MANFRED

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WOW! ANd I don't mean that in a positive way. I am very disappointed in the screw on plastic-looking pieces in particular the nose section. It looks really cheesy! Miss match of colors as usual. The nose looks too short as well or maybe it's just the angle of pics. Is that the longest 50cal barrel ever made or a refueling probe sticking out of the nose?

Wayne22

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it's an arf...

Eric.Henderson

When I was taking the pictures and posting them I thought that I was providing a service to those who were interested in the B-25 offerings and for those folks who could not be at Lums Pond WoD.

I see these ARF airplanes though my own eyes. My vision is not rose colored but it is tinted with the years of RC flying when there was nothing like this available.

At first I was taken aback by the above quote. I had been thinking that with a little bit of modeling skill the new B-25 ARF's could be turned into some pretty detailed renditions.

The hard work has been done for you. You don't have to do any designing as regards flight performance. That bit already works well. You don't have to cut out all of the parts and build/paint/cover the plane. If you want something sport/scale that is good in the air you have a two or three options depending upon budget and engine preferences etc.

I also saw the KMP B-25 that had been worked up to look more reailstic. I have video of that one but no still photos. It looked great and flew well, The R/C pilot had put some effort into making it look that good. A very nice achievement.

If you want more than sport scale you need to dig deep into your pocket and pay someaone to build a scale model way beyond these ARF's. If you can do better as a builder yourself, then have at it.

Meanwhile, the rest of us mortals, with much lower standards, will buy these, fly them high enough to avoid the scrutiny of the scale-police, and lastly - Love every second of it.

Regards,

Eric.

shanksow

My Feedback: (2)

Right on Eric!

The buyer determines just how 'scale' his model airplane will be once it is all put together. Either right out of the box or spend some time to add panel lines, exhast gas and oil stains, etc. Or strip the covering off and put your own paint scheme on the model. Thats what I have done with my two previous H9 P-51s.

{Edit} P.S. Just look at my avaitar. That was my first H9 P-51 Mustang. Theres no law saying that you can't buy this B-25 and repaint it into something more like what you want to fly......

danrc2

that was great. way to tell him. could have said it any better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good for you....

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Surely you mortals jest! I own several top flite planes as well as her sister company great planes and none of them have cheesed out to the extent of this ship with it's snap on plastic nose. You can't say that this model can't be done correctly even the KMP B-25, which has a fiberglass fuse by the way, has a fully extended nose piece with the plastic canopy on top and in front of it. Yes, you could go to the pains of scratch building it but you are surely missing the point here. Let me try to break it down so you might understand and I'll talk real slow... this is by no means a cheap kit, when you are spending in the $600 plus range I would expect you would get a relatively scale-looking ship. The plastic-crap, cop-out, poorly designed, ill fitting nose looks almost as bad as the one from Nitro-models. You are talking about having to put close to 2 grand into this thing before it ever sees any air under the wheels. Are you willing to put that kind of money into a project that looks like a funky toy. How hard would it have been for them to design it like the H-9 full nose or the KMP full nose or the WIng MFG FUll nose or the Ziroli FULL NOSE?! Bless you in your scale low-level tolerance perhaps one day you will be able to comprehend those minute details that completely throw off a good design.

shanksow

My Feedback: (2)

MANFRED -

As far as the Nitro Plane's offering, its a total shame for a scale purist or even semi-purist. Even the wings just don't look right on that model. The same is true for its various P-38s. In fact, the only really good looking twins that they offer appears to be the Mosquito, C-160, and kinda/sorta the cessna 310 if you squint your eyes. Same is true for the OV-10. All right, now that we got Nitro Planes out of the way, lets move on to the Top Flite and the Hangar Nine B-25s.

BTW, I have seen the Wings Mfg. B-25 under construction and I have seen the KMP B-25 and I wanted that baby! But I did not have the $$ to buy it when it first came out. Another club member of mine has that one. Its all built and hes affraid to fly the stupid thing now (I'm guessing). Hes not even thinking about adding the machine guns (hersey I tell you!) the last time I spoke to him about the B-25. Now I hear that KMP is refining this model and it will be out in a new paint scheme - wonderful.

When news first came out that Top Flite was going to have a B-25 ARF/ARC, I nearly had a heart attack. Then the Cessna 310 came out first. I thought about its time to start saving my money for the TF kit. The surpirse, surprise, H9 comes out with one too. And my hobby shop owner is going to be getting a preview kit of it in when it is released. He is suppose to be getting a preview kit of the TF B-25 as well. I went ahead and put $50 bucks down on the H9 and told him that I may switch over to the TF B-25 if I like it better.

However - I never operated under the illusion that H9 was going to offer the public a model airplane worthy of Scale Masters or Top Gun.

