Orlik PBJ-1H Mitchell

[Bomarc]

Thanks Papa. Glad you found something useful in these ramnlings of mine.

Moving along, cut out the area of the canopy, cut and removed bulkheads, and joined things together:

Some touch up paint, added the floor and side pieces, and that’s about it for structure:

And dry fitted to the whole:

I think the plan of action is to fit out the interior with the guns while it’s still a separate assembly, then attach to the fuselage, attach the stabilizer and start fairing everything in. Last will be the canopy and framing.

Sounds good in theory, we’ll see how it runs….

Mike

 

[gregh]

SUPER build and tutorial, have learned quite a lot. Now to get some time to build. Grandsons are really impressed, "the detail is awesome" !!!!!!

 

[peter taft]

Starting off has a FOLLOWER to this build of SUPREME CRAFTMANSHIP given to us by Mike THE MAN Bomarc, i never tire of viewing. I can only say what i have always told Mike on PM.COM - he and his gift of building are amongst THE BEST i have ever had the pleasure to see. From day one of this epic build, Mike shone out like a bright star in the sky, always amazes us and became my friend. The thread gives me my daily FIX of all things paperness - For this Mike, I thank you. :thumb:

 

[Bomarc]

You can't fool me Peter. Yor're only saying those thing 'cause

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Many happy returns my friend.

Mike

 

[Bomarc]

SUPER build and tutorial, have learned quite a lot.

Thanks Greg, glad to have you aboard. Check back here or at PM often, undates as they happen, like now.....

Working on the innards of the tail gunner’s station. For this I was hoping to use as many of the kit’s parts as I could, particularly since Orlik went to the effort of providing make up parts via their website. The assembly from the instructions:

However, I think Orlik was operating under what we grads of NNPS* used to call a “GCE” (Gross Conceptual Error) when designing this. Sitting in a recliner and operating the guns with hands and feet like riding a bicycle somewhat misses the nuance of the real thing. The gunner is on his knees, well back and behind a series of tall armor plates:

The plates (green arrow in the top pic) sit pretty high, and I wonder if Orlik didn’t confuse them for the top of a high back seat:

Apparently the top “bubble” can be jettisoned in an emergency, but normal practice was for the gunner to crawl back, knock his head, and take a crouching position.

So taking in all the above, I used what I could of the kit parts, modifying them as required, including the spacing of the MG’s to reflect a more accurate dimension. If built per the kit, the guns would be about 2.5 times further apart than the original article. The pic’s tell the tale:

I like the two colors of green inside, even though not all will be seen:

A gun sight mounts on the tallest element of this assembly. From this point forward will be new construction: Armor plates, controller, seat, and ammo feeds.

Watch out! It’s got a stinger!!

Mike

*Naval Nuclear Power School

 

[cmdr199212]

oh ooohhhh! very cool!

 

[Bomarc]

In a little adaptive reuse, I decided the handle bars and foot pedals of the Orlik "bicycle" would make great armor plate supports:

Permanently mounted in the tail cone:

Then the side armor:

There! Our tail gunning friend should be adequately protected now....

Mike

 

[Bomarc]

Time to make the gun boot. First I took a cue from the B-25’s of the Doolittle raid, and made a pair of dummy tail guns from broom sticks:

OK, they're really just toothpicks and mat board, but that doesn’t quite spark the imagination does it? Next I punched two holes in printer paper and super glued a small patch of more printer paper and punch holes in that:

Got the paper wet, and put it on my dummy guns and started to shape it the way I wanted. When it was about there, I brushed on a coat of Elmer’s diluted with 50/50 with water and shaped it some more:

While that was drying, I punch two more holes in printer paper and did a graphite rub to get a pattern of the opening:

When the boot dried, I painted both side Olive Drab:

When that’s dry, back on the jig it goes along with the pattern:

Put it on model working the edges under the rim of the opening and then applied Aleen’s to the edges to fill any gaps and set the boot for good:

Some touch up paint and done:

Mike

 

[Elliott]

Clever work on the boot Mike! I've read of using tissue paper to simulate canvas; wouldn't have thought of using printer paper. The two colors of green in the tail gunner compartment suggest a recent repair to me - it looks good. :thumb:

I'm with some other posters - what on earth am I gonna do when you finish this thread? Probably start reading it all over again ah reckon. Have you given any thought to what your next project will be - after a suitable break? :mrgreen:

 

[peter taft]

Excellent Mike. That looks like it would move and feel like the real deal. :thumb:

 

[Bomarc]

Have you given any thought to what your next project will be - after a suitable break? :mrgreen:

Yes and no Elliot. I've had the same basic project rolling around in my head for years that I want to do someday. I won't say what it is as I hate to "announce" something that may never see the light of day. But, I will say that this Mitchell project has worked up my modeling "mojo" sufficiently that maybe "someday" is closer than I think. But for now......


