Jump to content

Foiled HKM B-25J Strafer - 345th BG Air Apaches - Lady LiL


Out2gtcha

Recommended Posts

The urban dictionary sites “The Great White Buffalo†as:

 

“The one true love of your life. Called the Great White Buffalo because of it's rarity, elusive status.
- Most people go throughout their entire lives without ever encountering a Great White Buffalo – “

 

I got an Aurora 1/32nd Cox .049 powered B-25H control line model from my dad as a birthday present when I was 10 or so and never ever forgot it. It came with plastic props you could replace on the engines so they would free-wheel instead of putting actual .049 engines in them and making it a control line. It had straight wire landing gear and was made of dark green hard plastic, and I played with that thing every day.

 

It (along with a 32nd scale Revell phantom my pop brought be back from a trip to Hawaii), started my obsession passion for modeling LSPs, along with a love of the B-25 Mitchell.

 

Ive been chasing the 1/32nd B-25J strafer for almost 3 years now since it was announced that a new Dutch upstart company called WingScale was bringing one out back in 2010. I was fully prepped to buy one and even had it on pre-order from SprueBros, but alas we all know how that ended and I was once again disappointed, and was not able to get a 32nd B-25 strafer/gun-nose.

 

Well here we are today, and HKM has put out the strafer and Im finally able, after a few years of waiting, to get and build my gun nose Mitchell.

 

She truly is a sweetheart of the forces.

 

So after many years of waiting I have finally get to build my Great White Buffalo!!!    YAY!!

<------------------ PLUS now I get to have my current build match my avatar.  :lol:

 

The HKM Mitchell has been reviewed quite a few times including reviews on the Strafer as well, so Im not going to delve into that aspect up front.

However, those of you who know me, or have looked at any of my WIPs know I don't shy away from pics; good, bad or indifferent,

Ill be taking you guys on a journey through building the kit step by step with likely way more pics than most people are probably interesting in.

 

So let's begin the journey shall we?

 

The obligatory shots of what Im starting with as I always do. Ill be building the kit using quite a bit of AM. The strafer kit, along with Eduards exterior PE, interior PE, color cockpit PE, Terry Deans nose weight, and a set of replacement props, governors and spark rings from Harold at AMS –

 

DSC00856.jpg

 

DSC00857.jpg

 

Next up, we have a set of the Eduard/Brassin replacement resin wheels, a set of white brass landing gear from G-Factor, and 18 / x9 sets of Model Master, brass .50 cal barrels –

 

DSC00858.jpg

 

Lastly, but certainly NOT leastly, is a set of beautiful decals from Eli over at Zotz –

 

DSC00859.jpg

 

DSC00863.jpg

 

Bettys Dream is included in the sheet, and is already spoken for, but if any of you guys are building the Strafer, or are interested in a set of decals, I still have “French Kiss†–

 

DSC00861.jpg

 

I also have 430289 of the 822nd BS “Black Panthers†and “Emergency Strip†from the 71st BS “Wolf Pack†–

 

DSC00862.jpg

 

MORE.....................

Edited by Out2gtcha
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Zotz decals are excellent –

 

DSC00864.jpg

 

The pin-up girls are very well done –

 

DSC00868.jpg

 

Finally, we have my lady –

 

DSC00860.jpg

 

The Zotz sheets also come with a gold sheet of paint masks, which look very sharp and crisp, but have not used this type of mask material before so things remain to be seen with that -

 

DSC00869.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Ill be covering the entire bomber in kitchen foil, so that will be a journey in and of itself, as I have broken out my tile “foiling station”, purchased new rolls of heavy duty, and other varieties of foil and will have to brush back up on my foiling skills as paint on this bird is going to be more minimal.

 

For anyone that doesn’t have the strafer, or glass nose, this thing is HUGE. Its also obvious the MAJOR leap in technology and size in just under 20 years, looking at this build compared to my last build, of a WWI AMC DH-2 –

 

DSC00870.jpg

 

I should hopefully be able to make a start on this one in the next week.

And hopefully, Ill learn a thing or two before this one wraps up, and maybe have some fun along the way. Hope you guys can drop in for the fun!

 

Cheers,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Carl. I hope so, but its going to be a LOT of work. Im going to give it my all, but not rush things.

 

I also found some great period shots of the lady as she looked back in the Philippines in 1945 -

 

LadyLil1.jpg

 

LadyLil2.jpg

 

Seems she had her cheek guns removed. BUT from the looks of the weathering and blast marks, it appears she did have them at some point.

 

Im thinking about applying the cheek gun packs with white glue, then just shadowing some weathering on and removing them. Will be interesting over foil! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one Brian. How does it compare in size to your Su-27?

 

Kev

 

 

Actually shorter overall fuselage, but quite a bit longer wingspan. No way shes even fitting in my 20" wide display cab. Will have to make her a clear acrylic box or the like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very neat. The weekend before last I was at Ripaman's house (Richard) looking over his glass nosed kit. He also has most of the AM (actually more) that you show here. It's very nice and has me convinced to order the kit also. Did you order the nose weight?

 

Good luck with the build Brian, it looks like a lot of fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Peterpools

Brian

I've been with you since the debacle B-25 project fell through. I'll be following , watching and enjoying as you gear up and dig in.

Please note that beside work and earning a living, eating and sleeping should be kept to a minimum and not interfere with the Strafer project! :doh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They wont Peter!

 

Thanks guys.

 

Yeah Ron, I have the Terry Dean set. Im not sure at this point however, that Im going to use it though. The solid strafer gun nose (gun covers CLOSED) offers a LOT of room to put lead in, and I have some very small #9 shot to use. I usually mix it with some white glue and will weigh out the equal amount to that of the Terry Dean set.

 

No offense to that set, its just that one weight I think might be able to be seen up in the wheel well, and I think I can actually use less weight on my own putting it around or ahead of the gun-pack, as it will be farther forward in leverage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brain,

Congratulations on FINALLY finding your GWB and the best of luck on your sure to be wonderful Lady Lil project!

These kits are a blast and I'm more then certain you'll have an outstanding addition to your display case in no time :)

 

All the best,

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...