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.
Thanks Damian. I’ll probably use the recently acquired Mission Models Olive Drab as a base and fade it from there. It’s my understanding these were freshly painted so I won’t go crazy with it. I’ll used Tamiya Neutral Grey for the underside. Thanks for tagging along.
Hey Lawdog, yes these birds were suppose to be freshly painted and there are plenty of photos of what that looks like as they sat on Hornet’s deck. Google Doolittle B-25!
It is a very nice kit; I built one a few years ago.
Don’t forget nose weights! They included them on earlier production, but when I contacted the company looking for mine, I found out that they had eliminated them. Trying to save some cost, I guess. Accurate Miniatures made some nice models; too bad they are gone.
The interior even has a “head”, and the earlier versions had a very tiny “Life” magazine to go into a wall pocket in that area!
LD, are you going to do a movie version, or the actual paint and weathering? Most of these aircraft were well used in the Louisiana Maneuvers, and had peeling paint and poor removal of the exercise markings.
Glad to have you guys along. Interesting on paint information. Speaking of reference pictures, all the pics I’ve seen of these on the Hornet show them to be quite weathered. So much for fresh paint…lol. I‘ll do mine accordingly.
I plan to do the Duck with the decals that come in the kit. I presume they are for the real plane not the movie one.
Lawdog - The B-25 Mitchell is a subject that I’ve always admired but one that I’m too intimidated to build. I can’t wait to see you work your magic on this kit.
Also, I know you’ve used Mission Model paints in the past, I’m interested in your thoughts on how they compare the gunze or tamiya… I wouldn’t mind changing over to a water based paint solution but have yet to bite the bullet.
Happy to pop in and see this! I have planned to do a B-25B myself one day when I can get around to it. I recently had the opportunity to meet Dick Cole who was Jimmy Doolittle’s copilot. He was at a CAF event that’s been coming to New Orleans the past few years. He’s the last surviving member from the flight at 103 years old. Picked up his book too. Happily looking forward to your progress. Hope you’ve been well.
Looking good! I built this kit for a friend of mine who is the grandson of the Doolittle raider co-pilot Griffith Paul Williams (RIP) was on crew 40-2267 TNT. Survived the mission, later shot down in a B-26 over North Africa and spent the rest of the war as a POW. Passed away in 1998. I have a copy of his memoirs and reads much like 30 seconds over Tokeo - a book I read in the 6th grade.
I too compared MMP to Tamiya and they seem to spray equally well, just like enamels. I was VERY impressed how well MMP did in my fine spray line testing. Haven’t tried Gunze but have heard great things about it too.
Didn’t Academy or someone pick up the molds for these and start repopping them under their name? Anywho, I love this plane and want to add one to the stash. I am looking forward to seeing the master at work on this.
FSM gift ideas has a review of Italleri’s AM B-25G I have 4 AM kits on my shelf plus 5 Revell B-25Js. Looking at the review reminded me what I do not like about those excellent AM kits. That is the recessed panel lines. B-25.s had over lapping panels; with no space between them!
