Airfix 1/72 B-24H First impressions.

hello n with you n's modeling bench and yes we've got a review of this kit that just about every man and his dog on YouTube has reviewed already um I've seen Spencer paa's review I did have a look because it was a very quick one and I very much like listening to Spencer Spencer pooll he's a great guy um I haven't watched any of the other reviews I saw James has done one I've seen somebody's put one up today and across the top it says disappointing with a question mark um so I I purposly haven't looked because I don't want to be sort of steered down any road if you like so I thought I'd give you my quick take on it it won't be like a really massive hour long review like I normally do but it will be uh it'll be a review you'll see everything it won't just be one of these you know 10-minute jobs so basically um aix's 172 scale uh consolidated B24 H Liberator as far as I know this is the only B24 H in a kit form um not exactly sure what the differences are I think there's a different nose turret uh uh but basically um this is what it is it's a 17 second scale kit so it's going to be a nice sort of size it's going to be probably typical air fix um you know engrav detail nice riveting and everything it's licensed from locky Martin it's got car graph deal which is good um It's Made in India yes It's Made in India and uh it's for 8 plus and then going over the box here you can see we've got two different versions available uh we've got the one on the front which is Corky burgundy bombers and then down below there we've got Valiant lady which has some nice yellow flashes and stuff on the tail so choice is yours um having watched Spencer's video it's quite obvious there are going to be other ones coming along because there are Parts in here that we're not using so we have here uh one bag of two spru we have another bag of two spru and some clear sprws which are separately bagged we have another bag here which is the two sprws and then down in here we've got our instructions and probably our deal as well so while we're looking at this we're going to be looking for the usual sort of short shots and stuff which you know rare fix will been named for um but uh hopefully we won't have any because it's it's not when you see a problem with air fix kit generally it's not all of them it's generally just one or two so um so there we go right so we've got an instruction manual on the bench we'll keep the light off because it's easier it's easier for you to see uh telling you down here basically remember um you know that you should be cleaning your parts and washing them in in water due to the size and weight of the rear fuselage and tail service this model it requires a larger amount of weight to be added to the forward fuselage to enable the model to rest on its nose wheel there are two places where we recommend this is added and the weight suggested should be regarded as the minimum that needs to be added to avoid a tail sser alternative alternatively if the crew entry door under the rear Fus L is fixed in the O position then the entry ladder can be fixed to support the tail of the model and keep it resting on its nose wheel so um yeah one of the issues here if you are putting a lot of nose weight in a model remember um I've said this before and I was wrongly corrected on it uh basically if you've got the um if this is your model here and your underc Carriage is there okay and it's a third of the way along then you know it's it's obvious you're going to need some nose weight to balance out the tail and people always think oh you know I've got to put 50 grams in the nose can the nose actually take it well if you have to put 50 gram here to balance out 50 gram here okay then the nose wheel is feeling practically no weight whatsoever because if you touch the tail it would probably sit on its tail the bit that feels the weight is the main undercarriage so if you've got weak main undercarriage and you need a lot of nose weight then you're going to get into problems it's not the nose wheel that's the problem it's the main undercarriage is the problem because they're taking all the weight basically the main undercarriage has got the weight of the model see the weight of the model is 100 gam and you put 50 gam in the nose that undercarriage has now got to take 150 grams okay so um it's the total weight of the model sitting down yes it's going to be probably 148 gram because you got a couple of grams sitting on the nose but um if you put too much nose weight in of course you are putting stress on your nose wheel but um one of the biggest uh funly enough it's the 132 scale Liberator one of the biggest issues with that because it has has very weak plastic undercarriage and it needs a lot of nose weight a hell of a lot it's 130 odd grams I think of nose we in that model the the hobby boss one so um yeah you definitely need metal underc carriage for that model so there we go anyway uh lecture over right so um we have here our deal we have our color call outs so all very nicely done in color as pre usual with a fix so we'll have a look at those first so we have we have here version B this is version a so this is the one off the Box front we got Corky Corky burgundy bombers so very nice indeed uh olive drab over the neutral gray um remember if you're under carriages down likelihood unless it's being worked on the ball tart would be up inside um there's the detail on the inside