GB-55 1/48 B-25D-1 Mitchell - MTO III

Excellent Paul thanks. As far as more detailed photos are concerned, I've made the (for me) difficult decision to avoid detailing non-visible parts of the interior given the limited time left in this GB. I still have the daunting task of modifying the cowl exhausts ahead and I don't really have a clear solution for that yet.

Crimea_River said:

Excellent Paul thanks. As far as more detailed photos are concerned, I've made the (for me) difficult decision to avoid detailing non-visible parts of the interior given the limited time left in this GB. I still have the daunting task of modifying the cowl exhausts ahead and I don't really have a clear solution for that yet.

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No problem, need anything else just howler

Micdrow said:

Correct that movable one is from the 1944 manual. I am guessing my part manual which is 1944 as well may be incomplete....

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Here is a photo from a March 1943 Service Manual, covering early and mid-production B-25C/D models. It shows the same navigator's compartment without the later armoured plate. Note the foldable chart-seat in working position:

Cheers!

One thing I will need to add is the drift meter in the corner. It's quite prominent and visible from the pit. Heck, AM included thermos bottles but not the drift meter!

So this is the scene that greeted me this morning on the bench. Lots of separate mini-projects on the go to move this thing forward.



In the fuselage, you can see that the green chromate has been sprayed. The colour, which is Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green mixed with a few drops of black, looks very brown in these pics but not so much in person. I departed from the instruction sequence by gluing the bomb bay sides to the fuselage halves now so that I could actually glue them to plastic and not painted surfaces. AM would have you glue these walls in after the fuselage is glued together but I figured that painting and detailing would be much easier at this stage.



I'm glad I did this as there is a lot of finagling and clamping to get these to fit. Yesterday, I glued the nacelles together and reinforced the seams with thick plastic card bits secured with CA.



After consulting with Paul and Yves on the armoured bulkhead today, I got to work on making this thing as it is quite easily seen through the crew hatch. What I do to get the profile is to cut a piece of scrap paper until it fits into the fuselage interior. The centerline is marked in pencil and an up arrow is added so as mot to mix up the orientation.



After the profile is cut, I fold the paper on the marked centerline and cut the other side to match the first side.



The cut template is then moved to the sheet styrene and the edges marked in pencil. The up arrow is again marked as well.



The cut piece is then checked for fit. Close enough



I then cut the door into the bulkhead and added details, including a bent piece of stretched sprue for the door handle and then glued the thing to one side of the fuselage.



This will be painted tomorrow. I forgot to mention that I also glued the engines together yesterday and painted the main bits today. I'll show this stuff tomorrow when finished. The The last thing I did today was to ream out the cowl openings. They were maybe a 1/16" too small and were easily increased to the correct diameter by using a 3/4" drill bit twisted in my hand.



Hopefully tomorrow will see lots more done again. I need to get a plan together for making these nasty flame dampers (pic courtesy of Yves and posted here)



Thanks again for following along.

Lots going on here, just love it. All good stuff Andy.

Splendid work, Andy! The door handle is a nice touch

Crimea_River said:

piece of stretched sprue for the door handle

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That honestly made me chuckle in awe. Cant have a door without a handle.

Lot's of good stuff going on....

Lovely work so far Andy!

Good work Andy.
Do you (or Yves) happen to know if that armoured bulkhead was in the RAF Mitchell II ?
So far, I haven't seen any reference to it, spoken, written or photo/ diagram (eg Pilot's Notes).

Certainly not me Terry but CATCH 22 Yves may know. Oh and thanks for the kudos. Painted the bomb bay in dull aluminum today today but need to pick out details. I'll show pics probably on Sunday.

Airframes said:

Do you (or Yves) happen to know if that armoured bulkhead was in the RAF Mitchell II ?
So far, I haven't seen any reference to it, spoken, written or photo/ diagram (eg Pilot's Notes).

