Monogram B-25J gunship (foiled finish) Update March 3, 2020

The side guns are glued to the windows. I used a lot of Gator's Grip Hobby Glue to secure the guns to the clear plastic. I did not want the guns to fall off of the clear plastic after the model is finished.

The landing gear and rockets were attached to the wings and fuselage. The bottom photo shows that amount of dirt and mud that I added to the model. I think that it may need some additional blobs of mud.

This model is on hold until I receive the additional gun barrels for the plane's nose. 

To my eye it looks very realistic. Not too shiny but still just like metal. Cause that's what it is!

ggatt_2

The foil truly looks fantastic. I have some Cold War jets that are screaming for this treatment and I'll be coming back to your threads when I get to them. 

 

Thanks! I like the affect that the weathering has on the foil. The weathering tones down the shine of the foil.

The foil truly looks fantastic. I have some Cold War jets that are screaming for this treatment and I'll be coming back to your threads when I get to them. 

The tail wing assembly has been added and additional weathering has been applied. I want the plane to look dirty, but not look as if it has been abandoned for 20 years.  Repaired battle damage has been simulated by using polished Bare Metal Foil..

Well, I made a dumb mistake. This aircraft requires 18 gun barrels. I few weeks ago I ordered a gun set for a B-17 that had only 13 barrels. So I am 5 gun barrels short. I just ordered an additioinal set of gun barrels from 1001 Hobbies. I hope that all goes well.

Your weathering technique looks good!  I think it looks like the airplane you described-natural metal, sitting on an airstrip in a raw environment.

I wanted thye aircraft to look like it was stationed at an airfield that was cut out of a jungle, meaning that there would be a lot of mud, dust and dirt on the aircraft. I started the weathering process with Vallejoe weathering wash. I want a muddy mess around the wheel wells, so I am thinking of buying some Vallejoe Mud. 

The seam at the wing root needed to be filled. I used Perfect Plastic Putty. After the PPP dried, I used a Q-tip soaked in water to remove the excess putty. 

The seam was covered in foil.

Well, I've made some good progress in the last few days.

I used Eduard precut masks before painting the clear parts. This kit does not have a lot of clear parts.

I added some additional weight to the nose and glued the nose to the fuselage. There is very little "meat" at the seam, so I had to improvise a long clamp to hold the nose tight to the fuselage while the glue cured. I wedged the fuselage/nose between two clamps that I clamped to the edge of my work desk. I used soft foam christmass trees to prevent the clamps from scratching the fulelage and nose.

 After I removed the clamps I did not like the way the seam looked where the nose met the fuselage. Out came the sanding blocks and filler. After repainting and adding some rivets, the seam looked fine.

Next I glued one of the wings to the fuselage.

After allowing the glue to cure overnight, I glued the other wing to the fuselage. The fit is real loose, so I used seat cushions to wedge the wing in a vertical position while the glue cured. I used this same trick on my B-29.

jeaton01

Brass will take paint better if it is etched first using a self etching primer, or even sanded with fine sandpaper.

 

Brass will take paint better if it is etched first using a self etching primer, or even sanded with fine sandpaper.

When the PE barrels are inserted into the jackets the barrels are much more rigid. It is important that the drilled hole in the gun's body is large enough that the barrel slips easily into hole. If the hole is too small the barrel could bend when it is forced into the hole.

Great project, Johnny!  I'm sorry I missed it until now.  Your natural metal finish is coming along nicely.

Yes, these Monogram multi-engine aircraft kits hold up well today. They represented a new level in detail, for their time, and still were kits that a modeler with little experience could build and enjoy doing it.

Yours was popped in '91, but the kit was already about 15 years old by then.

As for preventing tail-sitting, I'm sorry I'm late to this party, but I'll offer this tip for future builds:  if you're putting the model on a base, then you can dispense with weights, and use a fine bolt installed in the nosewheel instead.  That's a tip from none other than Shep himself-he noted it in his P-61 build, and it always works well for me.

Regarding the PE barrels and cooling jackets-are the jackets that fragile, when you fit them over the barrels, or does the combination of the barrel and cooling jacket make for a more rigid part, less vulnerable to bending?

Hi;

 I don't have the bottle available, but my LandLady does Stained Glass items. I use the product she uses. It stays on too!

I didn't like the way the bkit's gun barrels were detailed, so I purchased a set of brass gun barrels from Master Model. The set includes the gun barrels, cooling sleeves and blast shields. The cooling sleeves look especially nice.

I had to figure out some way of holding the brass parts while I was painting them. I decided to string the cooling sleeves onto a thin wire during the painting process. I cleaned the brass parls in Purple Power prior to painting.

The brass gun barrels look way better than the kit's gun barrels, but the paint did not stick to the brass very well at all. If I sneezed on the brass parts the paint would fly off! 