of the fins so yeah very nice yellow stripes on the bottom lovely looking very nice and it looks like we've got de for the bombs as well which is a nice touch not sure how many bombs we're going to get in here we'll soon see color call outs are obviously all in humil uh you will choose your own color paints um and then here we've got the uh Valiant lady which is very pretty looking it's got a Yellow Tail yellow yellow flash on the fin got the great big red mark on the front there is that Statue of Liberty there looks very nice indeed Jess is behind me playing with the box as you can hear um so yeah nice color schemes I'm hoping they're going to bring out a um Coastal command RF aircraft cuz that would be a nice nice addition and then here we've got the deal and they look very very nice perfectly a register nice and thin that is the statu liity and uh you can see they beautifully done of course they're cograph they're going to go down lovely lots of stencil detail we've got the bomb details bomb deal there uh and we've got some deal there we got propeller stuff very nice indeed and those yellow fin flashes are obviously there in deal as well you may wish to paint those instead but uh whatever so very nice of course it's 72 scale it's an easily displayable size unlike my usual 30C scale stuff so right we'll put that over there right there let's have a look at the instructions so as usual we've got English French and German on here uh we've got the um specifications of the aircraft in all the languages as well which is very nice so we have a 465 mm wingspan a Fus large length of 298 mm so it's about a foot long and it's about a foot and a half wide there you go right so uh straight into the build we're on to the cockpit we got a decco for the instrument panel got control Wheels going on there building up the seats going to make two of those we're adding the um the console to the floor and then we're adding the seats and then we're adding a bulk head Wonder all this is correct cuz a lot of Manufacturers get this wrong apparently we' got some detail going in the nose there we've got some uh some bomb equipment by look of it going in there we've got other stuff going in here ammo belts for the nose guns um and then we've got more controls more bits and pieces 25 Gams of weight going in there so that's between those two bulkheads um and then we've got a some radio equipment or whatever it is going on there and then we've got another little compartment here which is going to be underslung they tell you to put 30 G in there so they're recommending 50 G already uh probably go for 70 um just to be sure so as I say a lot a lot of weight required because it's such a long tail on these and you got the great big tail plane and the double fins and everything it's lots and lots of stuff going on so we're going to add that floor section there and then coming over the page we're adding more detail in there got lots of interior detail in here and then we got some oxygen tanks going in um and then fill file the tab off when the fixing when the when fixing the door in the open position so um that's the crew entry door in the back that's where you going to fit it and then you can put a ladder down to support the tail as they were saying earlier and then we're fitting that rear that nose rear that nose piece going in there so that's the area behind the pilots and then we've got our main spars typical air fix great big nose spars to fit the air wings to which is good and then we've got um another Spar going in the center there into the center of the Bombay uh we've got this area here I'm assuming that's the bomb area or is that in the tail uh nope that's neither it's the um it's the mid Gunner position so we've got the another bhead going in there or former should I say we got that mid mid mid waist Gunner floor going in there doors open or closed for the mid Gunners have them open you'll see all that lovely detail inside and then we've got the uh the ammo boxes with we've got ammo belts as well which is a really nice touching 17 second scale thank you airfix for that so very nice got the toilet there by the look of it and then we have some detail going up in the roof we have a lot of detail in this kit especially considering it's 172nd let's just hope they scale it up to 48th because apparently the hobby boss one which I have on pre-order apparently it's not very good um which is very surprising from Hobby boss isn't it when was the last time you heard of a hobby boss kit that was inaccurate yeah yesterday um so there we go there's those doors going in The Other Side open or closed and then we got these Gunner positions going in ammo boxes will doing all the same again bringing the fuselage house together and adding the nose something seriously worth looking up with any kit like this where you have a separate nose is look at possibly adding the nose to the rear Fus lar the nose halv so you've got two long Fus lar halves to come together because if you do have an issue with this seam here it's going to be very difficult to deal with it's much easier to get a really nice seam there and then have to deal with the center see if there's an issue sizewise but um this is a very new kit it should be okay but uh something definitely worth looking into we got the fair Rings going in for the uh for the waist Gunner so they're going to be back if the doors are closed out if the doors are open got some bombs