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

[Airframes]

Thanks again Paul. There might be some info needed nearer the end of the build, concerning radio and IFF antenna, although I think I'm about up to speed in that area. Also, as it's RAF specific, the info might not be in publications designed for the American aircraft.

Anyway, here's where things stand by close of play tonight. I had to stop, as my hands, wrists and shoulders were really painful, due to the sawing and delicate 'finger work' required for the masking etc.

PICS 1 to 3 show the tail gunner's canopy being cut at its leading edge, to reduce the curvature and align the moulded frames to more closely represent the earlier canopy, which had less glazing, and a 'steeper' curve into the 'metal' fairing.
PIC 4. The canopy and fairing placed in the approximate position where it will sit when properly fitted. The interior will have to be painted first, both within the canopy and fairing, and inside the tail-planes section, and a gun sight needs to be fabricated and fitted at this stage too, along with a half bulkhead between fairing and glazing.
Once that's done, the 'solid' fairing will be blended into the line of the glazing, using 'Milliput' to mould the contours of the shorter, more acutely angled 'solid' fairing. The assembly will then be set aside until the construction stage is reached, when the interior detail will be added to the rear fuselage and gunner's position.
PIC 5 and 6. This is the floor as provided in the kit, which will need to be cut and re-modelled, discarding much of the plastic, as the real aircraft did not have a 'straight-through' floor, as will be seen in the next stages.
PIC 7. In the forward section, new bulkheads, some floor areas, and the bomb-bay roof, need to be fabricated, and fitted as shown by the red lines. The white hatches denote where a 'wall' will be fitted, creating the nose wheel well on the starboard side (which will be filled with lead weights), and the crawl-way tunnel between the cockpit and the nose compartment on the port side, visible through the nose glazing..
The yellow crosses show where the kit floor will be removed, and a 'U' shaped well created above the front entrance hatch.
PIC 8. Again, the red lines indicate the positions of the new floor, bulkheads and bomb-bay roof , with the white crosses showing the areas of the kit floor which need to be removed.
The yellow arrows show the small windows which need to be filled, and the apertures for the retractable Bendix turret and the gun well, which will be covered by a 'blanking plate', provided in the kit, and the joint lines filled and sanded to eliminate any evidence of the redundant turret location.
Once the tail gun cupola has been attended to, and given my hands still behave, work can start on cutting the plastic to make the bulkheads etc, and at last, some construction work can begin.

Thanks again for your interest and encouragement, and I hope to post another up-date some time tomorrow.

 

[T Bolt]

Looks like you're moving along pretty good Terry

 

[fubar57]

Lots of good stuff here.


Geo

 

[Capt. Vick]

How are your hands holding up brother?

 

[Wayne Little]

doin great Terry!

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

Wow... that's some cool stuff Terry! Looks like we've got ringside tickets for some major surgery on the Mitchell!

 

[Micdrow]

Awesome job so far Terry. Looking great

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Terry!

 

[Donivanp]

I dear say Old Boy, you must have a PHD in Plastics. Fine surgeon you turned out to be, The question is, when Franken bomber is finished, how much original kit will be left? I dare say not much.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much indeed chaps, and you're almost right Don - not much of the interior will be as per the kit !
I'm afraid no further progress has been made - hands and wrists too darned stiff, and spent most of the last two days in bed, hurting all over.
Maybe get some done over the weekend - I hope !

 

[Airframes]

Well, I've managed to make the first cuts on the kit floor, separating the cockpit area deck from the rest of the kit part, and measuring up for the placement of floor supports, the rear cockpit half bulkhead, and the 'wall' between the wheel bay and crawl way tunnel. Not much to show as yet, so I haven't bothered with photos, which will be posted when there's more to see.
It looks like this is going to be a little more complicated than expected, due mainly to the kit's construction sequence, and the way some parts fit, but I don't think it'll be too much bother - I hope !
The tricky part is getting all the fabricated parts in the nose to line up, as I'll be working in four areas around the nose bulkhead, tunnel wall, rear cockpit half bulkhead, and the nose section itself, which is a separate, complete moulding in the form of a 'tub'.
Allowance has to be made for the tunnel wall and floor to match-up with the hatch and floor on the nose section, whilst at the same time allowing access to add as much weight as possible into the void on the starboard side of the forward fuselage and, if possible, beneath the floor of the nose section.
It's more a case of measure, cut, test fit, adjust etc etc, than difficult, and after a few hours of this, my hands, wrists and arms are really aching. But I now have a better idea of how to go ahead, and have also planned the sequence for detailing the nose section, including how to get the ammo feed to join up with the nose gun (more surgery required on the transparent parts!) when that stage is reached.
Once this area has been completed in its basic form, work can begin on fabricating and adding the front and rear bomb bay bulkheads, and measuring up and cutting the floor for the waist area and rear fuselage. Internal detailing, where required, can then follow.
I am now certain that it would have been easier, and quicker, to build a MkIII, out of the box, using the 'J' kit, and one of these days, I will stick to my promise to myself to do more OOB !!!
Hopefully, given my hands recover, I'll have something to show sometime tomorrow.

