1:48 B-25J Mitchell

The Mitchell in the Pacific and with the Marine Corps

The attack J version was the most numerous form of the whole type and at the same time the most heavily armed. During the war the North American B-25 changed from a medium bomber into a universal machine which, as needed, received a glazed or a solid nose, antishipping bombs and a battery of machine guns. In the Pacific it attacked Japanese shipping from low altitude, where speed and firepower were valued more than a bomb bay.

Two very different subjects

The first set belongs to a machine of the J version with the serial block 43-28 and the name 1 For the Gipper, which served with the 100th Bombardment Squadron of the 42nd Bombardment Group within the Thirteenth Air Force. The second covers the naval PBJ-1J form with the name Devil Dog, of the kind the US Marine Corps used, in the condition in which the aircraft flies under civil registration as a historic exhibit.

• a combat subject from the Pacific and a present day airworthy machine
• the naval form of the type, not only the army version
• scale 1:48
• personal lettering printed with no jagged edges

Checking the position: after being transferred a decal still has a few minutes when it can be moved on a thin film of water. Use them and align the position against the panel lines, not by eye. As soon as the glue starts to set, a further shift will tear the film and it can no longer be put right.

The make-up of the sheet itself is interesting too. Setting a frontline aircraft from a tropical theater beside a machine shown at air shows today means showing the same type at both ends of its life story. For a collector it is a rewarding pair and it explains more to a visitor than a long caption.