going together we got eight bombs which is nice all the bomb racks fitting all the bomb racks in there and then fitting your Bombay doors remember the Bombay doors on a B24 come up they don't open like that they they come up which is nice and then we're going to build up the tail plane fins and Rudders we've got some interior detail there for the um for the main landing gear and we're going to bring our wings together and it's talking here about keeping the wings straight so um when assembling D D15 and e16 make sure the wings are straight D15 and e16 D15 e16 okay this good tip good good thing to look out for so adding the bottom of the engine cells um and the um the turbo superchargers they're going in there and then we've got um oh we can have flaps open or closed so they're calling the gills here uh so that's a nice touch very nice touch and then we got all that uh all those parts going in for the Spinners and everything we've got aerons building up here and then coming over the page we've got the aons being fitted to the wings flaps going up or down Wings going onto the fuselage underc Carriage being built up either in the folded up position or in the down position um if you got them folded up you're going to have to get some Pilots because there's none included in the kit and then we've got wheel halves going together and then we've got the nose wheel going together there nose leg looks fairly strong actually looks good and then we have our turrets going together so we've got the top turret here we've got the rear turret something I noticed from Spencer's review the actual guns are molded into the clear Parts which is interesting um so we've got the rear turret going together there and then we' got the nose turret going together nose turret has the guns separate I know I know why they've done this and it's bloody brilliant um and we got the ball turret going in we got separate guns to go in there and remember if your wheels are down you should have the ball turret up like that okay so uh it looks like yeah that's a shame you don't have the option to have it you know movable or anything it's either up on that one or it's up on that one so uh you could actually make something up there with a piece of tube and have a bit of a friction fit so you can just push it up or pull it out should you want to um and then fitting the ball turret fitting the tail turret adding the glazing to the nose there for the bomb Amer fitting the nose turret fitting the mid upper turret adding the um the clear parts we got X1 and Z5 A and B can't see the differences in the side glazing there and then we've got glazing going in here in the rear sides of the fuselage adding up propellers got PTO tubes going on here as well there they are uh got DF um aerial got some other antennas adding the guns in the side you see this is where a fixs are coming on strong um sensible assembly adding guns now rather than at the beginning like in some other kits I'm building at the moment so yeah that's really sensible and then we got the ladder going in there that'll support the tail should not want to add all that nose we and that's it this page is left intentionally blank that's what it normally says isn't it so let's have a look at the model itself uh we'll just grab the bags as they come out we'll put light on now for some plastic so great big bags which is always good so we can open that one up we get these sprew out as I say they're probably going to be oily CU they always recommend to wash them bag down over there right let's have a look at this one so so basically we have here our Port wing and we have some lovely recessed panel lines and recessed rivet detail there you have some nice engine detail again I remember Spencer pointed out the rear cylinders have no detail the forward cylinders do so there we go you can add some wires or whatever but you can't really see a lot through the little um through the little cin anyway we've got the nose detail there with the ignition rings and everything on you can see them there and then we have here um flaps closed flaps open you can see the the two options there little Stumpy propellers they look a little bit too short those blades I'm not sure have to measure them up I know hobby boss got it wrong so if aics have copied hobby boss then they've got it wrong as well so they do look very Stumpy but B44 um propellers do look Stumpy so there we go we got our um is that our turbo superchargers there I think it is that one there's got some damage on it but look at it and we got our lower lower countings there and you can see again on there we all the lovely rivet detail and uh panel line detail we got raised lines and recess lines on here which is going to be very interesting with that olive drab on there with a wash and a dry brush and some oils in that it's going to be very nice very nice detail on that Wing indeed very very nice lovely lovely lovely really good and then on this one again we have the wings same thing again you can see on there you can see those raised panels in the under surface of the wing we have our wheels so we have um weight on Wheels and non weight on Wheels oh okay so when you have the wheels up you don't put two halves together you just have the one side is hollow so you got wheels up you got non weight on wheels wheels down weight on wheels main Wheels there which are very nice much nicer than the warus remember the the warus I reviewed last week