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Building a B-25C
This model is Monogram's 1/48th scale B-25J converted to a B-25C. The photo of it was previously featured in Fine Scale Modeler, February 1995. Backdating to a C/D version involved first and foremost moving the top turret to the mid-rear of the fuselage. I changed also the individual exhaust pipes around the cowl to manifold collector rings exiting out a single pipe. Then it was time for the most difficult part - narrowing the height of the rear fuselage. This last operation was accomplished by slicing out a narrow "V" in both halves from just behind the wing root , reaching a maximum depth of appox. 1/8 inch and squeezing the tops and bottoms together. Much putty followed!
At the same time as the general rear mods were going on, I filled the big
waist windows and cut newer smaller ones to the rear .After all was smooth and seamless,
the real fun began because I decided to add so-called "oil-canning". This is the
effect of dimpled sheet metal stretched over a frame work and The nose was heavily weighted to rest on the nose gear.All transparancies
were vacuum formed. Little special details included three light .30 machine guns around
the tail- one out of each new small window and one in the tail.These were a field
modification and were not manned. They were bungee-sprung and fired by
the pilot
The side gun packages were little blocks of wood and all gun barrels were a commercial product but I can't remember who made them! All paint was heavily weathered. A special thanks to Harry Terrell Jr., a B-25 pilot of the "Green Dragon" squadron for the inside info.
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was particularly
noticable on the well worn and hard worked Pacific B-25s. I got this effect by first
drawing all the internal structure- bulkheads and stringers- on the out side of the
fuselage. I then took an X-Acto blade and rounded the tip by grinding it .Using this
home-made tool I then gently scraped shallow troughs where the pencil lines were. A few
swipes of sand paper, a coat of primer and my fuselage looked like sheet metal pulled
around a framework! The rest of the mods were standard detail stuff - fine wire and sprue
for engine and cockpit detail. 
I
also put a crew in my Mitchell and modified the starter controls to match what was carried
out in the field. The crews considered the standard factory starting method clumsy and had
their mechanics change these controls. I've built my crew from the finger-bones out with
their hands in the correct positions at the moment of start-up. n
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