 

[JKim]

Yes, an OOB build would've most definitely been easier on the hands! Hope you feel better Terry... this build is a great watch for me!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks John, glad you're enjoying it.
My hands and wrists are still rather stiff and painful, and I've suddenly started with yet another cold, which is slowing things down a bit. But I'm making some progress, albeit slow, and hope to post some pics later this evening.

 

[Airframes]

OK, here's a couple of pics. Not much to show for around three hours work, but most of the time was spent test fitting, aligning parts, and measuring angles etc.
The half bulkhead at the rear of the flight deck, which incorporates the hatch to the crawl way tunnel, has been cut from plastic sheet, using a contour gauge for the basic shape, and then checking this against the similar part from the B-25J kit, which was then used as a template to mark the outline onto the plastic sheet.
Strips of plastic were glued to the fuselage wall, to provide a locating ridge for the cockpit floor section, cut from the kit part, and the floor was then tacked in place, with the bulkhead also tacked onto the floor and fuselage, to check for fit and any interference between the two halves of the fuselage, which were joined and held in place temporarily by masking tape.
When satisfied that the rough shape was acceptable, reinforcing strips were added across the width of the bulkhead, on both sides, the inner face also acting as a location rib for the floor, and vertical strips attached around the edges of the hatch opening.
With the floor and bulkhead tacked into the approximate position, the area for the tunnel wall, separating the tunnel from the nose wheel well, was then measured, allowing for the slight rise between the rear and front of the wall, and plastic sheet cut to shape, and test-fitted.
The temporary assembly was then removed from the fuselage half, and the wall glued in place, with a backing strip of plastic used as a location 'ridge', and also acting as reinforcement for the two parts.
Next step is to temporarily fit the kit part for the forward bulkhead, between the nose compartment and main fuselage, and then make and fit the floor of the tunnel. Once this has been done, the whole assembly will once again be temporarily fitted to the starboard fuselage half, when it will be more rigid, and the currently 'rough' curvature of the upper section of the rear, scratch-built bulkhead will be sanded to final shape, to eliminate the rough edges, and create the curve of the frame, the latter being continued up the fuselage walls by adding plastic strip to represent the frames.
Once that job has been completed, some detail in the form of the emergency landing gear hydraulic hand pump, and the hydraulic and brake accumulator cylinders, will be scratch-built and fitted to the lower, starboard side of the rear bulkhead, to the right of the tunnel hatch.
The assembly will then be set aside (the cockpit detail will be added later), whilst a similar exercise will be undertaken to fabricate the forward bomb bay bulkhead and the front entrance well areas, which will include the 'jump seat', nav table, and radio and 'Gee' equipment fittings etc.
Although this area will receive some detail, it will be kept to a minimum, as not that much will be visible through the canopy (which is rather thick), side windows, astrodome, and floor hatch, but omitting the basics would be noticeable by their absence.
All being well, I hope to be able to continue with this area over the next couple of days, and get down to some 'proper' construction and detail work.

Apologies for a somewhat long and involved post, and thanks again for the continued interest in this project.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff Terry. Hope that leaves enough space for adequate nose weights.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy.
I think there should be enough room for a lot of lead up front, in the void on the starboard side, which continues up to the 'roof' of the forward fuselage, as well as some (very small) space beneath the nose compartment floor, and in the entrance well, beneath the floor and the angled section of the radio compartment / bomb bay bulkhead. I'll also do a balance check when the wings are fitted, to see if the extreme front section of the bomb bay will be far enough forward of the C of G to allow more weight to be placed there, as the bomb bay doors will be fitted in the closed position.
If not, then Mr. Superglue will have to come to the rescue, as the finished model will be built into a simple diorama, and it can be fixed to the display base !
The Revell B-25J kit suggests 40 grammes of weight in the crawl-way tunnel, so I think I should be able to exceed that amount in the larger space of the nose wheel bay, the doors of which are closed, with the exception of the small door, or flap, at the nose gear leg, when the aircraft is on the ground.

 

[Crimea_River]

Sounds like you have it sorted.

 

[Catch22]

Great stuff in here!

 

[Wayne Little]

Well done Terry!