Airfix Mitchell II - 180 Squadron, August 1944 - now a double build with added B-25B

[Simon]

Thanks for those pics Don, much appreciated.

 

Another quick update, and back to FW210. All the decs are one - serials, codes and roundels.

 

I finally got the nose wheel installed, and inevitably it was STILL a tail-sitter. A close thing, but definitley a tail-sitter. After all that added weight... I'm guessing some of it wasn't far enough in front of the mainwheels, and it does sit nose-high on the undercarriage so tends to 'lean back' on its haunches, as it were.

 

Anyway, I hadn't glued the engines in yet (it tail-sat even with those on), so I managed to squeeze some more weight in behind them.

 

 

It now sits on the front undercarriage, even if it totters a bit like Bambi on ice as the nose gear isn't exactly sturdy. I reckon I'll have to make the rear turret as light as possible...!! Airfix recommend 25 grams of weight in the nose, but I reckon I've added something north of 30g.

 

Meanwhile I've been ticking off all the fiddly bits on the FW199 checklist. 

 

The seat armour for the pilot's seat:

 

 

I always make 2, as the second one is usually better...

 

And installed behind the seat. Also, looking at my references, it seems the two aerials on the top of the fuselage in the kits aren't quite correct. The front one seems more like a pole, and the rear one is a blade-type, and offset to starboard slightly.

 

 

 

I've also got all the gubbins for the bombsight and nose .50 Cal in place. The external ball mount was made from a rounded off section of pre-drilled plastic rod. I also made a shelf for the bombsight computer - I'm guessing it had some sort of support frame, but it was too late to add anything more complicated.

 

 

 

And finally for this update, I've added the trailing aerial lead on the lower port-side fuselage:

 

 

I used the trick of dipping the end of a length of plastic rod into black paint, waiting for it to dry, repeat until you have enough paint to make a rounde shape on the end.

 

So, FW199 is almost done. Wingtip lights, glazing to add, and of course the turret...gulp!

 

More soon

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Simon

[Simon]

Hello again

 

Another small update, this time turret-related...

 

I finally bit the bullet (no pun intended...) and decided to have a look at the turrets for my two Mitchells. I'd been putting this part off, partly as I wasn't 100% sure how it would go, but I finally told myself to get on with it, so here goes:

 

Here's my kit of parts, ready to go together:

 

 

The turret column and ammo boxes are from the kit, with added seat, and two new brackets on the top. Guns are Eduard, the rest scratch-built.

 

So, guns and used ammo chutes added:

 

 

And the bags for the used links, plus gunsight frame and gunsight itself:

 

 

The biggest faff-on was trying to do the actual ammo belts feeding into the guns from the ammo boxes. They followe a convoluted up, round and then under shape, which I tried to replicate using some of Eduard's Ammunition Belts, but they just wouldn't bend and curve to the right shape. So Plan B was to print some ammo belts onto thin paper, then back these with some slef-adhesive copper foil I had in the stash. This worked a bit better, as they were easier to bend and kept their shape. Not as good as Eduard's photo etch ammo, but I think should look okay:

 

 

 

 

Finally, here it is with the glazing on:

 

 

 

 

Overall, not too bad. A few minor tweaks needed, I think, and then the other one to make...

 

More soon.

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[don f]

Hi Simon,

 

The upper turret is a gem.  Thanks for showing how you solved the ammo feed for the guns.  Pictures saved for my future projects.

 

Don

[rob85]

These build are fantastic, I love the b-25 and the new airfix kit. Really odd seeing your short shots, this must be a later run thing? I picked up one of the first boxing and have another early boxing and both had no issues. Sounds like the process is slipping back which is a massive shame.

 

I live the paintwork and techniques you have used, especially the D-Day stripes! The upper ones that are scrubbed off look fantastic.

 

cheers 

 

Rob

[Simon]

Thank you for the kind words. I must say I'm disappointed in some of the moulding issues aand I reckon the Airfix Spares Dept must be pretty fed up with hearing from me...! They did ask which batch number the kits came from (the label on the back of the box), so I think you're right Rob, I reckon it may be an issue with a certain run.

