Orlik PBJ-1H Mitchell

-Jim G

Active Member
Yesterday afternoon I was a lying in my hammock when I heard the sounds of radial engines... two B-25s, in tight formation, flew overhead :thumb:
 

Bomarc

Member
... two B-25s, in tight formation, flew overhead

A sight and sound to gladden the heart! They might have been part of the Doolittle raid anniversary observations held over the weekend. A gentleman over at the Hyperscale forum posted some pic he took:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/message/1271630084/Finis+to+Doolittle+Commemorative+(pix)

Imagine 17 B-25's in the air at the same time and same place!

Finished up the last bits for the wings. Marine PBJ’s had a field mod to carry eight 5 inch HVAR's. Here are the stubs back in the day:

navarre44c-1.jpg


Orlik included these plus the rockets themselves, but I decided early on not to have any external stores. Still, the stubs have to be made. Taking the teardrop parts from the kit, CA glued them to a strip of 0.5mm card so I could shape them in a bunch:

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Made a little cutting template to keep them consistent:

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The kits original parts are on the left, which I obviously didn’t use. For the front stubs, shaped a length of mat board to an airfoil shape, then wrapped card at interval along its length, then cut them out:

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Trimmed to final length and added the flat mounting lug to their ends:

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Mounted them on the reprinted kit parts. I had glued the original parts to 0.5mm card per the kit instructions early on in this build, tryng to get ahead on things. Should have skipped that step as that made them way too thick. Anyway on 65lb card:

IMG_7101.jpg


The original MB-8 (“8-Ball”) had white (or at least a very light) colored stubs:

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The kit parts were black like the pic at the beginning of this post. I liked the black better:

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Also added the ailerons and flaps to the wings. Left:

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And right:

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I had mounted the control yoke in the cockpit cranked slightly to the right, hence the deflection of the ailerons (continuity!). Like to see nice straight and sharp trailing edges:

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Also added the fuel vents at the tail end of each nacelle. That’s about it for wings the wings:

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Rudders and elevators coming up…..

Mike
 

mysteroid

Active Member
Been watching this build since the engines. Always stunning!

:thumb:

I especially appreciate the careful documentation. I need all the help I can get on technique!wall1

Thanks Bomarc!
 

Bomarc

Member
I especially appreciate the careful documentation.

My pleasure, although I figure I would have been done with this thing about 3 months ago if I didn't stop to take pictures every now and again, but I'm not complaining.....;)

Rudders took a lot to whip them into shape. The slots for the hinges were off quite a bit, and I had to cut and add material as required to get a smooth profile of fin to rudder:

IMG_7107.jpg


Looks like a mess, I know. Lots of CA glue (stuff's starting to really come into it's own lately), with judicial sanding gets the job mostly done. Also added the trim tab push rod tubes, which Orlik didn't include (but they did include them on the elevators, go figure):

IMG_7108.jpg


Painted up and mounted, the profile is consistent top and bottom:

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Trim tab push rod in place:

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Can't resist one "cheesecake" shot:

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The camera flash really highlights the painted portions, which could be problematic. The PBJ's on Kwajalein were pretty patched work in there paint schemes, so that could work in my favor, we'll see.....

Elevators next.....

Mike
 

Elliott

Senior Member
Gonna pin up that cheesecake shot right next to my pillow!

If Orlik doesn't hire you Mike they ain't got a lick of sense.
 

Bomarc

Member
Gonna pin up that cheesecake shot right next to my pillow!

