Convair

That's correct. If you want a high gloss final finish, it's better to have the first layer of paint (in this case, the black base) as smooth (glossy) as possible. Each layer of paint have influence in the final finish, and it's harder to try to achieve a mirrorlike finish if the first layers of paint are matte. Also, before any painting, the surface of the plastic of the kit should be very clean and smooth, "polished", without sanding traces, scratches, etc.. As this is your first NMF attempt, you could do a test and paint a separate piece of plastic (or a small area of an old, discarded kit) with the same black base, including the use of different amounts of diluent to dilute the black; then you can sand with some fine grit, or even polish it with an automotive polishing paste (it's less "agressive" than sanding). Apply some of aluminum paint over the black polished / sanded areas to observe the result. It is possible, also, that you discover that even with a semi-matt black base you get a good bright NMF finish. Depending on the results, then you apply the solution found on your yak-23. I'm suggesting this (the test on a separate piece of plastic) to avoid doing a direct experiment on your kit, with the risk of ruining it. And, as Christer A well said, a mirrorlike finish feels a bit wrong for a russian combat aircraft.

What a cool model!

It's a beauty. Is the upper wing composed by two parts (upper half, lower half), or is it in one single piece?

What a nice Bristol Bombay! Very good!

I like very much these "obscure" and non-trivial aircraft. I will also be watching with interest (I have an old unbuilt Contrail H.P.54 in some place here...).

Minicraft has the annoying habit of making turrets in that way. The nose and tail turrets of the Minicraft B-24s are also made with glued seams. Your Mariner is fantastic. A+++++!

To avoid/reduce silvering, I prefer individually cut each "letter" of the decal ("H L Q") before application. It's more work, but the transparent areas "with nothing" of the decal are thus eliminated. When the (painted) surface is matt, I usually apply a coat of white glue diluted with water on the back of each decal before apply it; this improves the decal adherence on a matt surface and reduces silvering (I press a cottton swab over the decals to remove the excess of "flooding" due the white glue and water). Of course, the posterior use of settting solutions (softeners) on the decals after the application (as Graham Boak explained) is important, too. Anyway I liked very much the model and the photos, it's a great work, sdk_uk. It's possible that this Wellington Mk.II is the old Matchbox kit reboxed by Revell; does the instructions sheet have an option to build a Wellington MK10 too?

That's a beautiful B-25D!

Is it not a 1:1 Marauder?? It seems "real". Fantastic work.

I especially liked the faded tail control surfaces. I could not do such a good job using a paintbrush. A great work and a beautiful model!

A very cool model. Basta così!

Nice website with a good photo of the top turret. The slots for the gun barrels were covered from the inside by protective curved pieces of clear perspex (rather perspex, pieces of metal were utilized, too). I don't know if it is possible to reproduce this type of detail, even the 1/32 scale kit of the B-25 do not have such protective pieces in the top turret (and if it had, how would be possible to make the gun barrels perfectly movable, in plastic?).

Great job! It's always nice to see an olive drab P-61. I liked the "wet floor" photos.

I already had praised this model in an old post. No surprise here, the "best overall aircraft" is very well deserved!

Bulkheads, bulkheads and more bulkheads. That's what the thin Combat Models plastic needs. This 1/72 Mars will be very cool! That red and white painting (water bomber) is very beautiful!

What a cool model! Very nice!

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.

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!

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.

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.

do you intend to correct the post war squared air inlets? It's not impossible...

Yes, it's the same Airfix kit. The raised rivets were totally eliminated and new recessed panel lines were scribed. The landing gear leg had brake lines and a side arm added, as well as a 1,5 mm extension on top (because I had cut the legs very short). The shaft for the wheel was replaced by a metal rod (wire), because a new resin wheel/tire (with a very small hole for the shaft) would be used. I didn't like the original Airfix wheels. The Italeri B-25B/C kit is good, but some people say that the rear part of the fuselage of the Italeri B-25J is not sufficiently deep. In fact if you take a half fuselage of a B-25B/C and a half fuselage of a B-25J, both Italeri, 1/72, you will see that they "mate" (of course, the tail ends are different, as well as the openings for the dorsal turrets). Italeri has provided a strange wall (bulkhead) behind the pilots cockpit, that doesn't exist in the real thing. Maybe they made it because the Italeri dorsal turret does not have any internal detail, which would be visible through the pilots canopy; at least the turret of the Airfix B-25 has a pedestal, which can act like a starting point for more detailing.

IMHO the worst part of the Airfix B-25 are the nacelle doors of the main landing gear. They are very lengthy (the rectangular opening for the landing gear leg is very narrow); if you compare with B-25 drawings, or with an Italeri or Hasegawa B-25, you will notice the difference. Also, the fit is horrible. A suggestion is, before all, to cut the landing gear leg from the "barrel" which serves to secure it to the nacelles; thus you can add the fragile landing gears after the whole kit is built (avoiding breaking them during the build). You can make a micro-hole (0.5 or 0.6 mm) on the cut end of the landing gear leg, and glue a piece of electronic wire for fixation (another corresponding micro-hole should be made on the "barrel"). This will provide more "room" to work on the nacelles. Both left and right doors can be glued together, with a piece of plastic (i.e., a small rectangle) glued over the junction (inner side), for reinforcement. After the glue has dried, cut off 2,5 mm from the large end of the doors. After the nacelle halves were glued together, then glue the doors on the nacelles; this will let a wider rectangular opening for the landing gear, so you will have to scratchbuilt a new and more large rectangular door. As the doors are now smaller, you will have to fill the "hole" between the door and the nacelle, gluing a small piece of plastic (a 2,5 mm rectangle). Seal all junctions (or gaps) with cyanoacrylate (gap-filling super glue). Later you can re-scribe the contours of the doors (not very easy, here a flexible ruler can be useful), or, after the model is painted, simply draw the contour lines with a thin black pencil. The second "worst part" of the kit are the air inlet above the engines. They are rectangular, correct for post war aircraft, but if you want a WWII era Mitchell, they should be oval (oblong).

I made one of these in 2001, but I did not add much detail, especially internal (just the pilots's cockpit). Your work is fantastic, Rhino!

A short-nosed LB-30 or even a C-109 would be nice, too.