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

[Ian M]

Thats looking very good Penny. And who amounge us haven't flown their new planes, Driven their newest tank or car. I gets fits of laughter from SWMBO. Every time I have a finished plane, it gets flown out of the work room and up stairs to the display case! but I'm just a kid at 50!!! ;-)

Tony, I belive that there are loads of brass plates in the kit to weight the nose with. I think its a great idea that the manufacturer thinks of this and dont just leave us to find some thing that fits and is heavy enough.

look forwards to reading the next chapter in this build log!

Ian m

[Guest]

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!!)

Yeah, its quite big, about the same size as an F-14 (see earlier post when I compared it to a B-29 and an F-14)

The kit does come with lots and lots of brass plates to shove in the nose but that wil come later. Dry fitting suggests they may show but we will see.

[Guest]

For my next post, please dont think Ive done a lot, or been rushing it. Whats actually been happening is that while Ive been waiting for glue or paint to dry Ive been pre painting, or glueing somethng else. As a result it would appear lots have been done at once.

Also, things have actually slowed a bit for three reasons.

a) As you may know from another post I working on other models too. I plan to work on no more than three at once, one "Themed" i.e. US Naval Aircraft, one "Other" of which this is one, and one "Quick/Experimental" i.e. something cheap, or something that enables me to try something different.

b) I managed to drop and break my completed cockpit resulting in a break. Whats amazing is that choose to break along the plastic, not along the glue line. Anyway, all fixed now.

c) For about a week I got semi bored of it. Painting the entire inside of the fuselage a pale yellow, 1st coat and upper coat, with a brush mind, then dry brushing along with picking up the cockpit do paint 1 blob then waiting for it to dry before doing another, kinda makes you sit there thinking why you bother.

Anyway, onwards and upwards.

Im afraid the pictures are not too good today. Im using some freeware program that enables you to take pictures with a webcam.

Step 3 - Upper Gun Turret

I was quite scared of this as its officially the first clear part that I stick on that shows (Excluding the cockpit panel that comes with a decal anyway.

Its your basic zinc chromide and then pick out the details



The shell collection bags and seat are painted any brown cloth colour. I choose Leather and money is tight and I already own that colour but Im wondering if it may have been better with a darker brown, say chocolate? Anyway they were dry brushed with light grey and assembled. Assembly was pretty much without problem. Just be careful of the Outer rim (J213) as there is no definate slot so there is a risk of it sliding off while the glue drys (Unless you have super quick drying glue)

Step 4 - Lower Gun Turret

Since the Doolittle bombers ommitted this turret there is only one part to include. Dont know why I included it really



Step 5 - Right Fuselage + Step 6 - Left Fuselage

Basically its as before. A few bits to paint and glue. Mask off windows and glue.



However, this step has, IMO, one of the best touches I have ever seen on any model.

Below is a picture of the toilet, and what do you do when you are on the throne? You read. Yes, this comes with a 1/48 scale life magazine accurte to the current issue available at the time of the raid.



Do you remember the seatbelts? I didnt apply the decals in the normal way, instead I cut them out and glued them in backing paper and all. Well I did the same with the magazine. However, since last time I discovered that Revell Contacta (The blue one with the long thin silver nozzle) wasnt too good at sticking plastic and card, this time I decided that as this would be inside the aircraft I would stick it with a tiny (About flea sized) piece of blu-tac. I literally just chucked it in to make it look like its been thrown on the floor. Gen. Doolittle, if you and your crew were tidy freaks I apologise now.

Well thats it for now.

Next stage may be a while, its the Nose assembly. Ive also been working on future parts, as I said earlier its a case of finding something to do while paint dries.

[Guest]

Penny it's little touches like the magazine that realy nake a model come to life. I think it's a brilliant inclusion for a kit and you have done a superb job of buiding it. For something like that I would use a small blob of white PVA glue. That should keep it in place forever.

Can you actually see the toilet and the magazine from the outside of the model?

[Guest]

Can you actually see the toilet and the magazine from the outside of the model?

Im not 100% sure. Ive masked up the windows so you cant tell but previous dry fittings suggest that you cant. Thats a shame, but I know its there.

[Guest]

Hi Penny i've just been catching up with your post's i like what you've done so far,this was a kit i was considering as a purchase so i will bee keeping an eye on this one.

scott

[Guest]

...this was a kit i was considering as a purchase so i will bee keeping an eye on this one.scott

Without hesitation I would say do it as there are so many reasons to do it.

This is my first ever 1/48 model and the first one Ive done since I was a kid. I therefore class myself as a little more than a beginner but less than an intermediate modeller.

For a beginner this is a great kit as the fit is fairly good (OK, poor in places but easy to fix). Also, only 8 Colours needed for a basic build - Awesome stuff.

Ive taken this a little further than a beginner (i.e. tried out a few new techniques) but if I was an expert there is scope to take it much much further.

Its a nice kit to build OOTB but there are aftermarket parts available.

However, my recommendation would be to plan this build, i.e. dont just buy and make as I have.

There are a couple of flaws which an experienced person would fume at.

Research the kit first.

Despite providing you with detailed reports of the raids it does not come with incendiary bombs. These are available in resin though.

I believe a better resin undercarriage is available.

Dont do the Hari Carrier/Hari Kari version unless you research first as the nose art may be wrong.

Be prepared to scratch build a "Mark Twain" bombsight to replace the Norden. They tell you to exclude the Norden but dont provde you with a "Twain".