Getting ready for a big build

modela chris

I'm getting ready to start a large build the 30 seconds over Tokyo, the kit consist of the B-25 and I can't remember but the carrier was the York Town correct me if I'm wrong.

The carrier from which the attack was launched was the USS Hornet (CV-8).

There's a recent project like that. I can't seem to find it, but it'd be helpful.

What's the scale and what's "large"?

IIRC the previous build, the deck is about 24" wide at 1/48 scale. So it's reasonable to assume one or maybe two aircraft if you are ambitious. I personally think the biggest task far and away, would be the edge of the deck, and catwalk or net, 1.1 inch and .50 cal. guns, rafts, lights and crewmen down there. Or more easily, just a section of deck with cut off edges all around. I think the guy found a base.

I have a vague recollection that Revell, for a while, was selling its 1/48 B-25 and its 1/540 Hornet in one box. Is that maybe what we're talking about here?

Very good knowledge, Prof. I didn't know about that one.

Care to guess the ship in the background?

There were four cruisers in the raid, from four different classes.

CA-25 USS Salt Lake City, a Pensacola-class.

CA-44 USS Vincennes, a New Orleans-class.

CL-43 USS Nashville, a Brooklyn-class.

CA-26 USS Northampton, lead ship of her class.

And my vote goes to CA-25.

As far as I'm concerned, the USN cruisers of WW2 are a sorely neglected subject in the modern era of kit quality.

One could make a base that is just a section of the carrier deck, just a bit bigger than the span and length of the airplane.  This would eliminate the need to do catwalks and other edge detail.  In fact, I think someone sells carrier deck sections like that, though it could be scratched also.

She looks to have too much space between the stacks for CA44, but not real sure on that, and Nashville was busy shelling the pickets they tripped over.

modela chris

I need to find some paint called Deck Blue

GMorrison

And my vote goes to CA-25.

Modela, now I get you.

The B-25 sounds to be a rebox of the italeri B-25, so if you look you could pick one of those up for more parts.

I no longer have the ship kit, but looking at photos of ones built, I guess the ones you'd miss would be the insignia on the aircraft wings. The model is so basic that I would think a white dot would pretty much do the deed.

BTW that model has an accurate hull shape, unlike the later bigger kit.

There's a couple of white stripes and some white deck edge, that's easy to paint. Spray the deck white, put down some thin tape, go blue and done.

The ships name would be gray on gray so thats no big deal.

I got the scale of the airplane wrong in my post (I gave fair warning about my memory.) Your model is a 1/72 Revell B-25B/C, which is a reboxing of the Italeri kit. (Italeri is an Italian company, some of whose kits have been reissued under the Revell label.)

Unfortunately that kit is out of production. (I checked the Italeri website.) Italeri does produce a B-25G, which looks quite a bit different - but the propellers probably would fit yours. I haven't found one for sale on the retail hobby shops I normally check, but there may be one out there. If there is, it probably would be pretty expensive.

The most economical alternative might be the Airfix B-25H kit. It doesn't have parts for a B-25B (which is what the Doolittle Raiders flew), but parts like the propellers should be pretty close. Here's a link: http://www.airfix.com/us-en/north-american-b-25h-mitchell-gift-set-1-72.html . At $25 it's not cheap, but I don't know of a cheaper alternative.

The Revell Hornet is out of production.

You might - just might - be able to get Revell to send you replacement parts for the B-25 and decals for the Hornet. But frankly I doubt it. Both those kits have been absent from the Revell catalog for a long time. Anyway, the Revell website is www.revell.com . There's a parts replacement request form on that site: http://www.revell.com/support/index.html . But note that the company only stocks parts for kits that have been in production during the last three years. I'm pretty sure yours hasn't.

Hope something in this post helps, though. Good luck.

Or, follow the prototype...

My understanding is that in the transit, the aircraft were tuned up and one of the operations was balancing the props.

Hornet would have had a series of large, new and well equipped shops, with mechanics itching to keep themselves busy.

Thats's the point, right?

I have the Revell B-25B/C kit. I builds into a reasonable B-25, but the fuselage is mis-shaped. That B-25G Italeri kit that the professor mentioned s/b the Accurate Minitures kit. It was an excellent kit and I think it has the parts to be built as a B.