Memorial Day tribute to a fallen family member. Monogram 1/48 B-25 J ”Stuff”

Started by Louis Gardner · 98 ≡ · ↻ 5 years ago
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    David Mills said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    Inspiring post Louis!
    Brings back fond memories of Dad and I - trying to get a Monogram P-38 to sit on its nose wheel.
    After massive amounts of plastercine in its nose and nacelles, it did, but only just - a careless thought was all it seemed to need to sit on its tail again!
    Nice work Louis I am looking forward to the next installment!

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    Gentlemen,
    Thanks for the kind words, they are sincerely appreciated.

    I hope this next installment gives you something worthwhile to read.

    Earlier today I got some more work done on "Stuff"...

    I air brushed the fabric surface of the rudders using "Metalizer" Aluminum Plate. Then I used 3 shades of foil to cover the inside portion of the vertical fin. The remaining bare plastic area will eventually get sprayed in OD Green.


    While I was spraying this color, I sprayed the cowlings. Once it was dry, I buffed it out. Once it was buffed, I noticed that I broke through just a little in some areas. That's OK, as I will add some oil stains, and a good portion of the cowlings will also get painted in OD Green.

    I covered the cowling flaps in Matt Aluminum Foil.


    Then I glued the engine assemblies together.

    The main landing gear oleo struts were covered using Ultra Bright Chrome.

    Here's a close up... not exactly in focus. You get the idea.

    Then the vertical fins were glued in position on the stabilizer.

    The foil is giving the exact look I wanted. Here you can see the effect.

    These last two pictures show how the 25 is looking at the moment...

    The topside will be sprayed in OD green.


    The underneath will be left in Natural Metal.

    It might get toned down a little with some semi gloss of flat clear. This will be determined at a later date, once it's assembled and I can see how it looks all together.

    Next step is masking off the clear bits...in preparation for some OD Green. Or I might jump over to complete the wings. We will see.

    as usual, comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

    1 additional image. Click to enlarge.

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    Erik Gjørup said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    As usual the foil impresses - nice progress!

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    David Mills said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    Some precise work with the NMF Louis!

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    Tom Bebout said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    Coming along nicely Louis, and you'll find those Bombshell decals are the bomb. Pun intended.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    I am very pleased with the results of the foil work so far. I hope the wings turn out as good. The nacelles will probably get a little tricky...

    I have never used these Bombshell decals. I'll take your word on this and hope to use them very soon. Follow along with today's progress, and you'll see what I mean. It's coming up next...

    Thanks guys !

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

    Today I masked off the clear parts. I used some foam rubber to fill in the turret opening. It worked like a charm.


    While I was masking, I masked off the tips of the vertical fin / rudders. Next they were sprayed using Insignia Red.

    The red paint dried by the time I had cleaned up the air brush. I was on a roll so I figured why not give the OD Green a try...

    Here are the results after the masking was removed.




    I'm stoked over how the color turned out. It has exactly the overspray pattern that I wanted. I used a close up color picture I had of "Stuff" as a reference. I have been hanging on to this picture for quite some time just for this purpose. I've had it for close to 10 years. Today it paid off...

    Here's a close up of the tail assembly. The red looks pretty decent too.

    I did not spray the OD Green uniformly. If you look close you will see that it's "thin" in some places. The BMF is almost showing though in a few areas. Perfect !


    The underside of the elevator has the right amount of overspray on it for my tastes.

    I tried to remember that this plane was sprayed OD Green in the field. They masked off the clear plexi-glass parts and went to work.

    Here's the fuselage by the waist gunner's position.



    Moving along to the nose section:
    I'm surprised at how much is visible of the inside. This will probably change a little once I use BMF to cover the frames.


    The underneath looks like this... If you look close you can see the OD Green extending along the sides of the fuselage.

    Calling it a day...
    As always, comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for looking !

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    Recently in the headlines section there was some discussion on the upper turret frames on B-25's. In my opinion I think that a small part of the turret had metal frames.

    Now I'll add my two cents worth, and show what I'm talking about with some pictures as well. This is a turret from a B-24. Here you can clearly see through it and how the clear parts were literally glued together. I took these pictures personally.


    Here's a few more that show how the turret was glued together. This is a turret glass cover that has not been installed. I'm fairly certain this is a B-24 part as well.

    The B-25 was very similar.




    These were made of clear plastic. Plexi-glass or possibly Lexan, I'm not sure.

