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Minion's Comrade Mitchell "Mstitely"


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Well after having watched all the excellent builds on here and having acquired a couple of Airfix's excellent new B-25's and having also finished my Harrier for the Hawker GB I thought it was only right that I finally join in with a Mitchell of my own.

I am still unsure as to which scheme she will be finished in, I have the new Xtradecal sheet which has some very nice schemes on it and one of my reference books comes with decals for several options including a B-25C or two which were based in the Pacific. What I would really like to do is a Soviet one in temporary winter scheme but finding decals for them is impossible as the Authentic Decals 1/72 sheet is out of print and nowhere to be found but I might try to make some up from the spares box, I have plenty of red stars so that isn't a problem but the individual numbers and markings might be an issue.

As either choice is the same mark I don't really need to choose until I'm about ready to apply some paint, and even then they both have the same basic OD over NG scheme. Anyway here are the usual box and contents shots.

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And a couple of references I will be using.

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Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and help will be gratefully received.

 

Craig.

Edited by modelling minion
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15 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I believe the one version is Olive over white ? Its an anti-sub patrol bomber from the USAAF. 

Yes I am aware of that, and it is a nice scheme, but I was referring to the 2 schemes I was trying to choose between rather than the 2 in the kit.

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Some very good news, a very good friend of mine in Serbia has the Authentic decals sheet in 1/72 and has very kindly agreed to send me the decals for one of the winter camo schemes on the sheet, a VERY big thank you Sasha!

The option he will be sending me is called "Mstitely" which means Avenger and was operated by a Guards Long Range Air Regiment during the winter of 1944. I hope to be able to make a start over the coming weekend.

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8 hours ago, Christer A said:

A guards regiment no less. Sounds promising!

Any suitable uplifting patriotic slogans on it?

Yes indeed, it's the 6th one down on the sheet;

27004961997_07ba03cb31_o_d.jpg

 

The Guards badge seems to have been over-painted with the white but I might leave it visible as added interest.

4 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Sorry my mistake minion i misunderstood your original post. 

No problem mate I should have made it clearer.

 

Craig.

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Nice choice 👍 i see there are two versions of this plane on the decal sheet if your doing #241. Im guessing the olive/grey is the original with the white distemper added. I agree that leaving the Guards badge un covered on the white distemper woul give a pop of color. 

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2 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Nice choice 👍 i see there are two versions of this plane on the decal sheet if your doing #241. Im guessing the olive/grey is the original with the white distemper added. I agree that leaving the Guards badge un covered on the white distemper woul give a pop of color. 

Exactly right, they give two versions, either the summer or winter plumage. 

Glad you agree about the Guards badge, that make s 2 of us at least!

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Great subject choice and your USAAF B-25 book looks great,.... a new one on me that one! Looking forward to seeing your winter scheme Mitchell,

Cheers

         Tony

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Thanks for all the interest guys.

Managed to get some work done on the interior of the Mitchell, and I am very impressed with the level of detail provided by Airfix OOTB and will be adding next to nothing to the kit other than perhaps some tape seatbelts. Here is an overview of the fuselage halves;

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Now as has been noted in other builds (notably Tony's excellent production line) different colours could be and often were applied to different parts of the the interior of the airframe. Following the colours quoted on the IPMS Stockholm site I have gone for dark green cockpit walls, interior green for everything back from the cockpit, chromate green for the cockpit floor and chromate yellow for the interior of the nacelles and wheel wells. Here are some closer shots, starting with the cockpit area which has also been dry-brushed.

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A couple of the bulkheads.

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And the cockpit floor and instrument panel.

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Off to do some more detail painting and hopefully start actually sticking some parts together.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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Looks like a good start on the internals Craig. Hope you are having a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Kind regards,

Stix

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49 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Looks like a good start on the internals Craig. Hope you are having a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks mate much appreciated.

And yes a good weekend so far, went to Stratford today and relieved their "The Works" of the Haynes Manuals on the T-34 and Ju-87 (wrong not too at £6 each!), got a couple of books from a bookshop (secondhand) and the latest Airfix magazine, which has a picture of my Finnish Do-17 in it!! Fame at last!

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Time for an update just to prove that the build is still moving forward.

After painting all the individual parts for the cockpit area I fitted them all together, and they go together very well indeed and make for a perfectly adequate cockpit especially in 1/72 scale. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished assembly, taken outside making full use of the sunshine!

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That zinc chromate green really is bright in the daylight! The cockpit assembly was then fitted to the port fuselage, again with no problems, and some weights stuffed in wherever I could fit them.

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With the cockpit added I could then close the fuselage halves, again with no issues and just a very small amount of filler in places, and I got the tail assembly in place too.

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And the view forward into the cockpit.

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A close up of the stbd tail.

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The tail parts also fit very well and didn't need any filler at all.

The wings have also been assembled and the engine nacelles fitted to them with just a very small amount of filler needed where the nacelles join the wings.

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Airfix have done a very nice job on the landing lights and have a separate piece with the light to be fitted inside the wing leading edge which will later have the glazing fitted over it, here is a close up of the light in place.

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My decals are on their way and are somewhere between here and Serbia as I write this (thank you again Sasha). If you haven't guessed by now I really like this kit, it is well thought out and engineered and detailed and all bodes very well for the forthcoming Wellington, well done Airfix!

 

That's it for today, thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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Hi Craig. Glad to see this one is still progressing and very well too!! Very impressive cockpit work. :clap2:

Kind regards,

Stix

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10 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Craig. Glad to see this one is still progressing and very well too!! Very impressive cockpit work. :clap2:

Kind regards,

Stix

Cheers Stix,

 

Yes she is progressing and I am glad you like the work so far.

Work keeps getting in the way of modelling time, and the sun keeps shining at the weekends so I'm busy in the garden then and it all adds up to less time plastic bashing. have to get a move on as I want to join in the fun on the MTO GB!

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Not much to report as work and working in the garden has been taking nearly all my time, however I am very happy to report that the decals have arrived from my good friend Sasha (a huge thank you my friend) and here they are;

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I have built up and painted the engines but didn't take any in progress pics so all I have is this one of one of the built up units;

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No modelling time tomorrow either I'm afraid but hopefully I can make some more progress next week.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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5 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Good to see the decals have arrived. :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

Cheers Stix,

 

Yes I was very happy myself when they turned up. They might need a bit of "whitening" by placing them next to a window (shouldn't take long at the moment!) but they look nice and I'm very grateful I was sent them.

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