Work continues. Added internal structure and the rest of the gun belt feeds:

Then the seat. Not much to comment, tried to guesstimate it’s dimensions and height, close enough I think:

Kind of squashed and shaped the pad to look like it’s been sat on a bit. Painted a khaki color looks pretty good in there:

Last thing to make is the gun controller itself, and that should be enough to cram in there before I close the hatch for good.

Mike

 

[Bomarc]

It seems our friends at PM are having technical difficulties at the moment, so we’ll start the week off here.

Not much progress this weekend, but I did manage to cobble together a rudimentary gun controller. Not too much to scale (seems a little big), but the gist of it was what I was after as, under the canopy, little of it will be revealed.

Started with sections of rolled tube, bits of wire, and whatnot:

Once it was all together I painted the whole thing that funny green color. I wanted to connect the both sides of the armor plate with some similar colors:

The green paint I used is enamel so also makes a good base coat/primer for the other colors to follow:

All spiffed up, in it goes:

And a quick refresher of what I was shooting for:

The above is the only one of two pictures I could find of this device, so my guesstimation factor was quite high. Once again, close enough…..

Mike

 

[peter taft]

Mike, all that work is great, but a shame to let it go un-seen when enclosed. I think you have enough photographs to make a "THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE INSIDE" portfolio - I took photographs of the insides of the Saturn V before i put her in to a stack, the pictures go along side so folk can see without dismantling her. I think you probably have all this covered anyway - tis hard to give advice to a Master Builder like you my friend :mrgreen: Can't wait for the next up-date

 

[cmdr199212]

hm... :scratches chin: Looks pretty darn accurate there! Keep it up!

 

[Phillee024]

Beautiful beautiful work...and where did u get the kit for a B25

Greetings,
I just want to say that your B25 is incredible! Looks better that the plastic kit I built as child many moons ago! Where did you find the paper model ? and could you share some of your techniques with me as I am trying to respark something that I did for many years as a child because my parents couldn't afford to buy e plastic models so I would make them out of card stock from scratch. Any help you can give as to where you got the kit and you building techniques that make it look so real would help.
Thanks for your great work.
Respectively:
Phillip Capestany

 

[Bomarc]

Thank you Phillip, that's kind of you to say.

For any tip or trick I performed on this model, I would refer you to the Papermodelers.com thread (link in my signature line below), which laboriously chronicles the build from the very start. Sadly, PM seems to be undergoing a tumultuous period at the moment, and hopefully will come back on line unscathed (knock on wood). If there's anything in particular you'd like to know about, I can try to touch upon it here.

For the kit itself, if you're in the U.S., the Paper Model Store carries both Orlik Mitchell kits:

http://www.papermodelstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=4482

http://www.papermodelstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=4329

They also carry the laser cut former sets for either kit if you're so inclined. Another source would be straight from the manufacturer Orlik, on their website:

http://www.orlik-models.pl/

I'm told ordering from them is fairly painless, but the shipping times from Poland to the U.S. are a tad long.

HTH

Mike

 

[Bomarc]

Do Over!!!

In a moment of “can’t leave well enough alone”, I decided to redo that gun controller. It just looked too clunky in there to me, and we all know what happens when I don’t like something. This time it wasn’t much to remove and modify it. Trimmed it down and reduced its dimensions, remade some components in a smaller size, and spruced up the hand grips:

I think it looks a lot better in there:

Compare and contrast with the first attempt and the original:

Finally started receiving UPS shipments again (they kept deferring delivery because of the street conditions in my neighborhood). A tool and supply order yielded two new tools to the arsenal. This dental pick has a ball on either end:

Should be useful for embossing, scoring, and in a pinch, home dental work. The second one has a teardrop shape on the end:

Don’t know what I’d used it for, but it sure looks cool……

Mike

 

[peter taft]

You will know doubt find some use for that tool Mike - but don't go looking down in the mouth if you don't find a use straight away :mrgreen: Now i wouldn't have thought an improvement on what you'd already got in there would be possible, but must agree with you, the LETS HAVE A TWEAK really did pay off, looks even more THE business now... Great my friend :thumb:

 

[Elliott]

Gotta admit, when I saw the "can't leave well enough alone" part of the post I thought "Oh no, he didn't" but by the end I had to stop holding my breath and agree; it does look better, svelte (can a card model be svelte?) and more to scale. Great work as always!

 

[ron0909]

Mike,
I was going through withdrawals until I stumbled upon your build here
It's excellence beyond comparison as usual my friend!

Ron