For truely scale projects that you keep talking about, I keep seeing Laser Lizard offering a Z B-25 wood kit (101" wingspan I believe) for under $200.00. Then again there is the time and effort needed to actually build the stupid thing. Then more time to actually 'scale' it out. Then you might be ready for its maiden flight. Lets see, on average and if you are not already retired; that usually ends up being a 18 month to 2 year+ job.

The H9 offering is not intended for Scale Masters. Your previous posts seem to indicate that you are bashing H9 for not providing that level of a model kit for the public. That is not the market this model is looking for. Sure I would have liked to have seen the nose of this H9 B-25 fixed up in a way that you could have put a figure in under the green house up front. Or a solid nose version like a J gunship. Or maybe just chop the nose off and scratch build a G or H model? Besides, its covered in Ultra Cote. Come on man!

Wow, I wasn't intending to write a novel here and its getting late. I'm going to put this to rest for now. nite y'all.

PE2fan

My Feedback: (8)

You guys need to calm down. I was initially going to jump on Manfred also. But then I went back and looked at what he is talking about. I have to agree if I am going to pay several hundred dollars for an ARF it's parts better fit. I suggest you guys look at the screw on nose piece photo and it's horrible warped fit. This would seriously piss me off.

I do have to tag the TF guys for not bothering to hit the screw heads with some OD paint to lessen the goofy screws detraction from the mostly nice looking plane.

shanksow

My Feedback: (2)

Yea PE2fan-

Your right. I'm going to back off of this subject and wait until the end of September when they are suppose to be arriving in the hobby shops.

Hrannar

Agree...
Why in the hell do they always dress the war bird ARF's in this shiny glimmering covering so you need a welding visor just to look at it??[:'(]

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Because they have the mentality that we want to see warbirds as pretty little toys! I always flat, dirty-up and detail my ARFs, so much more fun to look at. BTW the KMPs are all flat. Warbirds that is, so are the CMPs.

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

Take a look here: http://www.top-flite.com/airplanes/topa0980.html
They have covered the TF with semi gloss monokote. Looks a little less "plastic".

Eric.Henderson

After having spent some time looking at the TF B-25 in detail I can now see why they did several things, some of which have been drawing comment. It is clear to me that you can build this airplane to many different levels.

The air-intakes on the top of the wing kind of hit you in the eye with those sheet metal screws. They are on the wing over the engines but are not structural. In the instructions they are screwed on. But you can finish these off and glue them on any way you want to. It would entail some careful covering removal but an average modeler could make it work.

The rear gunner’s cabin has been made removable so that the stab can be taken off for transport etc. You could decide to fix this one with RC-56 and not show any of the “ARF type� screws etc. If not darker screws would definitely be better. There is also a lot of room for detail to be added. You can find out how it flies first and then add the desired detail later. Said another way, use the screws first and the glue it later.

The profile pilots are a joke. I gleaned that almost all scale buffs replace the kit supplied pilots so they basically did not try and provide them.

The front canopy/cockpit has a similar philosophy as the rear gunner's house. In this case the RX battery is hiding in there. Any modeler could easily install the "green houses" with a better looking finish.

They (TF) have tried hard to make the dummy engines look good. You have to install all of the pushrod tubes individually. A lot nicer than a blotchy line of silver paint on a plastic cylinder mold. I think that I would put pushrods where there are no cylinders (Where the air gets to the engine) to get the best effect.

It was revealing to note that the wing comes in four pieces. The two engines will have a small center wing section each that fits onto a common wing tube. They hid the 1/4 x 20 nylon wing retaining bolts inside the leading edge air intakes. Neat idea. You could pack this unassembled airplane into a Mini!

The gear doors look like a bit of work, but after having finished the doors on my ASM P-61 they should be no challenge. The TF doors are, at least, adjustable.

The engine installation looks very straight forward. I am leaning towards using OS 61’s. a) I have two, b) they are broken in, and c) the cowls, engine-mounts and fairings are designed to handle the standard mufflers of OS 50’s and that means that they will be close.

The temptation to go nuts on the cockpit detail etc. will be great for you fanatics out there. Maybe I will be temped as well :-)

All in all this is an attractive 88� deal. It is looking like it will be using a nine channel 2.4 R9000 R/X so that we can fly formation without any frequency conflicts. :-)

I can dream, right!

Regards,

Eric.

P.S. I might just have to “gut� this baby and fit big a##*’d bomb-bay doors (VBG)---Did someone say functional rockets???????

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Nice analysis Eric.......

Thunderbolt47

My Feedback: (8)

Don't forget That, H-9 is 80.5" and T/F is 88.5". That makes for a big difference in size and price.

Eric.Henderson

I hope to get a better look at the H-9 B-25 soon.

It is IMHO aimed at a slightly different sport pilot. We should see quite a few of all of them at our fileds soon, I hope.

Regards,

Eric.

P.S. I know that I will have a very long wait before I see a 140" ARF Lancaster!!! Maybe two b-325's will do for now :-)