HK B-25J as "Vestal Virgin"

[jimbo]

Well as I said to Kev, life just gets in the way sometimes. I am in total awe of the amazing builds that have been completed as part of the multi-engine group build and so wish I could have made it on time. Too much time spent, however, building model railways for clients sapped my mojo for personal projects. A cautionary lesson for those that are thinking of making their hobby their vocation. Anyways my grateful thanks to Kev, all the staff at LSP, and all of you amazing modelers for helping to keep this sanctuary such an amazing place. I will continue with the Vestal Virgin here in WIP.

 

A very happy new year to you all!

 

jimbo

[jimbo]

Greetings all;

 

Finally I've had some free time lately to get back to work on the 'Vestal Virgin'. Still no major paint work yet, just lots of parts cleanup, wing assembly, and interior detailing. Here are a few photos of where I'm at:

 

Wings coming together:

 

 

Just can't resist posing it all together to get a feel for the size of this bird; biggest LSP I've worked on to date :

 

 

Here are a couple of shots showing some detail work; the rear gun mounting is fairly nicely detailed out of the box, but there are connector link rods that relay the motion of the trigger grips to the gun mounts; due to molding restrictions, these are molded as lumps of plastic with no real detail. I've shaved them off and replaced them with styrene rod of an appropriate diameter; I neglected to take a "before" shot, so there's nothing to compare it to, but I think you will get the gist of it:

 

 

And this assembly posed in a fuselage half, showing how this is quite prominent under the tail gunner glazing. I'll likely add some rib and stringer detail here as I did with the forward compartments; you can see my 'notes' to myself what and where:

 

 

Next, a few shots of more interior detailing in the fuselage; I've borrowed a page from the playbook of a few other builds here and added some ribbing and stringer details using Evergeen styrene 'T' shaped stock and square stock. I just love this kind of work, it's actually relaxing for me . You can also see some of the Eduard etch parts in place. I may add some wiring bits and bobs, but we shall see.

 

 

And, one of the pleasures of owning a laser cutter for my business is I get to do this - a quick CAD drawing and I'm cutting some ribs and structure for the interior of the escape hatch:

 

 

And here are some of those parts in place, along with a floor and more rib and stringer detail to "busy" up the waist gunners compartment:

 

 

So that's all I've got for today friends, thanks for checking in. I'm hoping to get to some painting real soon, stay tuned!

 

Jimbo

[Ol' Scrapiron]

Any further progress on this project? It was looking fantastic so I'd love to see how you tackled the rest of the interior.

[brahman104]

On 2/1/2020 at 11:58 AM, jimbo said:

Greetings all;

 

Finally I've had some free time lately to get back to work on the 'Vestal Virgin'. Still no major paint work yet, just lots of parts cleanup, wing assembly, and interior detailing. Here are a few photos of where I'm at:

 

Wings coming together:

 

 

Just can't resist posing it all together to get a feel for the size of this bird; biggest LSP I've worked on to date :

 

 

Here are a couple of shots showing some detail work; the rear gun mounting is fairly nicely detailed out of the box, but there are connector link rods that relay the motion of the trigger grips to the gun mounts; due to molding restrictions, these are molded as lumps of plastic with no real detail. I've shaved them off and replaced them with styrene rod of an appropriate diameter; I neglected to take a "before" shot, so there's nothing to compare it to, but I think you will get the gist of it:

 

 

And this assembly posed in a fuselage half, showing how this is quite prominent under the tail gunner glazing. I'll likely add some rib and stringer detail here as I did with the forward compartments; you can see my 'notes' to myself what and where:

 

 

Next, a few shots of more interior detailing in the fuselage; I've borrowed a page from the playbook of a few other builds here and added some ribbing and stringer details using Evergeen styrene 'T' shaped stock and square stock. I just love this kind of work, it's actually relaxing for me . You can also see some of the Eduard etch parts in place. I may add some wiring bits and bobs, but we shall see.

 

 

And, one of the pleasures of owning a laser cutter for my business is I get to do this - a quick CAD drawing and I'm cutting some ribs and structure for the interior of the escape hatch:

 

 

And here are some of those parts in place, along with a floor and more rib and stringer detail to "busy" up the waist gunners compartment:

 

 

So that's all I've got for today friends, thanks for checking in. I'm hoping to get to some painting real soon, stay tuned!

 

Jimbo

 

Hi Jimbo, your B-25 is looking great! What's the wooden material that you're laser cutting your parts out of? It looks like veneer?

 

Cheers,

 

Craig