Here’s what was done before closing the fuselage halves.
I painted the ammunition feed boxes with a dark brown color. It's hard to see the color in this photo, because it looks much darker than it is in person. Both sets of boxes were done this way. One box like this is on each side of the rear fuselage.
They hold the .050 caliber rounds for the waist gunner positions. I think the real boxes were made of a wood like mahogany, so this is why they looked so dark in real life. They were varnished wood and not painted on the real thing.
There are two first aid kits molded into the fuselage side walls. One is up front by the top turret, and the other is in the rear by the waist gunner position. I opted to use a decal for the "Red Cross". I also came back after this photo was taken, and carefully touched up the edge of the box with some YZC paint. Now it looks perfect.
In this picture you can see both fuselage halves. The cockpit, top turret, and bomb bay have been permanently glued in place. I painted the fire extinguishers with a red color. This is because they were CO2 extinguishers. Other types of fire extinguishers in use during WW2 were not all red like what we see today. Some were a polished brass, while others were an off white or light gray color, depending upon what was stored inside them.
This is a close up showing the office and top turret. You can also see the bomb bay in the first picture.
Here I have added the three 1,000 pound GP bombs. They filled up the bomb bay. I didn't take the time to paint any markings on them or add stencils for the type and lot numbers. If I was not pressed for time I probably would have.
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1. This box is the retainer
I strayed from the instructions, and glued the top turret in place now. I did not add the clear parts yet. I did this, because it is very difficult to glue the turret retainer once the fuselage has been glued together. So I took a gamble and did it now. It may come back to haunt me later during the painting phase. But I will remove the twin .050 MG's because they were simply snapped in place.
If you elect to install the turret at the end like the instructions state, you will have to glue this box in place while reaching through the front lower crew entry opening. I did that on my last Monogram B-25J, and it wasn't too much fun with my fat fingers.
These next pictures show the front interior and all of the details that I carefully painted. A good portion will be visible through the various openings.
From what I have gathered online, the late war "Coffin" style armored pilot seat was used starting a few production blocks after the J-10 / J-11 Mitchell's were built. They were often retro fitted to older aircraft once they were available from crashed or salvaged aircraft. They were also made available by North American, and could be ordered by the maintenance section. However, the availability for getting one of these armored seats could be a different thing altogether, as this would rely on the supply chain, and could take months to appear if they ever showed up at all.
On the co pilot's side, the "half" seat was introduced around the same time.
So it looks like this is another thing that Monogram got right... way back in the mid to late 1970's. 1977 I believe is the exact year...going from memory... but I could be wrong. I'm close enough for hand grenades though.
This is the tail gunner location. I painted the steel armor using a Flat Black. The gun sight was also painted this color. I used a Dull Dark Green for the twin MG mount, and the gun sight mount.
Here you can see the results of all the interior paint work.
It has been painted as accurately as I can. The later "J" model B-25 was painted a little differently than the earlier models. But a lot was the same too. You can see some of these differences if you watch a TV show on the Military History Channel called "Mega Movers".
The episode I'm talking about was about the recovery of an early B-25 that was recovered from a fresh water lake in South Carolina, after it had ditched there during the War. It has a remotely operated turret in the lower rear fuselage, and according to the show, one of 4 left in existence. It was also the only one in the world that had the original turret it was built with still installed.
You can see the interior colors on this early B-25 are a bit different from this later one.
The fuselage was then closed, and surprisingly, the fit was spot on. I didn't need much filler to make it look very good.
This work was completed a little over a week ago. I'll try to get this caught up in my next posting.
Stay tuned for part 2... or Part II if you are a Roman Legionnaire soldier.
