Doolittle Raiders - North American B-25B Mitchell

[Gav0909]

Welcome along to my entry into this Group Build. I haven't done a WW2 aircraft for a while, and so I thought I would combine this with this Group Build.

As you can probably tell from the topic title, I am going to be building a B-25B Mitchell bomber as was involved in the famous Doolittle Raid of 18th April 1942. The main fact that makes this bombing raid so famous is that the raid (consisting of 16 B-25Bs) was launched from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, and was the first time the US was able to launch a military strike against the Japanese main islands.

The raid is called the "Doolittle Raid" or "Tokyo Raid" after the man who planned the mission, Lt. Col. James "Jimmy" Doolittle, USAAF. The concept for the attack came from Navy Captain Francis Low, Assistant Chief of Staff for anti-submarine warfare, who reported to Admiral Ernest J. King on 10 January 1942 that he thought twin-engine Army bombers could be launched from an aircraft carrier, after observing several at a naval airfield in Norfolk, Virginia, where the runway was painted with the outline of a carrier deck for landing practice. The attack was planned and led by Doolittle, a famous military test pilot, civilian aviator and aeronautical engineer before the war.The plan was to embark 15 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers onto an aircraft carrier and move this task force to within 450 miles of the Japanese mainland, and launch a bombing strike against Tokyo and other cities. The pilots for this mission were chosen from the 17th Bomb Group (Medium) which was not only the first medium bomber group in the US Army Air Corps, but also had the most experienced B-25 pilots. The group was originally part of the US 8th Air Force.

In order to determine the viability of launching a medium bomber from an aircraft carrier, two B-25s were loaded onto the USS Hornet whilst at Norfolk, Virginia. Trials conducted resulted in the successful launch of the B-25s from the carrier, showing the plan was indeed viable. However the bombers to be involved in the raid underwent quite an extensive amount of modification, in secrecy, to prepare them for the raid.

The 17th BG, then flying antisubmarine patrols from Pendleton, Oregon, was immediately moved cross-country to Lexington County Army Air Base at Columbia, South Carolina, ostensibly to fly similar patrols off the east coast of the United States but in actuality to prepare for the mission against Japan. The group officially transferred effective 9 February to Columbia, where its combat crews were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an "extremely hazardous", but unspecified mission. On 17 February, the group was detached from the Eighth Air Force.

Initial planning called for 20 aircraft to fly the mission, and 24 of the group's B-25B Mitchell bombers were diverted to the Mid-Continent Airlines modification center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With support provided by two senior airline managers, Wold-Chamberlain Field's maintenance hangar was the first modification center to become operational. From nearby Fort Snelling, the 710th Military Police Battalion provided tight security around this hangar. Modifications included:

Removal of the lower gun turret
Installation of de-icers and anti-icers
Steel blast plates mounted on the fuselage around the upper turret
Removal of the liaison radio set (a weight impediment)
Installation of a 160-gallon collapsible neoprene auxiliary fuel tank fixed to the top of the bomb bay, and support mounts for additional fuel cells in the bomb bay, crawlway and lower turret area to increase fuel capacity from 646 to 1,141 U.S. gallons (538–950 imperial gallons; 2,445–4,319 L)
Mock gun barrels installed in the tail cone
Replacement of their Norden bombsight with a makeshift aiming sight devised by pilot Captain Charles Ross Greening and called the "Mark Twain". The materials for the bombsight cost only 20 cents.
Two bombers also had cameras mounted to record the results of bombing. The 24 crews selected picked up the modified bombers in Minneapolis and flew them to Eglin Field, Florida, beginning 1 March 1942. There, the crews received concentrated training for three weeks in simulated carrier deck takeoffs, low-level and night flying, low-altitude bombing and over-water navigation, primarily out of Wagner Field, Auxiliary Field 1. Lieutenant Henry Miller, USN, from nearby Naval Air Station Pensacola supervised their takeoff training and accompanied the crews to the launch. For his efforts, Miller is considered an honorary member of the Raider group.

Doolittle stated in his after-action report that the crews reached a "safely operational" level of training, despite several days when flying was not possible because of rain and fog. One aircraft was heavily damaged in a takeoff accident and another removed from the mission because of a nose wheel shimmy that could not be repaired in time.