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Hi Terry!
I read your question yesterday and wanted to check some of the books and manuals I have (and usually quote here). I'll give you approximately the same answer I gave to a fellow researcher about the RAF-Mitchells some (in fact more then 10) years ago.
I do not have a direct answer or proof (photo, memoirs, technical specs) showing or describing the armoured bulkhead with door behind the gunner's compartment on the RAF-Mitchells II. With the exception of the "small blue books" (Pilot Notes) for the British Mitchells, I haven't seen any Pilot's Operating Instructions, Repair Manuals or Erection and Maintenance Instructions printed ONLY for RAF. My indirect answer is, that the manuals I'm using and quoting (BTW not only for the B-25 but e.g. for the PBY too), have a page at the end called "British Glossary" - see attached. AFAIK this was a small help for the British users (RAF in this case) having received the same manuals already in use by the USAAF, without changes or additional notes. It is my understanding that the RAF-Mitchells had the same armour protection as the USAAF equivalents.
If Paul (Micdrow) has an additional British manual or instructions in his vast collection, he might bring some more details (pro or con ).
Cheers!

Thanks Yves.
Although I have yet to find a definitive answer to this, my feeling is that the Mitchell II possibly did not have that armour, but I'll keep on looking.

CATCH 22 said:

Hi Terry!
I read your question yesterday and wanted to check some of the books and manuals I have (and usually quote here). I'll give you approximately the same answer I gave to a fellow researcher about the RAF-Mitchells some (in fact more then 10) years ago.
I do not have a direct answer or proof (photo, memoirs, technical specs) showing or describing the armoured bulkhead with door behind the gunner's compartment on the RAF-Mitchells II. With the exception of the "small blue books" (Pilot Notes) for the British Mitchells, I haven't seen any Pilot's Operating Instructions, Repair Manuals or Erection and Maintenance Instructions printed ONLY for RAF. My indirect answer is, that the manuals I'm using and quoting (BTW not only for the B-25 but e.g. for the PBY too), have a page at the end called "British Glossary" - see attached. AFAIK this was a small help for the British users (RAF in this case) having received the same manuals already in use by the USAAF, without changes or additional notes. It is my understanding that the RAF-Mitchells had the same armour protection as the USAAF equivalents.
If Paul (Micdrow) has an additional British manual or instructions in his vast collection, he might bring some more details (pro or con ).
Cheers!

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This is really the only thing I have on the Mark 2 compared to C and D message written by the RAAF. I will keep looking but British Mitchells I do not have a lot.

Here's a short update on two areas I worked on since last we spoke.

First, the missing drift meter had to be scratch built on the small shelf in the Navigator's cabin which is visible through the cockpit opening. The unit was built up with pieces of styrene card and rod.



And here it is after painting. A gloss coat and black wash has also been applied to the whole area, along with some chipping effects and I still need to seal everything with a flat coat.



The next area was the bomb bay which is called out to be bare aluminum. I sprayed all this with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum, picked out the piping in black, and applied a wash to dirty things up.



On the forward bulkhead, I added some piping and structural bits as this is a busy area.



A dry-fit shows that I will need to make some adjustments to allow the rear bulkhead to fit better. This is probably the result of me adding the side wall details now rather than later when the fuselage halves would be glued together. I think this should be straight forward (make that hope).



That's all for now. Thanks again for looking in.

Very nice

Crimea_River said:

First, the missing drift meter had to be scratch built on the small shelf in the Navigator's cabin which is visible through the cockpit opening. The unit was built up with pieces of styrene card and rod.
And here it is after painting. A gloss coat and black wash has also been applied to the whole area, along with some chipping effects and I still need to seal everything with a flat coat.

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The small addition is great in fact!
One small remark though: the seat in the back is on the top of a folding desk made out of plywood - not painted but varnished.

You can give it a wash or a lighter tone over. I'm not sure if one can see it - probably through the dome above?
IMHO the 3 hinges can be omitted...
Cheers!