Airfix 1/72 Northrop P-61A/B Black Widow

AIRFIX 1:72 NORTHROP P-61A BLACK WIDOW

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 26 September 2009

Kit Details:

Airfix 1/72^nd scale Northrop P-61A/B Black Widow (Kit N° 04006). Produced in France.

Aircraft History:

The Black Widow was the first U.S. aircraft to be designed from the outset as a night fighter, and was the standard plane for that role by the end of WW2. Design work commenced in 1940, at the time of the night bombing which followed the Battle of Britain, and many of the lessons learned at that time were incorporated by Northrop. The prototype XP-61 was a large aircraft, approximately the size and weight of a medium bomber, having a twin boom layout and accommodating the crew, radar and armament in a central nacelle. The three-man crew consisted of a pilot, a radar operator/gunner who was above and behind him, and a radio operator/gunner in a separate compartment at the rear. The fixed armament was a battery of four 20mm cannon beneath the floor and fired by the pilot, movable armament was a remotely controlled turret with four 0.5inch machine guns which was capable of being operated by any of the crew.

Delivery of production aircraft began in the second half of 1943. The first units of these P-61A´s had the top turret fitted, but problems arose in service and the majority of the “A” models built had the turret deleted. It was installed again in the “B”-series. The P-61B was powered by two 2250HP Pratt & Whitney Duoble Wasp engines, giving a maximum speed of some 540Km/h. Normal range was about 1500Km, which could be augmented to nearly 3000Km with the use of four external fuel tanks.

The Kit:

This is a reissue of vintage kit from the phantom-riveter era. Inside the rather big box you get a plastic bag containing everything: some “trees” (the Airfix interpretation of sprues) with about 106 styrene parts, one small tree with 5 transparencies and a very small decals sheet. The styrene parts are of acceptable quality, which means they are completely casted and that there´s not too much flash / mold seam lines. Annoyingly, the plastic is black (a reminiscence of days gone, when most of us couldn´t afford an airbrush), which is a disaster for a model which will be painted black. The whole surface is festooned with rivets, much of which will be lost after the unavoidable filling and sanding. Curiously, the only other P-61 in 1/72th which I´m aware of, appart from the old Frog one, is the (rather expensive) Dragon offering (MPM-Group, Revell Germany or Valom, please take note!).

Instructions:

One longish sheet of paper folded once. Page one brings history/data in English, German and French. Pages two, three and half page four show the construction through 10 easy-to-follow steps. Finally the rest of page four shows a 4-view coloring/decaling diagramm which covers two versions.

Construction:

For the interior you get floors, bulkheads, basic seats, control sticks and even a (flat) instruments panel. Believe or not, in the 70´s this was a detailed interior (!). I added some framing made from Evergeen strip to the fuselage interior, painted this with my very last Humbrol H158 Interior Green (discontinued) and dry-brushed some detail out, including rudimentary dials; the seats got belts made from tamiya tape. The gun turret for the “B”-version was also pre-assembled at this stage and later, together with the interior parts, trapped between the two fuselage halves. Fit was acceptable.

Each wing consists of upper and lower half, with the air intake filters and the ailerons being trapped between the halves. Further, each lower half gets a landing light glued from the inside. Although the fit was good, the movable ailerons (a gimmick common from that era) left really big gaps, so that I glued them fix and filled/sanded/rescribed the control surfaces. The wings were glued to the fuselage taking care to get the right angle (they have a slight inverted gull wing effect). Each boom consists of two halves (molded complete with tail fin and rudder) , and the landing gear legs must be trapped in between. The way this is engineered asures a fool-proof correct installation [*]. With the fuselage/wing joins filled and sanded, I glued the right boom on and left it till the next day to dry. Then I glued the left boom, trapping the stabilizer in between and correcting the angles while the glue was still “pasty”.

Each motor consists of two cylinder blocks, the rear one molded onto a blanking, and a one-piece cowling. The engines are very well represented for a kit of its era and can be made into an acceptable representation with some care. The clear parts are not too bad, almost transparent but, unfortunately, a bit too wide, so that filling/sanding/polishing was necessary at all canopies joins. Wanting to do a version with extended range, each wing underside got two pylons. The tanks are two part, and I painted them silver (according to a drawing I saw). The final bits are the (crude) fuselage cannons and a couple of antennas. The propellers with separate cones, the front landing gear, the wheels and the well doors were glued after painting.

I sprayed the kit overall with Humbrol H85 coal black (which is rather a very, very dark grey) and, after decaling was done, everything was sealed with Humbrol H135 satin clear.

Colour Schemes:

One P-61A (without turret) and one P-61B (with turret) both overall black. The P-61B is identified as “Lady in the dark”

Decals:

A very small sheet containing just 4 insignias, 2 code numbers for each version and two times the adorable lady for the P-61B. I substituted the insignias with Expert Choice´s ones (sheet 7222), due to their better blue color, the Airfix codes and nose art decals worked out very good.

Overall:

O.K., this kit is old and by no means state of art. Only recommended for Airfix collectors and for those who want a P-61 in their collection but cannot find or afford the Dragon offering.

References:

World Encyclopedia of Aviation, Band 7.

[*] It must be admitted that landing gears in older kits, while not very accurate/detailed, were mostly rugged and very easy to afix. Although I really like good short run kits, the montage of the landing gear is still a bit of a problem on many of them.

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