I've finally got a bit more done, although it was very slow, and somewhat painful work, as my hands, particularly the fingers, are still very stiff and painful, and trying to handle small parts has been bl**dy difficult and frustrating.
But enough of my whinging, and back to the Mitchell.
Although not much will be seen of the radio compartment, once the cockpit floor and seats are fitted, enough light gets in to warrant adding at least some semblance of the fittings which would be prominent, and would be missed if not added.
The 'Gee' Indicator and its associated R/F unit have been fabricated from 'Evergreen' channel and plastic sheet, and fitted to the port side of the compartment. I admit that the location of these items is purely a 'guesstimate' on my part, as I have been unable to find
any photos or descriptions of the actual location within the compartment, with only brief mentions of the use of 'Gee' in various publications.
As this unit will be seen only as a dark shape, it has been constructed as a simple box, to the correct dimensions, without any wiring, and only a vague representation of the cathode ray tube screen and controls painted onto the front face - and even that won't be seen once the fuselage is closed up.
PICS 1 and 2 Show the 'Gee' indicator, and the R/F unit (grey, rectangular box) in place.
PICS 3 to 5 Give some idea of what will be visible through the cockpit canopy, with much of this being obscured by the seats, and the distortion of the canopy itself.
PIC 6. Ammo boxes for the waist guns were made, again using 'Evergreen' channel and plastic sheet, and fitted in place. These await the addition of basic attachment brackets, and then they'll be painted.(apologies for the poor pic, and colour balance - I had trouble holding and operating the camera properly).
PIC 7. Spare .50 cal guns from the Revell B-25J kit have had the barrels removed, leaving a short stub to mount in the waist windows, and the flexible ammo feed chutes have been added, using a smaller size of 'Evergreen' plastic channel. Hand grips and the recoil buffer tubes will be scratch-built and fitted, along with ring sights and the counter-balance pulley cables, and then the guns will be painted.
The 'feed chutes' will be bent to link up with the ammo boxes, and painted silver, with the inside of the channel in a brass colour, to represent the rounds.
Swivel mounts will be fitted to the bottom of each gun's receiver, using plastic rod or tube, before mounting the guns through the slots in the waist windows - a job I just
know is going to invent a whole book-full of new swear words!
Once construction is complete, and the model has been painted and decalled, resin gun barrels will be 'Superglued' to the stub barrels, which protrude through the windows by about 2 mm.
PIC 8. Something I almost missed, had it not been for sending some info to Wojtek regarding RAF Mitchells.
A porthole for the strike camera has been drilled and reamed, just aft of the rear entrance hatch, just off-center, on the port side.
On the 'J' model, this was slightly further aft, just in front of the frame where the crawl-way to the tail starts. Close scrutiny of the photo of my subject, shows that, on this aircraft at least, it was further forward. The inside area, beneath the floor, has been painted matt black and, once the model has been painted, the porthole will be glazed, either by punching-out some clear sheet, or, more likely, by using PVA or Humbrol 'Clear Fix', and should pass scrutiny. It wasn't worth the effort to try to add the lens of the F24 camera, because a) it would have been almost impossible to fit it between the floor and the fuselage, and b) it's highly unlikely it would be seen anyway.
I've got to the stage where I'm starting to get impatient, mainly due to the frustration of not being able to get much of the 'fiddly' work done, and want to close-up the fuselage, and move on to the construction of the rest of the model.
Fortunately, once those ammo boxes, guns and feed chutes are painted and installed, there's only the dorsal turret pedestal to scratch-build, which should be fairly straightforward (the turret itself can be attended to later), and the cockpit has to have some basic detail added, before fitting into the starboard fuselage half.
Once that's done, the nose compartment can be detailed and fitted, after adding the nose gear leg, and stuffing the void in the nose with as much lead as can be packed in there, as I know from previous experience with B-25 models, that they need a
lot of weight up front to avoid a 'tail sitter'.
Regarding the rest of the construction, there's quite a bit to do to the wings, as some detail is only represented by engraved or raised lines, and, of course, those resin cowlings have to be adapted to accept the carb intakes and cowl flaps from the kit parts.
Thanks again for following this build, and the next time I announce that I'm going to do a simple conversion, tell me to wake up and join the real world !!!