On 25 March 1942, the remaining 22 B-25s took off from Eglin for McClellan Field, California. They arrived two days later at the Sacramento Air Depot for final modifications. A total of 16 B-25s were subsequently flown to NAS Alameda, California, on 31 March. Fifteen made up the mission force and the sixteenth, by last-minute agreement with the Navy, was squeezed onto the deck to be flown off shortly after departure from San Francisco to provide feedback to the Army pilots about takeoff characteristics. Instead, that bomber was made part of the mission force.

The Mission:

On 1 April 1942, the 16 modified bombers, their five-man crews and Army maintenance personnel, totaling 71 officers and 130 enlisted men, were loaded onto the USS Hornet at Naval Air Station Alameda. Each aircraft carried four specially constructed 500-pound (225 kg) bombs. Three of these were high-explosive munitions and one was a bundle of incendiaries. The incendiaries were long tubes, wrapped together in order to be carried in the bomb bay, but designed to separate and scatter over a wide area after release. Five bombs had Japanese "friendship" medals wired to them—medals awarded by the Japanese government to U.S. servicemen before the war. The bombers' armament was reduced to increase range by decreasing weight. Each bomber launched with two .50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns in an upper turret and a .30-caliber (7.62 mm) machine gun in the nose. The aircraft were clustered closely and tied down on Hornet's flight deck in the order of launch.


Orders in hand, Navy Capt. Marc A. Mitscher, skipper of the USS Hornet, chats with Lt. Col. James Doolittle.
Hornet and Task Force 18 left the port of Alameda at 10:00 on 2 April and a few days later rendezvoused with Task Force 16, commanded by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.—the carrier USS Enterprise and her escort of cruisers and destroyers in the mid-Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. Enterprise's fighters and scout planes provided protection for the entire task force in the event of a Japanese air attack, since Hornet's fighters were stowed below decks to allow the B-25s to use the flight deck. The combined force was two carriers, three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, eight destroyers and two fleet oilers. The escort ships—Salt Lake City, Northampton, Vincennes, Nashville, Balch, Fanning, Benham, Ellet, Gwin, Meredith, Grayson, Monssen, Cimarron and Sabine—then proceeded in radio silence. On the afternoon of 17 April, the slow oilers refueled the task force, then withdrew with the destroyers to the east while the carriers and cruisers dashed west at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) toward their intended launch point in enemy-controlled waters east of Japan.


No.23 Nittō Maru sinking by USS Nashville

Doolittle's B-25 at launching, 18 April 1942.
At 07:38 on the morning of 18 April, while the task force was still about 650 nautical miles (1,200 km; 750 mi) from Japan (at approximately 35°N 154°E), it was sighted by the Japanese picket boat No. 23 Nittō Maru, a 70-ton patrol craft, which radioed an attack warning to Japan. The boat was sunk by gunfire from USS Nashville. The chief petty officer who captained the boat committed suicide rather than be captured, but five of the 11 crew were picked up by Nashville. Doolittle and Hornet skipper Captain Marc Mitscher decided to launch the B-25s immediately—10 hours early and 170 nautical miles (310 km; 200 mi) farther from Japan than planned. After re-spotting to allow for engine start and runups, Doolittle's aircraft had 467 feet (142 m) of takeoff distance. Although none of the B-25 pilots, including Doolittle, had ever taken off from a carrier before, all 16 aircraft launched safely between 08:20 and 09:19. (The 16th B-25 had been included only as a reserve, intended to fly along as an observation and photographic platform, but when surprise was compromised, Doolittle decided to use all 16 aircraft in the attack.)

The B-25s then flew toward Japan, most in groups of two to four aircraft, before flying single file at wave-top level to avoid detection. The aircraft began arriving over Japan about noon Tokyo time, six hours after launch, and bombed 10 military and industrial targets in Tokyo, two in Yokohama and one each in Yokosuka, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka. Although some B-25s encountered light antiaircraft fire and a few enemy fighters over Japan, no bomber was shot down. Only the B-25 of Lieutenant Richard O. Joyce received any battle damage, minor hits from antiaircraft fire. B-25 No. 4, piloted by Lieutenant Everett W. Holstrom, jettisoned its bombs before reaching its target when it came under attack by fighters after its gun turret malfunctioned. At least one Japanese fighter was shot down by the gunners of the Whirling Dervish, piloted by Lieutenant Harold Watson. Two other fighters were shot down by the gunners of the Hari Kari-er, piloted by Ross Greening. Many military targets were strafed by the bombers' nose gunners. The subterfuge of the simulated gun barrels mounted in the tail cones was described afterwards by Doolittle as effective, in that no airplane was attacked from directly behind.

