# Photos of My 1/48 B-25B "Doolittle Raider"



## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

Fellow Modelers,

Below are photos of my Accurate Miniatures 1/48 scale North American Mitchell B-25B bomber built as one of the “Doolittle Raiders”. The markings represent the “Ruptured Duck” (Plant No. 7) flown by Lt. Ted Lawson. The plane carried the standard Army camouflage scheme of the day, being olive drab upper surfaces and neutral gray lower surfaces separated by a blended demarcation line. The references I relied on the most were the U.S. Navy photographs taken of the planes during the sea voyage before the mission, and a 20 minute video on the history of the U.S.S. Hornet (CV8) purchased many years ago. The “Ruptured Duck” can be identified in two separate photographs and shows the upper surface paint job to be in good condition with minimal wear and chipping. The olive drab paint on some of the Doolittle planes had a noticeable amount of deterioration. Extra added details include:
> Photo-etched and masking tape seat belts were added to the cockpit seats. Shoulder straps were not used on the Doolittle planes.
>Added two formation lights (white on the left and red on the right) at the very end of the fuselage. 
>Added .10” sheet styrene on top of the fuselage behind the turret to represent reinforcing plate. This was a “field fix” to protect the fuselage skin from damage caused by shock blasts of the .50 caliber machine guns being fired while pointing straight back.
>The wings were corrected by first removing two sets of raised marker lights. Correct “B” model lights were represented by drilling holes in the center of the tips approximately 3/8” from the end. The three formation lights on the lower side of the right wing were filled in with superglue and sanded away. The fuel vent stubs were cut off from the end of both engine nacelles. Finally, the openings of the engine cowlings looked too small, so sandpaper was used to enlarge them from 11/16” to 3/4” 
>Sanded away the kit’s diamond treads off the tires.
>Added prop blade stenciling near the hubs. 
>Scratch built a M7 Cluster Incendiary bomb made out of 1” long small styrene strips that were bundled together with pieces of masking tape representing the straps.
>The carrier deck section is from a company called Just Plain Stuff. It was painted per the instructions that came with the deck.
This is a really well detailed kit, with my biggest complaint being that the subassemblies fit together poorly requiring a lot of gap filling. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Phillip1


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## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

*Dollittle Raider photos (Part 2)*

Final photos...


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Nice work. I like your restrained weathering. Did you know the Ruptured Duck logo you used is the version from the Hollywood movie, which was quite a bit different than that on the actual plane?


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## Parts Pit Mike (Jan 3, 2001)

Wow.. First rate!


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## walsing (Aug 22, 2010)

Impressive work!


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

That looks... perfect!


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

Excellent results!


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## surfsup (Apr 19, 2009)

You have done an awesome job on this one. I love it.....Cheers Mark


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## Splatcat (Jul 27, 2010)

Wow. That looks great!


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## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

Everyone,

Thanks for the compliments. They are appreciated.

djnicks66-The Accurate Miniatures kit instructions state the kit decal of the "Ruptured Duck" nose marking is very different than the marking used in the Hollywood movie "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo". The kit nose marking is based on artwork prepared by the pilot (Ted Lawson), so Accurate Miniatures went with that since they felt it was more accurate. Did you mean to say the kit nose marking is not correct? 

Thanks

Phillip1


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

This is as close to the original artwork as people probably will get 










It seems from your photos that the AM decals look more like Donald Duck


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## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

djnicks66-I have never seen this "Ruptured Duck" image before. It is very interesting. Where did it come from?

Thanks

Phillip1


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

This was provided to me by a fellow who did an exhaustive, virtually scratch built 1/72 model of Ruptured Duck on Hyperscale. I forget where he said he got it. I've had it some while now. I recall seeing this before too, but not sure where.


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## The-Nightsky (May 10, 2005)

Sweet


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## BOXIE (Apr 5, 2011)

Beautiful work.Nice display base


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## Modlerbob (Feb 10, 2011)

Very nice job. Good to see you kept the weathering light as the planes were practically new and had never flown combat missions before the Tokyo raid. As I recall the planes in the movie all looked to be in top shape.


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## kdaracal (Jan 24, 2009)

Award winning!


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