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Finished--Monogram B-25J Gun Ship

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  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Close to Chicago
Finished--Monogram B-25J Gun Ship
Posted by JohnnyK on Saturday, March 21, 2020 1:50 PM

I finally received the additional Brass gun barrels which allowed me to finish this build.

Just a quick recap of the unique aircraft. The B-25 started it's life as a typical medium bomber. It originally had a plexiglass nose with a bombardier. The plane was reassigned to the Pacific War and was used to bomb Japanese cargo ships. Early on it was realised that bombing a moving ship from a moving plane was fruitless. A new bombing technique was initiated, called skip bombing. The plane was flown just above the ocean and it was pointed directly at the side of the ship. The bombs were dropped and they skipped along the surface of the water until they contacted the cargo ship. There was no longer a need for a bombardier so the plexiglas nose was replaced with a solid nose and eight, 50 cal. guns were installed in the nose. Additional guns were installed on the sides of the plane directly below the cockpit. Eventually rockets were added under the wings on a few planes. Can you imagine being on a Japanese ship and having this plane coming at you with  14 guns barking and rockets flying!!! That must have been a crazy sight.

I finished this build in Bare Metal Foil and added rivets with a rivet wheel. These planes were flown from jungle airstrips, so they accumulated a lot of dirt. I used AquaLine washes to dirty the plane and used ValleJo products to add mud splats and oil leaks. If you would like to see the WIP, go here: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/183893.aspx

 

This is a shot of the wash that was applied to the top of the wing. I like the way it highlights the panel joints. Those two bumps on top of the fuselage were bullet deflectors to prevent the top gunner from accidently shooting the tail gunner.

 

 

I added a lot of gray and brown wash to the underside of the aircraft. ValleJo Mud was used to simulate splashed mud.

 

The tail gunner sat in a very small enclosure. This is a redesign of the original enclosure. The tail gunner had to lay on his belly in the original enclosure.

 

The openings for the side gunners were covered by a plexiglas cover. I used a piece of clean Bare Metal Foil to simulate repaired battle damage at the national emblem.

 

The main wings had the shape of a  gull's wing.

 

 

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Northern California
Posted by jeaton01 on Saturday, March 21, 2020 3:18 PM

Good looking model!

John

To see build logs for my models:  http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/mymodels.html

 

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Between LA and OC, SoCal
Posted by oortiz10 on Saturday, March 21, 2020 4:28 PM

Very sharp. That's an eye-catcher!

-O

-It's Omar, but they call me "O".

  • Member since
    May 2016
Posted by learmech on Monday, March 23, 2020 10:07 AM
Great job. The B-25 is one of my favorites.
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