1/48th Mitchell II - Allied Advance and Defense of the Reich WWII.

Nice of you to say so Paul, thanks !

Your welcome my friend!!!

Thoes seats are looking much better Terry and your going to love thoes MM paints once you've tried them. Are they not available over there?

Great work so far Terry!

Thanks Glenn and Hugh.

Glenn, yes, MM paints are available in the UK, but not locally, unfortunately. Anything other than Humbrol I have to order on-line, and many outlets have a minimum order for paints, or they have to be ordered with a kit. But, once I've used them, and get accustomed to what the colours look like, I'll probably convert to them, and order in batches, along with the Xtracolor gloss paints I use now and then.
Just a bit of a pain if I suddenly run out of a colour, in which case it'll have to be Humbrol from the LHS.

I've put the fuselage (and nose section) aside for the time being, whilst I concentrate on the wings, and also make the master, and mould, for the Mk.XIV bomb sight computer(s).
As the resin cowlings will need to be fitted to the kit engine and nacelle parts, I thought it best to sort out any possible problem areas first, because if they don't fit for whatever reason, then all the work to date would be wasted. I had thought that I could just cut the cowl flaps rings and carb intakes from the kit parts, and graft these on to the resin cowlings, but Mr Murphy and his Book of Laws has decided otherwise !
I spent a long time studying and contemplating which way to remove the kit cowl flaps, but a trial cut confirmed my suspicions - that they'd separate into individual flaps when the saw went to work.
So, on to Plan B, and measure-up the resin cows against the flaps, carb intakes and kit nacelles, and check, by dry fitting, that the resin cowls will fit over the engines themselves, before taking the razor saw to the carb intakes only.
Once the engines have been fitted, and some preparation work completed on the front of the nacelles, a ring will need to be made and fitted to the front of the nacelles, onto which the resin cowlings and individual cowl flaps can then be fixed. The flaps will be made from thin plastic card, or possibly very thin aluminium from litho printing plates and, given this works the way I hope it will work, it might be possible to make and fit the cowl flap actuators too.
The front sections of the kit carb intakes will then be trimmed and adapted to fit the recess in the resin cowlings, and the rear of the carb intake, moulded as part of the nacelle.
Having sorted that plan, further work was carried out on the inside of the port wing, adding the oil tank, oil cooler trunking, finishing the oil cooler intake, and making and fitting the landing lamp and passing lamp.

PIC 1. The oil tank, filler pipe and hatch in the port engine nacelle. Each engine had an oil tank with a capacity of 34 gallons, which fed the engine, and the propeller feathering pump. On the model, this will have the hatch cover added, and will be seen being 'topped up' in the final diorama.
PIC 2. Seen here, from the left, the red 'passing lamp', fitted to the port wing only, the landing lamp and housing, and the forward section of the oil cooler intake trunking.
The 'passing lamp' is a piece of rounded, clear sprue, with the tip painted in red, transparent paint, whilst the landing lamp is a slice of plastic tube with a disc of aluminium kitchen foil set into it, the assembly enclosed by plastic card 'walls'. The oil cooler trunking is just three very basic walls of scrap plastic card, to form the two intake trunks, with the central wall being fully visible through the intake in the wing leading edge.
PIC 3. The view of the completed wing leading edge - the clear lamp cover will be fitted once the wing has set, having first masked the part. A wing locating pin was destroyed when cutting the opening for the lamps and oil cooler, hence the very small gap in the joint. This will all be sanded smooth, and filled if needed, before the painting stage.
PIC 4. The carb intake has been removed from the kit's port engine cowling, which still has the cowl flaps attached. The resin cowling, with the individual exhaust stub fairings, will need to have individual cowl flaps made and fitted once it's fixed to the nacelle.

The starboard wing will be tackled next, with the oil cooler intake and landing lamp being constructed the same way, although there is no 'passing lamp' this time. The signal / identification lamps under the wing tip however, will be counter sunk, to be painted and glazed after the main paint scheme has been applied.
Given that I can satisfy myself that the resin-to- kit engine adaptation will work properly, then once the wings have been finished, and the prep work on the nacelles and resin cowlings done, then attention can return to the fuselage and nose section, when I hope to be able to mould the bomb sight computer in resin, and add this, and other scratch-built detail, to the nose compartment, before fitting the completed nose section to the fuselage.
With a bit of luck, I might get most of this done over the weekend. I hope so, as I expected to be much further advanced by now.

Thanks again for your continued interest, and I'll post more up-dates sometime over the weekend.

Very nice.

Sweet work.

Thanks chaps !
All being well, I should have an undisturbed afternoon and evening to work on the wings, test-fitting the cowling adaptation design, and, hopefully make the master for the bomb sight computer. If I can complete the latter job, then it's fingers more crossed than usual, and make the mould, and try a trial cast in resin.
As the part is relatively small (approximately 8 x 11 x 4 mm) and fairly plain, and the mould and casting materials need to be mixed in equal quantities by weight, there'll be excess of both, so I'll probably make two or three moulds for the computer, plus a couple of others for 'Gee' sets, and cast two or three of each.
If they work out well, or at least reasonable, then I'll also make masters for SCR radios (for Mosquitos), and H2s sets, the latter to go into the Tamiya Lancaster, when I get around to building it.
With a bit of luck, fingers and hands permitting, I might get the Mitchell nose section completed by the end of the weekend. If the moulding of the bomb sight computer goes t*ts up, then I'll just use the master for now, rather than delay the build further. The other computers, needed for a second Mitchell, the Lanc and a B-24, can be made at a later date.

