1/72 Dragon / Northrop P-61B

 Black Widow 

  by Brian Pruitt

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Dragon’s 1/72 Black Widow is an excellent kit.  Care is needed when assembling the horizontal stab as it is very difficult to get a horizontal alignment.  Canopy and clear parts fit perfectly.  I used a resin engine.  

A note about the decals:  be careful Lady in the Dark, the woman’s swim suit is red in the decal but a medium blue in reality.  Same with the squadron roundel….the outer roundel needs to be the same shade of blue as the woman’s swim suit.  Also, the aircraft’s buzz numbers are shown to be high and too far back on the decal placement sheet- when compared to photos.   Quick boost guns for the quad .50 cal and also their engines (two come in a pack BTW, so I ended up with 4)!   I also used True Details resin wheels (only the mains).   Engines are hidden so far from view behind the propeller spinner as to be invisible!   Eduard’s excellent masks kept me from airbrushing into the clear bits and future floor wax gave everything a nice shine.   I hope you like it…it sure looks like a sinister beast to me- black widow was a good name for it!

Click on images below to see larger images

  

I used Osprey’s book on Black Widow Units of WWII and it is a great reference material with nice profile illustrations and excellent stories.   Quick notes- P-61 was, in fact, faster than the British mosquito and last and finally, Lady In The Dark may have very well scored the last aerial “kill” of WWII (an Oscar).

Brian

Photos and text © by Brian Pruitt