I have started Accurate Miniatures B-25D Mitchell, "Dirty Dora" which, as you probably know, sports neat "Bat Outa Hell" strafer markings. I'm building this kit for the "Show Your Teeth" (SYT) campaign. It will be straight outa the box and I'm going to concentrate on the painting, using my own "method" of pre-shading, which I hope will give interest to the olive drab camo, we shall see. I have seen several of these kits built up and they all look very good. The difference I haope to achieve will be in the weathering of the painted over clear parts, but more about that when the time comes.
I am following AM instructions, which are very logical, but I will be deviating from them as regards painting the nose, maybe, to achieve my aim.
The cockpit assembly, I will paint it before attaching the seats, control columns and instrument panel. Oddly the instrument panel decals are absent from the decal sheet, I have been sent a scan of the item (thanks again Rowan) but I might try a different approach.


The Navigator station and the bomb bay.


The Navigator station and the bomb bay, temporarily, fiited into the port fuselage half, to help alignment and to check positioning. Fits perfectly.


The cockpit temporarily fitted to check positioning.


The upper gun turret assembly, which will be finally assembled after painting. I have filled the slots in the catridge collection bags, these are there to prevent sinkage when moulded.


Mal

Looking good there Mal. I have 2 of the A.M B25's in my stash (one half built). They are an absolute joy to build. But i must warn you, be extremely careful with the front undercarriage leg as they are very delicate and break easily ( i know from experience, i have broke it from each kit ).
Andy (++)

Yea Andy I have heard about the nose leg, can it be fitted during final construction, or does it have to be in place before the fuselage halves are closed?
Mal

Hi Mal, i don't think you will be able to fit the leg after assembly as there isn't much room once the weights and interior are fitted. Here is a couple of pics which shows the leg in place after the fuselage halves are together. A.M do supply a cutout to protect the leg during assembly (for what its worth).


Andy (++)

Thanks Andy, I figured that would be the case but it's always nice to get it first hand.
When do you plan on finishing yours? I'm building mine for the SYT campaign, are you in? I've also just started a Grand Phynix Fairey Firefly, fo the Flat Tops Campaign, I'll be posting pics of that soon
Mal

Hi Mal, my B25 in the photos is the Doolittle version which i started last year and will probably be completed by the end of the year ( if i get round to it and figure out how to fix the front leg ). It was originally started for the Air over sea campaign.
My SYT entry is a F 86 Sabre. I seem to have been bitten by the early jet bug :-) .
Andy (++)

Andy,
If you can explain, or better still put up a picture to show, how the leg is broke, in the Tips and Tricks forum, we might be able to come up with a solution for you
Mal

Good idea Mal, why didn't i think of that. I'll will post a pic as soon as I've wrestled the camera off the Beloved ( taking pics for E/bay).
Andy (++)
P.S Keep us posted with this build. If you delay this like your other builds i will have to call you Rowan :-) :-) .

LOL, I still build more than Rowan does, I keep telling myself I must finish more. Dirty Dora hasn't been touched for a week (niether has this model :-) )
Mal

Hi Mal.
Looks great so far!
Has Dora got any dirtier yet and did you manage to break the front undercarriage leg on yours yet?

Dora is just as dirty as she has always been and no I haven't broken the front undercarriage leg, yet
Mal

Finally an update, I'm just about to close the fuselage halves. As there was no decal for the instrument panel I painted the front of the panel black, painted the rear white then scratched the dials through the black. Looks OK and you can't see much under the coming anyway. I've not expended a great deal of effort on the interior behind the bomb bay because Dirty Dora had all 5 radio room windows painted out so there is not much to see. I tried the kit seat belt decals, fixing them to wine bottle foil but it didn't work out so I scratched built them out of wine bottle foil and wire. I also scartch built the pilot and co-pilots seat cushions from Revell filler






Mal

Looking good Mal. I'll be watching this build with interest as i have the same kit in my stash ( minus a broken front leg ).
What colour did you use for the interior ?
How are you going to tackle the front undercarriage leg, will you be attaching it per instructions or will you try to get it in after its completed ?
Nice too see you building again, don't suppose their is any chance of this making it to Hinckley :-) .
Andy (++)