Well, I would have gone with Betty Grable:

betty-grable.jpg


But hey, whatever floats your boat! ;)

Took a detour from the elevators a bit tonight to try something. In looking over Elliot's pinup in my last post made me think about the patch work nature of the PBJ's at Kwajalein, and I thought I'd try to capitalize on it a bit with some deliberate patching (vice the "cover up the mistakes" variety I've been doing up to this point). Most notable was the area where the side gun packs used to be, being removed by the Marines on the Island. Worked up a template of the packs shape and general location:

IMG_7115.jpg


There were two plates added on each side to cover up the gun belt pass thru's to the gun packs:

IMG_7116.jpg


Shaped them a little to bow them out to simulate being deformed from being riveted on:

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The template helped to locate them on the sides:

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Then, with the actual pack shape cut out, daubed Model Master Intermediate Blue straight form the bottle (no mixing to match this time) using a stubby brush I've had (bristles cut down to almost nothing):

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Instant phantom gun packs:

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The real deal for comparison:

manning50.jpg


An another, this time the right side (both pics from the VMB-613 site: http://www.vmb613.com/).

gavin5.jpg


Shows the patches for the gun packs well, but also that there was no armor plate on that side as I suspected. Oh well, thanks Orlik!

Elevators went easy. They actually fit as advertised, no tailoring required. As I mentioned, the trim tab push rod tubes were supplied in the kit, but Orlik decided to print them in the lighter blue color, so were useless. I just took some dark blue material and made my own (using Mark's (shrike) "Mini Styck"):

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The control yoke in the cockpit was also positioned slightly back, so the elevator are "up" a tad (continuity! Again!). Some views:

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Added the tab push rods after the elevators set:

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It's down to a couple/few more housekeeping items, then it major assembly time. Speeding up here at the end......

Mike
 

Elliott

Senior Member
Can't put Betty Grable up, my beloved bride might raise objections......

Tail gun position in the 3d pic from the bottom looks vaguely sinister, kind of Star Wars-ish or like a B-2 Spirit. I like it!! Your idea for the side gun pack patches was well-done. Adds to the "character" of 8 Ball. As for the starboard cockpit armor - obviously the maintenance crew hasn't gotten around to removing it yet. No worries!
 

Bomarc

Member
Can't put Betty Grable up, my beloved bride might raise objections......

And for similar reasons, Betty (nor any of her brethren) will not be adorning any wall in my house.....

Tail gun position in the 3d pic from the bottom looks vaguely sinister, kind of Star Wars-ish.....

LOL, it does have a T.I.E. fighter look about it, doesn't it? I'm sure the enemy fighter pilots facing that view didn't much care for it!

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
It's the little things......

OK, there was a thing that I had built early on and just sort of let go. As this build progressed, the more I looked at this "thing", the more it bugged me. So I finally banged this out in 30 minutes, and got it out of my system.

Took a chunk of clear red prescription bottle plastic (anyone who gets their prescriptions from Target knows what I'm talking about), and shaped it to a teardrop shape. Cut some card to the corresponding size and shape:

IMG_7131.jpg


Glued the card piece to the tip of the Left wingtip:

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Filled and flared it in with CA glue, then painted it, with the flat part in silver:

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Glued the teardrop on with CA. Normally I'd polish this up first, but the plastic's soft, so I just coated with future, and viola! A more better navigation light:

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Before and after (I had to dredge up the "before" shot deep in the depths of my Photobucket account):

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I feel better now...........

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
LOL. Thanks Elliot, but I don't even need to find a pharmacy that uses green bottles, as the wingtip radome of Navy PBJ's obliterated the the right wingtip nav light!

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
So last night was the big event, the joining of wings to fuselage. Some last minute items to take care of first. The nav light was one, and you've already seen that. Also needed to finish off the ends of the elevators:

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The Orlik parts were the wrong color (again!), so I made my own:

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The side blisters needed some closure on their sides all around:

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Also tried to subdue the (ahem) “moss” growing on the side in that one area shown above.

