B-25 in 2024

brekinapez · August 24, 2024, 9:19pm

If it’s a dietary scale that can handle a chicken breast, it can handle 25 grams.

phil2015 · August 25, 2024, 12:24am

Never mind me. I’m doing wheels up. What do I care about a nose weight? Pass me some more of whatever that stuff is, please…

phil2015 · August 25, 2024, 12:28am

The instructions call for putting the pilots in much later. In my experience having lots of maneuver room to get the pilots into their seats is an advantage, so I painted them and put them in now. Once the glue dries, I think it will be time to put stuff together…

phil2015 · August 30, 2024, 6:13pm

bench time!
w00t!

starting to work on the wings. There are clear parts in each wing that the instructions say to paint aluminum. Couldn’t find a really clear picture, so before I glue. I’m thinking I paint only the back of the piece aluminum? I guess I’m assuming it’s some kind of lens over a light but not very confident about that.

Thanks

phil2015 · August 30, 2024, 6:27pm

Dry fit of the fuselage halves. The fit was perfect when there was nothing inside, and it’s mostly so with the cockpit bits inside, but there’s a little bit of adjusting needed in front. You can see a gap on front top, but haven’t figured out exactly where yet. The rear and underside it still mostly perfect.

I also dry fit the wing tops onto the braces going through the middle and from what I could tell that fit is perfect also. All good signs…

phantom_phanatic · August 30, 2024, 6:54pm

Looking good. The tolerances on the new Airfix kits, especially internal parts, can be tight. A layer of paint and you can almost guarantee a gap. That’s before we get into silly mistakes on the parts, like I encountered on my Wildcat. Straight edged instrument panel had to fit into the fuselage with a slight slope. Had to cut and sand quite a bit from the rear of the panels edge to get it to fit properly.
As long as you remember to test everything, they turn out great though.

phil2015 · August 30, 2024, 8:46pm

in my case, it needed a little removed from the instrument panel, but I think the main problem was that the locating pin was too long…

phantom_phanatic · August 30, 2024, 9:39pm

I remember the Jet Provost gave me a little trouble too. The panel was too wide and forced the nose apart. It needed about a millimetre either side trimming. The panel decal overhanged, but it’s barely visible. Seems to be a common problem. I suspect the CAD designers are not taking into account the thickness of the plastic in the fuselage halves when they design the parts. The part may be scaled correctly, but the fuselage doesn’t have scale thickness.

phil2015 · August 30, 2024, 9:41pm

I think that’s likely.

phil2015 · September 4, 2024, 11:34pm

working on glueing the fuselage halves. The fit is pretty much perfect, but with a little caveat that you have to glue it together bit by bit and hold some bits while you glue - not a one and done deal. All going smoothly except that I have had not one, but two glue spills on the fuselage. I don’t think the second one caused any damage, but the first left a little dip that needed some work. Still, slows things down as you have to stop and let the glue dry before you can really repair it. Hopefully pics on the weekend.

phantom_phanatic · September 8, 2024, 6:47pm

More work over the weekend. Assembling the wings and engine nacelles, finally got the rear gun position parts painted and tackled the issue of weight.

I added a strip of lead under the nose tunnel, which fits snuggly in the fuselage and a lump more behind the IP which won’t be seen once closed up.

And more in the nacelles in front of the main gear.

And she’s still a tail sitter!

Going to think about where else I could some, keeping in mind the added weight of the tail fins and other parts in the back.

And made a start on the ammo belts for the guns. I cut some thin strips of thick aluminium foil pressed it into the ridges of a bottle top.

Should look fine behind the clear parts and look like the flexible belt tracks.

phil2015 · September 8, 2024, 7:43pm

Great idea on the mg belts!

phantom_phanatic · September 8, 2024, 9:37pm

Thanks, they probably wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny in a larger scale. But it should give the impression of how they were fed. I just hope it won’t be too fiddly to put together!

phantom_phanatic · September 8, 2024, 11:05pm

Oh and nearly forgot, finished painting the bombs. Yellow stripes a bit wonky, but they weren’t neat in real life and will barely be visible inside the bomb bay.