Many of you have seen this particular custom of mine before, and I apologize to those of you that have to see it again. I wanted to post the model again though for some of the new members that may not have seen it and with all the talk of the B-25 from 21st and FOV recently, I thought it would be neat to revisit. Also I now use photobucket, so I can post the photos right into the topic and describe a little more as well. Hope you all enjoy this "revisit" to the B-25.
Being a collector of gas powered airplanes for years, I knew Aurora made a B-25 back in the day as a control line airplane. I also knew that the company had made a screw together plastic model kit from the same model. My goal originally had been to find a good example of either airplane, but the prices were insane. Then this airplane came along on ebay. It was obiviously not in the best of shape, but the price was better so I figured what the heck, I'll try it. I also thought if the project was successful, I'd have a very unique airplane in my collection in 1/32 scale. This is an original picture from the listing. (This was the first major project like this I have ever done by the way).
When I recieved the airplane I noticed some key parts were missing, mainly the top turret and the rear guns. The landing gear was also in pretty rough shape and the nose piece was missing a machine gun. As I took this model apart, disaster struck, the solid nose piece cracked because the orginial builder had screwed the nose on way too tight, time had taken its toll and stressed the plastic. This is a picture of the plane totally disassembled into its main pieces.
After spraying the main parts of the airplane, the next task was the nose. The Guillows B-25 kit provided the nose and the top turret. The Guillows pieces are a bit of a large fit for this model, but I made them fit using cardboard supports. This was especially true for the nose. The nose on the plane is my second attempt and second Guillows nose as the first one did not get. You will notice the nose is a little bit bigger than it should be, but this is the only really problem with the model. To me, it's acceptable. The pilots placed in the nose, cockpit and tail positions are 21st P-47 pilots from the 32X Thunderbolts. (Thanks to the people who took the pilotless Thunderbolts and found them a home):)
This is a photo of the plane, the major spray painting done and now the aircraft is waiting for its landing gear.
The landing gear that came with the kit was basic wire. The original plane had detailed rear landing gear legs but not one for the nose. I used the original tires because they were rubber and more scale. I used the detail plastic molded pieces from the Guillows kit and glued them over the wire. Then I carefully brush painted and detailed the wheel wells. This picture shows the airplane on its gear, but the engines have been taken off to detail.
The next problem I had was propellors. The original propellors did not come with the airplane so I knew I would have to retrofit something to make it work. I soon realized the propellors from the B-25 were also used on Corsairs. Two 1/32 Revell Corsair kits were cannibalized for propellors. I carefully drilled out enough of the front of the engine parts just to fit the propellors in there. They look perfect as well. This picture shows the painted propellors on the airplane. I have also detailed the gray/green paint screen by adding the rippling effect. I also filled in the hole in the fuse (Originally for contol lines) with painted balsa. I made the guns from cut down M16's from cheap Corps figures (barrels only of course)
This picture shows the original test fit for the propellors
With the major work finished it was time to decal and finish off the model. I also decided to make my own decals except for the stars and bars and the prop decals which came from the Corsair. I decided to do the decals using the Vita Cal decal kit on my computer. I decided to do Briefing Time, which is the B-25 based in nearby Reading. I made the decals by taking photos of the real markings at an airshow and then using a photo editior to give them a transparent background. Then I scaled them down and printed the decals on the decal paper. This is the finished result.
Closeup of nose art, mission markings, crew names
Closeup of the other side of the nose art
Closeup of the tail numbers (since computer printers do not print white, these numbers had to be painted in on the decal using the outline of the number, not easy to do but it worked ok)
Closeup of the prop decals (from the Corsair kits)
A nice side view and top view of the completed airplane.
And to show the sheer size of a B-25, it is posed next to the 32XW 190 in the next two shots.
And finally, a view of the actual airplane. So you can compare how my work stacks up.
Again, this was my first major custom project and I learned a lot building this model and had a lot of fun doing it in the process. It looks very good next to the 1/32 XW airplanes we currently have. A future 21st B-25 in this scale would be an interesting addition to our collections.
Hope you all enjoyed this revisit to one of my favorite airplanes in my collection!! Mainly because I made it!
Corey
) Plus we could have a B-17 to go with it!!!!