Waist Gunners
Just like the B-25 this is an area that lacks the business of the real thing. The gun breaches are good and with brass replacement barrels will and do look the part. The ammunition belts are poor and lack detail or the fall of the real thing. The bungee cords for each gun are missing as are the gunner’s harnesses. The ammunition boxes are in wood but so far as I see those that feed the ball turret are incorrect and should be floor mounted. Eduard provides a nice set for this which I believe would be worth the investment as would resin ammo belts.
For me as I said its kit parts and through the waist glazing will pass casual observation. But if I were going to invest this is where it would be.
Tail Wheel
The tail wheel assembly is good and falls together very quickly. What is refreshing is that with a quick trial dry fit of the fuselage halves fit was almost perfect which bodes well for the finish later on.
Seats
The seat frames as you have already seen are painted, weathered and installed. Now it’s time for the seats. They may be a tad chunky for the scale but I believe that they are a good representation of the real thing and considering what will be seen of them perfectly acceptable; I like ‘em! Prominent on the real thing are the cushions and the lap belts. I formed cushions out of White Milliput then painted the seat pan Interior Green and ‘chipped’ it with a graphite stick. The cushions were painted yellow and the decals (provided by Kits World) applied. HKM do provide seat straps but the instructions for use are almost non-existent and they are also stiff and crude. In my view they are better replaced.
There are options already out on the market but at the time of building these were still in the “coming soon” area. Now there are pre-coloured photo-etched belts from Eduard and also from Eduard ‘cloth’ belts and these are also offered by HGW but are in fact the same ones. When I was building the HGW versions for the B-25 were left out and I used the lap belts from these. They are not exactly right but look much better than the kit versions and I am going with it.
Once installed in the cockpit they are great, in my view. Note in the photo the hand painted Boeing Logos on the control column. The logos won’t show a great deal when completed but just enough to give a good impression.
