1:48 PBJ-1D (B-25 Mitchell) USMC Canopy mask (inside and outside) academy

The glazing of the Marine Corps PBJ-1D from both sides

Compared with a fighter, a twin-engine bomber has incomparably more clear areas and each of them has a division of its own: the glazed nose, the windscreen, the pilots' cockpit, the gun turret above the fuselage and the side windows. Masking this number of frames by hand is work for several evenings and the result tends to vary. The set cuts the pieces in advance and in a form that covers the glazing from inside and from outside, so that the inner side of the frames gets the interior shade and the outer side the camouflage.

What the PBJ-1D was

PBJ-1D is the designation under which the US Marine Corps operated the North American B-25 bomber in the D version. The bombing squadrons of the Marines served with them in the Pacific from 1943, attacked shipping, harbors and ground targets and sent them out at night as well. A number of machines were fitted with radar, whose fairing changed the shape of the aircraft noticeably. Although it is the same basic airframe as on the machines of the army air force, the equipment and the finishes differed so much that the PBJ is built today as a subject of its own.

Mastering the glazed nose

The nose takes the most work: the frames converge here at sharp angles and the curved glass forces the stencil into a three-dimensional shape. Lay the pieces on one at a time, from the largest area to the smallest, and where the curvature is strongest warm the stencil gently with heat from a distance so that it gives way. Finish the interior, including the inner frames, and close it up before you seat the clear parts into the fuselage.

For which modelers

• Builders of twin-engine bombers in forty-eighth scale
• Those interested in Marine Corps aviation in the Pacific
• Those who want the frames drawn out inside the cockpit as well
• Modelers who struggle with trimming by hand where frames converge