Need help/info on the B-25

From what I've gathered, the Revell kit is actually quite nice, and probably one of the best.  This is one of the few vintage bomber big birds from the Revell the collection that I actually do not have in the collection, so I can't speak for certain, but I have seen some of them built up very well.  As far as nose art, if you're looking for cool designs, there's a company that sells a lot of their stuff through spruebrothers.com that has some awesome vintage bomber decal sets that include nice nose arts.  I can't recall the name, but if you go onto SB and do a search for B-25 decals, you're sure to find them.  They also do tons of cool work for the B-17's and 24's as well.  I picked up one of their sheets for the 17G, which I hope to get finished one day.  

You'll hear some people say that the molds are old for the Revell big bombers, but to me that says a lot to still be around making money these days.  They're great looking planes.  

Thank you very much!

I'll have a look at spruebrothers.

Clemens

I'm going to have to disagree with scapilot about the Revell B-25 kit. It suffers from poor fit, especially at the engine nacelles. Not to mention awkwardly placed ejector pin marks, poorly molded interior detail, etc. The Accurate Miniatures kit is much better.

Of course, a skilled modeler can build up any poor kit quite well. But until I gain those skills, I'd rather build another AM kit than the Revell.

By the way, the pic you posted is Yankee Warrior, a D model. If you want to see nose art, just do a Google image search for "b-25 nose art."

Chris

You can find the B-25 in Navy colors as the PBJ. Actually, a very attractive scheme for the Mitchell. One caution on the research end, the wartime B-25s had individual exhaust stacks all around the cowl, and I believe all the kits out there are correct in this regard. If you look at a currently flying -25's, you will see stacks on the inboard and a collector ring with single stack outboard. Most of these airplanes were converted after the war to the TB-25N configuration.

I've built both the AM and Revell Mitchells and have the Hasegawa 1/72 in the stash.  The AM (Also reboxed by Italeri) allow you to build early Mitchells, including the Doolittle raider, C, D, and G Models.  I personally love the AM kits.  They're really something to put together.  Not knocking the Revell offering, but I just think the AM builds better.  That opinion is certainly open to debate, but just my $.02.  In the box alone you get enough options to build just about every version of the early Mitchell.

With regards to nose art, some of the early C and D model strafers carry some interesting paint jobs.  Dirty Dora is one that AM offers, and even includes the painting masks.  There are an assortment of after market decals out there for the Mitchell.  I think Kits World offers some neat nose art for H and J models and a quick e-Bay search should yield some options for the B model.

Thank you guys!

I've ordered the AM kit today. (actually Academy's reboxed G model) I should be able to build a D model with it if I remenber correctly.

The guy at my local Hobby shop who makes custom decals is back again! (he was ill for about a month)

That means I can get some decals for "Yankee Warrior" I just have to find some nice photos of ist nose-art and print them out as big as possible. Then he should be able to print out some decals for it!

Cheers, Clemens

Found this looking for PBJ's.

http://pbjmitchell.com/sitemap

Thank you very much wayne.

Really nice pictures, I suppose the PBJs were built like the B-25s?

That blue color scheme looks really nice as well, I might try painting my Mitchell like this, if it's not possible to print those decals for the "Yankee Warrior"

Cheers, Clemens

I've got both of them, the AM kit comes with nose weights but ive been told that the cowls are wrong (no biggie for me) the monogram b-25j comes with decals for a nmf version from the 12th af  btw, there's TONS! of decals on squadron.com and ive never had any fitment problems. PBJ version paint schemes can be seen in squadron books "us navy aircraft camouflage and markings 1940-1945" also available from squadron.

hope this helps

dave

Thank you, Dave!

I've already decided on the subject of my B-25 build. It's going to be "Yankee Warrior". (the one i posted above)

I've already ordered the Academy kit and I hope there are all parts for a D model included. It wont arrive untill end of June though...

Any big pics of the nose art of this bird would be helpful, as the guy who helps me to make some decals  (Wolfgang) needs them printed out in A-4 size to do so.

Clemens

That's a great site on PBJ's. I was all set to do an Italeri B-25 as a C or D gun nosed strafer as my next project. You've reminded me of how pretty the PBJ's in the tri-color scheme were. Decisions, decisions...

I also like your tag line. Me too.

Tom

I just had a closer look at that website...

There are really nice illustrations of the Mitchell.

Thank you very much for your help, guys!

yankeeairmuseum.org/b25_mitchell.php

Did you know that the Yankee Air Museum is working on purchasing a portion of the Willow Run B-24 Bomber Plant for the museum?

http://yankeeairmuseum.org/index.php

Thats really interesting, didn't know that.

I wont be able to go to the Yankee Air Museum though, as I live in Austria and don't have any opportunity to travel to the states at the moment...

Clemens