tangerine_sedge Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 Is this the same kit? Mine has raised rivets on the parts but your photo looked like they are indented. Fantastic box art but atrocious kit! The one I did a few years ago was painful to build : flash on every part, rivets everywhere, none of the parts lined up and the decals were out of register and failed to adhere properly. It must be in line for Airfix to renew soon, as long as they redo the box art to be more like the original Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 It doesn't matter how long things take. What matters is that you are producing some excellent work with that scribing. What matters even more is that you enjoy your kit. Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZ Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 (edited) These are the decals I have at the moment. Though I don't know details for all of them, some I can't find any details of on the net. My choices are (only the "H" and "J" options listed): -B-25H "Norma Sue" - comes with kit-B-25J RAAF "KO-K" - comes with kit-B-25J of 498th BS, 345th BG 'Air Apaches' - I'm leaning towards this one at the moment-B-25H of 82nd BS, 12BG 'Bridge Busters' - I like this scheme, although I have not seen any photos of this plane. It's got the white outlined square below the cockpit and a single bulldog holding a club, no wording.-B-25J "Finito Benito" - I'm pretty sure these words should be red? Decals are black-B-25H "Booby Trap" CBI - like this one, but cannot find a photo of the aircraft-B-25J (327698) "MA and PA!" - cannot find any details on this one-B-25 of 17th BG (????) - Question marks says it all -B-25H "Emergency Strip!" of 17th Observation Squadron - Got plenty on this one, though the wolf head should be brown, not white or transparent. Or is the idea it should be painted? Edited August 21, 2015 by JimmyZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 That re-scribing looks great, nice work Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Convair Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 (edited) do you intend to correct the post war squared air inlets? It's not impossible... Edited August 23, 2015 by Convair 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZ Posted August 24, 2015 Author Share Posted August 24, 2015 do you intend to correct the post war squared air inlets? It's not impossible... Actually, yes I do intend on trying to fix it...though I've been mulling over how to do it. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
occa Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Fantastic box art but atrocious kit! The one I did a few years ago was painful to build : flash on every part, rivets everywhere, none of the parts lined up and the decals were out of register and failed to adhere properly. It must be in line for Airfix to renew soon, as long as they redo the box art to be more like the original I remember I built it as an early teen, I cannot recall any flaws but I was of course uncritical then lol ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbudde Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 (edited) I think, I will follow this. Not only for nostalgic reasons: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3312/3482978934_6fa95c09bc_z.jpg?zz=1 Always like to see old kits pimped up to get them look right. Cheers Edited August 24, 2015 by bbudde Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I think, I will follow this. Not only for nostalgic reasons: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3312/3482978934_6fa95c09bc_z.jpg?zz=1 Always like to see old kits pimped up to get them look right. Cheers I quite agree, sometimes I get more pleasure from re-working a kit that I had as a kid than I would building a modern "shake and bake" kit of the same subject. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz23 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Enjoying watching your build Jimmy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Convair Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 (edited) Well, in my B-25 I used a metal tube to make the air intakes. Not the best way, but it was what I could do. The tube came from a telescopic radio antenna, I chose this tube because it has thin wall, it is easy to be shaped with pliers, and I already had this old antenna left at home. First I dismantled the antenna to pick up the tube with an internal diameter of 5 mm (or 3/16"). Then I made a conformation template from a piece of plastic (styrene) with a thickness of about 1 mm (or slightly larger than 1/32"). The template has a width of 6 mm (1/4") and a length of about 1", one end is tapered to facilitate insertion in the tube. I used jeweler's pliers (with smooth jaws, without "teeth") to press the tube while the template is inserted. The result is I continued the conformation until the lenght "crushed" have well over 6.5 mm (about 1/4"). In 1/72 scale, 6.5 mm is the length of the air inlet protruding from the wing (actually, from the base of the cowl flaps). The "crushed" portion exceeding 6.5 mm will serve to attach the air inlet on the wing. Edited August 25, 2015 by Convair 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Convair Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 I made a first cut on the wing. Then I made a notch on the wing (I used a square file), for better attachment of the air inlet. I had cut from the tube the