**** DONE: GB-52 1:72 North American B-25J Mitchell - Heavy Hitters IV

[Wurger]

 

[Totalize]

Nose section mostly complete. As mentioned in a previous post Hasegawa/Eduard do not provide bombardier's panel in the kit so I had to scratch one. Here it is. I still have to add the nose MG and ammo belt and glass nose. Also, I removed some paint on the floor at the front section which is where the Norden Bombsight will be placed. The radio dials were taken from ANYZ 1/48 cockpit decals set.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking really nice there Dave.

 

[fubar57]

Some nice finicky work Dave

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Wayne Little]

yep, looking real nice...!

 

[Totalize]

Thanks Boys!

 

[Totalize]

The subject. 428th BS, 310 BG, USAAF 12th Airforce Corsica, Italy 1945. First photo. Doesn't look like there's any Perspex in the cockpit or nose?

Coming in for a hard landing.

Down.

 

[Wurger]

Doesn't look like there's any Perspex in the cockpit or nose?

Actually it does look like.

 

[Airframes]

Very possible, although hard to tell. The nose escape hatch is certainly missing, and it may be that other Perspex panels have been "canibalised" for use as spares. The photo looks like it might have been taken during / after recovery from the belly landing - note what appears to be a crane or lifting jib in the background.

 

[Maty12]

Very possible, although hard to tell. The nose escape hatch is certainly missing, and it may be that other Perspex panels have been "canibalised" for use as spares. The photo looks like it might have been taken during / after recovery from the belly landing - note what appears to be a crane or lifting jib in the background.

I think you're onto something. Landing gear door also seems to be missing, either the entire assembly or just the small door that stays open when the gear is down.

 

[Totalize]

I agree gents. Crane in background missing landing gear door. I would say it's a definite possibility the colour photo is a post crash one.

 

[N4521U]

Very nice work.

 

[Totalize]

Thanks Guys.

Here she is in her bare aluminum paint finish. As you guys know when doing an all aluminum aircraft you are constantly fighting with sanding scratches, ghost seams, filler issues, poor paint coverage all of which show up exponentially in a bare aluminum paint scheme. It's taken a lot of time to get this stage but she's just about done. The painting of the wings wet great but the top of fuselage gave me fits. I have a few minor fixes to do there but I am mostly happy with the result. I also have some aluminum pigments I am going to use to polish some of the areas as well just to give it some variation. the polish tends to make some the areas darker. The wings and vertical stabs are just dry fitted at this stage.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking very good I guess you have enough confidence in the wing fit to leave it for after painting.

 

[Totalize]

Andy, Wing fit is very good. Won't tank much to hold everything in place.

 

[SaparotRob]

Looks great from here.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Looking good.