The Atom Furnace

The Atlantis (1/64 scale) kit was available at my local Hobby Lobby during a week of 40% off boxed kits. It was inexpensive to begin with so I could not resist. Knowing that it is a simple kit did not deter me, I just knew that a certain amount of DIY would be necessary, but after all we are Modeler's and not just Assemblers! As the title implies I want to build the Doolittle Raider.

The sealed "Bag-O-Parts".

I did not expect a lot of detail, but this for the top turret guns was almost insulting. I considered buying after market guns as I did for the 1/64 Lindberg B-17 of my Dad's which I rebuilt, but then recalled that I had Lindberg guns in my stash. I modified those a bit, added a piece of 22 gauge wire and pieces of PE and dry fit those into the kit turret.

Here is the modification....

....in the turret. Brother Bob thought they looked a little chunky. Perhaps they do but they are not painted yet and as we all know things look bigger in white.

SEE!

Ok, guys, back to the kit.

The painted assembly!

More "lack of detail" is the cowls that I could hardly tell whether there were cowl flaps.

Xacto blades took care of that!

I was surprised by the recessed panel lines. While not always deep I was able to line them with the Gundam Panel Line marker recently acquired! As I found out with constant handling, the marker is not permanent and relining is necessary.

Fuselage half all lined with the pen shown. Also notice the engine cowls - same as the Lindberg B-17, the wasp cylinders are very simply molded in the cowl requiring some detail painting. I ended up using gun metal, silver, copper and gray.

The motors don't look too bad with the props inserted. Note that the Doolittle Raiders did not have the yellow prop warning tips, rather a red stripe on the fuselage.

I find this interesting that the nose gunner/bombardier is fairly well detailed which is rather inconsistent with the lack of detail in the rest of the kit.

There was a warning about weighting the nose for the tricycle gear, but no guide on how much weight. I used the remaining fishing shot and other metal bits in my stash in the hopes that it will suffice. I tried painting in some detail in the cockpit walls which will probably not be seen when closed up😁

Since there are no bulkheads provided in the kit, I form some from wine corking foil - easy to cut, bend and glue with cyano. Again, an interesting molded detail is the instrument console to which I applied paint, but there is no instrument panel?????

So I supplied one from my stash. It is appropriate enough and trimmed to fit. It is a decal (on the backing paper) glued to the top of the console.

With pilots painted and seated the "decal" panel looks ok! One thing to note is the opening just above and behind the cockpit. I cut out the area (a circle) in which the clear dome on later models is to sit. The B25B had a flat window which I will close with window glue. Time to close the fuselage.

Detail looks fairly good!

Now to glue on the "Chin". Note the nose gear - had to be inserted into its receiving hole before closing the fuselage (along with the top turret). What follows is a lack of direction.

Instruction call out is to NOT glue the gear leg (apparently so it can rotate). Since the fit was not good, plus the position of my weights were restrictive, I had to glue the leg in place - Oh Well! The other point is that there is no instruction on the wheel itself. Apparently one is to simply glue it on the axle! On a kit of this type I thought perhaps the old heated knife blade on the end of the axle would have been an option (one that I don't like), plus the axle is very long and has to be trimmed off (in my opinion). More on this later.

Paint application had to start so I tried mixing Testors Olive Drab with a little brown to attempt achieving the early war OD. Due to the panel line pen I once again approached the upper surfaces with a hand painted panel by panel technique. I have to say that my hand painting panel by panel along panel lines is very tedious and extends the time of model completion, but is none the less a satisfying exercise for me. It is certainly not for everyone and I am not endorsing it, it is simply the way I work - I'm not schooled or skilled in the operation of an air brush (although I do have one), nor do I have the facility for its use in most weather conditions.

The painting of the glass framing also begins now that both cockpit and nose canopies are in place. Since I don't have 1/64 masking kits it is the slow process of Tamiya taping- first the straights.....

......then the curves which require snipping the tape to follow the curve.

The process is painstaking as each frame piece has to dry before applying more tape.

The "TTG", Tamiya Tape Graveyard accumulated during the two week long process of masking and painting the framing😫which will be evident later.

