1/48 North American B-25B Michell (Doolittle Raiders) Accurate Minatures [WIP]

[Guest]

Looking good, i bet you will finish yours Penny before i finish mine lol.

Well done

Andy

[Guest]

Looking good, i bet you will finish yours Penny before i finish mine lol.Well done

Andy

I dont know. The cockpit is coming along very very slowly but its literally a dab of paint here and there, then wait for it to dry. Ive started playing with my airbrush and that may speed things up but its rather slow at the moment.

However Ive seen some of your pictures, in fact I was staring in awe at your Skyraider picture (Love that aircraft) and I know which of our models will look better.

[Guest]

Hi Penny, the project im building at the moment is the B25 Mitchell and not the Skyraider, i wouldnt like to take credit for someone elses work if you are a little confused.lol

Keep up the good work.

Andy

[Guest]

My apologies, Ive seen both and Im impressed with both. Mind you Im also impressed with some models that wouldnt normally interest me. Just need a bottomless purse and 48 hours in a day

[Guest]

I know what you mean Penny. My only problem is room, these planes of mine take up an awful lot of space. Thanks for your kind words.

Andy

[Guest]

Just need a bottomless purse and 48 hours in a day

I will second that.......... Looking good though Penny. You are taking on a lot of 'new stuff' at the moment. Just take your time and get to grips with it all. You will be amazed how things speed up when you get past that first steep hill of the learning curve. Anyway, it isn't a race so chill, don't worry....

[stona]

Yep,we could all use more time! I haven't stuck two bits of plastic together since I finished my last 109 and with my work commitments and a planned holiday to take myself and SWMBO away for Christmas I doubt I'll get any modelling done until the new year! I may not complete another kit before March lol. At least I'm not filling the house up.

As Graham said,just take your time. Model making and short deadlines,even self imposed, are just not compatible.

Cheers

Steve

Graham,liking the poppies in your signature,I hope everyone has put a little something into the poppy appeal. I was the only one at work on Friday wearing one. I bent several ears and will be checking the effect I had on Monday.

[Guest]

At last Ive finished part 1. Its not brilliant and most people on here could do a better job with their eyes closed but, and Im not trying to be big headed, given my modelling level and my expectations Im happy with the results.

As you saw on a previous post I wasnt happy with the seats so I made some from milliput.

I looked up seats on the net and came up with these two pictures. The second also doubles up with help for painting the cockpit. The first helps me with the rough sizing.

After gluing the seat covers on and painting this is what I came up with.

They are a bit rough but what I did was paint them "leather" then painted a second coat of very thinned out black. I then painted a nice thick line of "leather" down the middle and using only thinners "pulled" the thick line of leather outwards so that the effect in theory was a lighter colour in the middle getting darker as you go out.

It didnt work to full effect, but it will do.

The pedals were painted a Zinc Chromide and the control columns (K46) were added.

Touched up the steering wheel (Sorry, I know thats not the correct term) with silver and basically brushed over with silver to simulate the green paint wearing away revealing the bare metal underneath.

I then dry brushed the lot with a light grey.

This picture isnt really needed but I love the way it shows the colours used

The seats were dry brushed with a mix of leather and grey, roughly 2:1 mix, and I just lightly touched the edges of the seats to try and create a seam.

Seatbelts are provided on a decal but I did read somewhere that they advice keeping the backing card on to add a bit of thickness, so thats what I did

And the view from the top

I know its not the best but in y defence I offer 2 excuses

a) Im not long back into modelling and even when I did model I wasnt even this good and this attentive to detail.

b) I watched a you tube video that redefined the word "fun". This basically means that you take the level of the model to the stage YOU want, not what other people want. I think this stage has taken so long that I ran the risk of getting bored and giving up on it so it needed to be finished.

However, al that above said, even though this has taken a long time I have (cheated?) and started already on some future parts. Part 2 has been painted and assembled, part 3 is painted and part 4 is not really needed, but more on that laters.

[tr1ckey66]

Hi Penny

Sorry I missed this thread - slipped in under the radar!

I'm loving the cockpit detail of yer B25 - excellent! and just like your reference photo.

As far as 'fun' goes, I think that most models I've built have gone through a 'difficult' stage (sounds like growing kids!), be that fit issues, a mistake to rectify or simply an area of modelling I don't particularly like to do - but I think working through these difficulties adds all the more satisfaction to the finished piece. You can certainly be satisfied with your progress so far.

All the best

Paul

[Guest]

I think your rolling along with a great build here,nice one Penny.

[Guest]

You do not need to make excuses Penny, anyway, point 'b' in your two excuses is not an an excuse, it is a fact. Modelling should be fun and it should be to please yourself first. If it pleases others second, well, that's a bonus.