I soaked the brass parts in Purple Power to remove all of the paint and  tried a brass darkening product from JAX. This stuff chemically darkens brass and other metals. It worked better than paint, but it still can be easily scratched off. If anyone has a better way to blacken brass please let me know. Also, the brass jackets are delicate and can be easily bent.

JohnnyK;

 Hello there Airplane lover. You need a name for your plane? With those rockets, nose Guns and such you could call her the " Silver Assasin" !

Last year I built a Hobby Boss P-38. The kit included HVAR rockets with under-wing mounts. I thought that it would be really cool toinstall under-wing rockets on my B-25. I couldn't find anr rockets with pylins on the Internet, so I bought another Hobby Boss Lightening kit. I snatched the rockets and pylons from the kit and donated the kit to a local charity.

First I painted the rockets with Olive Drab. Next I masked the lower portion of the rockets and painted the front of the rockets Tamyia White Primer. I like the primer's texture.

I drilled out the rear of the rockets. I think that the rockets will look good on the finished model.

That slow drying Testors cement has got me out of a jam or two!

Don Stauffer

You can buy debonder for CA glue if that is what you are using.  This makes it easier to fix a problem like that compared to other types of glue.

However, if you do use it, a few things you have to keep in mind.  First, it tends to weaken the plastic, so you need to use a light touch cutting it apart.  Second, if you use it near painted surfaces, it does act as a weak paint remover.

 

Don,

Thanks for the advice regarding the CA debonder. However, I used Testors' plastic cement (red label, black bottle) which remains pretty soft the day after application. It was easy to slice through the seam with a hobby knife.

You can buy debonder for CA glue if that is what you are using.  This makes it easier to fix a problem like that compared to other types of glue.

However, if you do use it, a few things you have to keep in mind.  First, it tends to weaken the plastic, so you need to use a light touch cutting it apart.  Second, if you use it near painted surfaces, it does act as a weak paint remover.

The two sides of the fuselage became displaced (left side higher than the right side) during gluing. I had to split the seam with a hobby knife and reclamp and reglue the two sides. The older Monogram kits do not have enough alignment pins in the fuselage and wings. This makes it easy for things to get out of alignment during construction. The biggest problem is correctly locating the cockpit and bulkheads in the fuselage. Monogram provides no locating pins or grooves at all. It's just guess work which leads to a lot of wasted time.

WillysMB

Beautiful work! When I worked at the museum in Geneseo there was a friend (a very wealthy friend) who would bring his B-25 into the museum several times during flying season from somewhere in New England. He was a bit of a character and would always ensure the engines were unsynchronized for maximum noise on takeoff, which combined with the short stacked engines and going out at minimum altitude over the student dorms for SUNY Geneseo would rattle everybodies teeth pretty good. We'd be flooded with complaints, which of course was the point.

 

Beautiful work! When I worked at the museum in Geneseo there was a friend (a very wealthy friend) who would bring his B-25 into the museum several times during flying season from somewhere in New England. He was a bit of a character and would always ensure the engines were unsynchronized for maximum noise on takeoff, which combined with the short stacked engines and going out at minimum altitude over the student dorms for SUNY Geneseo would rattle everybodies teeth pretty good. We'd be flooded with complaints, which of course was the point.

Now it's time to glue the fuselage together using clamps and a rubber band

The following was accidently deleted during the recent outage. I hope that this does not double post.

On the B-25, each cylinder exhausted directly through the enging cowling. Crews complained about how loud these engines were and many suffered from hearing loss.

The exhaust stacks on the kit's cowlings were poorly molded (left photo). I used a miniture rat's tail file to enlarge the exaust stack openings (right photo).

The kit provides additional exhaust stacks that need to be glued to the sides of the engine cowlings. These are pretty small when compared to a penny.

Unfortunetly, they are molded as a solid shape. I used a file to open up the exhaust stacks.

The edges of the cowlings are way too thick (right photo). I used a file to reduce the thickness to a more reasonable appearance (left photo).

The space between the cowl flaps were molded solid. I used a razor saw to cut out the space between the cowl flaps. 

The engines were first painted with an aluminum paint. The rocker arm covers  were painted black and the cylinders

were weathered with a black and rust colored wash to simulate the dirt and crud from a dirt runway.

Finally the cowlings and cooling fins were assembled and they were finished in Bare Metal Foil and screws were added.

I look at the Internet to find rivet drawings before I add rivist to my models. 

The main wings are almost finished. I have yet to add rivets to the wing on the right. I started foiling the wings prior to the holidays.

I apply  foil to the two seperate sides of the fuselage before I assemble the fuselage. It is easier to apply foil while the fuselage lays flat.

UnwaryPaladin

Looking great, and I'm learning a lot. 

What kind of foil are you using?