it's got you haven't seen it yet have you it's got the um it's got great big sck marks in the wheels and they also look oh dear what have they done there those wheels are off center look at those there they are off center um that's like the p47 from Min that's got the same problem these are okay it's obviously an error in the tool making that's rubbish absolute rubbish for a 2024 kit that is very poor quality um got the nose wheel there again that's off center you can see it's it's sort of heading up towards 1:00 here you go so aftermarket wheels are going to be a must for this we've got I'm not sure if that's a short shot there no it's it's keyed okay there's there's a little lump on there which is going to go into that recess in the tire I thought that was a short shot there's our exhaust um turbo superchargers we got our Bombay doors there with some lovely rivet in them in them very nice indeed I'm guessing this is the backs of the wheels and then we got our fronts here so you got the two options you got the covered over and you got the exposed so would that be in the backs of the wheels I guess that might not be such an issue of course that it's not flash it definitely isn't flash but uh you can see definitely how those wheels are off center they're sort of as you're looking at now they're of the centers are up towards 1:00 so uh in fact let's just have a look just to confirm this if I take a measurement there that is 4.08 and if I take a measurement there it's 4.35 so uh it's about3 of a millimeter and it's it's plent it's enough to see you can see that they're they're off so that's crap right and as you know guys I would speak as I find unlike Spencer polard I bought this one Spencer at the end of his video said uh thank you to airfix for sending in the kit I wasn't aware iix actually sent out kits but clearly they do to their favorite people um so here's the fuselage sides very nice [Music] indeed very nice crisp clean very very sharp molding again it's nice to see this gray plastic instead of that horrible blue tack stuff we used to get and then we've got the fins here got some sink marks in there that's absolutely fine on this sort of thing the um the fabric on the Rudders is beautiful really nicely done you can see not only have they got the actual fabric detail there but they've got the fabric detail the finer detail in towards the pivot area and um you'll also see we've got two separate types of fins we've got here with um trim tabs and here with different trim tabs so uh yeah you can see what they've done they've molded the trim tab on one half and then you've got it cut out on the other so on the inside you get the joy and on the outside you have the the molded part but um yeah very nice so we obviously got other options coming along and they're going to the trouble of making you know just for the sake of a twim tab they're they're going to the trouble of making uh different things which is a nice touch you can see again the R the ribbing on there the detail is just Sublime it's beautiful it really is gorgeous and the rivet detail as well is lovely this will look absolutely fantastic built up I can show you as long as you get some resin wheels for it so here we have some detail we have ailerons we have flaps so flaps up flaps down very nice indeed they really are lovely look at the look at the actuator detail on them this has to be about flaps down doesn't it even if it's not correct and they didn't have their flaps down most of the time beautiful detail here on the bulkheads really really nice you know yeah it's all molded on and everything and it's it's you know it's going to be sort of two dimensional if you like but when it's painted and dry brushed when you're looking inside this fuser L is going to look absolutely perfect lovely floor detail there in the cockpit Rudder pedals molded integ there's that bin to put your weight in um there's the rear area to step into for the rear turret we got a wing Spar there we've got another Spar here with the Bombay roof that's got raised rivet detail which is going to dry brush beautifully that's recess rivet detail in there it's all very very nice we got this ribbing here for the wheel BS which is all nicely done it does feel quite greasy guys so you will get want to get a better wash I always say that don't I you can hear it and then we got the instrument panel there with the console in the center so yeah very very nice indeed and then finally is the third bag of bits let's have a look at this see what the clear parts are like get my knife from underneath all these parts over here so two clear sprew so we got this sprew here which is the F sprew so this is obviously going to be the one that's going to be different for when they bring out a j they're clearly going to bring out a j otherwise they wouldn't bother with the separate nose this is what hassa did didn't it um so we have all the nose turret Parts uh there's the um the ammo belts for the it's lovely they've got ammo belts a 70 second scale kit it's great absolutely brilliant there's your supports there for your um for your ball turret uh some lovely internal detail as well just a thought I didn't look at the internal detail on the fuselage oh yes oh yes very very nice that is beautiful and the ejector pin marks they've got two there one there one there so the ejector pin marks are all going to be hidden there's no ejector pin Marks here that is fantastic that is