The Little World

The purchase of the Airfix B25 Mitchell was a bit of a coup – a local shop supplied it and I saved the cost of postage from the eastern states. But I did not realise until I opened it that it was a trap*.

Oh, I knew the model itself was good – I do my research on Scalemates, Britmodeller, and Modelling Madness. They are widely-enough spaced to give a clear view of a topic. I would also have based a buying decision on Phil Flory’s shows had I seen one for this. In any case, the kit was sought, bought, and unpacked when I got home.

This is the lead ship for an exhibition diorama that I’m making this year. I want to show my Canadian air field – RCAF WET DOG 1943 – at the WASMEX exhibition next May and I want to have it tell a number of stories over the two days. One of the stories is that of ALSIB. To this end I have been researching the air convoys that were taken into the Soviet Union with US-supplied lend-lease aircraft, and I have purchased four planes as the actors.

The B-25 is to be lead ship. A plane that has been back and forth on the route many times and contains the convoy’s navigator. I know this to have been done because I have an aerial photograph taken of one of the convoys en-route – and the planes in it are identifiable. More on this later.

The Airfix kit is the new mould. Fabulous interior detail without PE or resin, and a configuration close enough for me to make the lead ship. Indeed, if I were to take a preserved VVS ship at Monino Air Museum in Moscow as a pattern, I would not even have to do any modification – I could just build and go on to painting and decals. I shall be modelling the bomb bay doors closed but that doesn’t mean that the ordnance and the racks will be thrown away – I do build an air museum in parallel to my airfields and this needs displays.

The sprues are clean and well-ordered. There are alternative engine cowlings.

The clear parts are perfect, and I see I get a choice of cockpit canopies.

The tires are bulged and the Airfix company has recognised the difficulty of getting the main gear struts on a twin-engine bomber to set correctly – they have specific instructions on how to set up the nacelles before any gluing of the housing.

Thankfully, there are two crew members. I shall pinch one for the Douglas A-20 Havoc that is also part of the story. I still need two more pilots for two other aircraft in it, however, so I will be scouting amongst my mates.

Here’s the colour call-outs and the decals: a Mediterranean plane and a Florida sub-hunter.

I will be making my own decals, but these are beauties…

*  And there’s the trap. This plane is so nice that I can see myself remaking it several times to add new liveries to the collection. If it turns out to be a pig to build that will be that, but my experience of new Airfix has been very positive.