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Placeholder for my entry, need to finish up my F/A-18A GB first though. Revell rebox of the Hasegawa kit. Got an Eduard masking set on its way, because nobody ain't got time for that, and a set of Brassin wheels because the kit ones look a bit meh to me. Going for the box art OD/NG plane.

Found this discussion on the WW2 Aircraft website while looking for the angle of incidence of the horizontal stabilizer. Lots of good factory diagrams and period photos as well as the restored airworthy B-25H that is based here in the colonies. I hope the information will be useful to many of you; very good photos of some SWP strafer aircraft as well as the ineffective ventral turret. Mike https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/b-25-weapons-thread.10766/

Hi Britmodellers! Been a while since I had time to do a build WIP, but I should hopefully have some weekends free this month to do modelling at last! This one's an oldie but goodie - the Monogram B-25J strafer nose, to be built as a PBJ-1 warbird. This example still flies with the Commemorative Air Force based in Texas and is finished in the colours of a VMB-612 PBJ-1J. You can read all about it here: Devil Dog Squadron The USMC took delivery of surplus B-25s from the Army Air Force from late 1943 and christened them PBJ-1s - this one was a PBJ-1J with the top turret removed to save weight once the Japanese air threat was all but gone. It still boasted 12 forward-firing 50-cal MGs plus the side guns and twin tail guns so it was effectively a gunship with bombs, used for strafing shipping and beachhead air support. So, meet the kit, I'm sure it's very familiar to you all: Would have been nice to do the box art version but the decals really don't cut it! These kits really were the big time back when they were first released - various aftermarket replacements are available for some of the components, but I'm happy to keep the kit versions. Fair bit of flash but nice details. Impressed with these clear parts as well. Good interior detail, though I will be supplementing this with the Eduard photo-etch set Lucky that KitsWorld does the decals for the warbird example. The Eduard set is dated 1998 and includes both interior and exterior parts. Anyway - I'll be building this for fun, not intending it to be a long saga and hope it will provide some diversion for those looking to rehabilitate older kits! Alan

I am about to make a start on the 1/72 Hasegawa B-25J using the Bombshell Decals for 'Ruthie' of the 489th Bomb Group in Corsica early 1945. The Bombshell decals say 'Ruthie' had neutral grey undersurfaces. But Kitsworld do the same aircraft and they say the undersurafces were natural metal. From what I have read elsewhere the Group practice in late 44 and early 45 seems to have been to paint the upper surfaces of the a/c olive drab and leave the undersurface natural metal so my gut feeling is that Kitsworld is right (though I have seen other models of 'Ruthie' using neutral grey). Before I take the final plunge I wonder if anyone has any comments. FYI - there is a colour photo here of 'Ruthie's' nose and cockpit section. Looks natural metal to me. http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/planes5.html

Hello modellers!, I am adding another newcomer to my american WW2 fleet This time it is B-25J from 447th BS - Corsica 'Ave Maria' s/n: 43-27636/II Kit: B-25J Hasegawa Scale: 1/72 Used colors: XF-62 post-shaded with various tones of olive drab/dark green: H304 - FS34087 H078 H064 H423 Fuselage bottom is sprayed with Alclad II Polished Aluminium in combination w/ Dark Aluminium. After-Market decals: Kits-World Photo etched metals: Eduard BIG-ED Thanks for all useful comments Peter