Fifteen of the sixteen aircraft then proceeded southwest along the southern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea toward eastern China, where several fields in Zhejiang province were supposed to be ready to guide them in using homing beacons, then recover and refuel them for continuing on to Chongqing, the wartime Kuomintang capital. The primary base was at Zhuzhou, toward which all the aircraft navigated, but Halsey never sent the planned signal to alert them, apparently because of a possible threat to the task force. One B-25, piloted by Captain Edward J. York, was extremely low on fuel, and headed instead for the closer Soviet Union.

The raiders faced several unforeseen challenges during their flight to China: night was approaching, the aircraft were running low on fuel and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. None would have reached China if not for a tail wind as they came off the target, which increased their ground speed by 25 kn (46 km/h; 29 mph) for seven hours. The crews realized they would probably not be able to reach their intended bases in China, leaving them the option of either bailing out over eastern China or crash-landing along the Chinese coast. Fifteen aircraft reached the Chinese coast after 13 hours of flight and crash-landed or the crews bailed out; the crew who flew to the Soviet Union landed 40 miles (65 km) beyond Vladivostok, where their B-25 was confiscated and the crew interned. It was the longest combat mission ever flown by the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, averaging approximately 2,250 nautical miles (4,170 km). Although York and his crew were well-treated, diplomatic attempts to return them to the United States ultimately failed. Eventually, they were relocated to Ashgabat, 20 miles (32 km) from the Iranian border, and York managed to "bribe" a smuggler, who helped them cross the border and reach a nearby British consulate on 11 May 1943. The smuggling was actually staged by the NKVD, according to declassified Soviet archives, because the Soviet government was unable to repatriate them legally in the face of the neutrality pact with Japan.

Doolittle and his crew, after parachuting into China, received assistance from Chinese soldiers and civilians as well as John Birch, an American missionary in China. As did the others who participated in the mission, Doolittle had to bail out, but fortunately he landed in a heap of dung (saving a previously injured ankle from breaking) in a paddy in China near Quzhou. Doolittle felt the raid had been a terrible failure because all the aircraft were lost, and he expected to be court-martialed on his return. He subsequently recommended Birch for intelligence work with Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers.

One crewman, Corporal Leland D. Faktor, flight engineer/gunner with Gray, was killed during his bailout attempt over China, the only man in that crew to be lost. Two crews (10 men) were missing.

Surviving airmen

Colonel Richard E. Cole, copilot of aircraft No. 1 (age 100)
Staff Sergeant David J. Thatcher, gunner of aircraft No. 7 (age 93)
Seven other men, including Lt. Miller and raider historian Col. Carroll V. Glines, are considered honorary Raiders for their efforts for the mission.

Colonel Bill Bower, the last surviving Doolittle raider full pilot, died on 10 January 2011 at age 93 in Boulder, Colorado. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Saylor, the then-enlisted engineer/gunner of aircraft No. 15 during the raid, died on Wednesday, 28 January 2015 of natural causes at his home in Sumner, Washington. Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Hite, copilot of the plane piloted by Lt. William G. Farrow, died in a nursing home at the age of 95 on 29 March 2015. Colonel Richard Cole and Staff Sergeant David J. Thatcher are the last surviving Doolittle Raiders.


I will dedicate this build to the memory of the Doolittle Raiders.

Before we get onto the kit, here are some more reference images of the actual B-25s involved in the raid, whilst loaded on the USS Hornet en route to the target.






The kit

So the kit I intend to use in this build is the Academy 1/48 B-25B Mitchell "Doolittle Raiders". The box art can be seen below.





The series of pictures below show the contents of the kit and the sprues included and some close ups of the very nice detail present on this kit.





















Phew! Quite a few pics, but I hope that gives you an idea of the kit. I think it looks really nicely detailed, with very fine surface details and a full interior.

