Peter s

Thanks! I had a bit of an accident with the green behind the starboard inner engine but fortunately the engine exhaust stain hid it. I tried to touch up the curve I'd sprayed with a brush and it looked awful. BTW regarding the row of side windows: I'm 95% confident they should be painted over on a 1944 B3 Lanc. "Just jane" certainly doesn't have them. I think they're a "shared mould" legacy of the B1 kit.

I just painted the outside of the H2S. Basically I brush painted a patch of black fuselage first, glued the radar on and masked the clear bits then it got sprayed the same time as the underside. Nice job with the pilot! Basically every bit of weight that could be saved (like 150lb of co-pilot) was saved and replaced by bombs. Even the little bit of armour in the pilots seat was removed. If the pilot needed help the flight engineer seated behind could pull on the yoke. Dual controls are a post war thing for safety in preserved versions.

/media/tinymce_upload/5ec012e6b29da6d351babba7c879852b.jpg Here's the real thing. The H2S is the radar dome beneath the DX squadron code. It's perspex at the back and black for the front two thirds. The kit includes it, the radar dish inside the domb and some extra antenna for the nose. It was a fairly short range ground scanning radar (say 20 or 30 mile range) but with enough resolution you could identify specific buildings in the ground. If your target was a big L shaped factory you could see an L shaped building on the ground. it's a bit of a mistake with the kit really as the photo is easy to find on google. The real plane completed at least one full tour but was lost about Nov 1944 attacking the Elms canal (quite possibly in daylight... The red tail indicates some day missions as flight leader) I bought my kit after visiting "just jane" at East Kirby so there was no choice which option to do but the red tail looks really good i think. I won't post pics of my model in your thread but there should be some on the B111 product page if you want a look. As it had done a full tour i used some of S sugars bomb decals on the nose and gave mine about 30 credits. it's a big kit but a really straightforward one. The mildly irritating feature is no bombs. A friend bought me the bomber command resupply kit as a Xmas present and it's got every option you may want though. I went for a cookie 3x1000lb and 6 incendiary cans. There's 500lb and an 8000lb blockbuster in the resupply kit too.

Thanks. It's pretty obvious from the box contents that there are "plans" for more variants. The huge clear side panels which are almost all painted on this version are really curious. They scream waist gunner positions which makes me wonder if there's also plans for a different fuselage and a much later version as well as the Doolittle version.

Hi john, thanks! I used to use lead pencils for doing wear and tear on tanks (hatch edges especially) and sometimes ground up graphite for tracks. I got the water colour pencil too from Diego Quijano. Encyclopedia of aircraft modelling techniques vol 4 weathering (a mig/Sin / ammo publications). Very expensive for a book of photos but that tip was worth it's price. You can buy individual watercolour pencils from art stores or eBay very cheaply. Full sets are available but for models you mainly need black browns greens and greys so no point buying bright reds and yellows.

And finally... post 4: The finished article. Crew installed, glass fitted and the small bits that are easily broken fitted at the very end. The crew, glass and props add more weight to the front that the turrets add to the rear so the balance improves. I hand painted the canopy lines then tidied them up with a sharpened cocktail stick. The antenna wire is 0.2mm brass rod. Dead easy to fix at the end with superglue. The jeep is fitted with an old B17 decal applied to oven foil as a sort of "follow me" flag. /media/tinymce_upload/1870b95a7d7ef35d0d981417d8cd696e.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/b6584d91e026687193442d56049c64c9.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/43bbf773e2f067aa54d003db196ee3b2.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/5399283460251d73378687e5cfe1a625.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/b85b51d931551004a1702f84e929771f.jpg I like to play with photoshop filters. "Vintage" gives a faded old photo effect. /media/tinymce_upload/cc71150666a30f4a80053996efcb2783.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/0ef5a6f86152c53fffb2d7e562437466.jpg Overall I can thoroughly recommend this kit. There's enough spares in the box that I think you can back date to an A/B quite reasonably. The tail sitting is a problem but one you can defeat if you know about it from the start. I made a few minor mistakes... I painted a small window on the left side due to the flap getting in the way of the masking. If I do another I'll leave the flaps off until later in the build. The starboard nose art set hard on the matt surface too quickly & isn't quite the right angle. I got some paint on the bombs and had to repaint them in situ which meant I lost the bomb decals. If I was doing another I don't think I'd fit the bombs. The bomb bay is really detailed and with bombs in place you can't appreciate this. My paint scheme is pretty conservative but Hannants do a decal set for C/D B25 which has some really unusual variants. Everything from 2-tone desert to RAF versions in Burma in PRU Blue. One post war Canadian aircraft comes in silver with bright red-orange tail and wing tips and the nose glass overpainted black. This kit has far more potential than you may think.

