Monogram 1/48 B-25

how much work do you want? seams and detailing will make it ok. resin and pe will help. or buy the am....someone else is boxing it cheaper, sez the last squadron flier. wait till you know fer sher....

Merit? You bet. Monogram and Accurate Min issued different version; Monogram the H and J (glass & gun nose), AM the earlier B, C & D (I believe).
While the AM kit has better detailing, esp. on the surfaces, it includes a LOT of interior detail I doubt you'll ever see. Unfortunately they modeled the cowlings on one with a narrowed cowl opening, which is wrong for any WW II Mitchell. The nose in front of the windscreen also slopes too much. These problems may not seem like much (to a lot of people it's not) but to others it jumps out at you.
The Monogram kits have good detailing and more accurate shapes. You may have to spend more time with seams, although nothing bad. Also, the panel lines are raised. Again, more important to some than others. Prtsonally, I think the Monogram kits are much better value for the $ and easier to fix than AM's.
Curt

Sounds to me that it might be possible to sub the Monogram glass nose in for AM's. Some of the frames may not be correct but the shape should be more correct.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Thanks all for the input. My Significant Other has been noodling me for some time to make her a B-25 'like the one Daddy flew in.' I've suggested we go further and try to make one that Daddy DID fly in. Unfortunately, his answer to the question: "What models did you fly in?" usually produces the answer "all of 'em", and "What squadrons did you fly in?" with "A bunch." All I've never been able to nail down is that it was 6th Air Force in the SoPac . But plastic is on sale at Hobby Lobby this week and that makes the Monogram B-25-J only about $15.
Curt wrote:

Unfortunately, your Father in Law's response is not un-typical. Many of those who went through the war just want to forget it. I learned more about my Father's W.W.II service from two old buddies who showed up for his funeral than I ever heard from him.
Bill Shuey

I've got quite a few walkaround pics of the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's B-25J, "Briefing Time" posted on Photobucket. These may help you for a Monogram B-25J in particular, but you may also find some of them useful for the AM kits.
HTH
Don McIntyre

I concur. I'm a volunteer at the local air museum which puts me in contact with a large number of former military aviators either on the museum volunteer staff or as visitors. On average, there is only about 1 in 10 aircrew that can recall what their plane was painted like and far fewer that can actually recall any specific markings. This seems to apply to just about any military pilot regardless of era or combat experience. But remember, after all, these guys were just doing a job and sometimes just trying to stay alive, not doing historical research. So if you're interested in doing aircraft marking research using a veteran as a primary source, don't expect too much information. Although I will say that one of our staff vividly recalls flying with Charles Lindbergh when he visited this guy's P-38 unit in the Pacific. He vividly recalls their first mission when they were scrambled to intercept a group of Japanese fighters. The group gets airborne and they look around and can't spot Lindbergh. They call him on the radio and he is still on the ground methodically going through the startup checklist! This person is also one of the few that recalls the marking details of one of the aircraft he flew. He told me, "I think it might have been a famous P-38. It was named "Putt Putt Maru" and it was the commander's aircraft. The CO was a guy named McDonald and I remember being pretty intimidated stepping up to the airplane and seeing all those "Rising Sun" flags on the side of the cockpit".
HOWEVER, talking to a veteran is a GREAT WAY to discover fascinating stories that will never be published. I recently arranged for a WW II B-17 pilot on the museum staff to speak at our monthly IPMS meeting and he gave quite a presentation. Although on paper, he was a fully qualified B-17 pilot, he had never actually flown in the left seat by the time he got to North Africa. He had plenty of hours in the right seat when his commander asked him to be the aircraft commander for a newly arrived rookie aircrew. He said he wondered if the new crew was impressed by his meticulous adherence to the checklist on all the procedures and hoped that they didn't notice that he'd never actually "flown" a B-17 before. He also told a story of how they were assigned to destroy a bridge near a village in southern Italy. Their first mission wasn't totally successful. Their second mission wasn't completely successful either. On their third try, the noticed that the villagers apparently had blown the bridge themselves because they were tired of the aircrew's poor marksmanship and the errant bombs dropped on the village. He also had another amusing story of how they had repeatedly attacked a German airfield in southern Italy to put the runways out of action, which they did. As the allies advanced, their airbase advanced too and they ended up flying out of the very airfield they had routinely been bombing and now had to fix all the damage they had done!
Talking to veteran pilots is also a great way to learn about how they actually used their aircraft. I found out that a guy I work with was a Huey aviator with the HAL-3 Seawolves in Vietnam. Again, he had great stories that no one will ever hear along with some interesting information about the HAL-3 UH-1s. He noted that the older UH-1Bs were preferred over the newer UH-1Cs because the hydraulic system was simpler and would usually keep working when hit while the more complicated C system usually failed. He also said they used to pile flak jackets in the lower nose viewports to stop small arms fire. "I could see forward and down plenty good through the main windows and I didn't want to take any rounds from that angle, if you know what I mean" he said. So that's a little detail for a future UH-1 project (now I've got to figure out how to model a pile of flak jackets!).
One other way that you can get useful modeling information from veterans is to ask if they have any photos you can take a look at. I've gotten some great material for modeling details from photos in veteran's collections. In one instance, a former Army National Guard member that was an acquaintance of one of our IPMS members recently passed on and left a large unbuilt aircraft kit collection to be sold at an IPMS-arranged garage sale. One of the items was a box full of old photo albums which I quickly glanced through before deciding to buy a couple. When I got home and took a closer look, I found I had acquired a number of high-quality color photos taken in the early 60s on the flight line of the local ANG base. There were some beautiful color photos of 60s-vintage military aircraft markings that I had never seen before.
So my main point with all this is - Talk To A Vet. Be aware that some feel uncomfortable talking about wartime experiences with complete strangers so approach the subject "diplomatically". I usually start by asking about their branch of service, rank, their job, and where & when they served. Most modelers know quite about their particular area of modeling interest and most veterans are surprised and impressed with that knowledge and usually appreciate that they are talking to someone that is genuinely interested in what they have to say. Once you get past the preliminary questions above, that is usually enough to get them talking on their own. One of the things I became aware of early in my experience as a museum volunteer is that veterans are EVERYWHERE. I would work with guys who looked just like ordinary worn-out old men that turned out to be lively, fire-breathing young men in their youth who told stories of guts and courage that would curl your hair. It also taught me a lot about people and how you really can't judge a book by its cover (just like everyone always told you, right?).
So get out there and Talk To A Veteran!
Martin

