Here's a subject I've always wanted to do, one of the planes led by Jimmy Doolittle on the "Doolittle Raid". On April 18th 1942, 16 B-25B Mitchells took off from the USS Hornet and bombed Japan. Damage was minimal but it showed Japan that they were hardly invincible and it did wonders for American moral after the Pearl Habor cheap shot. Here's my homage to those 80 brave airmen.
I've had the Accurate Minitures Doolittle Edition in my stash for years. I bought it a Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon back when they carried the good stuff. Remember those days? It's my understanding this is good kit with some issues. Nevertheless, I look forward to diving in.
I was orginally going to do Doolittle's plane, but I just can't pass up Ted Lawson's Ruptured Duck, the subject of the movie "30 seconds over Tokyo". I just love the nose art.
I quickly got to work on the interior. It's been years since I've done a bomber. I generally don't waste time detailing up things that won't be seen, as life is too short, however, Accurate Miniatures did such a nice job on the detail I couldn't resist a little paint work. I followed the painting instructions. The cockpit was painted XF-81 Dark Green, the bombay Alclad Aluminum, and everything else a custom mix of Zinc Chromate, XF-3 Yellow Green with a bit of the Dark Green added.
The kit seats were pretty lousy, so I replaced them with Quickboost resin. A bit of careful painting brought out the detail. Of course later I learned that Doolittle planes only had lap belts. Oh well, not sure how much will be seen in there anyways.
Test fit........very nice so far...
I'm pretty confident this will be the last time anyone will see the instrument panel, so I took a picture. Against my better judgement, I added Airscale dials.
More test fitting....
It looks like the fuselage will close nicely.
Time to work on the top turret and bombadier area.