    This is a picture of my Dad's 1st cousin Tommy Bricen. He is the subject for this memorial build, as he was a turret gunner in a B-25. He actually flew several missions in "Stuff" as the turret gunner.

    In this family photo, he was sitting next to the upper turret on a B-25.


    However there was also a small section on the turret that had metal framing...

    Look closely at the turret between Tom and the closest .050 MG barrel. This vertical frame appears to be metal... as does the cross bar located by his knee.

    It's my opinion that these two areas were metal framed. It makes sense, as the bracing would have been stronger this way. The turret "glass" was secured around the ring base in addition to this area.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    So I did this to the upper turret for "Stuff"...

    I covered part of the frames using Bare Metal Foil.





    Once this was done, I glued the clear part to the previously completed turret interior.





    Then I installed the upper turret... and painted a small section of the pilot's canopy using Tamiya Clear Green.

    In this next picture that I took about a year ago, you can see how this section was green on some B-25's. I took this picture looking up through the cockpit from the front crew entry door. The clear green glass is visible in the photo.

    Here's how it looks with the turret installed, and the clear green sprayed.


    Next I'll be framing more of the main and nose canopies. If time permits, I'll add some BMF to the tail gunner's canopy as well.

    Meanwhile I'll let the clear green dry...

    as always,
    comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for looking.

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    Stephen W Towle said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    According to this museum the Bendix turret for the B-25 J did have a metal frame.
    https://www.maam.org/airshow/b25_turret.htm

    Also, Louis here is a Bendix instruction manual with photo's of a Bendix turret used for the PBJ's ...Bendix 250 CE-4 scroll down to T-25 through T-34. Note the photos of the framing of the turret.

    https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/AirGunnery/TURRETS5.html

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    Thank you for this information Stephen. Unfortunately I can't open the links you provided. Maybe it's my computer ?

    I'll do some searching and add the additional Bare Metal Foil as indicated.

    Thanks again !

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    OK I figured out the problem with the links.

    I had to remove the "s" on the http address. Worked like a charm.

    http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/AirGunnery/TURRETS5.html

    This is a fantastic bit of information ! Those pictures of the restored Mid Atlantic Air Museum's Bendix turret on "Briefing Time" are exactly what the doctor ordered...

    Thank you VERY much... and I'll be adding a few strips of foil to replicate the remaining frames.

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    Stephen W Towle said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    Yeah, I think TC is right in saying that Martin turrets are cleared and glued together when it comes to "WarBirds". I've seen lots of photos and like anything there are always exceptions to rule and you have to do some digging to find a specific match to your photo of a specific a/c . Not every warbird has been restored to its former glory. After the War the military turn many B-25's into trainers and modified them as such. The cowlings of trainers lack the separate blisters used for each exhaust pipe on the jugs. They'd combine things and add a collector ring combination. Probably for easier maintenance and to help save some of the hearing of the pilots. I always look at the cowlings of restored B-25s to get an idea. Briefing Time I believe has all of it blisters on the cowling so its extra noisy and maybe a little faster.

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    Eric Berg said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    By the way, Louis, Bombshell decals are terrific I’ve found. Looking great so far! Can’t wait to see it finished.

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    Louis Gardner said 5 years, 2 months ago:

    It's been a little while since I did any work on this one... I have a self imposed deadline to meet. This one needs to be completed and posted here on Imodeler on October 3rd.

    Luckily for me, quite a few years ago I was able to find a photo that shows "Stuff" in flight. It has the Bendix style turret... So I added the canopy framing using Bare Metal Foil.

    Thank you very much for the information Stephen. @stephen-w-towle

    Your comments are spot on too...

    Here's how the canopy frames look after they were given the BMF treatment.






    Then today it was time to add some decals.

    Erik, @eb801

    both you and Tom Bebout @tom-bebout

    have told me how nice these Bombshell decals were. This was my first ever time using them.

    You are right ! Man they are a dream to add. They fit and form very well to the various places on the airframe.



    I decided to trim away the carrier film between the "0" and the "7". Then I also trimmed it away on the inside of the "0".

    Chances are the serial number decals will silver a little. I did not apply any sort of a coating to make a nice shiny surface for them to adhere too. I'll head back in a few and brush some "Future" under them before they completely set up. The B-25 nomenclature stenciling will get the same treatment... It's located just below the pilot's side window.

    Here's the "Nose Art" that set the wheels in motion for this build.

    Now I have to get the wings finished and installed. Add some wheels and propellers, a few other little bits and this one will be wrapped up.

    As usual,
    Comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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