Painting proceeds on the glass and fuselage and I can still see the interior - Yippee!

During drying time I assembled the wing halves with the lower nacelle half and engine cowl. An issue that bothered me was another missing detail, that of engine exhaust. The early version had a single exhaust venting on the lower outboard position, but no parts or instruction are supplied!

What to do?? I did have an old USB cord from an older iPhone and the outer insulation seemed to be the appropriate diameter and it is easily cut and trimmed.

SEE!!!😅

Glued in place and painted - looks pretty good I think!

Next came the main gear leg inserted, gear door attached, and a little DIY with a piece of styrene rod for the door actuator arm.

With the wings and tail assembled and panel lines "penned" I masked off the props and applied the Testors Light Aircraft Gray (rattle can). That Gundam Marker did its job! Recall that I mentioned earlier that the marker is not permanent? As you will see later that is an issue.

A little touch up and decal application including fitting the previously painted wheels on axles and the underside looks done. The main wheels popped on the axle so they can rotate without coming off.

A little controversy! The Raiders were stripped down and devoid of the lot of markings but it is not exactly clear in all cases what was left in place. I put on the prop decals as shown on the USAF Museum display of Doolittle's plane. I did have to explain the nose gun when I put photos on Facebook and received a comment about removal of guns to save weight. This was true and the belly turret was specifically called out along with radio equipment, the Norden Bombsight, and tail guns. The nose gun(s) were not specifically called out as being removed, which is why I justified the use of the gun and crew supplied in the kit.

Masked the fuselage for the rattle can application of light aircraft gray.

With the fuselage sprayed it is time to address the nose wheel issue - to glue or not to glue! It seems to me that if the main wheels can turn so should the nose wheel so I cut out a small piece of wine foil and punched in a hole to fit over the axle and glued it in place so that the wheel could rotate. The next task was to saw off the axle as close as possible to my newly installed retaining ring.

The axle nub I sawed off.

I measured and cut a 1/4 inch diameter disk from the wine foil and glued it to the end of the trimmed off axle. After it was set I worked around the edge to slightly bend the disk inward toward the wheel rim to finish off my wheel cover. There are photos of such wheel covers......

See what I mean. Obviously a later version of the B25 (at a reenactment event), but since there is no indication or photo evidence of the raiders front wheel I am going with it.

About as good as I am capable of! As my brother said 'adapt, improvise, and overcome'.

A word of caution in the use of dullcoat spray. I use Testors Dullcoat and usually there is no issue as it does not impact decals other than dulls the gloss, a primary purpose of the spray. But as alluded to earlier the Gundam Marker is not permeant (and certainly not enamel) and even though over sprayed with the light Gray enamel there was some bleed through of the marker panel lines! While not horrible (as unintentional weathering), it is something to be aware of.

The tail dome is a solid piece that I drilled and inserted the kit part turret guns to simulate the reported use of broom handles in the "clear" tail gun dome to "fool" the enemy. More likely an additional weight saving ploy. Silver paint to simulate plexiglass.

With the port wing painted and decal applied, I sprayed some dullcoat into the cap and brushed the decal in order to avoid /Gundam Marker bleed. I did the same for the stars on the fuselage.

The tail and rear fake guns are easily attached.....

.....as were the wing assemblies (finally).

The underside turned out acceptable even with the "Unintentional weathering". Note the 26 gauge wire pitot tube drilled into the starboard wing.

The same wire was used for the radio wire masts drilled into the fuselage in accord with observed photos. Monofilament was tied and glued in place.

On the Deck!

A warm color adjustment makes the OD take on the brown tinge. With the DIY that I anticipated (and some I did not) the Atlantis kit turns out a reasonably good B25.

VAMPIRE

No, not that vampire but this...

The DeHavilland! One of the first of the Jet fighters coming out of WWII. I'm not a jet builder, but this intrigued me. Plus I have a strange idea about what I want to do with this - more on that as I progress.

