First, I’d like to thank you guys for your input on the final color. It really helped sell me on the desert camo I had initially selected . . .
. . . so I’m not sure why I repainted it anyway.
Olive Drab is just so quintessential “World War 2.” I wanted to stay away from it, but the more research I did, the more sense it made. So I spend about two afternoons making myself miserable, removing all the decals and windows, masking and re-spraying the entire bird.
But going solid green was a calculated choice. See, the tan base color would work to my advantage. I first got out the the airbrush and filled in the panel lines and some streaking. Then as I added the green, the back lines and lighter base coat gave the olive drab the right kinds of light and dark spots, as the war paint was notorious for sun bleaching. A few coats and weathering later, the result gives the plane that greenish brown color that most have in person.
Another area that was done and put away, or so I thought, was the nose. It turned out, after building my crew (I’ll get to them in a minute), it was nigh-on impossible to fit a gunner in the nose in any convincing fashion. So I made modifications not unlike ground crews did for their strafing bombers, and added a third nose gun, changed the smaller .30 to a chopped .50, and filled the cabin space with an armored bulkhead and lots of ammunition. Since I already had one full gun and receiver inside, I just added a second, and built a hybrid bracket out of a Rambo emplacement gun for the third. This left plenty of extra room for the pilot and filled the space well enough to warrant replacing the windows — I had considered just painting over them, something that B-25 crews actually did to their gunships.
I used the remaining panel detailing decals I had to replace the fuel ports, as well as adding some oiling and other notations in different spots on the body. Admittedly, the USAAF symbols and aircraft tail identifiers will probably get replaced later, but these would be similar to 9th Air Force markings around 1944. The Pacific Theatre Mitchells had much cooler paint jobs, with elaborate noses and tail flashes, while the European ones were more known for there Vallejo girls pinups and spotty camo. I may add a pinup girl to this one eventually, but the skull and crossbones works for now. I also came across some great propeller markings that I got to add.
Now, about that crew . . . This is easily one of the most involved vehicle builds I’ve done in a while, so it needed a unique pilot — not a superhero. while Mezco Captain America is going to definitely hitch a ride in this thing, there needed to be a tough-as-nails, thousand-yard-stare, ice-blooded operator to man the wheel when Cap makes his aerial exit onto the back of whatever Wunderwaffe he enlisted the B-25 to fight.
I could only think of one man.
Captain Morris Schaffer, formally of Army Rangers, found his way to a promotion and a move into the Army Air Force following his successful role in a commando raid on a Nazi Bavarian fortress. His B-25 has been modified for close air support, foregoing its traditional bombing role. The bomb bay has been fitted with extra fuel and ammunition, though the wing racks allow for some lighter bombs or aerial high-velocity rockets. Not overly trusting of a team these days, Shaffer runs his plane with just an additional crewman to man the top turret.
I built Mr. Eastwood’s WW2 hero out of a Mezco Judge Dredd with an incredible Madelman custom head. He has Madelman trousers, a t-shirt, and a Neca Snake Plissken jacket. Underneath, he has a should rig with a war trophy Luger inside. The young gunner is a Marvel Legends Hawkeye with similar clothing, WW2 Cap web gear, and a Steve Rogers head, for that all-American look.
So Captain Schaffer fits the cockpit with no problem, and the gunner fits his station pretty well too, though I hope he has some ear protection.
A third crewman or passenger will fit in the waist compartment as well. When One:12 Cap does get here, he can man a waist gun, or drop out the lower hatch. He may want to grab one of those vintage Action Jackson vests I found, though. Just in case.
Other than maybe updating the decals, I am finally finished. My only complaint is now I want to build some more WW2 vehicles. Sigh. I might have to settle for some Steampunk Wolfenstein-esque Nazi war machines for now. Again, this has been an excellent build for me, and one where I had to make surprisingly few concessions. And the ones I did make seemed to help build the personality of the plane, rather than take away from it.
Here’s hoping that there may yet be some other fodder out there, waiting to be made into another 1/12 warbird, but in the meantime, the B-25 Mitchell has earned his place, flying in formation with my F-117 over a busy workbench.