If you remember back to the start of this post, there is a list of the modifications that were made to the B-25s for this particular mission. I intend to incorporate as many of those changes into the kit as possible. I haven't checked for sure, but I think the broomstick rear machine guns are included in the kit, so I will check what is there, and what will need made. The extra fuel tanks in the bomb bay etc. may well need scratch built, but may also be pointless if you won't be able to see it once completed.

I am not sure what aircraft I will model yet. I am sure most people would choose Doolittles own aircraft, but I think I might do it as one of the ones where the crew didn't make it home.

[OliveDrab]

Awesome subject and really enjoy the history of so many of these builds

[HIghAltitudeScale]

One of my favorite WW2 subject. I have this kit, can't wait to see you tackle it.

[Gav0909]

I managed to get some bench time in last night and so I cracked open the kit for this GB and got stuck in.

The general quality of the parts is nice, but I believe these are older Accurtate Miniatures molds being used by Academy and so there is some flash in places, but nothing to bad so far. Fit on the few bits glued thus far seems good, but we will see if that continues when tackling the bigger parts.

So as with most aircraft, construction started with the cockpit. Not many parts yet as I believe sidewall detail etc. is mostly already molded on the fuselage halves, with the addition of parts there rather than on the cockpit floor section.

Instructions for the first steps, quite clearly laid out with paint callouts included.


I got the bulkhead, floor and control columns (thankfully all one part so no fiddling with tiny parts!) glued in place, and what I assume is the crawlway for the bombardier through to the nose.



Then I moved onto the seats. There are no harnesses included, and the seats themselves represent metal seats with no cushioning, but some research showed the seats to have cushioning in place, so this was added with Greenstuff. The putty was still wet at the time and so the next update will show the finished parts.



Once dry I will tidy up any bits which require it and add some belts.

So that's it for now. I will just use Vallejo Model Air Interior Green for the insides of this plane, which may not be the closest match to the actual FS colour, but its what I have already to hand.

Next step is just to continue as per the instructions.

Thanks for looking and taking the time to comment, it's appreciated.

[Smiffy]

Will be following with great interest

[Diverrob]

Looking forward to the build as well. This kit is actually on the UPS truck for delivery today!

[wappynutter]

Gonna be an awesome build thread Gav..... Good luck mate the kit looks superb.
All the best...


Just gonna camp here and watch a while..

[Twokidsnosleep]

Cool build and great story
How the heck did they take off from that short deck with all the bombers on there already???
Would not be room to have them down below, must have had some real tight space to squeeze through for a runway

[Lysus]

Cool build and great story
How the heck did they take off from that short deck with all the bombers on there already???
Would not be room to have them down below, must have had some real tight space to squeeze through for a runway

They practiced a lot, carried just bombs and fuel (no guns), and hit the wind. Scary sh...stuff.

[youtube]LPQHV83Q9uI[/youtube]

Check out at about 2 minutes...it'll make you cringe with anxiety.

[Gav0909]

very cool. you'll have fun with this...

but, there is great evil lurking in this box. just how much seems to depend on the actual vintage since it seems accumini may have fixed some issues along the way. one they clearly did not i can see from the pics....the horizontal rib at the top of the bomb bay wall should have clearance notches for the bomb rack ribs. just look at the other fuselage half. lulz.

i've been working on a doolittle mitch for about 8 youtube episodes now and i got thru all the issues i find, so that may be of use to you.

Thanks Will, I have had a look through your videos and I think they are going to be nice and helpful for this build.

Cool build and great story
How the heck did they take off from that short deck with all the bombers on there already???
Would not be room to have them down below, must have had some real tight space to squeeze through for a runway

They practiced a lot, carried just bombs and fuel (no guns), and hit the wind. Scary sh...stuff.

Check out at about 2 minutes...it'll make you cringe with anxiety.

Thanks for the video, I have been meaning to check out a few of the videos online from the raid itself. Really neat that there is footage from the actual raid.

So the meat of this update. I generally carried on with the assembly, going by the steps in the instructions, but I have also jumped ahead a little. This is based on watching Wills videos where he explained that the bomb rack sides don't fit if you put them in at the stage the instructions suggest. And the parts themselves require some surgery to fit nicely. I'll explain better as I get to those pictures.