North American B-25J Mitchell. Red Bull Revell 1:48 History The North American B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theatre of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, and saw service across four decades. The B-25 was named in honour of General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. By the end of its production, nearly 10,000 B-25s in numerous models had been built. These included a few limited variations, such as the United States Navy's and Marine Corps' PBJ-1 patrol bomber and the United States Army Air Forces' F-10 photo reconnaissance aircraft. The final, and the most built, version of the Mitchell, the B-25J, looked much like the earlier B, C and D, having reverted to the longer, glazed bombardier's nose, but with the -H version's relocated-forward dorsal manned turret. The less-than-successful 75 mm (2.95 in) cannon was deleted. Instead, 800 of this version were built with a solid nose containing eight .50 (12.7 mm) machine guns, while other J-models featured the earlier "greenhouse" style nose containing the bombardier's position. Regardless of the nose style used, all J-models also included four .50 in (12.7 mm) light-barrel Browning AN/M2 guns in a pair of "fuselage package", flank-mount conformal gun pods each containing two Browning M2s, located directly beneath the pilot's and co-pilot's compartment along the external sides of the cockpit, with the co-pilot's seat and dual flight controls restored to their previous cockpit locations. The solid-nose B-25J variant carried a total of 18 .50 in (12.7 mm) light-barrel AN/M2 Browning M2 machine guns: eight in the nose, four in the flank-mount conformal gun pod packages, two in the dorsal turret, one each in the pair of waist positions, and a pair in the tail - with fourteen of the guns either aimed directly forward, or aim able to fire directly forward for strafing missions. No other main series production bomber of World War II carried as many guns. In all, 4,318 B-25Js were built. Red Bull bought their example, having been discovered by their former Chief Test Pilot in 1994 and in 1997, after an extensive rebuild and reconstruction to a civilian version with a comfortable interior she was flown over to Europe and is now housed in Red Bulls Hanger-7. She is flown extensively around Europe, participating in many major airshows. The Model This kit has been around for many years, originally being released by Monogram way back in 1977. Throughout the years several variants have been issued, clear nosed, gun nosed and even cannon armed. In fact this version was previously released in a special edition of the Red Bull aircraft, (Flying Bulls), which not only came with, glue, pots of paint, but also spray cans for the silver, a poster, DVD and a can of Red Bull. Unfortunately this is a much paired down issue with just the glue, pots of pain and a double ended paint brush. The kit is moulded in silver styrene which has some very interesting swirls on almost all the parts. Considering its age, the moulds have stood the test of time pretty well. There is some flash on the smaller parts, but the rest are pretty clean. There are the large moulding lugs on the fuselage which seem to have been a part of the moulding process since the first issue. The detail does appear to have become a little soft and indistinct, it may be the colour of the styrene, but it just doesn’t seem as good as when I last built this kit. The panel lines are still raised, but even they don’t seem as bad as previous releases. If I recall correctly the fit of parts isn’t too bad once cleaned up, but this being a glass nosed variant expect it to be a tail sitter and the need to use the rear entrance door and steps as a prop, since there is very little room for any weight to be added in and around the nose, unless you block off the access trough. Construction starts with detailing the interior of the fuselage. Unfortunately this consists of the original boxes and such from the military version and not the customised civilian interior that this aircraft actually has. It’s not really a problem as not much can be seen, but it would have been nice to have it as an option, though not as cheap as just adding new decals to an existing kit. The cockpit floor, which is also the nose gear bay roof, is attached to the front and rear bulkheads and the nose access tunnel. To this assembly the nose wheel leg is fitted to the bottom, whilst the cockpit is made up of two seats, twin, control columns and the instrument panel with rudder pedals moulded pre-attached. There is definitely room for the modeller to add quite a bit more detail in the cockpit should they wish. The cockpit assembly is then fitted to the starboard side o the fuselage along with the bomb-bay bulkheads/wing spars. Before closing the fuselage up, the bomb-bay roof, upper turret blank, and as much weight as you can fit forward of the main wheels are fitted, whilst right aft, the holes of the ILS aerials should be drilled out. The wings, which are made up of upper and lower halves are joined together. To the two halves of the engine nacelles are glued together and attached to the wings along with the clear parts for the landing light covers. The main undercarriage consists of two wheel halves, the main leg and the retraction arm. The wheels have flat spots supposedly representing the weight on the tyre, yet there isn’t any discernible bulge on the tyre itself. With the wings fitted to the fuselage, making sure they are set at the correct angle the main undercarriage is attached to the nacelles along with their respective doors. The bomb-bay doors are then fitted, either in the open or closed position, but with little detail in the bay it’s probably best to close them up, although, having never built this kit with the doors shut I’m not sure how good the fit will be. With that done, the nosewheel door and forward access door are fitted. Moving aft, the vertical tailplanes are each made up of inner and outer halves which when glued together are fitted to the horizontal tailplane which is of and upper and lower construction, much like the wings. The completed tail assembly is then attached to the fuselage followed by the clear parts that would have made up the rear gunners position. Before starting the construction of the engines, the moulded intake at the top of the cowl flap section needs to be removed. Once this is done the engine, which is a basic part showing just the front bank of cylinders is fitted with the propeller shaft then attached to the cowl flap section. The cowling is then fitted and the whole assembly is attached to the nacelle. The new two part intakes are then added to the upper nacelle sections which are then fitted into position, followed by the attachment of the propellers. The side windows, where the waist gunners positions used to be are fitted as are several new auxiliary intakes and aerials around the rear fuselage. The nose section is then built up out of the fuselage section, floor, with attached bomb sight removed, and new padded couch and back rest. This is then attached to the forward fuselage and completed by the addition of the clear parts. The cockpit canopy is then fitted as are two new aerials just aft of the canopy. Construction is then completed by the addition of numerous aerials around the nose section, auxiliary intake just aft of the bomb bay, rear access door, pitot probe, ILS aerials under the tailplane and finally a new radar pod under the starboard wing. Decals The small decal sheet provides an alternative instrument panel, if painting the panel is not your thing, wing walkways, fuel filler cap markings, propeller warning stripes, propeller manufacturer markings, US flags and the distinctive Red Bull insignia for either side of the nose. The decals have been printed in Italy, so presumably by Cartograph. They are very clear, in register with good opacity as one would expect, and are on the glossy side. The backing film is very thin and there shouldn’t be any problem with silvering with the exception of the large Red Bull markings which may need a setting/softening solution, but since the aircraft is very glossy anyway the decals will have a good surface to settle down on. Paint In this release Revell also provide five pots of paint, a small Contacta glue applicator and a double ended brush, one end of which has been deformed in the packet. There’s definitely not enough paint to cover the model and from what I’ve heard Revell paints haven’t had the greatest of press, so it’s probably best to put them to one side and use your own favourite metallic paints. The paints that are included are:- • Two pots of Silver No 90 • One pot of Aluminium No 99 • One pot of Hellgrau No 371 • One Pot of Anthracite No 09 Conclusion I’ve always liked this kit and have built it in a number of its different releases. The model will be a great chance to use some of Alclads great products or Rub ‘n’ Buff, whichever you prefer, to get the silver work looking right. Just be aware of the age of the kit and the problems mentioned above. It is not state of the art and this release isn’t full of Red Bull memorabilia, but it will stand out in the collection if care is taken during the build. Recommended. Walkround photos available HERE Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit