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Big Bad Bonnie.....1/32 HK B-25 glass nose DISASTER STRIKES


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Big Bad Bonnie was the first B-25 i ever saw flying. It must have been after it was in Catch 22 as it had the desert tan sprayed ove the olive drab. It was at Stapleford airfield in Essex. There was also Spencer Flacks G-fury and G-fire , Lyndsay Waltons "messershmitt" and Corsair amongst others. A few months back i found an issue of Aeroplane monthly from August 1978 with and Article on the film Hanover street. That started me off on the hunt for a glass nose b-25. Thanks to ebay i found this one.

I will be using Kitsworld decals , profimodeller nose weight , Brassin wheels and the SAC u/c legs. Its been great fun so far, These were well used TB-25s they used for the film with water based paint on the outsides , but im assuming ratty on the insides , so it been guess work painting the interior. I have seen all sorts of greens on the interior in photos so i thought i would mix and match a bit!

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Im not adding any extra detail to the interior. I have used the kit guns and ammo belts for the waist and tail positions , but im guessing they would have been basic wooden mock ups. The bomb bay has been great for weathering.I sprayed it Tamiya Yellow green then used salt granules to mask before over spraying with my own mix of Interior green. Some chipping was then added followed by a dirty black wash. Again this has been guess work. I know they were originally bare metal , but the photos i have seen has BBB with interior green bomb doors , so i guessed the bomb bay would be the same.

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Edited by gunpowder17
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The hardest part so far has been the carb intakes. The kit ones are B-25J and are smaller than the TB-25 , so i have had to modify / scratchbuild new ones. I didnt want to damage the surrounding areas so i removed the whole intake from the wing. This made it easier to work on too. I built the height up with plasitcard , made a rectangular intake and blended it all in. There is also some kind of outlet on the rear of the intake that i had to cut out. They are not perfect but good enough for me. I have stared at too many close ups of carb intakes in the last few days.

Heres the basic new shape

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Heres the other one fixed to the wing

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Im sure they will need tweaking a bit more later on.

All taped together to see how it looks.

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Heres the modified cowling. I had to remove the exhaust stubs on a couple of the panels and add an opening for the exhaust pipe in the cooling gills. I have also lengthened the intake again so that it now sits in the proper position.

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Here are the SAC white metal legs. This is how they came straight from the box. I have seen photos of these on the web and they look terrible , but these are beautifully cast , and very rigid. Around £10 cheaper than G-Factor ones too.

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Tsk, Too much weathering!

I have the Hanover street DVD

I must watch it again.

Incidentally, part of it was filmed at RAF Odiham.

I was on gate guard one day when a small truck

turned up carrying a mountain of filled sandbags.

Very close inspection revealed that this mountain

was made of fibreglass! (This would be 1977 or 78)

In Clear & Present Danger Harrison Ford walks under

an American street sign. Yep, Hanover street.

Glad you like the youtube link.

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Bit irritated today. Fitted the profimodeller nose weight , closed the fuselage , put the wings and tail on , stood it on its uc, and it promptly sat on its tail.Wonderful....

Edited by gunpowder17
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The conversion work is now finished. I put it all together again , just to check the nose weight situation. All seems to be good so i will take the wings / tail back of and they are almost ready for paint. Fuselage needs the seats , nose interior and clear parts and then thats ready for paint. It wont be all together again until its painted.

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I used an old grey matter resin part for the rear that i had kicking around. In reality the film version just had steel sheet. Artistic licence!

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Lots of work taken place on this. Paint is on , decals on. Its had a little weathering. Doing the oil leaks was great fun. I know the Mitchells they used in the film were very leaky! It needs the matt varnish yet.I have used Mon tex canopy masks.

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Well today hasnt gone to plan. I gave the fuselage some matt varnish , and then unmasked the clear parts. All wwas going well. I noticed a little bit of fogging on the inside of the canopy. I managed to get a piece of old sprue with a q tip attached to the end through the turret hole and clean the fogg off. What i also managed to do was knock the seats out! Im now going to have to attach the seats back in position through the turret hole.........somehow.

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Well managed to get the seats back in. I fixed them to a piece of plasticard first then i put them back in with long nosed tweezers. Much stronger than they were too.

Need to add a black anti dazzle panel here too

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I have also built and painted the Brassin wheels. These are absolutely beautful , a thousand times better than the kit ones. I used Tamiyas new Tyre black for the base coat. I then airbrushed german grey on the walls. I finally used semi gloss black and klear to replicate the oil that has dripped on them and then spun out with centrifugal force. I applied the klear around the wheel rim and then blew it outwards with a straw. Looks better in reality than the photos.

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