B-25 in Soviet Markings
By Ilya Grinberg
B-25 in Soviet MarkingsBy Ilya Grinberg |
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For years I was attracted by the beauty of the B-25. But the lack of information on operational accounts in the VVS as well as the absence of attractive color schemes delayed the work. Well, since the Russians published several interesting articles, and beautiful decals were released, it seemed that I have no more excuses. Oh, yes, I also gained some valuable skills to build one the way I always wanted.
Among the articles published is the series from the Russian magazine Mir Aviatsii' (MA) 93 and 94. They concentrate on the history of the type in the Soviet service and the memoirs of the pilots and technical personnel. Another reference that helped me tremendously was the Walk Around B-25 Mitchell by Squadron.
The very attractive scheme of Arkadiy Mogilnitskiy machine was published in MA 4/94. The aircraft represents B-25D-30 (other sources tell that this is B-25D-35); tactical number white outlined red 85, serial number 43-3729 of 251 GvBAP, 15 GvBAD, 18 VA. The best thing is that the Travers of Rostov-Don, Russia, released the decal set depicting this scheme. Another decal sheet representing Russian B-25 is being produced by Cutting Edge Modelworks (item 720055).
Well, armed with information and hooked by the attractive color scheme, I started the project.
The kits are made from soft plastic, which is easy and pleasant to work with. B/C version was made from dark-green plastic and the J version from light gray plastic.
The major
effort was put into modifying the fuselage to replicate the late D version as
described above. I decided to use the fuselage of the B-25J kit since it has the
waist guns fairings. Now I had to move the dorsal turret backwards and retain
the front fuselage with the navigator's compartment like C/D version has.
To do so, I cut the upper front panels of the fuselages of both kits and attached the C-type subassembly to the J-fuselage. The same was repeated with the dorsal turret area. This job requires the fair amount of filling and sanding. See photo below.
I scratch built the oxygen bottles and placed them behind the seats. At this stage the photographs from Walk Around proved themselves indispensable. For example, using the Eduard's instruction to modify the seats was very confusing and the result did not look right.
The
same could be told about the bombardier cockpit. Only looking at the photographs
from the Walk Around I was able to construct the ammunition boxes assembly.
The navigator's cockpit offered by Eduard did not fit in the fuselage no matter
how hard I tried. Finally, I decided to ignore it, especially that it cannot
be seen while the fuselage is closed. The access hatches where assembled and
the openings where cut in the fuselage below the navigator's cockpit and the
dorsal turret to accommodate them. Once again, the drawings and photographs
from the Walk Around helped to assemble these units the way they should be.
The dorsal turret assembly was constructed per Eduard's set instructions but had to be modified according to the Walk Around drawings. Also additional windows in the aft fuselage were cut as they were retained in the late D model.
Having
the cockpits nicely super detailed and the access hatches opened it seems obvious
to open the bomb bay. I cut the bomb bay doors and realized that the best way
to detail it would be with another Eduard set, this time for the bomb bay itself.
This resulted in removing the shelves for the wing attachment inside the fuselage.
The result proved to be very pleasing. This set features the ribbing, the walls,
the ceiling, and the bomb racks. Being painted in interior green and washed it
left me happy. The bomb bay doors are also nicely executed and correspond to the
photographs in the references.
Before I glued the fuselage parts I checked the fit of the bombardier's canopy to the fuselage. I am not sorry I did that! The canopy is wider than the fuselage, so I did not put glue on the parts of the fuselage in front of the pilot's cockpit. Later I installed an insert about 1mm from a sheet of plastic to make the fit more acceptable.
The fuselage parts did not cooperate well with each other and me. One of the reasons was the rather wide structure of the photo-etched bomb bay. The insert fixed the problem with a relative ease. The next step was to install the plastic part that covers an opening aft of the former turret of the J-model. This was done following a considerable amount of filling and sanding since the fit was terrible. Prior to that I removed the fairings on this panel cover. The resulting holes in the panel were filled appropriately.
The seams of the fuselage were filled and sanded (several times!) and the panel lines were sanded off and rescribed.
The rear end of the fuselage where the rear guns of the J variant are located was sanded to the shape as specified by the drawings.
The bombardier's canopy was glued to the fuselage. The unavoidable seam between the canopy and the fuselage was thoroughly filled and sanded. The canopy was polished and buffed.
The R2600 engines by Engines and Things were installed instead of the kit offering. This installation required thinning of the interior surface of the engine cowlings. The cylinders were painted silver and washed. Care was taken while installing the engines and cowlings subassembly to the nacelles. The problem here is that if you try to fit the engines subassembly to the nacelles you should align them vertically since the alignment of the nacelles has a downward angle!
Finally, the wings were attached to the fuselage. That was a challenging task since the shelves inside the fuselage designed to accommodate them were removed to make space for the bomb bay walls. The wings were attached to the outer sides of these walls through the openings in the fuselage with super glue. The wings dihedral should be aligned before the glue dries.
The turret subassembly was painted in interior green and washed. It would be installed in the fuselage later after the model would be painted.
I used Polly Scale Neutral Gray and Olive Drab paints. Olive drab appeared to look extremely dark so I had to remove the paint from the surface (yes, things like this happen!) and to prepare a new batch of paint. This time I added about 30% of white paint to achieve the result close to what I expected. Then I masked the model again and painted the deicer boots in scale black.
The prototype had the US insignia and serial numbers painted over with Russian topside green (AMT-4) which was addressed by spraying the appropriate places on the fuselage, upper left and lower right wings.
The model received several coats of gloss, which deepened the color and prepared the surface for the wash.
The panel lines were washed with oil-based black wash. It was pretty messy at the moment but the next day the excess of the wash was wiped out and the surface started to look quite realistic.
Now the flat coat was applied (finally).
Then the wheels were added to the landing gear. I used the True Details superb resin set. The wheel well doors were attached (another fine photoetched detail) as well as the bomb bay doors.
The machine guns barrels were bent from the PE parts and the very fine metal tubing was inserted into each barrel. It is important to notice that the PE parts provide perforated barrels for .50 caliber machine guns. Needless to say that they look very realistic.
Finally, more weathering was applied (paint discoloration on the wings and fins due to exhaust gases, chipped paint) and antenna wires were attached according to the drawing, and the navigation lights were installed.