So the moment of truth had arrived. Made some stands for the wings, and added more jigs to the base “dry dock”. Also prepped the wing join areas by punching a few holes:

IMG_7143.jpg


I also punched a couple of holes in the fuselage at the points where a former runs behind the skin. The hope is that the glue will create a “rivet” in the joint, like this:

GlueBlob.jpg


At least that’s what I’m hoping will be going on in there. Did a dry run with everything in place:

IMG_7144.jpg


These two angle pieces (arrows) will set the trailing edges to the same height:

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Cleared for launch. My weapon of choice for gluing:

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This is the slow setting stuff, so should give me plenty of time to get things in position. Mixed up a batch and attached the first wing. Then mixed up another batch, and started attaching the other wing. Made enough in each batch to blob a good amount in all the holes:

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Then smeared a layer on the wing’s end, on it goes. Using cotton swabs to mop up the “ooze”, the epoxy makes a nice fillet:

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The resultant mess:

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With everything set in place, it’s time to wait:

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The epoxy takes 6 hours to harden so overnight would be more than enough.

This morning:

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Pretty stiff. I could swat fly balls with that wing. Here’s the rear view, which I couldn’t take last night:

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Next to last big campaign is to apply the mat coat. Light’s getting pretty bright at the end of that tunnel, no?

Mike
 

Falsemuzzle

New Member
wow...never even thought of using J.B. Weld on a paper model. thanks for the idea!
i'm looking forward to seeing the finished project. what an excellent model!
:)
 
I have not posted f/awhile due to illness, and I am again awed by your skills and talents. Your attention to detail is just top quality and the JB Weld was the wildest idea I have seen so far in paper modeling. I have thought about using it for shaped weight to AC, but never like this. Bravo my friend. Rick:wave:





 

Bomarc

Member
Rick! Good to see you sir, I hope you're fully recovered. Your absence is sorely felt over at PM.

Been lapse in my updates here, so to rectify:

IMG_7167.jpg


She can stand! I'm getting the last bits fitted to the fuselage while I decide if and/or how I might add a matte clear coat, which if I decide to do, will be the last big thing before final assembly. So first was cut, adjust, and align the landing gear. Looks pretty straight right out of the shoot, so no much work required:

IMG_7170.jpg


I had added an ungodly amount of nose weight when constructing the nose/cockpit area, and it looks like it's barely enough, as right now the model is just at the tipping point:

IMG_7171.jpg


Adding the engines, props, etc will push the C/G back a bit more, so should site solidly on it's nose wheel. A couple more views:

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Mike
 

peter taft

Senior Member
Our Mike always leaves us with jaws on the floor....:mrgreen: a paper magician for sure, each part is a piece of magic :thumb:
 

Bomarc

Member
Thanks Pete! Sadly, I think the end's nears though....

My camera's battery died last night, so any progress was not recorded. Not much was accomplished, but I did reach a decision last night: No clear coat. Not worth the effort. I was mulling over the possibility of over coating the entire model with a matte spray, but the Kyrlon stuff I chose didn't perform on my test sheet as I would have hoped:

IMG_7184.jpg


It did make the paper surfaces flat in finish, but for the painted surfaces (and the exposed glue portions) that it would encounter on this model, it was more of a satin finish, actually highlighting the differences than subduing them as I was hoping. So, I'm just going to go through a paint touch-up program, followed by some light pastel work, and that will be that. What it does do is scoot my schedule up by a week or more. That means I'm a few days away from finishing this epic. How weird is that? What will I do with myself?

BUT, in the short term, I did manage to fabricate the main gear doors last night. No in progress pics thanks to a dead camera battery:

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I added some mat board to beef up the webs in between the cutouts as was on the original, and to give them that stamped metal part look. Another coat of green will go on after all the fittings are in place. The doors fit pretty good:

IMG_7186.jpg


Maybe I'll jettison all that landing gear work and go with a gear retracted, in flight stance........nah!

Mike
 

peter taft

Senior Member
Maybe I'll jettison all that landing gear work and go with a gear retracted, in flight stance........nah!

Now you really don't wanna do that my friend - Make it retractable {toooo late} So.... build her all over again and make a display stand... :twisted: J O K E :mrgreen: When finished, sit back with a fat cigar {if you're in to them} and a nice tumbler of a single malt {hold the water} and relax... admire your work - another glass of the finest... admire some more {you get the picture :twisted: }
Not that i ever do this you understand:roll1:
 
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