Revell B-25 J gun nose.

Guys i strongly suspect that this kit may be the Accurate Miniatures tooling.I remember building the Doolittle raider version in the '80s and this kit has extensive internal detail and wing struts that the older Revell kit simply did not have!The fit of the parts is very good  indeed!

Hi Philo,

I remember the old Monogram B-25J with the bird on the solid nose. I think it was raised panel lines, but I thought the Accurate Miniatures ones were recessed. Is this one recessed?

Definitely interested in seeing it come along!

-BD-

It has both raised and recessed panel lines but the engraving looks very good and subtle.This one should be cool!

I test fit the fuselage halves and the fit is good.Some filler will be needed but not out of the norm.Structurally it should be fine.

Joined the fuselage halves" together and encountered a bit of a problem with a 1/16" inch gap on part of the underside.To fix it I glued in a sheet styrene fillet and adzed it down with an exacto blade to make it flush.I will mask off the seam and lay on some body putty to eliminate the gap.

Accurate Miniatures never kitted any of the B-25 variants that have the dorsal turret up front. Yours is a re-box of the Monogram kit. Still has loads of detail and builds up looking good. Hope you'll post some photos of it!

I will try to post pics as soon as the camera situation is sorted out.i sanded down the putty this morning and applied my seam checker gray paint.Gaps are eliminated!I put together the wing halves and engine nacelles and have to check for seams and gaps.

philo426

Guys i strongly suspect that this kit may be the Accurate Miniatures tooling.I remember building the Doolittle raider version in the '80s and this kit has extensive internal detail and wing struts that the older Revell kit simply did not have!The fit of the parts is very good  indeed!

No, this kit is an Original Monogram molding first released in the late 70s or early 80s or so. They have released the same basic airframe with the H and J solid metal gun noses as well. Revell (when they were a separate company) did release a B-25 B/C kit that was more simplified and had raised rivet external detail. That is likely the kit that you are thinking of...

As said above, Accurate never did any kits of the later B-25s with the forward mounted dorsal turret. But between Accurate and Revellogram, you can build pretty much the entire B-25 family in 1/48, B thru J.

Yes you are right I found a copyright notice molded into one the flaps with Monogram China 1987 mentioned.Still, it is a rather nice kit for the price!

Fitted the wings and encountered several fit issues.;The wing struts had to be narrowed to fit inside of the wings(I rechecked the instructions and the parts were installed correctly)There is a noticeable gap at the wing roots that will require a fillet and putty work.I guess in their effort to achieve the correct dihederal  fit had to be sacrificed.Kind of annoying but I guess that is how it goes when building an older kit.

philo426

. . . added weight .Whatever occurs,it will Not be a tail sitter and I refuse to use the rear crew ladder as a cheat!

I agree wholeheartedly. I'm doing the B24 and they have it sitting on the crew ladder too. It is NOT a tail sitter. I have a (scale) ton of lead sinkers in it. I think I have enough in it. There are a few pics of it the 1944 GB

Good luck with your 25.

Yes sir if you have to use aftermarket metal gear or fabricate your own from brass tubing You must add the weight.The crew ladder hanging down really irks me!

Continuing the body work and have begun to construct the nose gear out of brass tubing and wire.I used telescoping tubing and have soldered the oleo scissors on Next up I will construct the rear brace out of brass wire that I will solder together.

Please post some photos of that! I am most interested to see how that turns out.

Mounted up the nose gear and test fit the main landing gear.She sits right but the true test is when the vertical and horizontal stabilizer unit is installed.

The kit is tail heavy once that is on...

Yes that is true!(Just mounted it up)more weight will be added to the nose once the CA used to attach the lower front has completely cured.

One more .451 round ball brought the nose down again.

installed 5 .50 caliber machine guns in the nose .I used CA for strength when mounting the forward canopies and it fogged a bit but that is ok as it will be painted over.Have to hide the .451 roundball also.Mounted up the engines and will work on the cowlings.I plan to mask and paint a shark mouth on the front and will paint the front of the cowlings red with a white stripe around them.Man is this thing heavy!Good thing I made the brass and aluminium front landing gear!The main landing gear are plastic but seem quite sturdy so no modifications are deemed necessary by me.

Maasked off and installed the canopy and other glass.i painted the underside gray and the rest Tamiya Olive drab that I lightened a bit.Wow!I had to fill the color cup 2-3 times!

She is not a small bird.. especially in 1/48!

Yes! painted the front of the nose and out side of the vertical stabilizers flat white as well as the front of the cowlings for the shark mouth and lightning bolt masks!There was some overspray because I did not mask .A final coat of OD will make things right!

I am pleased the way the shark mouths and lightning bolts came out.The white stripe around the engine cowlings has to be carefully touched up/refined until it looks good.I decided to use gloss fire engine red for the nose ,front of cowlings and vertical stabilizers.I did not take the subtle route!

I put the decals on and she is nearing completion.I had an odd issue when installing the top turret'The turret sunk too low in the fuselage so I had to glue a 1 inch brass tube onto the bottom of the turret mount.I rechecked the instructions to see if I omitted any interior parts but I did not.The brass tube fixed the problem and it rotates fine and the twin .50s elevate and depresses correctly.  I will try to post pics as soon as the camera issue is resolved.

Can we see it,in a more secluded setting? All the other kits are drawing my attention away from your B-25.