Finished Photos of Accurate Miniatures 1/48 North American B-25B Mitchell Bomber-Doolittle Raid/Ruptured Duck

[phillip1]

Fellow Modelers,

 

Below are photos of my Accurate Miniatures 1/48 scale North American Mitchell B-25B bomber built as one of the “Doolittle Raiders”, built in 2007.  The markings represent the “Ruptured Duck” (Plant No. 7) flown by Lt. Ted Lawson.  The plane carried the standard Army camouflage scheme of the day, being olive drab upper surfaces and neutral gray lower surfaces separated by a blended demarcation line.  The references I relied on the most were the U.S. Navy photographs taken of the planes during the sea voyage before the mission, and a 20 minute video on the history of the U.S.S. Hornet (CV8) purchased many years ago.  The “Ruptured Duck” can be identified in two separate photographs and shows the upper surface paint job to be in good condition with minimal wear and chipping.  The olive drab paint on some of the Doolittle planes had a noticeable amount of deterioration.

 

Kit modifications included:

> Photo-etched and masking tape seat belts were added to the cockpit seats.  Shoulder straps were not used on the Doolittle planes.

>Added two formation lights (white on the left and red on the right) at the very end of the fuselage.     

>Added .10” sheet styrene on top of the fuselage behind the turret to represent reinforcing plate.  This was a “field fix” to protect the fuselage skin from damage caused by shock blasts of the .50 caliber machine guns being fired while pointing straight back.

>The wings were corrected by first removing two sets of raised marker lights.  Correct “B” model lights were represented by drilling holes in the center of the tips approximately 3/8” from the end.  The three formation lights on the lower side of the right wing were filled in with superglue and sanded away.  The fuel vent stubs were cut off from the end of both engine nacelles.  Finally, the openings of the engine cowlings looked too small, so sandpaper was used to enlarge them from 11/16” to 3/4”

>Sanded away the kit’s diamond treads off the tires.

>Added prop blade stenciling near the hubs.

>Scratch built a M7 Cluster Incendiary bomb made out of 1” long small styrene strips that were bundled together with pieces of masking tape representing the straps.

>The resin carrier deck section is from a company called "Just Plain Stuff".  I do not know if they are still in business.  It was painted per the instructions that came with the deck.

This is a really well detailed kit, with my biggest complaint being that the subassemblies fit together poorly requiring a lot of gap filling.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Phillip1

 

 

 

[binbrook87]

What a beautiful build. Trying to turn a relatively plain camouflage scheme into something interesting isn't easy but you've pulled it off with some superb paintwork and shading. A really fantastic end result of a very historical aircraft 👍👍

[SAT69]

6 hours ago, binbrook87 said:

What a beautiful build. Trying to turn a relatively plain camouflage scheme into something interesting isn't easy but you've pulled it off with some superb paintwork and shading. A really fantastic end result of a very historical aircraft 👍👍

I have to agree!

[phillip1]

binbrook87/SAT69-Thanks very much for the compliments!

 

Phillip1