I'll try to post more pics sometime later tonight.

What a pleasure it is to see your craftsmanship after such a long modeling hiatus Terry!

Thanks very much indeed Andy !
I'm enjoying being 'back in the swing of things', although I thought I would have been further ahead by now. It's just slow work, partly due to the nature of what's involved, and partly due to stiffness, and muscle aches after sitting in one position for more than half an hour.
Anyway, the detail and correction work on the wings is almost complete, with just a final bit of carving and sanding required.
I spent a lot of the time at the bench working out exactly which way to fit the resin cowlings and the 'adapter ring' for the cowl flaps, and din't get started on any real work until around 20.30 hrs.
Five hours later, and I've reached the stage mentioned above, and shown in the pics below.

PICS 1 to 3. The oil cooler exhausts on the starboard wing are raised blisters, which have been moulded 'solid', so these needed to be opened up at the rear end, trimmed and cleaned up, and then blanked-off inside the wing, after painting the internal area in yellow 'zinc chromate'. As can be seen in the pics, first stage was to drill a few holes across the rear face of each 'blister', and then cut through the holes to make an opening. This was then trimmed and filed to achieve the semi-circular opening required.
PIC 4. The scrap of white plastic is covering the openings, to prevent 'see through' from the intake in the wing leading edge. As with the port wing, the forward end of the intake ducting has been cobbled together with strips of plastic card, and the landing lamp was made the same way as before. Note that there is no 'passing lamp' on this side.
Both areas have been painted in yellow 'zinc chromate', as has the area which will form the roof of the main wheel bays, not that much of this will be seen when the model is finished.
PIC 5. The I.D. / Signal lamps in the underside of the starboard wing tip have been drilled out and filed, and backed with plastic strip, and will be painted and glazed after painting the model. The small indentation outboard of the lights is for the navigation lamp, one on top and bottom of each wig tip, and again these will be painted and glazed later.
PIC 6. The starboard oil cooler intake has a slightly bulged fairing on the bottom edge. To replicate this, a piece of plastic card was first glued in place, and allowed to fully set for a couple of hours.
PIC 7. Here work has commenced on carving, filing and sanding the plastic to match the shape of the fairing. There's a lot more to do to this part yet, but my hands, wrists and shoulders had had enough by this stage, so it will be finished off tomorrow. Once that's done, the wing halves will be joined, and the joints sanded and polished.

With a bit of luck, I might get most of the nose section done tomorrow, although I'm not sure if I'll get the bomb sight computer done. The master will probably need a couple of hours work at least, but as I'm uncertain how long it will take to make the mould, and then mould the part and wait for it to cure, I'll just carry on with the other detail, and make and fit the computer as and when it's done.

Thanks again to all for the kind remarks and continued interest, and I'll be back soon.

The magic continues.

Thanks again, Wojtek and Andy.

I didn't get anywhere near as much time at the bench as I'd hoped today, so not that much done.
I did, however, get the fairing beneath the starboard oil cooler intake finished, and it just needs final 'blending' once the wings are joined.

PICS 1 to 3 Show the plastic 'lump' after carving, filing and sanding. Once the wings are joined, this will be improved, with a touch of filler at that little 'nick' seen on the left. A coat or two of primer should smooth out the whole thing, blending it into the lines of the wing.

Got a lot of 'running around' to do tomorrow, so not sure how much work I'll get done, but I hope to at least make a start on the nose compartment, and maybe get that bomb sight computer sorted.
Back soon.

Jolly good!

Looks like your slowly getting there Terry. Keep at it!

Your doing lots of work there Terry! All of those bits and pieces are adding up to a greatly detailed build! Great work on a vintage kit!

Thanks chaps !
About to get back to the bench once I've finished on the forum.

Work was a bit slow tonight, as my hands are rather stiff and far from steady. But I've joined the wing, and taken care of that little notch in the side of the oil cooler intake, and moved on to the nose section, adding the basic frame detail.

PIC 1. The parts provided for the nose section, minus the .50 cal Browning, which had been removed from this Squadron's aircraft by the date portrayed. Note the 'Pullman' seat, far from accurate for the nose of a Mitchell.
PIC 2. The raised locating point for that seat needs to be removed.
PIC 3. And here it has been removed, and the seat has been cut up, using a shortened, and thinned-down part for the backrest which fits onto the bulkhead, and a thinned down seat squab, which will have a tubular frame added before fitting to the bulkhead.
PIC 4. Adding the frames to the nose compartment interior, using plastic strip and square-section rod, tapered to fit at the top rail and the floor. The position of the frames was taken from the frames moulded on the canopy, marked with a marker pen onto the nose section.
PIC 5. The quilted padding has been added, again using the textured foil from packets of pain killers.

Next step is to paint the 'padding', then add the (empty) rack for the ammo boxes on the starboard side, and make and fit the mounting brackets for the bomb sight computer, and the repeater instrument panel and bomb selector panels. These will then be painted, before making the instruments, and the bomb sight, and fitting them in place. Once that's done, the canopy needs to have the frames modified, and have a good polish, before fitting it to the nose section.
Back soon with some more up-date pics.