This is a project that I wanted to do 5 years ago, and have it posted in the headline section on April 8th, 2020. Five years have flown by, and I still haven't got around to doing this.

On this Day, Oct. 3rd, 1944. A tribute to Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Bricen Jr. 445th Bomb Squadron, 321st Bomb Group Revell B-25J 1/48 scale

I have built and posted another family tribute build, and ironically it too involved a B-25J. This one was named "Stuff" and another one of my Dad's cousins flew 57 missions out of Corsica, (some of them in Stuff as the top turret gunner), before he was killed over Italy on October 3rd, 1944. This project got the wheels turning to build the model you will see here. This is another family tribute build for another one of my Dad's cousins who paid the ultimate price for freedom. His name was 1st Lt. Tommy V Smith. He was a B-25J pilot and he flew with the 100th Bomb Squadron, 42nd Bomb Group. This is a newspaper article about Tommy that I have had for at least 20 years. If you look closely in the top RH corner, you can see an old truck. This belonged to my grand dad. Tommy's mother was my grandfather's oldest sister. Her name was Myrtle Gardner prior to marriage. It's a model of a 100th Bomb Squadron, 42nd Bomb Group B-25J that was lost on April 8th, 1945. My Dad's cousin was on board as one of the 7 pilots in this B-25 who were practicing skip bombing and low level AAA evasion tactics. There were also three enlisted men on board as the gunners. The last time they were seen alive, the B-25 had just peeled over into a Split S, and disappeared into a cloud bank. Moments later, the remaining aircraft on this training mission went down to see what happened to the B-25 that was being flown by the Unit Commander, who's last name was also Smith. He was a Captain, while my Dad's cousin (Tommy Smith), was a 1st LT. When the B-25's found the impact point in the Sulu Sea, all that was seen, was an oil slick and some small floating debris, like May West life vests and other small items. No bodies were observed, and the entire crew is still listed as MIA to this very day. The Sulu Sea is very deep in this region where the crash occurred, with the depths being a minimum of 10,000 feet. I'm building a 1/48 scale Monogram B-25J solid gun nose kit for this project. This is the kit I started out with initially. But as luck would have it, I scored two 1/48 Monogram B-25J solid nose gunship kits online, and they were still sealed in the factory shrink wrap. They were copyrighter in 1991. These are the decals I have for the build. I'm using the rudder / fin Crusader emblems and name for this project. I'll be using decals to make the serial number for the plane Tommy was lost in, which was 43-36015. This serial number shows up as a B-25J-11 NA, meaning it was a solid nose gun ship as delivered from the North American factory. Some websites list it as a B-25J-10, which would be correct for a glass nose version like I initially started out with. However the majority of the aircraft I have found that were flying in this unit, were solid nose planes. Not all of them, as they did operate glass nosed planes too, but they were often painted over with OD Green. This unit also flew Mitchell's that were not camouflaged, flying missions in a bare metal finish. So I chose to build this tribute plane as a OD Green over Neutral Gray paint scheme, which was field applied. Someday I will build another B-25J gun nose with a bare metal finish, using the second kit I have available now. It will look similar to this one. I have already done a lot of work on this B-25. I have a deadline to get it completed and posted in the headline section on April 8th. I'll be posting more pictures of what has already been done shortly, so please stay tuned for updates. As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by.

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
Thanks buddy ! I'm going to be posting some more pictures in a few... so please stay tuned.

This is the kit that will be used for the solid gun nose. I got lucky and was able to get them both from the same seller who had them listed. I was able to send them an offer and they combined the shipping. It was a big win.

Take care.

Excellent that you continue with proceed with this project, my friend @lgardner! Looking super so far!

Spiros Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
John John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)

Thank you very much for your continued support and kind words.

I’ll be posting a few updates later today.

I’m still way behind as far as posting the work that has been done on the B-25. I’m trying to get everyone caught up.
These next pictures were from a website that had the unit war diary posted online. One was from the National WW2 Museum, and another was found on Wiki.

This is a tail fin color that is most likely a Red in color. It has the same properties as the Loraine Cross that made up a part of the Crusaders unit emblem. The serial numbers were painted using a Yellow paint. The tip of the fin color looks more like the Lorraine Cross portion of the Crusaders insignia, and not like the serial numbers.

Now I have reason to believe this is a B-25 from the 100th BS. This photo is credited to the National WW2 Museum, although I have also seen it in other places.

This B-25 has Yellow tail fins.

While this one has used the color White. The tail tip color closely resembles the same color as the "stars and bars" portion of the US insignia.

This photo is actually a page that came directly from the unit's online War Diary. It shows several different pictures of B-25's in flight. One is a glass nose version that has not had the nose plexi-glass over painted with OD Green. Most of these glass nose planes in the unit were over painted.

This particular B-25 has also had the side mounted "blister guns" removed. This reveals the natural metal finish underneath. Another oddity about this particular aircraft, is that it has had the US Insignia subdued with what looks more like a Gray color in place of the typical White paint we so often see in use for the "Stars and Bars".

I really like this photo, because it also shows how these B-25's were operated by the Crusaders with different styles of paint finish, or even none at all occasionally. I will definitely be building a BMF B-25 in the future... but not until well after I get this tribute build completed.

So many ideas for building... so little time.

Terrific way to honor your Dad’s family, Louis @lgardner. You’re really moving fast on this solid gold oldie but goodie and your researched write ups with vintage photos are enjoyable and informative.

Amazing progress, Louis @lgardner
I'm glad you already did this wonderful work on the engines, this will help me a lot to make improvements on my Mitchell engines. Thanks.

Lou (@lgardner), With regards to your glass nosed B-25J photo. Note all of a/c have the round escape hatch in the stars and bar open. Two, the glass nosed 25, this is speculation, could a glass nosed ship be kept for missions that required a bombardier to lead a formation as a lead ship to accurately drop bombs on the target at altitude? Three, this is esoteric, on the Monogram kit, the aluminium armor plate just aft of the nose and underneath the cockpit should butt up at where the nose is bolted to the fuselage.The Monogram kit has it too far back. Which is a NBD or a minor niggle. For people with OCD its a problem. Love the work done on the engines and the cowling's.Monogram got it right. Accurate miniatures fell short on this one.

Finally, the glass nosed J, the stars and bars having a off colored white has more to do with fading,dirt, and grime. The ground crew not having enough time to wipe down and clean the fuselage.

Keep up the good work.I always appreciate your focus on people,machines,history and modeling. In that order.