B-25J Betty's Dream(ing) of a French Kiss

[Uncarina]

Great update and superlative work Carl! Welcome back as well! If you ever need the EZ line taut, light a match, blow it out, then immediately hold it near; the line will become tight (practice first of course). I did this with my Snipe build.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[alaninaustria]

Very nice work so far!!

Cheers

Alan

[BloorwestSiR]

Hi guys, time for a long overdue update. The twins got set aside for a while but they're back on the bench again. Along with the Mi-24, He-219, Kingfisher and another Tamiya Spitfire. It's a bit crowded but I'm managing....

 

...I think.

 

OK, so I mostly finished off the top turret. Just needs the ammo belts now. 

 

 

Speaking of which, the tail gunner's belts were giving me fits as they're not the correct shape. 

 

 

 

The belts turn 90° to vertical and then back to horizontal as they travel from the ammo cases to the guns. There is a guide on either side to facilitate this. I think it may to give the gunner a bit more room but that's purely conjecture on my part. 

 

To do this, I made the guide chute and then used some soft metal ammo belts from Master Models. 

 

 

Comparing the new parts to the kit ones. 

 

 

There's also a booster motor guide that I made which will go between the two parts of the belts and hide the join. 

 

With the shorter belt in place along with the booster motor. 

 

 

 

With the full length belt and ammo cans in  place

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Here's the mostly stock setup on French Kiss. 

 

 

The seat broke off but I have since glued it back on. 

 

An overall view of the interior of French Kiss which is mostly stock. 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

With the tail gun position out of the way, I finally did the waist guns on Betty's Dream. One thing that was quite a pain was the retractable cables used to help balance the guns. I couldn't get EZ line to work so I ended up usi g fine wire. It's not perfect but at least it worked. 

 

 

 

The ceiling mounted pulleys were scratch built as the PE bits were way too small. 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

With both interiors finally finished, I closed up both fuselage. 

 

 

 

I then installed all the glass. These were then masked off in prep for paint. 

 

 

The coaming was painted black. 

 

 

 

Canopies were polished and the upper hatch framework was installed. 

 

 

 

French Kiss had an armoured windshield so I gently engraved a panel line onto the canopy and then masked it appropriately. 

 

 

Okay, maybe not so gently. 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

The tail gunner's canopy was then installed on French Kiss. 

 

 

When it came time for the same step on Betty's Dream, it was a bit more complicated. When I closed up the fuselage initially, I could only install the ammo belts for the port side. There was nothing to hold them in place on the starboard side. So I had to wait until both halves were joined.

 

 

Everything that has to go in and get threaded through the gunner's shield too. 

 

 

After lots of finangling and some NSFW language, I got them in place. 

 

 

 

 

Most of this probably won't be seen on the finished model. 

[BloorwestSiR]

After assembling the nose for French Kiss, I found out the MG bodies don't line up with the openings for the barrels. So on Betty's Dream, I ditched the guns and made a bulkhead for the barrels to go into. 

 

 

 

With that done, it was time for paint. Starting with a base coat of interior green on the window frames. 

 

 

Then olive drab and neutral grey. 

 

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

French Kiss's turn:

 

 

As she's NMF, I sprayed a base coat of gloss black. 

 

 

I was using Alclad airframe aluminum for the NMF but I wasn't getting decent coverage for some reason. It was very translucent even after multiple coats.  I finally gave up on it and tried a bottled of Mr Metal Color. 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

So here's my bench at the moment. 

 

 

I'm working away on the wings cleaning up and filling seams. I also have to add underwing rockets to French Kiss. As you might be able to te from the above pic, our cat has become very cuddly of late. It seems every time I get to the bench, she hops in my lap. I'm surprised she hasn't gotten paint or glue spilled on her. 

[LSP_Ray]

Wow! Nice work!

[Gazzas]

Excellent!  Love the ammo belts!

 

Gaz

[BloorwestSiR]

Time for a small update. Zotz give you a mask for doing the blue base for the bat nose art. In my set, it was cut from a somewhat stiff gold coloured vinyl. 

 

 

There's an outline for the canopy to help you place it correctly. Unfortunately I somehow ended up distorting the masks Nd could get it into a reasonable shape that the decal would have fit over. 

 

I decided to peel it off and try making my own from frisket. I traced the decal shape onto the frisket and then cut it out. 

 

 

Then it was time for the blue. 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

While the nose dried, I decided to paint the fuselage insignias.

 

 

 

With the rear fuselage painting all done, I unmasked the waist window and saw what I expected. Both waist guns were broken off their mounts due to all the handling. One of the ammo boxes even fell out the rear crew hatch. There's also a bunch of dust on the inside.  Nothing I can do about any of it. 

 

 

At least the tail gunner's station fared a bit better.

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by BloorwestSiR

[BloorwestSiR]

For good or bad, the Zotz decal is basically the outline so there's very little carrier film. Good because it means there's less to silver. Bad because it folds up and breaks on you when you try to position it. 

 

 

Hopefully I'll get the other side on ok and then can add the mouth and eyes.