Hasegawa 1/72 scale B-25J
I had built this kit 4 years ago, and it had served me well at some model shows. However I was never really pleased with its appearance and few minor errors I wished to correct. After staring at it for some time , I couldn't take it any more and off the shelf and onto the work bench it came. I completed the proper repairs and added some new art work, I'm now much happier having it adorn my display case.
It was painted with Alclad and Model Master Metalizer, followed by a panel wash and some pastel chalks.
This particular aircraft is based on a 12th AF, 319th BG, 437th Bomber sqn., that was based in Corsica in 1944. Number 05 was an actual aircraft, however no pictures were located and therefore I use my own discretion and added an appropriate name and nose art.
Very nice Terry, really like the NMF job you did on her. Where did the nose art?
Thanks Tom, the nose art is from Kits World decals.
Turned out beautifully, sir...I'd have never guessed 72nd scale, though. Outstanding finish.
Thanks Craig, I always appreciate it when I get a comment about having to guess the scale when building in 1/72 scale.
Yeah that's always a good source of validation.
Hello Terry,
Excellent job and for sure a prize winner
That is one fine looking B-25. I've had a 48th scale kit sitting on the shelf for years that I wanted to do in natural metal, and now I am inspired once again. Nice job Terry.
Hello Terry...My compliments on a fine modeling job on your B-25J Mitchell bomber.The natural metal finish looks great and quite nicely done. Even more impressive is that you accomplished it on a 1/72nd build. Very nicely done.
Thanks Jim. The most difficult part was drilling out the gun barrels (with my old eyes). Photographing this was a real problem for some reason. I took about 80 pictures, trying all sorts of different settings, and I'm still a little disappointed. The nose art is really nice looking and I just couldn't get a clear shot of it.
I blame the background paper.
Great one B25! Grat!
Not a complaint, but as the resident expert now (having finished The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing) about B-25s on Corsica, there's about a 90% likelihood that the package guns were removed. Since these aircraft operated only as medium bombers and did no strafing, they had no need of them. Weight saved went into maintaining performance with a full bomb load over the Alps. There are some B-25s that did not have them removed, and since the 319th only transitioned from the B-26 to the B-25 in September 1944 before departing for the states to re-equip with the A-26 in December (they were organizationally part of the 57th BW, but since they had been the only B-26 group on Corsica prior to the changeover, they continued to operate virtually on their own), they might not have taken the trouble to remove the guns. As you note, there are very few photos of the 319th with B-25s.
The other units of the wing, the 310th, 321st and 340th, had some very interesting markings and paint schemes (the in-the-field camo jobs after LG 2 bombed the 340th at Alesani on May 13, 1944 make for interesting schemes), and there are several nice aftermarket sheets in all three scales for Mitchells from these groups.
Nice work on yours, BTW. B-25 is my favorite medium bomber from the war.
One other small item to note that I only discovered last month when I was out at Camarillo, where there are two B-25Js restored to 1944 configuration, is that the upper Emerson turret does not have framing. It's glued together, but not framed along those lines we have always thought were frames. Sometimes, as you can see in photos, a metal sheet was attached to the rear of the turret as a sunscreen for the gunner. The Martin 250 turret that the B-25B/C/D used was also unframed. There are also none of the zipper slot covers as were used on the B-24 and B-17. Just passing this along as something that was new to me to discover. It's easy to see how the framing could be mistaken in an outdoor shot, since the glued areas reflect differently than the clear areas, and on a B&W photo you couldn't tell it isn't metal.
a final extra note: One Corsica B-25s that have the package guns removed, the two fixed .50s in the nose are also gone, just leaving the one flexible gun. Trust me, if you've ever been in the nose of a B-25, you can easily see how there wasn't very much room in there without those guns, let alone with them. They glued in a plastic plug, so just putting a drop of white glue in the clear part will give you the desired result.
Your right Tom, I figured someone would mention the package guns being removed. I could only find a few pictures of the guns on these bombers, and really had to hunt to find those. I'm guessing they were taken off pretty quick. I did notice that a lot of the NMF had a shadow / darkened area outlining the area were the guns had been. I even saw one were you could actually see the muzzle blast stains, after they were removed (more likely from test firing). I toyed with the idea of replicating that on this build, but thought the wiser.
The top turret is the one area I dislike about this kit. Even the box art shows a different turret. It mounts way too high if you put it in normally. I cut the post down on this one and I think its still a little high. The other one I built I sat it much lower and it looks good.
Thanks for the comments
If your going to be esoteric about B-25s...Hasegawa made the same mistake as Monograms example and has the pilots armor too far back. The rectangular aluminum sheet should have the end closest to the nose butted up to the nose break. That vertical line between the anterior Plexiglas panels and main fuselage. Also, the armor's edges was filled with wood strips cut into a triangular shape and covered with canvas and dope. Of course 99.9 percent of the modeling public start to scratch their behind and fall asleep with this info.
Superb finish. Very impressive.
Ian.
striking...cracking
VERY nice, Terry. You nailed it...all aspects of it.
Great looking gunship - my favorite warbird of them all! I have several in my stash - and one built (North African color scheme), and was thinking I'd avoid NMF, but after seeing yours, especially with the blue against silver scheme, I'm thinking I will do one in NMF. I really like the look you got! Great build!
I have little or no knowledge of what you experts are talking about above, but I think I can recognise a well built and finished model when I see one, this one looks the business!
We are very, VERY lucky that Terry limits his tastes in bombers to 1/72nd scale. I keep nagging him to take on an HK Models B-25 but he won't take the bait...