Today was finally time to close the fuselage. I double-checked that everything had been installed and firmly glued. I had to move one of the weights because it interfered with one of the weights in the tunnel when everything was closed up. I was concerned that there were some long gluing surfaces along the top and bottom of the rear fuselage that had no locator pins. I added some small styrene tabs to help support these areas, as well as some styrene to help close up the bomb bay. I plan to let all the glued areas dry overnight. Cheers.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

George R Blair Jr (@gblair),

Your first attempt at using the 3D printer reminded me of the Jupiter in Lost in Space or you have a frisbee for future projects. You've done a good job of doing the work arounds for the weighty problems of tail sitters. The Monogram B-25 has its issues but, there easily fixed with plastic card. The 64 dollar question what was the nose section used for? A holding area for more cargo? Mail? If the aircraft was used as a trainer did they have a Navigator station in the nose? Or did this aircraft get used for pilot training and carrying cargo only?
Monogram made the nose section of the model like the 1/1 scale B-25. The nose being bolted on to accommodate the various nose set ups. I've had several comments about leaving the butt joint or seam between the aft glazing and the area ahead of the cockpit. If you look at the photos that line or seam can be seen. No need for putty. A niggle for some but, it is accurate.

Lookin good.

Thanks, Bernard (@lis).

Thanks, Stephen (@stephen-w-towle). I have been considering what to do with the nose section. The photos of the cargo version are few and far between. The airborne photos are views of the full aircraft, and not much can be seen in the nose section. The ground photos are also views of the full aircraft. You can get a hint at what is there (or what isn't there) only when it is near the glass. Most of the nose compartment and the cockpit is impossible to see. My thought is that they only did enough work on the interior of these planes to make them usable for their new mission. No need to spend money on anything that didn't impact the mission. I suspect the nose compartment for the cargo version was left fairly standard. I think they took out the bomb sight, the machine guns and any supporting structure and the ammo boxes. I think they left the instruments in the nose, along with all of the equipment for the navigator. I suspect that these planes may have occasionally flown missions long enough to warrant a navigator. I don't think they carried cargo in the nose because it would have been difficult to get the cargo in and out of the nose, and it would have really messed up the center of gravity for the plane. I suspect the tail gunner's area received the same treatment: demilitarized, but nothing else. I think all of the work to carry the cargo would have been done in the area behind the cockpit, including the bomb bay and the area where the waist gunners were located. Once you take the top turret and all of its equipment and structure out, there is a lot of room for stuff.

I know the trainer versions had a similar makeover behind the cockpit, although some of the trainers retained the upper turret. The main thing they did was to remove the bomb bay and add an area where seat were provided. They would take a number of students on each mission, and they would take turns flying the airplane with an instructor. We did the same thing when I was an instructor pilot in C-141s. I would load up 4 copilots or first pilots, and we would fly 4 hours missions in the local area (we called these flights "locals"), with each pilot flying an hour.

I have also found one photo of a B-25J that received a radar in the nose and was used as a radar ferret in the Korean War. Apparently they formed hunter/killer groups with the B-25 being the hunter, and A-26s being the killers. There are at least two other similar radar versions that served as radar trainers for some of the new airborne radars they were using.

I have also found a photo of a B-25J that was used at the USAF Test Pilot School. It was all metal, with a lot of yellow and red markings.

Anyway, lots of options if you want to build a B-25J in something other than WW2 markings. I also want to build a Navy PBJ-1J and a B-25D trainer in olive drab. Darn, so many models and so little time. Take care, Stephen.

Life is simply too short for all what can be modelled, George @gblair
The B25 was such a universal aircraft, being used all over the world and in many variants.

Great interior and clean looking join, George.

I just finished my 5th round of putty, sand, check, repeat. Things are actually looking pretty close to done. The plug for the upper turret has settled into the fuselage nicely. While I was waiting for some putty to dry I decided to take a look at the clear parts. I knew that the parts would require some additional work. These later planes had the eyebrow windows above the pilot's tinted green, so I will need to take care of that. I knew some changes would be required for the nose glass, but I am not sure I can fix the problems. The B-25J in this kit is a strafing version that has 4 fixed machine guns in the nose, as well as one flexible machine gun. There are 5 holes in the glass for these 5 machine guns, but the post-war plane didn't have all of these holes. I can't see any way to fill the holes so they won't be visible in the finished model. So, I think I have two different ways to fix the problem. First, I discovered Squadron is selling vacuform canopies again, and they have one for the B-25. I have never used a vacuform canopy before, so I am concerned that I may not be victorious in this plan. I searched Ebay for something that might work, and I discovered someone who was selling the clear sprue from the Accurate Miniatures B-25 for just a few dollars. I bought this option also, hoping that it will fit the Revell model. I read an article today about natural metal finishes, and the author used semi-gloss black as a foundation for the metallic paints. He feels that the metals attach better to the semi-gloss and result in fewer problems with the metals chipping off due to masking, etc. I picked up some semi-gloss black today and I think I will give it a try. That's it for today. Cheers everyone.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten). I don't know what might cause the mismatch of the fuselage halves. I don't think there is any way I could have caused it, but who knows? Easy to fix, I think.

Making nice progress on this build. Having built both Monogram and Accurate Miniatures I think you will find the fit pretty close. Also, don't be afraid of Vacuum Form parts, they are not to difficult just take your time, remembering to just trim a little, test fit, trim a little, test fit...till it fits.

I just saw a post recently some place where a guy did silver spray outs with Black, Gray and White, in gloss and flat as the primer for silver. The primer coat will affect the color and the sheen of the silver you spray over it. If you want to try and get some panel differentiation you could run some tests panels with the primer and different silver paints.