INTERMEDIATE BUILD
B-25 MITCHELL Mk.II62 Airfi x Model Worldlevel, and aftermarket decals to
portray a Mitchell Mk.II airframe
(as the styrene parts were
common to the first two boxings).
Inner embellishments
With all those detail sets aimed
at improving the interior, this was
the obvious place to start. Scale
Aircraft Conversions’ landing
gear set included white metal
replacement internal parts. These
were simply copies of the Airfix
components, but were much
heavier, which helped with the
issue of where on earth to putall the nose weight to prevent
the model becoming a ‘tail
sitter’. These were incorporated
immediately into a test build of
all main components to make
sure everything slotted together
properly – which it did.
Next came the task of sorting
the various PE components,
followed by constructing and
folding all the tiny boxes, seats
and rudder pedals that would
need to be painted. This included
working on the bomb bay parts,
which featured completely new
inner skins. Initially, I had hoped
to simply attach these to the kit
parts, but it turned out the PEitems had a slightly different
hole pattern. This meant it was
necessary to scrape and sand
the entire inner surfaces of
the doors to fit the two new PE
sections. The replacement liners
were rolled on a suitably sized
paintbrush handle to impart a
curve and then attached with
cyanoacrylate (CA) glue.
Several scratch-built additions
of my own supplemented the PE
extras. Rib detail was added to
blank surfaces around the crew
entry hatch,
using tiny
strips of
plastic card,62 Airfi x Model Worldlevel, and aftermarket decals to
portray a Mitchell Mk.II airframe
(as the styrene parts were
common to the first two boxings).
Inner embellishments
With all those detail sets aimed
at improving the interior, this was
the obvious place to start. Scale
Aircraft Conversions’ landing
gear set included white metal
replacement internal parts. These
were simply copies of the Airfix
components, but were much
heavier, which helped with the
issue of where on earth to putNext came the task of sorting
the various PE components,
followed by constructing and
folding all the tiny boxes, seats
and rudder pedals that would
need to be painted. This included
working on the bomb bay parts,
which featured completely new
inner skins. Initially, I had hoped
to simply attach these to the kit
parts, but it turned out the PEpaintbrush handle to impart a
curve and then attached with
cyanoacrylate (CA) glue.
Several scratch-built additions
of my own supplemented the PE
extras. Rib detail was added to
blank surfaces around the crew
entry hatch,
using tiny
strips of
plastic card,Dressing up
Several aftermarket detailing and accessory sets were incorporated in this project,
since an out-of-the-box build was featured in the January 2018 issue of AMW.
The products used were:
Eduard (www.eduard.com)
CX507 B-25C/D Canopy Mask
72667 B-25C/D Bomb bay
73628 B-25C/D Interior
672 205 B-25 Wheels
Scale Aircraft Conversions (www.scaleaircraftconversions.com)
72156 B-25 Mitchell Landing Gear and Ballast
QuickBoost (www.quickboost.net)
72010 North-American B-25H Mitchell Propeller
Master Model (www.master-model.pl)
AM-72-125 .50 gun barrels (B-17 set)
DK Decals (www.dkdecals.cz)
72043 Mitchell Mk.II/III in RAF service
The combined value of these sets was far in excess of the kit’s cost, and as such
showcasing them in this build allows the modeller to make an informed decision as
to sets they deem worthwhile for their own projects. The most obvious bomb bay upgrade was the new door liners. Since the hole spacing was
different from the kit parts, the doors were shaved and sanded before fitting the new parts. After painting the interior with H-58 US Interior Green, a wash was applied using Paynes
Grey oil paint, which was diluted with odourless turpentine.