The cockpit area is a Revell dark green or Humbrol 117, not sure which, but I'll have to find out for the interior of the cockpit framing It's not 100% accurate but it looks OK, from the rear cockpit frame back is zinc cromate yellow (Xtracolour) and the bomb bay is silver. I don't intend to display this open but I painted it just incase I changed my mind.
The front leg is on, as per instructions, and can be seen in the first pic of the latest 3. Is your eyesight fading Andy? :-)
Yes I'll bring it to Hinckley, should have the fuselage halves closed up by then. Although the nose glass is painted over for the markings I intend to mask and paint the fuselage, and nose area, the basic colours, then remove the masking on the nose glazing, then paint on the "Bat Outa Hell" markings. This is so I can weather back a little to reveal glass and OD frames, in a couple of places.
Mal

I finished the Upper turret and glued the fuselage halves together, I have also glued the wings and tail empenage halves together. I add a piece of mesh into the wing intake, looks cool. The Nose glazing was done last week. AM's supplied brass nose weights are in and secured and I still haven't broken the nose gear leg


Turret glazing was dipped in Klear. There is no need to worry about masking this clear part as the real one didn't have frames. There is a join, but it was where the perspex parts met and was therefor just that, a join.


It looks like the wings will join well with the fuselage so I hope to paint them seperately and join them for weathering. This sould make getting the nose art on a little easier
Mal

Still can't see that front leg :-) :-) .
This is coming along really well.
How was the fit with the fuselage, does it need filling anywhere ?
Andy (++)

Fit is pretty good and I'll be using to glue that I have made ooz out of the joints as filler. There are a few places that will require a minimal amount of filler but nothing like the Komet (see elswhere on this forum).
I hope to have the glass on before Hinckley
Mal

I'm trying to get this ready for the painting stage. Although not alot of filler is required any that is must be applied carefully because of all the surface detail. I masked, close to, either side of the area to be filled, applied the filler, removed the masking, applied more masking before sanding. This method has preserved about 100% of the surface detail, although in places I had to clean filler out of panel lines and rivets etc. I have utilised the kit canopy masking but in some places it had to be cut to fit and in others it does cover. This seemes particularly true of the compound curved pieces, which I have masked with Parafilm M. To be honest it would have probably been easier to just mask with the Parfilm Not included in the pic but masked in the same way are the nose glazing panels. Even though they will be painted over I want to paint them as if they were not over painted so that when I doe over paint them I can weather them back to frames and glass, if you see what I mean?
Andy, yep I have broken off the nose gear leg

I hope to have this ready for painting by the weekend, but I wont be able to start painting it until after as I'm off down to my Brothers, in Brum, to watch the FA cup final No it's not an excuse for a piss up
Mal

Looking good Mal. I have heard that the canopy masks don't fit very well on some of the earlier B-25 kits, the newer ones have redesigned masks. And like yourself i have the non fitting ones :-).
Told you about that leg didn't i. That is a major headache in this kit, i wish someone would produce a metal replacement part for it. Have you figured out how to fix it yet, and please post your remedy to the problem.
Looks like you will have an entry for Junes MOM comp .
So you are off to watch the F.A cup. I am perplexed as no team from the East Midlands or Birmingham is in it :-) . So will you be an honorable Scouser ( if there is such a thing :-) ) or a Hammer.
Andy (++)

LOL, the leg was doing fine, I had been aware of it all the time, since it was fixed, and believed I would be able to get by without damaging it. However when I was cleaning up the top seam I forgot about it and rested the nose on my leg, snap. Luckily I heard it drop into the bin beside my work bench but I had to empty it to find the missing bit. I'm quit happy not to have to worry about it and if I ever build one of these again I'll seperate the leg into 2 halves. The repair should be quite straight forward, although it would be alot easier if I had cut it rather than snapped it. I will drill into each half, and use a short length of wire glued into each half for strength.
I'm not sure if this will be completed for Junes MOM, I have the Royal Fokker and the Me 163 that I must finish first.
It doesn't matter who's playing it's just an excuse for a piss up :-) There'll be me and 2 possibly 3 of my bro's and my Brum bro's 3 mates. A rear projection screen and plenty of beer and eats and bets on verious things like first team to score, first scorer, final score, that sort of thing. After the match we all have a game of Texas hold 'em poker. I'm picking up my Nott's bro on Friday after work (I finish at 14.00) then we are going down to Brum bro's place for a practice drinking session I don't fancy being an honourable(?) Scoucer so I guess I'm for ever blowin' bubbles
Mal