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B25J Mitchell


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Hello Again,

 

I’ve just got back from two weeks away for work, and I’ve got three weeks before I’m off again. Before I have a go at weathering the Whirlwind, I am going to have a go at the old B25 which I bought as a bagged kit on EBay. According to Scalemates, the tooling is from 1965. Here’s what I have got:

458166_D9-5_A87-435_C-928_C-941_E67_ACF3

 

At first sight, it looks like a straightforward kit. I expected to do some work on the engine exhausts (the right hand one is done):

8_FA77201-397_A-44_C0-82_DC-6175_DEE36_B

 

Someone at Airfix had a commendable shot at detailing the inside of the bomb doors, sadly negated by ejector pins:

05_A8_A711-_AA6_B-41_DD-84_AD-23_C4986_F

 

I’ve had an enjoyable morning cutting parts off sprues and sticking them together:

3_DD4_EFCC-07_AD-4_D80-824_F-5_E90_E0390

 

As I have progressed, I’ve become less enamoured with this kit, or at least the instance I have got. I don’t know if an earlier moulding would have been sharper or better fitting. The bomb and undercarriage doors don’t remotely fit, the wing roots needed trimming to avoid outer span anhedral and the transparencies fit poorly. I’m going to get everything together and then slather it with Milliput.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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I missed out on one of these recently because I forgot about it. Built it as a kid. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this one come together. Good luck with the build 

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I wish I knew when to stop... The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum website maam.org has some great pictures so off I went:

120_F1704-673_B-466_C-_A109-_E51_D8_D4_C

C1_C830_A7-_AD0_B-43_A7-_B61_F-_C7_A2701

CC5_F7_C6_B-7_E88-4_A5_A-8724-_D1_E00359

EA83_F941-03_A2-499_B-9855-2_AD2926_CCB3

 

I’ve added seat belts since the pictures, and seeing as how my body clock still thinks it’s tea time I’m going to choose a dark green and give the interior a coat or two.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Coming on nicely Adrian, I'm pleased for the chance to see you work your magic on this old but worthy subject. In your third photo above, what are the curved structures, ammo feed chutes?

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
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Thank you!

23 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

curved structures

Indeed they are Steve! They went “over the gunner’s shoulders”. Must have been noisy in there...

 

I managed to bend some plastic card to give me the right look - they are possibly a bit low but I wanted to make sure the canopy could clip into place. 

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Well, in the harsh light of morning here’s what I painted up last night:

59_FCC18_D-8_E23-449_C-_B7_AB-220_A32829

E8_DEF0_FA-_A4_C2-46_CC-9_E14-_B027_A380

 

And here’s the tail gunner position, ammo feed chutes courtesy of a fine tip marker:

01_AF3_A88-_B95_B-4_DD9-_BE45-7_DF4545_D

 

I have learned from previous experience and not put any detail in the waist gunner position. You can see it all!

27_D76_E87-98_A9-4859-_A193-6383_DCDCF53

 

Here’s the cockpit closed up. I don’t think it was worth adding any more detail than I did:

6_B3_C3_AEC-8_B8_C-48_FE-_B8_B5-_DDDFEAF

9071_AF7_D-1776-46_B8-845_A-601_D652_CC4

 

I see making vac form copies of the transparencies in my future. The ones in the kit are rather bottle-like.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

 

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No pics this time around, but:

1) Glued the fuselage together

2) Forgot all about nose weights...

 

Will have to work out what I can add through the front undercarriage (the door is closed when the wheels are down) and this may make me consider a "solid nose" option!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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I have reshaped and thinned the gaping maws that Airfix provides for intakes:

779_D4077-5_A66-4711-993_D-762_A5_CE6280

 

Project “nose down” is in full swing. That’s a big chunk of white metal in the bay but nowhere near enough. I will be adding more in the front bay and in front of the bulkhead (less moment):

D42_D992_C-_CA80-403_A-_A33_D-_A120628_A

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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That really is astonishing work in the cockpit! It's definately going to need a clearer canopy though. I'll be watching your vac forming with more than a bit of interest.

 

The early moldings were a lot sharper that the plastic you are working with. It looks like time has not been too kind to the B25 molds!

 

Tony.

 

Edited by TonyW
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49 minutes ago, TonyW said:

early moldings

Thanks Tony! From the decals, this looks like a 2008 repop, so it's a 43-year old mould of a popular subject. That would explain why it's so wonky. It was cheap and bagged and I didn't have one...