 

Looking at the photos of the turret, I've just noticed that the right hand gun needs the end trimming off.

 

Simon

[Thom216]

Real nice solution for the ammo belts. They look good.

[TonyOD]

Just came across you build(s), superb work and I'll be following your future progress with great interest. I'm becoming a bit of a B-25 fanboy and have accumulated kits for four different variants, including your Mk II which likewise came to me from Amazon with a label despoiling Mr Tooby's outstanding artwork! I have to say I'm surprised at the number of problems with the mouldings you've come across, I was under the impression these recent Airfix toolings were pretty much state of the art and ought to go together like Lego!

[Simon]

Hello again

 

Back with a quite short update. Been busy getting on with FL-210, so not much actual progress to report.

 

Anyway, I've added the completed first turret to FW199, and it looks pretty good:

 

 

 

Next up, some decisions to make. FL-210 is a much earlier B-25C, so presumably would have been painted in early Olive Drab 41 rather than later Olive Drab 613 as FW199 is. Having read some of the threads on here, it seems OD can be a bit of a minefield. So, I've bought a slection of vesions of OD from various manufacturers, and tested them out.

 

Here's my swatch with six options (with a fair degree of variation...!!):

 

 

XA are Xtracrylix, AV are Vallejo and LC are LifeColor. All are sprayed on a grey primer base with some pre-shading. Here's the swatch compared to FW199, painted in XA1112 OD 613:

 

 

I'm going with XA1111, and LifeColor 005 for the fabric surfaces.

 

Meanwhile, just as a matter of interest, I came across this photo of well-known Mitchell FL176 'Grumpy' of 98 Squadron on the IWM website from May 1944:

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205211450

 

Note that it has the single short exhausts and smooth cowlings, as with other FL- serialled Mitchells. However, in the exellent book 'Mitchell Masterpieces Volume 2' by Wim Nijenhuis, on page 30 there is a photo of 'Grumpy' with the Clayton-S exhaust cowlings with the multiple exhaust outlets fitted. This photo from August 1944 on the IWM website also seems to show it with the Clayton exhausts:

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205210585

 

I think you can just see one of the exhaust outlets at the bottom of the cowling. I asked Dave Poissant at the 2nd TAF Medium Bombers Assocation, and he told me that some (most/all/any that survived that long...?) early Mitchells were retro-fitted with the revised exhaust layout as the original single exhaust emitted a long blue exhaust flame which was obviously unsuitable for night Ops. Factory kits were supplied to be retro-fitted in the field. Presumably the replacement cowlings and panels on the nacelles would have been in OD 613, rather than OD 41...

 

Simon

 

 

[TonyOD]

Looking great, and commendable attention to detail. I don’t look any further than Humbrol 155 when OD is called for. 😁

[Simon]

4 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

Looking great, and commendable attention to detail. I don’t look any further than Humbrol 155 when OD is called for. 😁

 

I didn't even think of that one - I think I have a tinlet of it somewhere...

[don f]

That detail inside that turret really stands out.  An outstanding job.

 

I would not spend too much time trying to find the perfect OD paint.  I'll tread lightly now as I don't want to be flamed or cause this thread to drift into the black hole of the Olive Drab.  Dana Bell in his book, "Aircraft Pictorial 9: Aircraft Painting Guide Vol. 1" discusses the development of Dark Olive Drab 41.  On page 5, he states, "No manufacturer's test sample of Dark Olive Drab was ever rejected for failing to match the color standards."  Regarding ANA 613 Olive Drab, he writes, "With an acceptable Dark Olive Drab already in production, few paint companies saw any need to switch to the ANA Olive Drab before the war's end."  I like Humbrol 108, discontinued I think, to represent what I consider to be a fresh Dark Olive Drab 41.

 

If you have access to the IPMS Magazine, dated September, 1971, you will find an interesting article written by Mr. Malcolm Scott, a Navigator/Bomb Aimer 180 Squadron.  His article contains his recollections of the paint colors of the Mitchells and anecdotes.  His description of the top color can best be described as a grey green.  Long ago I mixed  this color based on his suggestion.  I can dig up the color chip and post an image of it and mix directions if anyone is interested.  I'm curious to know if this color falls within the range of the commercially available OD model paints.