Your build is coming on fine, have a little more faith in yourself and let the confidence out. Two of the best tools on the bench are faith and confidence. When you learn to use these two important tools, the fun side will blossom.

[Guest]

You do not need to make excuses Penny, anyway, point 'b' in your two excuses is not an an excuse, it is a fact. Modelling should be fun and it should be to please yourself first. If it pleases others second, well, that's a bonus.Your build is coming on fine, have a little more faith in yourself and let the confidence out. Two of the best tools on the bench are faith and confidence. When you learn to use these two important tools, the fun side will blossom.

Thanks guys, comments appreciated. I have a bit of a confession. I do have a confidence issue, in life in general, no need to go into details. It doesnt help that I am a major contributor to a forum that relates to an online football game (My major love) and there are many "kids" that have nothing better than to attempt to destroy everything you put in, pushing my confidence even lower. (There is also a dyslexic moderator there who is lovely guy and very helpful, but each time he posts the kids take the michael over his spelling, which imo is so so wrong)

I communicated to Fenlander before I made the first post suggesting that I wanted to do my own online review in a bid to try and build a catalogue of kits, but was concerned that the standard would be too low. Fenlander said that it was a good idea and not to worry about my standard as I will improve and also by posting enables people to offer help and advice.

Well, in the short time that I have been posting on a regular basis excactly that has happened. Ive been reading other posts too and picking up tips. Lots of people are prepared to chip in and offer advice on my problems, and Ive become confident enough to offer one or two snippets of help. Thank you ppl, esp Fenlander. I suppose this means that this forum is now officially medicinal :hihi:

I also want to add in a reference site

Accurate Miniatures 1/48 North American B-25B Mitchell. For some reason I cant edit my original posts , too old?

[Guest]

Step 2 - Bomb Bay / Navigator Section

Im adding in this edited part of the instructions as its going to help me explain things a bit better



For this part, I would advise looking at the instructions and then putting them to one side.

If you havent already detatch the fuselage halves from the sprue and clean up etc etc. Yes, I can see your eyebrows hitting the floor right now

As per the part of the instructions glue the Bomb bay front bulkhead (K38) and the Bomb Bay Rear Bulkhead (K39) to the Bomb Bay Roof (K40). Make sure these are kept to right angles so that they fit. Now dry fit these pieces to the fuselage half, put them together, masking tape it closed and leave it until fully dry. By doing this you ensure that the pieces dry in the correct position. I do not know how much margin for error there is with these parts but by drying it this way you are guaranteed a good fit.

Once dry assemble all parts EXCEPT for Navigators right side wall (K53), Map case/Radio Transmitter (J201) and the Long Range fuel tank (A193). The reason for this is that (K53) has a fire extinguisher that is a bit fiddly to paint if glued to the main parts. J201 is painted black so much easier to fit after painting and A193 needs to be assembled after everything is put together.

Once dry, if you havent already, paint the lot the correct colours. Im going to say at this point that research on this model has pulled up an oddity. Most of the inside surfaces should be painted "Zinc Chromate". Now some reviewers have done this green while some have opted for yellow. I personally have opted for yellow for 2 reasons.

a) While researching what the heck zinc chromate actually is I came aross a wiki page (See references). By coincidence the page included pictures of B-25 in the factory with a yellow zinc chromate base coat waiting to leave the factory.

b) Another colour used inside the cockpit a lot is "medium Green". If I used green zinc chromate then you are effectively painting green next to green in an area (inside the aircraft) thats not seen too well anyway. I think yellow next to green will stand out more.

So, everything is painted and then asembled. If you are anything like me you woukd have dry fittted this whole step to the aircraft along with the cockpit about 100 times. Possibly even "flown" the aircraft around a few times, like a 4 year old with a new spifire model?

I actually love this part, mainly because it has 2 tabs on each side which the wings will slot into. This makes it so much easier to work with it.

You should come up with something like this (It still needs detailing)



Bottom view (Needs detailing)



Here is it dry fitted to fuselage along with the cockpit area



and here is me "flying it" like a 4 year old with a new toy

[stona]

Wow you've been busy! That is coming along very nicely. You are coming to the stage where all your lovely detail gets zipped up in the fuselage,but,on the bright side,you'll suddenly have something that looks like an airplane.

As Graham said,don't put yourself down,you've put some good work into that model and it's good of you to share it with us. Keep up the good work and remember,it's supposed to be fun!

Cheers

Steve

[yak face]

Hi penny , this is coming on great now, glad you decided to share the build process with us. Its going to look lovely when its all together, and quite a fair size too if i remember from when i did the monogram 1/48 kit years ago, BTW dont forget it needs as much nose weight as you can get in, the one i did was V. tail heavy! (in fact i think monogram included a rear entry ladder and a crate to prop up the tail just in case!!)