To begin with I found an error in the instructions. The step covering the assembly of the bomb bay itself, with the Navigators station attached to the front neglects to mention the addition of a very specific (and important for this particular aircraft at this time) part. As I mentioned in my first post the aircraft used in this raid were modified, and one such modification was the addition of an extra fuel tank in the upper area of the bomb bay. The kit includes this, but when making their own instructions from the original Accurate Miniatures ones, Academy have missed this, yet a diagram further on shows it in place.

Anyway lets get started. Here are the various parts that make up the bomb bay and the Nav's station which attaches to the front, and ultimately butts up against the bulkhead attached to the back of the cockpit sub-assembly.


And the bomb bay with the tank (barrel shaped part on the sprue to the left) which needs to be added for this particular aircraft.



This is the bomb bay sidewall detail part, there is one for each side. The instructions would have you install one as you glue the bomb bay into a fuselage half, and add the other once both halves are together. But this ain't gonna happen!


This pipe detail needs to be notched in places in order to allow the top spar of the bomb rack to fit, however I ultimately removed the entire top spar as it was a simpler fix to the fit issue. Also even with the bomb bay open, you won't see that anyway and the top of the rib bits match up against the bomb bay "ceiling" such that it all looks good anyway.


The clamping needed to glue the sidewall part in place. I had to glue a section, clamp and let set and move along. It worked in the end and the part now fits quite nicely there.


And a dry fit of the bomb bay and sidewall showing it all fitting nicely. There is a significant gap at the base of the front and rear bulkheads and where they meet the bottom of the fuselage (entire bulkhead profile around the bottom doesn't match the fuselage). But I think this should be fillable and so should be manageable to do away with.


And last for last night I added some of the sidewall detail parts for the cockpit area. There are a bunch more for adding throughout the rest of the fuselage, and I think Will mentioned a radio set which goes further aft in the plane interferes on something so I will approach that bit with caution.


That's all for this update. Tonights work will be to add the 2nd bomb rack to the fuselage and start adding the other details to the interior. I can then look to add the windows and consider putting some paint on the interior already.

Thanks for looking, always keen to hear your thoughts. Until next time.

[Lysus]

Mighty fine build work so far. I'm glad you've taken the time to document it, this looks like quite the job for a newb like me to take notes on. Never built an Academy kit, but the details look amazing, I can't wait to see you bring them to life!

[Gav0909]

Mighty fine build work so far. I'm glad you've taken the time to document it, this looks like quite the job for a newb like me to take notes on. Never built an Academy kit, but the details look amazing, I can't wait to see you bring them to life!

This kit is originally an Accurate Miniatures kit, but I believe they went out of business and the molds were bought by Academy. I built an Academy F-15E a while back and it was a nicely detailed kit, but the decals were a nightmare. I have only had to use one decal on this kit so far, and I can see them being similar as the ones on the F-15E. But we shall see, if so, then an aftermarket set will be sought.

So onto this update. Progress has been made, and its all been good. I have been referring to rubegoldbergs build series of the Accurate Miniatures boxing of this kit, and its been a great help in ensuring I avoid any major pitfalls in the kit. Although as he explains, some seemingly odd fuselage alignment issues he had on his kit, don't seem to be present on mine, and he got a 2nd kit and found the same thing. Generally I have found that the bits in this kit fit well, and so we shall see if that continues on my kit into the next steps.

Next job was to adapt and install the bomb bay racking on the port fuselage half. This also required copious amounts of clamping and gluing one bit at a time to get it to stay in position. All ok in the end though.


Next the radios and other interior bits were installed in both fuselage halves.



I then installed the windows on the starboard fuselage half, but later on realised that I should install them after the interior is painted otherwise you would see a rim of grey plastic around the edges of the windows where it shows through the windows. A very minor thing as most of this won't be seen once the plane is all built up, but I like to do things properly, its good practise for that time that it does matter!



I then moved onto the issue of tail sitting. The original Accurate Miniatures boxing offered brass weight bars to add to the kit, but the Academy boxing does not include those, so I went to my now trusted method of nose weighting. Where I used to work we used a lot of steel shot (used for steel shot blasting) as ballast as it was dense and so you got alot of weight for a small amount of material. Because its grains you can get it to fit in all kinds of places, perfect for the odd spaces on kits! The next pictures document the process.

The things you'll need. A container for mixing (disposable), two part epoxy glue, and the steel shot.


Mix up some shot and the glue in the container (obviously do as much as you need).