brilliant thank you for that ax we all the bompe detail in there again no ejector pit marks and all that detail there from behind oh yes well done well done very much so so we've got all this detail for the nose here as I said earlier we got guns there for the uh for one of the turrets very fine barrels that are going to be easily broken off you can have some aftermarket should you want to there's the the guns for the belly turret this is lovely it's actually it's more accurate for sure without a doubt it's more accurate than the 132nd scale but all the detail and everything it's actually probably nicer than the 13 second scale I mean the on that kit it's the wings are wrong the engines are horrible the turrets are horrible uh this is all very nice so here we've got the um our last sprew this is sprew B I like the way they've done this so it's obvious what it is you've got some more machine guns there the side machine guns there's that framework that's going to go in the Bombay with some radio gear there our little control Wheels there for the um for the cockpit access ladder boming equipment some side panels there for the rear Gunner there's the rear access door uh some more internal stuff we got guns there for the nose turret heo tubes sticking up out of the nose very prominent and uh some more turret detail there and then all our bombs and we got the bomb tails which are interestingly that's crazy look at the size of the sprew gates on those bomb Tails they're like full length and huge they're like over a millimeter wide what Earth is going on there that is hell of a lot of clean that we going to have to do on there h nice to see on the bombs we've got the uh little propellers on the front to arm them yeah all very nice indeed bomb racks here there's our side doors for the uh for the side Gunners again we got lovely rivet detail on them that's the mounts for the side guns oxygen bottles which are sensibly molded holite so they don't have the sinks big sinks in them I think this is the first airfix kit I've ever seen with no sink marks in it maybe the wless was um it is very very nice very nice indeed but couple of downsides we'll cover those in a minute um so here we have a clear sprew this is sprew X and yes they are very nice indeed you can see on there just how clear that is and there's no Distortion so the air fix is really come on and leaps and bands with their clear parts I mean look at that turret top there that's like Hong Kong models quality that is I think Hong Kong models have the nicest clear Parts there are I mean yeah it's got a bit of distortion on it but hey come on look at it it's bloody beautiful it does have a bit of distortion there in the side but um you know hey not going to worry about that on such a beautifully molded part that way we'll take that up in a minute so they don't come out and get scratched and then this one here have a look at this one so yeah very nice indeed again we've got another another set of um cockpit blazing got some more turret detail there we got another upper turret there that one looks a lot better than the other one actually so hopefully this is the one we're going to use um that's the nose turret or is it the tail turret I can't remember it's one of the other there's your belly turret there's some glazing there there's your ball turret there's another part of ball turret now this here this is very interesting they've molded these guns integrally with this blazing on the sides of the turret and I know exactly why they've done that if you remember when the hobby boss 30 second scale kit came out they got absolutely slaughtered for having those awful turrets they they had the parts of the turret that were painted molded clear and they had the parts that should have been clear were molded frosted so that was an absolute total up but also because of the tolerances because of the thickness of the plastic and everything they ended up with the guns being way too close together because if the guns were out where they should be the sides of the turret would have had to have been extremely thin and of course in clear Parts they would have been extremely brittle and just broken so they so to to cover with the thickness of the plastic they move the guns in it's very much like Hong Kong mods have had to do with their B17 on the upper turret they've got the gun breaches very short because they got the thickness of the plastic so when you've got your upper turret obviously the length you've got inside is very much less in scale than the real thing because of the thickness of the plastic it's the same with model aircraft engines um instrument panels you know if the outside of the aircraft is correct into scale what's inside has to be too small because obviously the plastic is thicker than the scale thickness of the real thing so what they've done here they've molded the guns integrally with the outside which allows them to have the guns out the only downside to that is going to be painting them I can't see how they're going to look any good painted we've also got a Mar although actually is that area there painted yes it is so that's pretty cool that's why they've done it then yeah you can see here that that area of the tail gun is painted so it's fine um that's a real good design change a real good idea um very nicely done we have got a couple of ejector pin marks on there you can see so uh be careful of those and there is a bit of sinkage in