 

Regards,

Adrian

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From the one picture showing a wing it looks like you've got them set correctly.  One problem with the Airfix kit is that it allowed builders to position the wings so that the outer panels would have a pronounced anhedral thereby giving the whole assembly a strange appearance.  Lifting the wing tips may require you to make some adjustments so that the main gear is at right angles to the ground when viewed from the front, but care in establishing the correct wing angle makes all the difference in the final product.

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1 hour ago, ejboyd5 said:

anhedral

Indeed! I have been trimming back the lower edges of the wing root and the lower surface of the slot for the wing tabs so that there is some play to allow them to sit right. I have also been lining them up by eye with the top edge of the computer monitor and the tailplane to make sure I can get the right angles. I will only stick them on after all the heavy duty filling and sanding is done.

 

2 hours ago, ejboyd5 said:

main gear is at right angles to the ground

They do splay out a bit when you get the dihedral right. I just bent the legs inwards until they looked straight.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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17 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I have reshaped and thinned the gaping maws that Airfix provides for intakes:

Yes, I read in someone's previous build that this kit has the wrong shape of intakes and, believe it or not, the wrong number of cylinder head 'bumps' around the engine cowlings! I'm sure you've caught that as well though - might be the reason why one of the 'bumps' was double length?

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8 hours ago, Ventora3300 said:

wrong number of cylinder head 'bumps'

The bumps are exhausts that go straight out of the cowling from the cylinder heads, which is why the B25 is one of the noisier WWII aircraft. I'm not going to change the number because I don’t want to make 14 new ones per cowling. This build is strictly "OOB except where it's fun for Adrian".

 

8 hours ago, Ventora3300 said:

reason why one of the 'bumps' was double length

It's a moulding problem - the bump for the front exhaust should stop half way down to the back end of the cowling, but if the other side of the mould came up to meet it, it couldn't cope with the taper. So that's why I've filied the back ends off.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

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I really like what you're doing with this one. These early Airfix kits are prime candidates for a little "special attention" to bring them up to standard.

Can't wait to get back to my Fairey Battle.....

 

Ian

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6 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Fairey Battle

Brrrr... That one scares me. When you add up the shape problems, it's got about as many as the Airfix IL-2, and I know what that felt like! You are doing a smashing job on it (and please don't leave it on a sunny window sill in your new home). I think the Airfix B-25 fins and rudders are too narrow but I'm not going to check :)

 

Thanks,

Adrian

 

 

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Another thought about exhausts... the one missing would be at the top, right in front of the air intake, so it probably wouldn’t be there in real life. And an exhaust feed might be useful for de-icing and cabin heating, so it may have been waylaid on the real thing.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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More progress after a hot and sweaty weekend modelling.

 

Where I have got to. The Milliput started to set whilst I was still working on it! Lots of filling, including building up the undercarriage doors to the right size. I will add the bulges for the wheels later. I have gone with the gun nose because I wanted somewhere to put a nose weight with some moment. I didn’t fancy wrestling with the bombardiers canopy either!

 

EF94_B9_AA-_BF01-445_B-_BB70-_DF48823_C4

 

I’m not going to invest in making or buying vac canopies for this but I’ve (mostly) removed the ejector pin marks on every single one and fettled the main canopy to fit. The main canopy was short shot so I cut the affected windows out and I will add a couple of panes to simulate an open window:

D983_CD18-77_EA-4_C7_B-9_C71-8162_E4449_

 

Here it is plugged together almost ready for a coat of Mr Halford’s finest grey primer:

A0392623-_C3_BB-4_EEB-_AAB3-_B18_ABC533_

 

There is something Not Quite Right about the nose. It isn’t quite straight and the guns aren’t quite in vertical rows. It’s not me - I aligned it against the top seam and lined it up to optimise the fit all round. I won’t be fixing it - I’m now at the “get it done” stage. I can see why Airfix made a new tool now! If I want a proper B25J with an interesting scheme I will take a deep breath and buy the Hasegawa one.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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On 04/08/2018 at 13:21, limeypilot said:

 ... early Airfix kits are prime candidates for a little "special attention" to bring them up to standard.

I have tried and failed to enjoy this one. I think it’s because there are just too many things that are inaccurate or poorly done, and so one isn’t so much fixing the kit up as making it a le-etle bit less rubbish. With a single engined aircraft you can address pretty much everything, but this is just too much work for a hobby for me. Probably explains why I’ve only ever made two four-engined aeroplanes.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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