As you may have guessed from the cryptic title ([;)]), I’m about to embark on a long, long journey of building the R/M 1/48 Widow.
I finally have all the pieces to the puzzle; eduard interior and exterior PE sets, QuickBoost resin gun replacements, replacement cowls, Aires engines, new wheels and the crown jewel, an LSM cockpit.
From what little time I’ve been able to get to look over the basics, it looks like the cockpit is going to be a huge mishmash of LSM, OOB and PE to get the utmost accurate detail. Thankfully, the reference book I picked up has some sweet pics of the 'pit, so I can combine what I need from all 3 sets of parts.
Anyway, if anyone else is building a Widow, or has one in their stash and was looking for a reason to start it, feel free to join in [:D].
I’ll be watching closely myself, Fred! I did this build last year, mostly oob, and with the exception of the clear parts, it wnet to gether quite nicely. The glass, however, leaves a LOT to be desired - in other words, it don’t fit, so be forewarned [:O] , be afraid [V] ! It gave me fits, but several other builders like Swanny have offered solutions to the problem on various threads on here, also Pix did a masterpiece build last year, check the pics on his website!
Fred, I’ve got two on the bench. One an in-flight build, the other intended to be a “what-if” Vietnam gunship. I have internal PE, but I’d be interested to know where you got the replacement cowls and gun replacements. Are they QuickBoost too? I particularly want stuff to build the C version, which would have been the one used in SE Asia.
I just bought the same R/M kit. It looks good! I have a little 1/72 Wildcat I was going to build first, but I think I’ll start on the P-61 now. It will be entirely OOB and anything else I need will be scratchbuilt. I’ll try to post some ‘in progress’ pics starting this weekend.
May take awhile for me—I’m building them both at once, and its taking too long, so I’ve kind of shelved this for awhile. This thread has rekindled some interest, though!
I’ve got a whole bunch of photos of the 414 P-61s taken by someone who was a flying crew chief. I can’t share them, sorry to say, but I can answer questions. All exterior, mostly taken in and around Pontadero, Italy in late 1944/ early 1945.
I’ve only built one of these kits, nearly brought me to tears too. The glazing is a total bust, and you’ve got to make some intelligent decisions about which access panels are on or off. One interesting note is that I know Pacific dioramas of -61s all torn down are popular, and Shep Paine did a nice one; this individual never seriously took apart either of his. I think one engine change, otherwise these were run as delivered without a lot of issues. As opposed to his much beloved Beau, which he could rebuild in his sleep.
His take on it is a very modern, well built weapon that ran well and stayed clean. If I were to decend into that Hell again I’d model it that way. I’m planning to build the 1/72 some day, though.
Spent a big portion of the last year disembowling steam locomotives. There was not a top turret.
Now i don’t have a Widow on the bench, nor in the stash. But i always thought she looked like a really grand piece of aircraft, and i thought i would check in. The interior detailing ya got so far looks flawless, IMO. Looking forward to seeing more. Who knows? You might eventually be responsible for me putting a P-61 in my stash soon! Keep on truckin, Fred![tup]
C’mon Roger, go out and get one. You know you want to be aggravated with seam gaps as wide as your finger or parts that don’t line up without a lot of sanding.
But in all seriousness, some of the detail looks pretty good right out of the kit. I have all the AM parts available for this kit and sometimes, I’m seeing very few differences, if any.
For instance, the LSM side panels blow the OOB parts away, but the kit IP is shaped more correctly and with the eduard PE upgrade, is phenominal. And I have been adding PE parts to the LSM panels just for added accuracy. I can’t wait to get into the exterior PE set that I purchased. I can only imagine what’s in there.
Speaking of the PE parts, has anyone had any experience with eduards faceplates and dials? They give you a piece of cardboard with dial and guage faces printed on it that your supposed to mount behind open dial faces. But, they never tell you how it’s supposed to work. I’ve just been cutting out the carboard and gluing it behind the dials. But I don’t know if I’m doing it wrong or not. Anyone know for sure?
Marc, that’s a great pic. I can’t believe a bird can be so ugly and so beautiful at the same time [(-D]. I just hope i can do this bird justice.
Gentlemen, I too am a fan of the P-61. I’ve got three in my stash (one will be used for experimentation, however). So I was looking for things I could do to spruce it up. I came across this on the Aircraft Resource Center forum: Click me!
Here’s one I plan on doing once I get my order back from Lone Star. This one crashed, killing the owner/pilot in 1963, shortly after this picture was taken on the Tule Indian Reservation East of Porterville, CA.
Pictures for this particular aircraft are scarce. I have a couple of others and one of the crash site but, that’s it.
Hey Rad, thanks for that link. That answered some of the paint and decal questions I had. Like I mentioned earlier, I have just about every AM set available for this kit. I’m hoping to make it super sweet, [(-D]. If you’re going to building one, feel free to post pics in here. Every little bit of inspiration helps.
Randie, there’s a real easy way to do that bird. Spray a bunch of parts yellow, then just dump it on a board and call it a post crash diorama [;)] [(-D]
