Author Topic: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber  (Read 17144 times)

Offline Old Wombat

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NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« on: January 26, 2020, 06:50:55 PM »
OK, inspired by these photo-shopped images from taidantomcat, I have started my own version.





Mine is based on the Airfix B-25C/D kit in the Devil's Scale (1/72). It will retain the upper turret (the further-back version), the swivel-mount nose .50-cal & the single fixed nose .50-cal

If it works out, I may buy another B-25 & do something closer to the image as a B-27G/H/J/?

Photo's will be forthcoming.



(Note: The real XB-27 was a Glenn L. Martin Company paper project that never made prototype.)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline LemonJello

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2020, 02:32:52 AM »
Will be following this one intently.  I like the look of that first photo - could see this as an anti-shipping platform in the Pacific.

Offline apophenia

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2020, 05:59:06 AM »
Looking forward to this  :smiley:
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Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2020, 04:04:10 AM »
That's  killer concept!

I've go a 1/72 Ju-88 fuselage that'll get a B-25 bombardier nose someday. The cross-sections eerily match up.  :o

Brian da Basher

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2020, 11:10:50 AM »
My apologies for the less than satisfactory photo's; it's not a strength, unfortunately:













I'll give the cockpit a blast of dull-cote to drop the gloss a bit then start closing her up.

I've already learned a bit for the next version;

Lesson 1: Take your cuts further down & remove the plastic between the second set of panel lines on the sides forward of the wing & aft of the wing to about 2/3 of the way to the tail. It'll reduce the amount of PSR required.

Lesson 2: Although I've managed a work-around, remove the bombardier's station & move the whole cockpit forward of the nose wheel well.

As you can see, this version has just the one pilot & the poor ol' bombardier is isolated in the nose, unable to access the rest of the plane. I've created an access/escape hatch for him but it's not ideal & is one of the reasons to remove his position completely in the next build, in which I'll give the pilot &/or co-pilot access to a bomb sight. I'll also remove both nose blister guns (fixed & swivel-mounted), going with the 4 side-blister mounted .50cal's of the later models of B-25.

Thanks for watching! :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2020, 12:34:50 PM »
This is gonna be so cool!  :smiley: Taiidantomcat's chopped Mitchell has a really menacing look to it. Good to see it in plastic.
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2020, 03:39:55 PM »
Thanks, Moritz! :smiley:

Hopefully I can do it justice. :icon_meditation:



Highly unlikely to be in BMF, though, 'coz (a) I don't think I'll be able to smooth the PSR enough & (b) I ain't that good at it, anyway. ;)
« Last Edit: January 28, 2020, 03:42:25 PM by Old Wombat »
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline LemonJello

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2020, 09:51:50 PM »
Looking like a good start and keep the lessons learned coming!  (And the photo updates)

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2020, 10:46:24 PM »
I'll try! :smiley: ;)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2020, 08:03:21 AM »
Woah! That is neat! If you won't mind a bit of kibitzing, I think raising the height of the rudders  a touch might be appealing. Looking forward to seeing the progress of the build regardless!

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2020, 11:41:31 AM »
Thanks, Doc! :smiley:


And: Nah, I'm trying to minimised the workload & keep her as close to a B-25 as possible. ;)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2020, 06:25:25 PM »
Again, apologies for the crappy photography. :-[


Moving along:










Cockpit glazing is on. Not as smooth as I'd hoped (but wasn't expecting), so I'll need to do a little bit of work to get it looking OK.

Tail planes & tail cone attached, as are the wing uppers. The tail cone is clear (for part of the optics for the remote ventral turret that I didn't fit) but will be painted over.

PSR has removed some of the detail, which I'll attempt to restore but not until after I've PSR'ed around the cockpit.



Thanks for watching! :icon_beer:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline ysi_maniac

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2020, 07:15:13 PM »
Very good! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2020, 08:32:46 PM »
Thanks, ysi! :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline LemonJello

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2020, 09:42:01 PM »
Inspiring!

If I run across a deal on a B-25, I may have to add this to the planned/future projects list (ever growing).

Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #15 on: January 31, 2020, 01:32:49 AM »
Dude!! This is soooo cool!!  I love the "glass" behind the regular nose glazing-- Thats even better than my design! never thought of that!

It looks like you handled "dropping" the fuselage top really well too. That was how I was planning on doing it.


(youre making this look far too easy. I'm suddenly thinking this can be done quickly and looking at my razor saws...)  :icon_vader:
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Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #16 on: January 31, 2020, 01:34:46 AM »
That's  killer concept!

I've go a 1/72 Ju-88 fuselage that'll get a B-25 bombardier nose someday. The cross-sections eerily match up.  :o

Brian da Basher

Now Thats interesting!!  8)
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Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #17 on: January 31, 2020, 02:41:10 AM »
Progressing nicely!  :smiley:

If you were to install a fighter-style bubble hood (yeah, that's exactly not the point of this build.), you'd have a piston-engined Il-28 Beagle (mostly). Whifh would be kinda cool.
Cheers,
Moritz

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #18 on: January 31, 2020, 02:59:03 AM »
Looking good
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Offline kitnut617

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #19 on: January 31, 2020, 04:10:52 AM »
Great stuff Guy   :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

what did the additional glazing come off ?

Offline apophenia

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #20 on: January 31, 2020, 05:47:06 AM »
That looks amazing  :smiley:
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Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #21 on: January 31, 2020, 06:27:12 AM »
Funny the other day I verifies a 1/48 Black Widow nose fits on a Testors 1/72 B-25B. Gonna stick a bubble canopy on top for the pilot, not sure about the upper gun blister though.

What an outstanding concept and I eagerly await your next update.

Brian da Basher

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #22 on: January 31, 2020, 10:04:28 AM »
Thank you all, gentlemen! :smiley:


So far, it's been a relatively easy build but I have this strange feeling I failed to add sufficient nose weight. We'll see how that pans out.

The extra glazing came from the Airfix kit, which supplies two cockpit glazing options (the differences are forward of what I used). If I did it again, I'd cut along a few of the frame lines at the front of the glazing & wedge them apart slightly with some styrene, so they match where they join the other glazing sections. It's hard to see, just holding them up, but the main cockpit glazing narrows towards the front by about 1-1.5mm, which becomes obvious once glued into place.

I'll use the same method with the next (cockpit forward) version I build (if Hasegawa are nice enough to supply two canopies for their B-25J) but just PSR over them to get the right contours. The cockpit forward version will, also, allow for more nose weight, which I believe is a problem for most B-25 kits.


Once more: Thanks for watching & commenting! Very much appreciated! :icon_alabanza: :icon_alabanza:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline kitnut617

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #23 on: January 31, 2020, 10:21:20 AM »
Guy, can you get Scale Aircraft Conversions stuff in your part of the world, they do these for the B-25.

http://www.scaleaircraftconversions.com/moreinfo.cfm?FROM=search&KIT=754

http://www.scaleaircraftconversions.com/moreinfo.cfm?FROM=search&KIT=167

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber
« Reply #24 on: January 31, 2020, 12:37:04 PM »
Already ordered one for my next Airfix B-25C/D build, which will be Real World British, if I can find photo's. ;)

Given how much nose weight these things seem to need, they should be doing everything forward of the prop's in white metal. ;D

Thanks, anyway, mate! :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."