there as well hang on there's a there's an undercut in there maybe there's something that goes on on the outside let's have a quick look in the instructions check it all over the floor now tail turret yes there's a panel that goes around the outside okay okay I've got it completely wrong that is the inside face right so what they've done here is brilliant it's brilliant it's to avoid the problem the hobby boss have with their 30 second Scout kit because those turrets look pathetic with the guns too close together and um I've got some aftermarket ones which uh which cure the problem but uh there we are so yeah brilliant brilliant idea you know that must have been one of those sort of you know Thursday night half 11 just gone to bed ping I know we'll do that so yeah beautiful very very nice indeed as I say airfix clear parts are just you know they're 10 times better than they used to be so uh really happy with that excuse me so there we go that has been a quick fairly quick for me review of the airfix B24 H Liberator um am I disappointed a little bit um am I impressed yes the detail on this model is absolutely stunning uh the surface detail is incredible um the one downside to it is having this separate nose which may or may not be an issue um because they've got the join on a paneline which always makes life a bit difficult but um it is it is very very nice indeed the interior detail is stunning that's some of the nice interior detail I've ever seen in any scale really is beautiful the detail on these um on these bhe heads on that is absolutely gorgeous this is worth go into tan all on the interior because you will see you know you can look through there if you have them open you've got a great big Bombay to look at the canopy is fairly large so you're going to see quite a lot of the cockpit you've also got the great big turrets front and back and if you get it if they're going to do a d version then you've got a great big glazed nose as well that's going to look really nice but I would say um this is probably the best B24 kit I've ever seen I've got the um I've got the hobby boss 132nd I've got the 148th on pre-order I've got the old modelr 148 um but this I mean I haven't seen the hasagawa kit apparently it's very very nice um but I've never seen one this is the best I've seen the best I've had in my hand should I say and yeah very very impressed um but also very disappointed uh for 20 24 there is no excuse for this I mean these massive sprew Gates on here it's just ridiculous absolutely ridiculous um you know as I say that's going to take a had of a lot of sanding and to get that especially for the newer modeler it's just it's pathetic just it's just ridiculous um and those wheels are a disgrace um how they got past quality control I do not know that is just a disgrace it can't be it's not an issue with the tooling um you know the shift in the tooling because if it was these would be off as well in fact everything to to be that much out everything would be way way out you know when you look at these wheels here these tires for the um up position you know they're they're absolutely fine that is actually uh the the upper mold is not machined in line with the lower old and they just Carri it on and let it go that should never have got past test shot never so yeah really disappointed with that but other than that it's beautiful um it really is lovely I the engine DET the engines are nicer than the 132 scale kit you know which is ridiculous isn't it but uh very nice indeed very nice indeed you're going to need some resin wheels for it if that's going to bother you or if you're going to build wheels up it won't matter um because we got the same with the nose wheel as well um I guess you could I'm just looking at this now yeah you see on the oh God on the nose wheel you've got the back of the nose wheel well there's no such thing as a back CU it's got two sides in it left and right but you can see that that one is way off that one is way off and that one is way off so all the wheels on this are just a load of rubbish absolute junk so you're going to have to get resin Wheels if you want to make a nice model they're not going to do you any good at all they're horrible I'd love to see one of airfix's built up models and see what they look like on that CU um and it can't be a oneoff in my kit because they're all the same way and the rest of the sprew is fine I mean if there was three mold misalignment we would have massive steps on here and we don't plus they're okay so you know and they're okay yeah so big bad x mark to airfix for that that is it's inexcusable it's just rubbish it should never ever have got past the quality control really really shouldn't and it's the same with mini Arts p47 those Wheels you've they've given you they've gone to all the trouble of giving you like three or four options for Wheels isn't on the mini AR kit and they're all crap it's like what why' you bother you know why bother um I sometimes wonder if any of these things actually get looked at before they go into production cuz that should have been picked up that really should have been picked up that is disgraceful so that's my opinion of this model it's beautiful but uh could have done better bye for now

Channel: Nigels Modelling Bench

Views: 7,058

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Id: TICu6dmmvpg

Length: 36min 21sec (2181 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2024