Apply to the required place and let set. The space left there is because the support strut of the front nose gear has to fit in here still. But you can see how the shot/glue mix is able to conform to whatever shape you require.


I then built up the dorsal gun turret. I will paint this and install it as I put the fuselage halves together and probably add the glass later to it, rather than what rubegoldberg did and install the whole thing later, as I can just see me having issues getting it located right if I do that. I think I will try to find some polishing compounds and have a go at improving the clarity of the turret glass bubble.




Now onto the instrument panel. This is supplied as a clear part, and you get a decal to place behind it. Now this is all well and good except that when I went to do this I realised that the decal was printed backwards and therefore when placed behind the panel such that the dials showed through to the front, none of the dials lined up with the moldings on the panel. Therefore I decided to cut all the decals out and place them individually. This may not be overly accurate, but it won't really be seen so at least should give the idea of dials present. I used Revell Contacta clear glue as the decals just didn't want to stick with normal water/setting solutions on the smooth clear plastic. The rear of the panel will be painted anyway.









I then got around to building the nose section. This comprised to lower fuselage "chin", a floor panel and two sidewall panels along with the bombardiers seat and bombsight. You'll notice the bombsight is just a bit of plasticcard as on the Doolittle planes, the Norden bombsight was removed due to it only being accurate above 4000 ft, and the raid called for a bombing height of only 1500 ft or so. Captain Charles Ross Greening, one of the pilots to be involved in the raid, came up with a bomb aiming device which would work at the intended bombing height. Made from hardware store parts each sight cost only 20 cents compared to the $10,000 of each Norden sight. It was called the "Mark Twain" sight. The real one is shown below, and you can then see my own very simple version!





And last but not least I gave all the interior parts a coat of Badger Stynlrez Grey primer. I went with grey as the Vallejo Model Air Interior Green I intend to use is quite dark and so the grey will ensure it doesn't darken anymore, plus I want to use what I have left of my black primer for the exterior.







I hope that someone takes the time to read through this update, as it took me bloody ages to write it! (Mainly because the Photobucket app is crap on the iPad!).

Let me know your thoughts so far. Fingers crossed today I might even get some colour down on the interior parts. I won't be going mad here as most won't be visible, so it will probably get a coat of green, pick out some details very basically, give it a wash for some contrast and call it done. I may spend a touch more time on the bomb bay as I intend to show that open.

Thanks for looking. See you in the next update.

[shortCummins]

I hope that someone takes the time to read through this update,

time well spent, looking good so far, I've watched Will's build videos, I really recommend them, and I hope you get one of the "newer" kits

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Gav0909]

Hello! Are you ready for a bumper update again? Good, because that's what I have for you all. Good progress has been made! So let's get into it!

Last time out I had primed all the interior parts with Badger Stynylrez Grey primer ready for interior painting. I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of the parts with the interior colour on, so apologies for that. The interior was painted with Vallejo Model Air 71.010 Interior Green. This may not be the strictest colour in terms of accuracy, but it's what I have in the paint collection and to be honest, most of this interior is in no way visible once the plane is built, so its all academic anyway!

All interior parts were painted with the aforementioned paint and then once dry, were given a liberal coating of Alclad Aqua Gloss as can be see in the images below.





Once this was all dry, the interior was given a liberal washing with Ultimate Dark Dirt (the latest version).




The wash was removed and all the radios, control panels etc. were painted Vallejo Model Colour Black. These were then lightly drybrushed with Vallejo Model Colour Medium Sea Grey.







The instrument panel was also painted black and then had the liquid mask in the dials removed and each dial then had a drop of Micro Kristal Klear to give a glass effect.



The cushions on the seats were painted with Vallejo Model Colour Burnt Umber, followed by a thinned coat of Vallejo US Field Drab. They were then given a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud.




It was then time to make the seatbelts (or at least something that when viewed through the canopy would give the suggestion of harnesses on the seats). These were made from Tamiya tape just cut into appropriate sized/shaped bits and stuck onto the seats. I added a small "chunk" (accurate term for it!) of plasticard to the lap belt to suggest a buckle mechanism. The belts were then painted VMC US Field Drab and then VMC German Camo Beige. And ta-da! Seatbelts.



These were then glued into the cockpit.