Post 3: /media/tinymce_upload/a3a0976c040aa9333aae855c3a0b26be.jpg This is a none-airfix (sorry, I don't have any pale grey airfix to hand at the moment) but it shows what you can do with the pencils clearer than on the B25. I used a mix of burnt umber (dark brown) and various darker greys shaded broadly over panel lines then gently blotted with a damp cotton bud to soften the effect. I used some light greys in front to back strokes , especially over the wings , to make a streaking effect. Black pencil where the red on the wings is exposed highlights those panels nicely.

Part 2: First cowls are masked off with 5mm tamiya tape & gently sprayed with tamiya matt white. Bright yellow over any "combat colour" doesn't work as most bright yellow paints are semi-opaque. /media/tinymce_upload/4877fcd981101522f6502ec14d239619.jpg Tape off and its come out really well. I've included an Airfix Spit 1 I was working on at the same time to give an idea of the size of the B25. For a complex kit it doesn't need too much shelf room. /media/tinymce_upload/37501a0f8c7aa634b5b2089aa05208d1.jpg Here's some close ups of the turrets and nose gun. I added an ammo belt to the bomb aimers gun but TBH once the glass was all fitted you couldn't really see it. This kit allows you to fit all the glass from the outside which saves a lot of masking. The bevels in the plastic are really well cast so the windows fit in really easily. The turrets are extremely detailed. What I really noticed was how clear the glass is. Its absolutely crystal clear. /media/tinymce_upload/de2a8be07998afe1be2c5d58b60a87ec.jpg Next up some weathering and decals. /media/tinymce_upload/dd35c4dca23007e782cd8e8c387dd5c0.jpg One pilot is provided but there's loads of space for 2 more so I raided my parts box. I looked for real pics of B25s with exhaust staining and couldn't find much. Unlike say a lancaster the exhaust arrangement seems to make for a clean plane. I limited myself to some pin washes with oil paint around the cowling and some subtle staining over the wing. I use water colour pencils to pick out the panel lines and do some subtle detail work. More info in post 3. You need a hard matt surface and well cured paint to make the most of pencils but they have the advantage over pastel or pigment that if you don't like the effect you can wipe it away with damp paper. A sharp black water colour pencil can really pull out panel lines. In my case I used a darker olive pencil and shaded over the top of each panel line. This added highlight without looking too unrealistic.

If you airbrush Vallejo do a model air colour IJN Ash grey https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/model-air-en/ijn-ash-grey-71311/ which looks pretty good on an Airfix zero. I've got the Japanese navy 8 bottle set which is a bit pricy but has all the shades you need. You can buy them individually from many sellers too.

That looks brilliant! I've just finished mine yesterday and started a post detailing the paint job. I avoided the tail sitting (just) but if I do another I'm going to hide some extra weight either side of the reverse of the cockpit bulkhead.

Hi All, This is my first attempt at posting a new topic. I bought the B25 C/D kit when it first came out but it immediately went into my stash and started gathering dust. I'm making a concerted effort to reduce the stash a bit and thought I'd better do some "big builds" before summer gets in the way. Another poster invited me to post updates after I'd built the kit but before I really started painting so there's little in the way of "build" pics. All I can say is that its a very straight forward build. A little more complex than a Beaufighter or Blenheim but easier than a Lanc or B17. I found the airfix DO-17 harder to do well. The only thing I'd highlight is that its potentially a really bad tail sitter. There's a small void space for weight in the nose and this void needs to be totally filled with lead or else. I spent about 20 mins with a pair of side cutters, hammer and 20Z lead fishing weight shaping a lump to fit. If I was going to make another I'd stick two further lumps on the back of the cockpit bulkhead either side of the open door. You won't see weight there and it'll help. The props and glass in the nose are heavier than the turrets so I found it improved as I went along. Initially I fancied doing this as an Italian campaign aircraft. A bit of a "catch 22" themed plane. The Italian campaign is a bit forgotten and there are some great commonwealth projects associated with that theatre. Unfortunately by that stage in the war you really need a late model B25 and there's no way you can adapt a C/D into a J. I did find this aircraft "worth fighting for" which fought in Op Torch then later over Italy. It was hit by flak and ditched near Palermo in August 1943. Fortunately all crew survived. I found some aftermarket decals which included Torch stars with yellow outline. I wanted later war (like the real photo) so used stars without yellow but kept some touches from the Torch scheme, mainly the yellow tail bars and yellow cowlings. Maybe it flew like this between the end of Torch and the real photo. Probably not but its my model! /media/tinymce_upload/5cb274e3af47d8863a9938f368e58444.jpg There's a few odd features on the real pic. De-icing boots on the tail but not obviously on the wings stand out Here's the kit base coated with Tamiya Olive Drab. I brush painted obvious internal areas with Tamiya cockpit green. I favour adding the glass at the latest point I can so was prepared to touch up the cockpit again as I went along. /media/tinymce_upload/f275092fb72d297a10fc63ff0892102f.jpg Then an overspray of Vallejo. I like their "Air wars" sets. Slow drying and at times a bit dubious colour shades but If you touch up by brush you rarely see the difference between brush and airbrushed. /media/tinymce_upload/c2b3c4dce056bbc467d949e7c09c61cd.jpg Then masked off for the grey /media/tinymce_upload/919bdd4edabc9e439552e6d1814af35c.jpg and sprayed grey /media/tinymce_upload/177ddb842158917801efa612a6a56089.jpg

