Revell 1/144th B-25D Conversion By Alex Bernardo

History

The aircraft depicted is "Near Miss" of the famed "Air Apache" group stationed at Port Moresby, New Guinea, in 1943, .

Construction

I used the Revell 1/144 B-25J kit and Cobra Company detail set and backdated the model from a "J" to a "D". The top turret base was removed using a razor saw, following the contour of the fuselage while cutting off the turret base. It was then relocated to aft of the main wing. The twin side gun packs were replaced with scratchbuilt single gun packs, filing down the side fuselage bumps flush with the outer skin surface. The waist gun positions were covered up with sheet styrene and I relocated the ADF antenna from the bottom to the top of the fuselage. I also added an astrodome to the top of fuselage, made by heating a piece of clear styrene over a styrene rod with a rounded end. The dome was trimmed to the correct height before removing it from the rod. The astrodome's frame was made from a piece of electronic wire shaped into a circle. I wrapped the wire around a riffler file of the correct diameter, slipped the coiled wire off the file, and clipped it where the two ends of the wire intersected. I removed the tail gun position and reconstructed the entire tail section to replicate a common field modification. I'm not sure why the tail gun positions were removed - maybe it was done to provide better field of vision for the tail gunner, or for improved ventilation. Contemporary photos often show a single .50 caliber machine gun but some aircraft would have no tail armament at all as in the case of "Near Miss". I made a bulkhead for the tail section to conceal the lack of fuselage interior detail, glued it into place just before the skid bump, and painted it flat black. A frame was made from paper-thin styrene and then glued in place over the tail opening, both reducing the size of the tail opening and changing its shape from a "U" to a smaller "O".

A necessary major correction was relocating the horizontal stabilizer from mid-fuselage to the top of the fuselage. The upper portion of the tail section was removed to make room for raising the stabilizer. I then placed a piece of styrene next to the horizontal stabilizer opening and traced the profile on to the plastic. I measured about 1/16 of an inch for the width, and length was equal to the chord of the stabilizer. I made a second exact copy of this filler piece and glued both into position.

I removed all the kit's raised panel lines by wet sanding with 400 grit paper and drew a layout for new panel lines directly on the model. I used Dymo embossing tape as a guide to scribe recessed panel lines with the back side of an X-Acto #11 blade's tip.

After crushing the clear vac parts provided by the Cobra company detail set I had to make my own clear canopy using the "heat-and-smash" technique. The kit canopy was filed and sanded to the correct size and shape then used as the master for making new clear parts. I also used the kit turret as a master to create a new clear turret.

The aircraft's clear nose area was painted over, encasing four .50 caliber machine guns. I filed and sanded the kit clear nose piece to the correct size and shape and used three layers of decal stripes to simulate the nose glazing's frames. I also cut the flaps away from the wings and reattached them in the down position.

After breaking the Cobra Company resin nose gear strut I made a new one from a syringe needle with a sleeve made by drilling out a section of styrene rod. I used the Cobra Company resin wheel and added scissors made from paper-thin styrene on all the landing gear struts.

I scratchbuilt a full bomb bay. I first made the bulkheads and glued them into place. I then added sidewalls using more paper-thin styrene sheet plastic. I detailed the bay using various pieces of styrene and electronic wire and scratchbuilt bomb racks from styrene rods. I marked the bomb doors with a needle and then drilled out all the lightening holes.

I added landing lights to leading edge of both wings by cutting a notch into the wing. I then cut a piece of clear styrene cut to fit the gap, drilling shallow depressions into the back side and using silver paint to simulate the reflectors. I glued the new lights into notches cut into the leading edges of the wings.

I also cut out leading edge wing intakes and framed them with tiny pieces of styrene.

Decals

Custom decals were provided by JBOT Decals, based in Canada. I decided it would be too difficult to match the seams of the falcon's black, white, and green feathers when applying the markings so painted the green portion and trimmed it with the black and white decal. I trimmed the eyes from the green section of the decals. Prior to applying the them I cut circles from white decal paper to use as a backing.

I had too many little accidents during this project. I destroyed the "Near Miss" artwork decal and had to make my own nose art using ink jet decal system, printed on white decal paper. Luckily, I had recently purchased a new photo print quality inkjet printer. The artwork printed very sharp.

I used national insignia decals from Microscale sheets 72-14 and -17.

Paints used

Polly Scale US neutral gray 505384, Japanese deep yellow 505282, WARPAC gray-green 505368, US medium green 505082, grimy black, US olive drab 505089, dark green 500107, and clear flat. I also used Tamiya's clear gloss acrylic.