I also then glued in the instrument panel and double checked the fuselage fit, which still seems to be acceptable.

That's all for this update. Next steps will be to finalise any interior painting (not much, if any as I am not putting much effort into it as 90% can't be seen anyway when its finished). I have also painted the dorsal turret assembly but will show that next time, its not overly exciting really.

Thanks for taking a look, please do let me know your thoughts. And see you in the next update.

Cheers

[rwsmith14]

Seat belts and harnesses looks great !!

[Twokidsnosleep]

I agree, you are doing a fabulous job on the interior

[Gav0909]

Seat belts and harnesses looks great !!

Thanks, I am pleased with how they turned out, simple as they are.

I agree, you are doing a fabulous job on the interior

Cheers buddy. Shame most won't be seen, but hey ho!

So I will do a proper update later this evening once I have sorted through the pictures I have, but the general gist of the build is that the fuselage is now together.....and I have lost a bit of interest haha. The seams are not that bad, slight step in places but that is more my fault for not ensuring things were lined up nicer, so I will just have to deal with that. But right now I can't really face sanding it all, so I started working on the tail plane as something different to do.

As I said, pics later.

Cheers

[Avgas]

I really like the dry brushing with the grey, I shall nick that idea and store it away...

[Gav0909]

Background Update

Ok so no pics I'm afraid, I got distracted working on my Eurofighter Typhoon instead. But I did come across this blog post which is a pilots own account of the Doolittle Raid. Its a very interesting read and has some nice pictures and videos in it.

Please do take a look. I think I will do my aircraft as aircraft #13 in homage to Lt. Col Edgar McIlroy and his crew.

http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org/pe ... ittle-raid

[Gav0909]

Welcome to another update. I had shelved this model for a little while due to being at a stage I needed the "right kind of mojo" for! I had glued the fuselage halves together and while the fit is generally good (no major gaps, just the usual seam) the clean up of that was just going to be quite a big job, and there was definitely going to be some re-scribing needed as there are lots of panel lines, and they aren't that deep. There are also lots of rivet lines which would need replaced and I didn't have a rivet tool at the time. I have since bought one, and so I braced myself and started the process of fuselage join cleanup!!

So lets go back in time a little bit. The last update I had finished painting, and detailing the interior. I then set about putting a matt coat on the interior, as shown below.








I then installed all the interior sub-assemblies into the fuselage, ready to join the two halves. Now I did actually leave out a seat from the interior, and this was entirely a mistake on my part. I had seen it in the instructions, and then just forgot about it! But since so little, if any of that bit of the interior will be seen once its all done, I don't really mind.





The fuselage was then joined and taped to let it all set. I managed to get some glue finger prints in places, but they will get sanded out.





I also put the tail plane and vertical stabs together. Also got some glue prints on there!


Taped either side of the main top seam to help preserve the detail from sanding. I had to remove this though as it was just getting in the way.



The products I am using to fill/sort the seams out. Squadron white putty to help correct the slight step in places/fill any actual holes. Vallejo plastic putty for filling nice neat seams if there is a gap. And some "sprue-goo" which I am trying. This is some old Mr Hobby Cement S I had left, and I added a load of sprue chunks to it. It seems ok, but not 100% sure on it yet.


And the sanding materials themselves. Ultimate sanding sticks/sponges.


I am in the process at the moment of putting the two wings together. Will Pattison in his build of this noted quite a bit of filling etc. required around the engine cowlings, so we shall see how this kit fairs when I get to that stage. I guess when I get the chance I will put the engines together and get them painted up. I have some of the AK Extreme metal paints which will look nice on those I am sure.

Thanks for looking, comments are welcome as usual.

[Cymru]

Excellent work, enjoying this.
Will took a year to complete his

[Gav0909]

Excellent work, enjoying this.
Will took a year to complete his

Cheers buddy. I hope that mine doesn't take that long!

Progress has been somewhat slow. I finished up another project recently and so I am in that limbo stage between finishing that and working up the mojo to pick up the sanders again to keep at this kit.

Any other comments on the progress so far, or questions about the Doolittle Raid itself then please do leave them here.

Thanks

[BamaCapsfan]

Your work looks great. I'm just starting to build a B-25J and using this thread as a guide. You've provided execellent "how to info'" which is going to be very helpful. Look forward to seeing more of your posts. Thanks.