Here is the kit, but I don't plan on my build looking like this. First off I must thank myself for purchase via Amazon. Upon inspection, even though the parts sprues were in a sealed bag, two pieces were missing. I was able to make a replacement order which will arrive only 4 days after this kit arrived. All I have to do is drop off the return kit to UPS by March 23rd. Going through Airfix may have required a month of waiting for spare parts. In this I was able to begin the build now!!

As usual the interior is first in the instructions so I applied the instrument panel decal!

Next was more interior work while on the sprue. A couple of things here. First you will see that there is only one pilot seat installed - yes, that is one of the missing parts. Second the interior paint is in accordance with instructions-sort of-I used a gun metal mix instead of the called for matt black (I am used to the typical interior green/zinc chromate of WWII aircraft). This was outside of my comfort zone, but I hung in and added some color as I usually do.

My first DIY.

I painted some wire with flat black and drilled out the four gun ports in the underside nose panel. Sliding the wire through the holes and gluing down with cyano gel....

....I get the look of the four guns on the exterior! The Vampire has to be able "Bite" after all😈

The pilots are painted in accordance with 1950s period. Silver helmets and gloss visors.

While waiting for the replacement kit to arrive I searched the instructions for assemblies that could tide me over. The twin booms was one of those. Boom halves needed to have pin release extrusions shaved from the vertical stabilizers in order for the parts to mate flush with no seams. Tail pieces were then applied. Thin cement works well for this assembly.

I finished with the landing gear legs, nose wheel and wing tanks - all in accord. with instructions. I can build no more until the replacement kit gets here (today, I hope), but there was one more thing.....

....Panel washing!!! I used thinned mat black that could flow easily down the lines by touching the brush to line intersections. Over-wash was quickly wiped away and then a light scraping with the edge of the xacto blade.

The replacement kit has arrived so I painted seat number two along with the control yokes and installed them. I seated the Pilots are and panels and bulkheads are then fixed to the cockpit platform - ready for fuselage closure.

Assembly goes quickly now with the wings and engine, except this time I remembered to drill out holes for the drop tanks before closing up the wings.

The boom assembly with gear legs fits snuggly into the wings, but!!!!!!

I snapped off the plastic pitot and had to replace it with a piece of gauge 26 wire. Things Happen!!!

The half dozen lead shot sinkers (7grams needed) glued into the nose before fuselage closure makes sure that the tricycle gear sits firmly!! The tires and wheels were painted on the sprue and fixed to the landing gear legs. The anti-glare has been applied to the nose.

BTW, I did not want to emulate the box art, but rather a camo style fighter. I will use a number of decals included but not the orange stripes. My Vampire will be a hybrid - maybe out of Australia or New Zealand. I am having my brother print Tasmanian Devil decals (Warner Brothers). Although Taz appeared in only 5 features between 1954 and 1966 the timing is correct to be used on a fighter plane of that era! I think he will look good on the nose!

Started panel painting on the underside with "Sky" The tedious part is picking out the rivet pattern after painting. They are tough to see!

SEE!!!

The camo went on faster - fewer rivets!!!

With painting completed, I put down some decals. I now must wait to get the ones my brother is making before I can dullcoat. In the meantime I will be working on the canopy framing.

The windscreen and rear piece frames are painted and installed. I used some masking on the windscreen but the framing was well molded and the edges were easy to hand paint. The center/hatch portion can be mounted closed or open. Although the plastic is clear I will mount the hatch open since you get a good view of the interior detail. A word of caution. The no-step areas marked out in yellow are solid decals and as you can see the centers did not seal down well and look opaque and don't show the underlying color well. My solution was to draw the xacto tip across the center in parallel strips and reapply Micro Sol.

The results were good!

Now for the whimsey. My brother's decal creation from the internet image was pretty good. I simply cut out an oval shape and applied. It is a good thing I did not attempt to cut out the image as the film is a bit thick and tends to curl under as it comes off the paper backing, but once applied I was able to maneuver the oval to get the edges down on the fuselage. Micro Sol to the rescue again. Now I have my Australian De Havilland conversion from Vampire to Tasmanian Devil.

Pilot call sign - "TAZ" of course! Now for some finish photos!