 

Don

 

 

[Simon]

Hello again

 

Back with another update...

 

FL-210 is now painted, and D-day stripes applied, decalled up and weathered. I used a slightly different method for the worn-away stripes, using a sponge this time with the white and black watercolour pencils.

 

 

 

I've used Xtracrylix XA1111 for the OD 41, and Vallejo 043 for the faded fabric control surfaces. Some weathering for the exhausts, and the 'replacment' engines are in Xtracrylix XA1112. I've also decided to have the flaps drooped, juts to add a bit of difference to FW199. Mitchells didn't seem to have these dropped when parked that often, but i did find a couple of photos with them like this.

 

While doing the decals I noticed that FW199 and FL-210 seemed to have different sized roundels, being larger on FL-210 for both the fuselage sides and wing uppers. The fuselage ones on FW199 are smaller than the ones I've already applied, so off they came, and new ones applied:

 

 

Here are the ones I've added to FL-210, showing how much larger they are:

 

 

So, all painted, and on to the fiddly bits. Here are the bits and pieces for the front of the nose compartment:

 

 

I've added a bracket for the ammunition box on the kit's .30 Cal, and the barrel is a Master GM-72001. The item on the left is the storage bracket for the gun, which sits on the right hand side of the bomb aimer's compartment. Bomb sight is scratch-built as with the one on FW199, and I've opted not to use the spent link bag, mostly as there just isn't room...

 

I also added a compass to the cockpit glazing interior. It's a standard RAF P4, but mounted upside down with a mirror on a bracket. You can see it in situ on photos of Mitchell II 'Grumpy' of 98 Sqn.

 

 

And I'd just got everything sorted when I realised the B-25B kit boxing doesn't come with an astrodome to go above the radio operator/nav compartment. Curses...no luck in the spares box, and I'm completely incapable of moulding that sort of thing. Believe me, I've tried.

 

So, desperate measures - I got a length of clear acrylic rod, rounded off the end, and then cut it down to size. Three goes to get it right (acryclic rod is very hard...!), and of course it's solid, but I'm pretty happy with the result:

 

 

Bomb sight and computer in, yet more weight squeezed in behind the instrument panel:

 

 

Finally for today, I've got the three lights udner the forward fuselage in, and the two lights in the tailcone:

 

 

 

Everything's just about done, I'm just ticking the fiddly things off the checklist and adding the the final bits and bobs...

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TonyOD]

That's looking fantastic. I envy the precision of your canopy framing!

[Simon]

19 hours ago, TonyOD said:

That's looking fantastic. I envy the precision of your canopy framing!

 

Funny you should say that - the masks didn't come off 100% cleanly, which is a bit annoying. I'm not going to repaint them, as I've already used three sets of Eduard's masks

 

Anyway, final update before moving this to RFI. Here are a couple of additions to the nose glazing - the side mount for the 30 calibre gun (maybe oversized a bit), and what I assume is a windscreen de-icer spray nozzle on top:

 

 

The cockpit glazing also has what I think must be a rain dispersal strip in front of the pilot's window, which I made from a section of triangle-profile plastic strip:

 

 

You can see the compass in situ inside and that the masks have taken some of the paint off, which is a shame.

 

Then there were the fuel dump pipes to add at the rear of the nacelles. On the early Mitchell IIs these seem to be longer and thinner than the later ones, and a right faff-on to install, I can tell you...

 

 

All that's left are the three pole aerials (one under the nose, one behind the cockpit and a slightly shorter one forward of the turret) and a whip aerial behind that, and then I think I'm all done.

 

I've done a base for the two Mitchells, with a couple of photos of Ted Burn courtesy of David Poissant, photos of FL-210 and FW199, excerpts from the 180 Sqn ORB and a few newspaper clippings.

 

Cheers

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

 

[Simon]

All done now:

 

Thank you to everyone for their help and encouragment - it's been very much appreciated. 

 

Cheers

Simon