I'm really impressed so far both by the model and the encouragement for your daughter. My parents got me into Airfix kits aged about 7 (probably to keep me quiet) but it taught me to follow slightly dodgy instructions and develop really fine manual skills. I'm a pathology trained cancer research scientist now.... Recently a senior surgeon complained that med school intakes are so raised on tablets that they've no manual skills for surgery. Equally i love history and when I build models i learn more about the model by studying the history which inspires the next model. I wish my nephews would put the iPad down and do the same!

I often use Vallejo model colour yellow ochre for this sort of thing (and prop tips). It's not as bright as trainer yellow but you don't need a white base. I generally paint the wing edges in yellow rather than use the decal too. Btw sticking masking tape to your arm first then putting it on the plane reduces the tack a lot... At the expense of a few hairs ☺

I thought the same. The huge glass waist panels which end up 95% painted over are "curious". Clearly a reason there but using this kit to make an H/J would need a whole new fuselage (tail position is quite different too in the later ones) ps regarding nose weight. I used a deep sea lead fishing weight carefully trimmed and hammered to fit the void space in the nose and that is barely adequate. If I build another I'd try and hide extra lead in any crack i could find.

The main wheels are peculiarly far forward compared to other aircraft (level with bomb bay) I'm wise to this after a P38 tail sitter . The kit i built has a bulkhead behind the cockpit and another in front of the bomb bay (I'm sure it's the radio / navigator room) loads of space for weight in there. I'm sure the Airfix is similar.

I've got a rivals B26 and I've never tackled the Airfix but as a modelling subject it's a good one. Decent size , a good choice of colour scheme and if you look at Google images of real ones potential for a fairly heavily weathered model. My B25 needed plenty of lead in the nose to avoid tail sitting but the B26 was bonkers. I've got a 2oz deep sea fishing weight beaten square and filling the entire radio room to keep it on its nose. From experience I've never built a WW2 tricycle undercarriage plane that didn't need plenty of lead in the nose.

Ok. It's built (but that was quite easy... The box is Lancaster size but the parts count about halfway between Beaufighter and lanc... Probably easier than the Dornier 17) and it's got a bare bones coat of olive drab. I'll start taking pics from now on and probably post a build diary in one go. I'm more into painting and weathering than building. If you're interested in one it's got 5/5 for build quality and parts fit. The C/D version doesn't have the greatest choice for final schemes but North Africa had some cool cammo schemes and they fought in the Pacific too. There's an early cowling option in the kit so I'm sure you could back date to a Doolittle raid example

I'll take a few pics and have a go. I'm happy with my finished models but they look horrible until they come together at the end ☺ (maybe that's why I should share) So far it's built according to instructions but I haven't worried about the turrets yet. They can be done in parallel with the main build.

I've had the B25 C/D in my stash since it came out and finally built it this weekend. Apart from the boring decal schemes i can thoroughly recommend it. It's quite a compact little bomber but bags of detail. The biggest issue is getting enough lead into it to stop it sitting on its tail. (I've bought after market decals for a North Africa / Italy scheme btw)

Stuka!... The first model I ever built on my own. Also perfect for raining hell down on civilians. Straight forward to build and paint yet still a great model. Also no dilemma about wheels updown . Only drawback is that it's such a third Reich icon people could jump to conclusions if it's the only model on your desk. You may want a spitfire to compliment it.

I've found Humbrol polished aluminium metalcote in a spray can gives a really nice metallic silver finish and will never pull off with masking tape (Tamiya masking tape is low tack but sticking it on your arm reduces the rack further) metalcote is fine with microsol but acrylic varnish will attack and dull it. I use Johnson's floor polish on metalcote instead. generally if masking is pulling off paint you need a better primer or you need longer drying time. Vallejo model air is touch dry in minutes but can take 24hours to harden fully.

"Raining down hell on a city" sounds like you'd want a 4 engine heavy bomber like a Lancaster or B17. Both of these are complex kits though. For a newer modeller I'd stick to a twin engine bomber initially. The Airfix Blenheim is great and fairly simple to build (and you can have the bomb bay open). The B26 is an option too. It's not quite a bomber but the rocket or torpedo armed Beaufighter is a personal favourite.

I'd support a few in 1/72. I was really impressed by the new tool HAR3 and cashed in 24 tokens for the commando version. With folded rotors they take up much less shelf space than most aircraft.

If it's her model and that's what she wants that's all that matters. I'll happily sacrifice true accuracy to do the model i want too. I started doing kits at 7 year old and your daughter puts my childhood models to shame!