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Andy Brazier takes a look at Eduard's 1/72nd Limited Edition re-boxed Hasegawa based B-25J, titled "Angel of Mercy".

History

The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in every theater of World War II, and after the war ended, many remained in service, operating across four decades. Produced in numerous variants, nearly 10,000 B-25s were built.

The final, and the most built, series of the Mitchell, the B-25J, looked less like earlier series apart from the well-glazed bombardier's nose of nearly identical appearance to the earliest B-25 subtypes. Instead, the J followed the overall configuration of the H series from the cockpit aft. It had the forward dorsal turret and other armament and airframe advancements. All J models included four .50 in (12.7 mm) light-barrel Browning AN/M2 guns in a pair of "fuselage packages", conformal gun pods each flanking the lower cockpit, each pod containing two Browning M2s. By 1945, however, combat squadrons removed these. The J series restored the co-pilot's seat and dual flight controls.

Info from Wikipedia

In the box

The Limited Edition Angel of Mercy kit comes in a top opening box, with Hasegawa plastic sprues, and Eduard Photo Etch, masks, Brassin wheels and decals.

In total there are 7 grey plastic sprues, one clear sprue, one pre-coloured P.E, one brass P.E, three resin wheels, 2 sheets of decals, a colour instruction book, and a set of masks.

The Hasegawa plastic is pretty good, considering the age of the kit (first tooled in 2003), and the molds have lasted well, although the series of B-25 kits are out of production at present, but knowing Hasegawa they will reappear in various boxings in the future.

No flash is present and ejector pin marks are in out of the way places.

The exterior is very nice, with engraved panel lines, some raised panels and embossed fasteners and a few rivets dotted about.

The ribs on the fabric surfaces are fairly prominent, but a quick sand to take them down a bit will help with the look.

Interior detail with the added Eduard photo etch parts really does add to the detail and lifts the kit to a new level.

The basic plastic seats have lap belts moulded onto them, and these need removing for the coloured etch belts to be installed.

The instrument panel swaps the decal for a multi part P.E, which also replaces the rudder pedals.

There is quite a lot of parts for the interior, and with the help of the P.E the detail will be seen with the glass nose section.

Even the basic plastic for the bulkheads are pretty good, and the bomb bay has some nice spar detail on the inside walls of the fuselage.

The nose bay undercarriage is integral with the cockpit floor, and has a nice bit of detail in the bay. The nose wheel is replaced with a resin offering.

The main undercarriage legs are pretty decent to start with, but the oleo's are replaced with photo etch parts, and the two part plastic wheels replaced with some stunning Brassin one piece tyres and hubs.

The Brassin wheels are superior, with the tread more of a block tread then the plastic scribed tyres. The resin wheels are also weighted which adds to the realism.

The bays are devoid of detail, but to tell the truth you can't see much in there as the doors are closed, as they only opened during the undercarriage retraction/extension cycle.

The engines have two sets of cylinders for each nacelle, and have a P.E wiring harness added for a bit more detail.

The props are thin and straight and do look nice.

Weapons for the B-25, are a load of Browning .50 cal guns for the nose, upper turret and the tail station. Brassin replacements are available.

Depending on what marking option you choose, depends on the gun configuration you can have.

The bomb bay has two bombs for the interior, and also replacement Brassin bombs can be bought, if you so desire.

The clear parts are thin and have the frames moulded into the glass.

A set of kabuki masks are supplied for the multitude of glass panels that are on the aircraft and will be a lifesaver when painting the plane.

Masks are also supplied for the wheels for painting the hubs.

Instructions, decals and markings

The instruction book is printed in the standard black and white line drawing style on an A4 size glossy paper, which the build taking place over 6 pages.

The 7th page covers the masks for the canopy and wheels, and looks quite daunting a first glance.

The first main page covers the parts trees, and highlights any parts that are not used. The rest of the pages cover the build sequence which is quite easy to follow (once you have figured out which scheme you will be doing) with the different parts made clear during the build.

Any P.E to be attached is highlighted, and mating surfaces to be glued are highlighted in blue.

Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby colour, MR Color and Mission Models range of paints for external and internal colours are given along the build sequence.

The decals are printed in-house by Eduard and shouldn't pose any problems with application.

Two sheets are supplied, with the larger having all the stencils and marking options for the 10 schemes included.

The smaller sheet has a slightly different decal for the "Battlin Betty" nose art, although the instructions show the decal on the larger sheet to be used!