There's lots on this page - be patient
It is a shame all this gets hidden inside! Oh well, it was fun doing it.
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Cockpit |
Bombardier / Navigator Compartment |
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Radio operator's seat, emergency equipment. |
Radios and life raft |
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Got to have some reading material for the 'john'. |
Bomb bay |
Read the instructions! It is OK to deviate from the assembly order in some cases, just be sure to check that it is safe to do.
Test fit everything!
Most of the kit falls together just by following the instructions. Below I'll try to point out some of the problem areas and offer some advice.
Take photos of your interior before closing up the fuselage - you'll never see most of that hard work again!
The top turret will drop in place after assembly - I'd suggest leaving it off until final assembly. If you are like me, those gun barrels don't have a chance of survival otherwise. I plan to do the same with the clear tail cone and broomstick guns.
Toilet: The groove in the bottom of the toilet needs to line up with both fuselage halves, mine didn't and got knocked off during assembly. Suggestion - don't glue it in until the halves are joined. It can easily be done through the tail opening - just don't forget to do it! Don't forget the copy of Life Magazine.
Windows: Be sure to put the windows in before installing the
interior parts. 
They are a tight fit. I snapped mine in and then ran
a small bead of "clear safe" CA glue around the edges. The
pre-cut masks don't fit, they are too large (AM cut them to the size of the
opening rather than the glass. They will be fixing this on future
releases). Cut the masks into quarters and they'll go on OK. The
circular ones may need a slight bit of trimming / tweaking. TIP:
When applying the provided masks mix up some water and dish detergent in a
cup. Paint the part with the soapy water and dip your tweezers in the
water before picking up the mask. This will allow you to easily position
the mask. When you are happy with the position gently blot the mask with a
tissue.
It is very important the the bombardier's bulkhead is absolutely flush with the fuselage. Also the bombardier's sidewalls must fit flush with both the top and forward edges of the compartment. I strongly suggest gluing the compartment wall onto the fuselage and then installing the sidewalls and floor. My parts all took a bit of sanding to get them to fit flush.
When gluing the compartment onto the fuselage, first do one side, let it dry,
and then do the other side.
Oh, and don't forget to put the weights in before you install the bulkhead!
Getting that little window in under the bombardier's compartment was frustrating until I placed a piece of very low tack tape on the inside.
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It was found that the blast from the top
turret's .50 cal guns caused the nearby fuselage rivets to loosen. The solution was to install a blast shield to protect this area. This was not a factory installation, and not all had it, so as always - check your references. I made the shield from .010" sheet styrene and used my scribing tool to press in the rivet detail.
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When gluing the wing halves together, do not glue the inside seam (like I did and then have to go back with a saw). On my kit the shape of the wing root did not match the size of indentation in the fuselage. By leaving this seam open you will be able to add a shim if necessary to adjust the fit.
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| The wing tips have a couple of extra features that don't belong on the 'B' version. One is the wingtip marker lights - Simply sand them off. The second is the set of formation lights on the starboard side. A drop of CA glue in each of them and a few swipes with a sander and 'poof', they're gone. The photo on the right shows the corrected tip (you can still see the formation lights through the clear CA glue). Still to be added are the 'B' style marker lights which were mounted top and bottom about 3/8" in from the tip. |  |
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The new marker light. A drop of silver, a drop of clear red (or blue/green) and a drop of CA glue and there you have it. |
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The B-25 didn't get the fuel vents on the aft end of
the engine nacelles until after the B version. Carefully sand them off. |
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The
horizontal tail assemble can present a bit of a challenge. If you've test
fitted the assembly you no doubt have seen that it just doesn't fit very well
(at least mine didn't).
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The planes had two formation lights mounted in the tail. I made these by punching the circles from clear plastic. After painting I applied a drop of CA glue to give them lenses. |
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I used Tamiya paints for this project. Their version of Olive Drab is
too dark and too green. Using a color chip for 1943 OD as reference (the
closest I had) I came up with a pretty good match using this formula:
5 pts Olive Drab
3 pts Khaki Drab
2 pts White
Just about every reference photo I have shows the fabric control surfaces a few shades lighter than the metal. After painting the OD I masked off the control surfaces and shot a lightened version of OD. I then added more white and a bit of yellow-green and lightly airbrushed some fading and streaks on the top side of the wings and fuselage.
After a clear coat I applied a light wash of artist oils to the panel lines and used pastels and silver pencil for a slight amount of weathering.
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It is finally starting to look like a Mitchell |
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