WIP Revell B-25J Mitchell “FINITO BENITO NEXT HIROHITO 10/29/18

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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To my family of FSM Forum Members,

Thank you all for your support! My eyes well up just thinking about everyone’s prayers and kindess. Mrs. Toshi is playing video games on her iPad while I write you all. She’s stronger than me, to sit there as if nothing is happening to her. She takes steroids for the tumor swelling to go down, this prevents her from getting massive headaches/migraines from occurring. And it works perfectly for now. More tests to come.

My grandson Ezra is in Columbus, Ohio at his other grandmas house. This let’s him visit with other uncles, aunts and cousins. He returns next week. He’s my Master Modeler. Why, you ask, is he Toshi’s Master Modeler? If you have not visited my last build, he helped me with some AB work, decal, and painting. He also accidently spilled my Tamiya Gray Lacquer Primer on the ground, luckily I was able to clean up all the mess with lacquer purchased from Home Depot. I know everyone is thinking what kind of careless individual is Toshi’s grandson? Sloppiness would not be allowed in Toshi’s den/modeling room? Well, he’s only 2 years old. lol!

WOW! Why is my house so quite or have I lost my hearing. lol! Of course I take this opportunity to do some bench time. What you see here is a kit Mrs. Toshi purchased for me at Hobby Lobby. What happened to the kit Mrs. Toshi purchased for you via eBay? The Trumpeter 1/32 TBF Avenger that was ordered from China did not arrive as I found out the seller put the wrong apartment number on it. So through the USPS’s handy tracking system, I found out it was in Kent, Ohio Main Post Office. By the time I called, it was going on it‘s way to Chicago only to end up back in the hands of the seller. No big deal! eBay refunded me and that was that. You gotta love eBay!

With four grey sprue‘s of gray plastic and a small sprue of clear plastic, I was ready for my next build. By the above title you all know I was building the 12th Airforce Corsica, 1944 FINITO BENITO NEXT HIROHITO B-25 in it‘s NMF “B” Version as depicted on page 8 in the paint diagram. In the assembly book. Forum member’s the words FINITO BENITO NEXT HIROHITO is a one piece decal. Yes, it goes over the top left and right wing area and middle fuselage. This will be a great test of patience and fortitude.

This will be my second build of this aircraft. For those of you that remember my first B-25J Mitchell, that was donated to Mrs. Toshi’s friend son. He was really interested in aircraft and I spotted a way to grow his interest not only in aircraft but also in the art of model making. Today the B-25J hangs from the ceiling of his room of which he proudly displays. A few months later, he had a birthday party of which I of course got him a kit. His eyes gleefully paraded the kit. It was a Testors 1/144 B-17 Flying Fortress. It was pre-painted, came with some screws and seemed extremely easy to assemble. He and his dad had a great time assembling the kit together. They said they had a blast and he took a selfie with his dad and text it to me. I won’t be doing a selfie nor utilize a screwdriver to assemble this kit. But with some Tamiya Extra Cement and some perseverance, I should be able to put some semblance of a kit together! lol!

Your friend, Toshi

P.S. Mrs. Toshi asked me to convey a message to all FSM Forum Members to thank you all for the prayers and support you give her!

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That’s a great looking project, Tosh. Build reviews are pretty good for the mould too. I’m gonna be pretty interested in this one too. I’ve got it in my stash and thought the Finito Benito scheme would be different. I just want to see if I can get my hands on the custom weight I’ve heard about off the web.

[H] Best of luck in the build. I’m pretty excited to see it in progress.

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That‘s good to know DesertRat! Thank you very much for the info, I’ll have to look it up and read it. That’s cool to know you have this in the stash as well. The FINITO BENITO NEXT HIROHITO, is vert different and a unique decal and will really standout on the NMF fuselage. Let’s see if I can pull this one off. Thank you once again.

Your friend, Toshi

l

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I am looking forward to seeing your progress, as I am building the same one for the bomber GB.

