B-25J Mitchell by Chadwijm6 - HK Models - 1/32

[chadwijm6]

Well for my next project I'm trying a new brand, HK Models, as a change from the Airfix I started with. This will be my 4th build. I love bombers, my first model was the Lancaster, this will dwarf it though a that was a 1/72.

 

I bought this on eBay, saving £100 off a new one and as you can see in the pictures, everything is still in their bags.

 

I've not done any research yet so I think a read through the instructions and a Google will be the next steps....

[Danstream]

I will follow your build of this nice lady. Never seen this kit before.

Good luck,

Dan

[Old Collingwood]

This looks  so good  -  a  very  interesting kit.

 

OC.

[chadwijm6]

2 hours ago, Danstream said:

I will follow your build of this nice lady. Never seen this kit before.

Good luck,

Dan

 

2 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

This looks  so good  -  a  very  interesting kit.

 

OC.

 

You're very welcome gents. Thanks for following along 👍🏻

[mtaylor]

I'm in as I've not seen any of their models if I remember right.    Interesting on the box art... the bird is flying, firing all guns and no visible crew.   

[chadwijm6]

56 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

I'm in as I've not seen any of their models if I remember right.    Interesting on the box art... the bird is flying, firing all guns and no visible crew.   

 

I'm assuming it's the autonomous version. Much safer for the crew, who were in the pub and probably should have been more widely utilised! 😂

 

Nice to have you on board Mark.

[Egilman]

7 minutes ago, chadwijm6 said:

the bird is flying, firing all guns and no visible crew.   

Uh, Pilot, Co-pilot and Bombardier are clearly in box cover pic..... 

 

I'm in for this one as well..

Edited April 23 by Egilman

[mtaylor]

22 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Uh, Pilot, Co-pilot and Bombardier are clearly in box cover pic..... 

 

I'm in for this one as well..

I MUST get new glasses then......

[Dave_E]

I’m in. 🍿🥤

[chadwijm6]

6 hours ago, Egilman said:

Uh, Pilot, Co-pilot and Bombardier are clearly in box cover pic..... 

 

I'm in for this one as well..

 

24 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

I’m in. 🍿🥤

 

Thanks for following along. 

 

Now I look more closely at the cover art, the picture of the pilots reminds me of the autopilot in Airplane 😂

[chadwijm6]

So I've decided which plane to make. I really wanted to do a full chrome version and I wasn't taken by the sharks teeth that are okay of the kit to be honest. At the same time I wanted to find an airframe with a history and keep it as accurate as I can. So I'll be making 'That's All Brother' from the 340th BG, I've found this photo on the net.

 

 

And I've also found decals for it

 

 

Here's a link to the history of the squadron for those who are interested. The plane was deployed to the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations during world war 2.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/340th_Flying_Training_Group

 

[Canute]

I'm in, James. This is going to be one, big beast.

[allanyed]

One of my all time favorite planes.  Luckily I got to see one up close and personal and get on board the B25 owned by Ed Browing's Red Baron Flying team which sponsored Daryl Greenamyer's low altitude speed record flight over  Mud Lake, Nevada.   Great story and one of the greatest thrills of my life to work for one of the sponsors and be there to see it in person.  A bit off topic but for an interesting read - https://www.916-starfighter.de/F-104RB_RedBaron_AirProgress1977.pdf  

Allan

 

 

[yvesvidal]

I was lucky enough to see about 6 of them flying in formation at Oshkosh,WI a few years ago. Quite a sight, in the air and on the ground.

 

Yves

[chadwijm6]

56 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

I was lucky enough to see about 6 of them flying in formation at Oshkosh,WI a few years ago. Quite a sight, in the air and on the ground.

 

Yves

 

2 hours ago, allanyed said:

One of my all time favorite planes.  Luckily I got to see one up close and personal and get on board the B25 owned by Ed Browing's Red Baron Flying team which sponsored Daryl Greenamyer's low altitude speed record flight over  Mud Lake, Nevada.   Great story and one of the greatest thrills of my life to work for one of the sponsors and be there to see it in person.  A bit off topic but for an interesting read - https://www.916-starfighter.de/F-104RB_RedBaron_AirProgress1977.pdf  

Allan

 

 

 

I'll get to see one in the metal, probably just a fly over though, at the Midlands air show on the 1st June. 

 

I've seen lots of photos of the red bull one online, in fact that was why I wanted to seek out an all metal version to model. They are a cool looking plane !

[chadwijm6]

2 hours ago, Canute said:

I'm in, James. This is going to be one, big beast.

 

Thanks for following along Ken. I'm already wondering where there's room in the house to put it!

[chadwijm6]

I've been thinking about a diorama for this and I think I'll have it in a museum with one of the engines on display. A bit like this. 

 

 

There's an awful lot of detail in the engines in this kit and it seems a shame that so much still be hidden. Not sure if it'll work but I think I'll give it a go. 

 

[Old Collingwood]

That  sounds like an  Excellent idea   -  loves  my dio - s.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Thats a super idea and will really show the aircraft off beautifully. It looks to be a great kit.

Alan

[chadwijm6]

Morning all, it was the model show yesterday, an enjoyable wander around for a couple of hours. I thought I'd share some pics.

