NA B-27A High Speed Medium Bomber - Finished pic's pg.7

[Old Wombat]

OK, inspired by these photo-shopped images from taidantomcat, over on BtS, I have started my own version.





Mine is based on the Airfix B-25C/D kit in the Devil's Scale (1/72). It will retain the upper turret (the further-back version), the swivel-mount nose .50-cal & the single fixed nose .50-cal

If it works out, I may buy another B-25 & do something closer to the image as a B-27G/H/J/?

Photo's will be forthcoming.



(Note: The real XB-27 was a Glenn L. Martin Company paper project that never made prototype.)

[Scotaidh]

Intereting!  Looks very German. 

[PR19_Kit]

It looks much more menacing than a normal B-25 like that! 

A great idea. 

[Captain Canada]

Cool. That'll be different/ weird !

[jcf]

The USAAF reassigning the B-27 designation from Martin to NAA is doubtful.
Unlike the USN who used the same basic role designations and just changed
manufacturer codes.

A USN designation you could use would be PB2J-1*.  The B-25 was designated
PBJ-1C/D/H/J to align with the USAAF designations. Which was a break from the
usual USN system where successive models receive a new dash number.

*P(Patrol)B(Bomber)2(2nd of type from manufacturer)J(North American)-1(first model).

[Dizzyfugu]

Personally, if you put the pilot in the navigator's position, I'd delete the manual machine gun there.
The B-25 is quite narrow, and a solution like the He 111 with an offset pilot/bomb aimer position would IMHO hardly work?

[Old Wombat]

In this universe, Jon, Martin never got the B-27 designation.

[Devilfish]

Replace the radials with in-lines if it is to be a Hi-speed bomber. It'll look faster, if nothing else!

[PR19_Kit]

In this universe, Jon, Martin never got the B-27 designation.

Precisely...................

[jcf]

In this universe, Jon, Martin never got the B-27 designation.

In that case why not put the cat fully amongst the pigeons and call it B-25?


The flush canopy thing was fairly popular in the late '30s period, Martin and
Consolidated, amongst others, had several designs with that arrangement.
The original Model 32 (B-24) mockup featured a flush arrangement, it was
modified to the familiar stepped design before construction of the prototype.

[PR19_Kit]

Bristol did a similar thing with the Bolingbroke. The prototype had a longer version of the Blenheim I's nose, but with the pilot in the same position vis a vis the wings as normal, so he had a LONG way to look before he saw out of the windscreen.

They had a re-think and came up with the now familiar stepped canopy for that and the Blenheim IV.

Sadly the only pic I can find is one of those 'We own this photograph and you have to pay to use it', but I don't give a damn. 

In passing, it's getting very difficult to find any pics of 1:1 scale aircraft these days as 90% of the pics you find in a net search are models! 

[TheChronicOne]

Less guns? No.. MORE guns!     ::watching::

[comrade harps]

That'll be hard to see through the gunship nose.

[AndrewF]

Good concept and I like the Photoshopped images. Would need more glazing though.

[Old Wombat]

My apologies for the less than satisfactory photo's; it's not a strength, unfortunately:













I'll give the cockpit a blast of dull-cote to drop the gloss a bit then start closing her up.

I've already learned a bit for the next version;

Lesson 1: Take your cuts further down & remove the plastic between the second set of panel lines on the sides forward of the wing & aft of the wing to about 2/3 of the way to the tail. It'll reduce the amount of PSR required.

Lesson 2: Although I've managed a work-around, remove the bombardier's station & move the whole cockpit forward of the nose wheel well.

As you can see, this version has just the one pilot & the poor ol' bombardier is isolated in the nose, unable to access the rest of the plane. I've created an access/escape hatch for him but it's not ideal & is one of the reasons to remove his position completely in the next build, in which I'll give the pilot &/or co-pilot access to a bomb sight. I'll also remove both nose blister guns (fixed & swivel-mounted), going with the 4 side-blister mounted .50cal's of the later models of B-25.

Thanks for watching!