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I was looking at this a few years back and never followed up on it. What

kit will get me started on building a 1/72 USMC PBJ-1H? The picture is a

USMC anti shipping plane from 1944 in the Pacific I think. Is the Hasegawa

a good kit to start with? Thanks.---John

PBJ-1H-Mitchell-USMC%201944%20anti%20shipping_zpshnw9rzve.jpg

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I wish there was something in 1/48 do do this bird. Accurate Miniatures was planning to do one a long time ago before they shut down. There's not even any decals in 1/48.

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I wish there was something in 1/48 do do this bird. Accurate Miniatures was planning to do one a long time ago before they shut down. There's not even any decals in 1/48.

Accurate Miniatures did release a B-25G conversion to go with their B-25B (I don't see why it couldn't work with their B-25C or D). I wouldn't think decals would be very hard to cobble together.

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I wish there was something in 1/48 do do this bird. Accurate Miniatures was planning to do one a long time ago before they shut down. There's not even any decals in 1/48.

There is. Monogram made a 1/48 B-25H back in the mid 70s that builds up into a very nice model. As for decals, there aren't any unique, special markings that can't be obtained from any number of generic sheets. All you need are national insignia and some numbers.

Oh, that's right. I forgot; it's completely unbuildable since it wasn't made by a Japanese company and has raised panel detail. Sorry.

Edited by Joe Hegedus
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There is. Monogram made a 1/48 B-25H back in the mid 70s that builds up into a very nice model. As for decals, there aren't any unique, special markings that can't be obtained from any number of generic sheets. All you need are national insignia and some numbers.

Oh, that's right. I forgot; it's completely unbuildable since it wasn't made by a Japanese company and has raised panel detail. Sorry.

I think that the Monogram kit is an extremely nice kit.. Very accurate. In many ways more accurate than the Accurate Miniatures kit. Especially in the engine cowl area. I do have a "few" of those in my stash. I just want to put together a couple of PBJs the - # makes not much difference to me.

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I think that the Monogram kit is an extremely nice kit.. Very accurate. In many ways more accurate than the Accurate Miniatures kit. Especially in the engine cowl area. I do have a "few" of those in my stash. I just want to put together a couple of PBJs the - # makes not much difference to me.

Really, the only thing that needs to be done to the Monogram H is change the paint and scrounge some numbers. My comment about it being unbuildable was not serious.

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Really, the only thing that needs to be done to the Monogram H is change the paint and scrounge some numbers. My comment about it being unbuildable was not serious.

I knew it was not. I did realize that it was a "dig" at the Tamigawa proponents. Myself i like keeping my money with US companies. I completely gave op on the Chinese companies. Beautiful molding but horrid accuracy. Actually I believe that the words Accuracy or Fidelity To Scale do not even belong in the same sentence with the Chinese companies. BTW, I do LOVE the new Airfix kits.

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Common mistke. PBJ = Patrol Bomber (J)=North American Don't ask me why, F=Grumman, B-Boeing also Beech, U=Vought, M=General Motors also Martin, Y=Consolidated, A=Brewster, N=Naval Aircraft factory, C=Curtiss, S=Stearman also Sikorsky, )=lockheed, D=Douglas, K=Fairchild, E=Piper, T=Northrup, Etc, Etc, And there are quite a few more.BANGHEAD2.jpg

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Many of the letters were already in use when a then-new manufacturer got their first contract. So Grumman could not use G (when the Navy was trying to make designations distinct) because Great Lakes already had it. Note that many of the letters are the second or third in a name or close to the first letter (F just before G).

Oddest and most unexplainable to me was using D for McDonnell. Maybe they were not expected to do much. With FDs, F2Ds, flying at the same time as F3Ds with F4D on the way it's a good thing it was changed to H but who knows why H. Not many letters in "McDonnell" were available and Hall-Scott was gone so H was available.

Another odd one was O for Lockheed resulting in our current frequent mistakes of Lodestars as Rfifties instead of R5ohs etc. V was for the Lockheed subsidiary "Vega"--thus the later Lockheeds and redesignations to V.

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Behind on reading and reading up so one more comment----

If memory serves Navy did not use B-25G. So you should be careful in kit choice.

Also, you probably know this but all Navy B-25s were PBJ-1. Another of those occasional times that Navy did not follow its own rules for designations.

Navy eventually used suffix letters extensively to show "modified mission" (such as AD-4W) which creates confusion now sometimes when discussing earlier types like the PBJ.

Navy used the B-25 suffix letter, thus PBJ-1H was the B-25H.

There was a brief period of many contract awards, mods, trades with AAF so I think that in the rush some expediencies were taken---not least of which was Navy olive drab planes.

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Many PB4Y-1 Liberators were operated in OD/Neutral Gray, because they were taken over from Army contracts.

Speaking of Naval Alphabet Soup, I've always wondered why anything to do with heavier-than-air aircraft is designated "V." VF, VMF for Navy and Marine fighter squadrons..CV, CVN for aircraft carriers, etc. The only think I can come up with is that maybe the letter "V" was used to denote things that had to do with operations in the "vertical" plane.

SN

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Many PB4Y-1 Liberators were operated in OD/Neutral Gray, because they were taken over from Army contracts.

Speaking of Naval Alphabet Soup, I've always wondered why anything to do with heavier-than-air aircraft is designated "V." VF, VMF for Navy and Marine fighter squadrons..CV, CVN for aircraft carriers, etc. The only think I can come up with is that maybe the letter "V" was used to denote things that had to do with operations in the "vertical" plane.

SN

V is from the French 'voler', there was a definite French influence on US Military Aviation at the time when Naval Aviation was just beginning.

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Accurate Miniatures did release a B-25G conversion to go with their B-25B (I don't see why it couldn't work with their B-25C or D). I wouldn't think decals would be very hard to cobble together.

Academy has re-issued the Accurate Miniatures B25's. I picked up the B25G kit a month or so ago, and it's pretty nice. Decals will be an issue, but probably can be pieced together as you said.

gary

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Thanks Check Six! Sent to me by a pilot of that plane from a cruise book. Photo taken during workups over SoCal. Nose, drogue, and one inlet ring are at Air Zoo in Portage MI. Rest in ... (can the thought). Did the sig as experiment to create banner for Iron Men, Plastic Ships Group Build, which I hope to get back to today (allowing time for SBD at Air Zoo and monthly model club meeting). BTW, in this configuration 147657 supported Cunningham's ace mission, Son Tay raid, and Bat 21 rescue. SBD was at Torch and S. Atlantic ASW and blockade runner intercepts (went down landing on Wolverine near Chicago).

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Speaking of Naval Alphabet Soup, I've always wondered why anything to do with heavier-than-air aircraft is designated "V." VF, VMF for Navy and Marine fighter squadrons..CV, CVN for aircraft carriers, etc. The only think I can come up with is that maybe the letter "V" was used to denote things that had to do with operations in the "vertical" plane.

SN

V is from the French 'voler', there was a definite French influence on US Military Aviation at the time when Naval Aviation was just beginning.

Thanks for the info.

That being said, and though it's not the subject, I thought that the V in CV/CVN was standing for Vessel (Vaisseau in French). Unless you were solely answering the Squadrons part of the question.

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I'd read somewhere that carriers were originally classed in with cruisers, intended for scouting, etc. Since cruisers were coded CA for heavy cruisers and CL for light cruisers, CV was used for "aviation cruisers".

I don't recall where I read that, but it made sense in the context.

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