dbsmith88 Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Ok folks, I'm working on this for the Pacific Theater GB and thought I'd cross post it here as well. If you're like me, the GB section isn't always the first spot I check on the forums. Anywho, here we go. I'm using a A/M B-25C/D kit as the basis for a USMC PBJ-1D. Several aftermarket items will be used as well, including the Eduard B-25G Big Ed set, Eduard B-25G interior set (the Big Ed B-25G set comes with the B-25B interior set, go figure), a LSM resin AN/APS-3 "Hose Nose" radar, Verlinden WW2 allied aircraft machine gun set, Eduard Brassin HVAR set, various decals sets since I'll have to piece together some decals for the kit. I may go with a set of SAC metal landing gear and a set of True Details wheels, haven't decided yet. This is the first time I've tried tackling a subject with this much aftermarket detailing. Hope this won't be a "face palm" project! Here's an idea of where I'm heading with this one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nicely11b Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Looks like it is going to be an interesting build! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dbsmith88 Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 (edited) Time to catch you up on where I am in the build. It's only been rolling for about a week now and I've had to deal with a metric crap ton of humidity and hot temps as my bench is in the garage....in Alabama....in the summer. I figure I'm sweating off a couple of pounds each night I'm out there working. So far I've just been throwing on paint and PE in the cockpit. I found a copy of an August 1943 Erection and Maintenance Instructions manual for the B-25H. I figured that the paint callouts and such would be the same for a B-25D given they were used at the same time. the EMI called out bronze green for the cockpit area, aluminum for the bomb bay and yellow-green (interior green/green zinc chromate) for the rest of the interior. I mixed up a home-brew bronze green using Tamiya paints that looks pretty close to BG IMHO. I'm not too worried if the color is off a little as the pit area is going to be heavily weathered. I'll let the pics speak for themselves. I'm glad Eduard gives you twice as many control levers as you need. These little F'ers have about drove me insane! Yeah, I know there's a red smudge on the copilot's yoke. My nerves were about shot thanks to said control levers so I left it until my next session. And, in case your eyes are having a hard time seeing those levers, there are a total of twelve (yes, 12) of them on the control quadrant between the yokes. The PE seats are a tremendous improvement over the kit parts. I originally sprayed them BG but read in the EMI manual that they were aluminum. So I resprayed with alclad. Too much humidity makes for a nasty alclad aluminum paint job. It's craptastic!! Then I realized I had forgot to add the seat adjustment handles under the front. So, I added them.......and added the telescoping tubular supports and shoulder restraint loops to the seat backs. Here's how the looked prior to respray: They have since been resprayed with MM buffable metalizer in a nice shade of stainless steel with looks a little better to my Mk 1 Mod 0 eyeball for aluminum. I'll get some pics of them next go around. Edited June 16, 2012 by dbsmith88 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dbsmith88 Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 Sorry for the long span between updates. It's been a rather hectic week at Casa de Smith. I finally finished the seats earlier tonight. I tried a couple of different ways to simulate the seat cushions but none looked the part......until I found a couple of the cloth-type band-aids in the medicine cabinet while looking for something for the headache I was causing myself trying to get just the right look. A couple more tries and Bob's your uncle.....seat cushions!! After that crisis was averted, I got another lesson on the relationship between patience and crappy eyes. Each set of seat belts contain 7 individual parts. Turned out pretty good for a first try at PE belts. I assembled the rest of the pit after weathering. I'm not too worried about any hiccups here as things will be uber-cramped under the canopy and you won't be able to see a whole lot. Seats are just mocked in place, awaiting glue during the next bench session. More to follow....same bat time, same bat station! B Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BlackCat Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Interesting subject! Looks great. Looking forward to seeing more. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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