Think I remember reading in an earlier thread that it's Italeri.
ddk

that's it.

Martin,I couldn't agree with you more.I started attending a new church several years ago and was approached by a man in his eighties who welcomed my wife and I to the church.He asked what i did for a living and I said at present I was a stay home dad,having retired from the US Navy a couple of years before.His eyes lit up at that and started tellng me he'd been in the Navy during WW2.I told him I'd been an airdale.He then got my interest by telling me he had been a radio operator/technician on B-24s at Guadacanal in 1943.He was in a squadron,VD-1.The next time we met ,he had a folder with some newspaper clippings and B&W photos of him on the Canal.He was 23 but looked 13! A couple of neat photos of his a/c and the surrounding mangrove swamps.He was overjoyed that someone took interest in his military service.Sadly,he told me that no one in his family ever got too excited about hearing of his experiences.I hung on every word.Everett passed from this earth earlier this month.I'm happy I had the opportunity to listen to what he had to say.By all means,talk to a vet! Kelly Voyles

Ditto. There's the "official record", and then there's the personal stories of what happened (which I put far more stock in) - and there's no better way to get them than from the guys that were actually there. When and if you're fortunate enough to meet one of them.

in article _6Ykh.757$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.net, Daniel at snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAMAmeritech.net wrote on 12/28/06 6:07 PM:
I built the glass-nose J fifteen or twenty years ago. I remember it as a reasonable build with decent fit. I took the model out of the display case just now and noticed how heavy it is, which reminded me of the struggle to find enough places to put enough weight to keep the nose down, but that'd be a challenge with any brand. The panels lines are indeed raised, but they're pretty finely done. I used NMF on the undersides of mine; the panel and access hatch detail looks quite satisfactory. The one problem I remember having with the kit was getting the main landing gear anywhere near vertical. Now, after however many years of supporting the weight, they've splayed out a lot and look really odd. Be forewarned that you may want to modify the way they mount in the nacelles. HTH Pip Moss

Sounds like a case for metal gear. I had a Renzan do that for me in just a few years. That was one tail-heavy bird and took a lot of weight up front.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Squadron has metal landing gear for Monogram's B-24, I bought a couple and they are nice. I am hoping they will continue the trend. I can think of a number of 1/48 and 1/32 kits that would benefit from pewter or even brass L.G. Tamiya's Lancaster is a prime example.
Bill Shuey