products is to be applauded, and the inclusion of a PE sheet is again welcome.

The instructions are for the most part simple to follow, but the two addendum sheets make it a little more complex, and having to flip back and forth could lead to some mistakes. Clearly, the pilot’s gunsight had been missed off from the moulding, but its inclusion as a resin part taped to the addendum sheet is good to see, as many companies might have just ignored the fact and shuffled uncomrfortably when asked.

Another great release from GWH, which has that “build me” factor in spades. I’m sure it won’t be long before the later models are released,with the longer nosed and turreted B-model looking favourite and hopefully an F-15A Reporter later on – the post war photo-reconnaissance variant. Their next new release of a 1:48 TBD Devastator will be with us soon, and also promises plenty of detail to keep us happy.

Recommended

Review sample courtesy of:

[stringbag]

Based on the above review, I'll be putting my old Monogram kit up for sale and replacing it with this beauty.

Nice review as usual.

Chris.