Interestingly I didn't see a single built B-25, I did see quite a lot of Sea Kings though and a lot of Lancasters and Spitfires, no surprise there. 

 

There were some fantastic dio's, a world record attempt at the largest model railway, some amazing railway set ups that must have been a whole project in themselves to get them there and set up. 

 

 

[chadwijm6]

So having done some reading and watching a YouTube build it seems that this model needs a lot of weight to keep it from tail sitting. The instructions call for 80g, general consensus is it is closer to 200g.

 

And this leads to problems with the front landing gear not being able to support the weight without bending or even breaking. Later versions of the kit came with metal parts but mine had the plastic ones. And the gear is fitted before closing the fuselage so no opportunity to try it really. 

 

Therefore I've ordered an aftermarket replacement from aerocraft models, I came across them reading a build log.

 

https://www.aerocraftmodels.com/north-american-b-25-mitchell-undercarriage-for-132-hk-models-kit-27-p.asp

 

Better to be safe than sorry I think

[CDW]

Gladly following along. One of my favorite aircraft from WW2.

When I was young, there was an old fellow in our model club who had been a pilot of the B-25's from WW2. He was deaf as a hammer and blamed his hearing loss on the extremely loud engines of the B-25.

[chadwijm6]

After a few days away from the bench doing things around the house and then finishing the Sea King this morning I've finally started.

 

The landing gear has arrived and I'm very pleased with it. Looks robust and good quality. 

 

 

I've also received some figures I ordered, civilians that will be viewing the B-25 in the museum. I got these off eBay, the seller seems to 3D print them himself and even says that they will do bespoke orders. 

 

They look fine to me. They won't all be used in this build, I'll try to pick characters that look interested in war birds!

 

 

So, on to the build. I'm going to display one of the engines so I thought I'd start there. Here's all the parts needed for the 2 engines.

 

 

And so far I've been using some reference photos I found online to try and get the colours right. 

 

 

Here's some progress so far...

 

 

No more updates for a few days as we are going to Cornwall for a bit of a break in the morning. 

 

 

[Egilman]

Sorry Brother, I wouldn't use those images as a guide for anything... they have the Intakes routed to both the intake ports and exhaust ports......

 

From the Engine manual...

They show the rear row cylinder at the top and the front row cylinder in the lower pic... the intake ports are on the side of the head and the exhaust ports are in the middle of the head... (the heads are reversed front to rear)

 

The 3D model that those images were created from came from here...

 

They are pure artwork and don't represent anything real....

 

There are plenty of good images of real R-2600 engines on the net, It really pains me to say brother that those aren't it....

 

An artists phantasy just doesn't cut it especially when they make such a basic error as routing the intakes into the exhausts...

 

EG

Edited May 2 by Egilman

[chadwijm6]

Thanks EG.

 

Fortunately no building yet. I'll look again for better references and use the ones you posted. 

 

Appreciated

 

 

[Egilman]

No problem my friend, and from what I can see from the parts images you posted, the kit is accurate as to intake and exhaust headers... So, no worries on assembly... If I remember correct, the B-25 exhausts were just elongated (flattened) header pipes routed out the cowl vents.... Some of these engines depending on application had an exhaust collector ring that dumped out the bottom quarters on each side of the fuselage or nacelles, but not the wartime B-25....

 

This is going to be spectacular.... (I've got the glass nosed edition of the same kit in my stash) It's another of my favorites...

 

I'll be following...

Edited May 2 by Egilman

[brunnels]

I'm definitely following along on this build.  The first scale model I ever built was a Revell B25 which implanted my love for the medium bomber, and it doesn't hurt that it's one of the best looking planes of WW2 in my opinion.  A couple years ago we had a B-25J "Maid in the Shade" come to our local airport, as soon as we heard it was in town my father and I had to go down and crawl around it.  Here are some photo's of the B25J we got to check out.

 

 

The sound of those Wright Cyclone engines purring will put a smile on anyone's face. 

 

 

[chadwijm6]

26 minutes ago, Egilman said:

No problem my friend, and from what I can see from the parts images you posted, the kit is accurate as to intake and exhaust headers... So, no worries on assembly... If I remember correct, the B-25 exhausts were just elongated (flattened) header pipes routed out the cowl vents.... Some of these engines depending on application had an exhaust collector ring that dumped out the bottom quarters on each side of the fuselage, but not the B-25....

 

This is going to be spectacular.... (I've got the glass nosed edition of the same kit in my stash) It's another of my favorites...

 

I'll be following...

 

You know your stuff EG!!

 

I'll be following the build instructions for sure, glad to hear that they're accurate, I'm nowhere near being able to scratch build parts of it anyway. I'll try and get the look of it right though from a colour point if view.

 

 

 

[chadwijm6]

@brunnels great photos, they'll be very useful, thanks. 

 

It is a good looking bomber!! I'm heading to an airshow here in the UK in a few weeks and a B-25 is slated to be there, might only be in the air and not in the ground though but hopefully we'll be close enough to get a good view and hear it.

[chadwijm6]

So a bit more bedtime research on the engine and I think I've found some better references images for the engine. And also some stand ideas to display it.