conformed air inlet, sanded the edges (to remove burrs), and glued a narrow strip of styrene slightly inserted into the rear of the air inlet. Note that the inside of the wing is painted in "zinc chromate" colour. I removed the paint and carved slightly the plastic (with a scalpel blade) where the strip of styrene would be glued. On the upper surface of the wing I applied "generous amounts" of cyanoacrylate (gap filling super glue) on the junction of metal with plastic, and added bits of styrene (pieces of sprue stretched over a candle) to help fill the spaces behind the wider air inlet. After everything was dry, I sanded the assembly. Finally, I applied putty and sanded, and redid the scribbing which had disappeared with the sanding. Later I painted the area of the air vents with "aluminum" paint (NMF), to see if there were still imperfections. I didn't like the original Airfix exhaust stubs on the cowling, so I sanded then out. I made new exhaust stubs ("Clayton S Stack" configuration) from Evergreen .060" styrene channel. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Fantastic tip Convair, they look excellent. I'm another one who loves to see these old kits brought up to date, so looking forwards to seeing more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Great work Convair - those new intakes look just right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 That's a pretty neat solution to the intake problem. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Yup, that's some proper modelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Convair Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 (edited) Thank you guys! I have had this old Airfix kit for many years, and I was delaying start its construction because I had no idea how to solve the problem of the air intakes (for a WWII aircraft). I hope this idea can help JimmyZ and other modelers, or serve as a starting point for a better solution. Also, the Airfix B-25 is the only kit in the world with the squared air inlets, which is an advantage if you want to build a post war plane, like this very special B-25. I would like to try to build it in the future (using the Airfix kit), the model would be a good piece of conversation relating to a great movie! Edited August 26, 2015 by Convair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZ Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 That's a great idea Convair, I may just to something similar to that (I'm not very creative to be honest). In the meantime I'm scribing the horizontal and vertical stabilizer panel lines, will probably only take one evening. Does anyone have an idea how I can find info on the plane in this profile? Anything that proves this aircraft actually existed. I've been searching the net endlessly (it seems) but found nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Convair Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 There is a website about "Accident Reports" that lists this B-25H (43-4266) as crashed in a take off accident in February 06, 1944 at Wideawake airfield, Ascension Island. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZ Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 Thanks Convair, I found that same site. But it gives a different squadron and group number that the profile I posted, so I gave up on the search for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZ Posted September 7, 2015 Author Share Posted September 7, 2015 Update on the air inlet modification. What is needed here is material with a very thin wall that is pliable enough to get it more or less into the correct shape. One idea I had was to take something super pliable, like thick paper or thin plastic and bend into the desired shape. The problem is paper would need to be hardened by something thin and strong, an plastic might break if bent. I ran out of ideas when my girlfriend suggested this.. Very much like Convair's idea, except an unusual place to look for modeling material... Thin enough to bend, but hard enough not to lose shape easily. Pull of the metal "connector", which is what I'll be using Cutting off parts of the old intake... Cutting off the rest of the old intake... A little more cutting an a fair amount of sanding it straight, fitting, sanding/cutting, fitting etc... And glueing Looks fairly rough at the moment. Tonight I'll be filling and smoothing with filler putty which will hopefully give a nicer result. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZ Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 So last night I filled and sanded in the hopes of producing an OK result. I'm reasonably happy with it. It's still a bit rough, but with filler and sanding with a finer sandpaper I'm positive it will end up smooth. This was after filling and sanding Then I sprayed with silver to bring out the imperfections This is from another angle I will do the finishing touches later. I started with the starboard wing and should have it like the port wing by tonight. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Looks good to me - and all praise to the girlfriend for her 'sacrifice'! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Looks good to me! Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iwishicouldfinishmodels Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 You make models, and have a girlfriend? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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