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Toshi, Best Wishes to the Family. The B-25 is my favorite airplane. Ive already built two of these kits. Right now I have the Binito/Hirohito version 1/2 completed the basement table. I’ll either finish this one when I get home again or depending on condition start another.My daughters and I built the boxtop version the last time out. Mike

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So glad to hear that Mrs. Toshi is comfortable and it’s my wish that any miracles lying around in this universe find their way to her.

Always a delight to view your Works In Progress!

I may actually have to add a B-25 to my stash - even though I’m certainly not going to be around long enough to build half of that stash [:D]!

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An oldie but a goodie. Again, my thoughts and prayers are with you and Mrs. Toshi.

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Best wishes to Mrs Toshi and you!

That old Revellogram is a goodie ; it was my second or third kit after I went back into business, the first time I used an airbrush. I built it as a Corsica B-25 and was almost finish until we got a big dog that stepped on the table during nighttime and crushed it in the process [bnghead]

My two cents :

  • the nose fit is kinda bad, it’s a little narrower than the rest of the fuselage ; must be a way to work your way around it…

  • engine pods fit is not too good either, keep the putty handy

  • it’s a massive tail sitter, so don’t be shy with the nose weight

  • the interior detail is good for the kit’s age, in my opinion, especially considering that you won’t see half of it once the bird is closed! I really enjoyed working with it and practice my painting chops.

  • If you ever want to invest in some detailing, spent it on the bombardier’s compartment, it’s the only one in full display and in retrospect it really looked empty and underdetailed. A set on resin gun barrels is not expensive and really adds something.

Enjoy your build! :slight_smile:

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Yes, it is! I too read the reviews and as you so correctly deduced, the reveiws speaks well for an older kit. I’ve read up on the custom weight but I think I’ll forgo that route and just weight the front in the traditional manner. Good luck with your build as well.

Your friend, Toshi

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Thank you for the read and reply. And good luck in your GB.

Your friend, Toshi

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Thank you for the well wishing for Mrs. Toshi. We both appreciate it greatly. It’s always a pleasure to have you along for the ride, I do and can recommend this particular kit.

Your friend, Toshi

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Yes it is isn’t! And thank you for the thoughts and prayers.

Your friend, Toshi

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I‘m sorry to hear of your big dog destroying your kit, but things like that become unavoidable at times. Thank you very much for all the info, I will utilize it to my advantage. Thank you for the read and reply.

Your friend, Toshi

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Thank you for the best wishes mawright20! That is very cool in that you and your daughters have built or in the processing of building this aircraft. It’s always a treasure when you can share your hobby, especially with your children.

Your friend, Toshi

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I already know this one is going to look fantastic!

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I‘ll do my best in that. I just need to put my mind to it. Thank you for the read and reply.

Your friend, Toshi

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Thanks! That will be for another time for me, but I’m going to be sure I see how well your build goes. Just kinda on a whim, I did look up some AM decals from other Corsica B-25s, and I am tempted. So who knows? Maybe it might be in the near future…

Seems sort of hard to find the pre-moulded weights. Just in case, I would love to find out how much you add and where once you get to that part.

Keep on trucking, Tosh!

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About the moulded weight, if you manage to get your hands on the old Accurate kit (NOT the reboxing), they are included! I managed to track down their sharkmouth 25B and lucked out on an american online shop without getting ripped off by customs.

The glass house makes it tricky, the best place to put them - you don’t have much choice! - is the bombardier tunnel (heavy fishing weights) and MAYBE add smaller weights under the greenhouse’s floor (but I didn’t try this one).

I saw some modellers putting additional weight in the front part of the engines, totally hidden by the kit’s parts but in front enough to move the gravity center forward. Once again, I didn’t try.

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I built the Revell kit back in the early 80’s watching Spencer Tracy in 30 Seconds Over Tokyo ! That was a fun build for a 10 year old kid ( I used to build kits in a day or two back then), raised panel lines and what have you, I wonder if they improved the kit at all over the years ? Anyway, this looks like a fun build, enjoy !!