1/72 Hasegawa B-25J Mitchell

Gallery Article by John "Johnopfor" Lanning on Jan 28 2010

 

1/72 Chilean Air Force B-25J Mitchell circa 1950 

The B-25 will remain forever famous for a small mission known as the "Doolittle Raid" during April 1945. The B-25 Mitchell is also one of the most successful medium bombers of WWII. The bomber was christened after a military maverick who proved that the airplane could pose a serious threat to warships, and created a future for aviation with the US Military, by bombing retired WWI battleships off of the coast of New Jersey during the 1920's. The B-25 had just started entering USAAC service at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and was used extensively in both the European and Pacific Theaters during WWII. Large numbers of B-25's were sent to allied nations such as the UK, USSR, France and Australia. But at the end of WWII, the B-25 was rapidly retired from service. By 1950, only a few training units were still operating the Mitchell. But the B-25 was to live on in Latin America, long after the plane's retirement from the US inventory. A lot of these were given to Latin American countries that signed on to the "Rio Pact" during WWII.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The Rio Pact was designed to make the waters off of the Americas dangerous for Axis warships and submarines. Some of the countries actively patrolled their own shores, while some US Troops were based in some countries to augment the host country. At the end of WWII, massive amounts of surplus were given to Rio Pact signers. A good number of B-25 Mitchells were supplied to countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Chile. Several of these nations operated the B-25 into the 1960's.

Chile received 11 B-25J Mitchells in 1947 (a 12th aircraft apparently crashed during delivery). They had a rather uneventful carrier and were finally replaced by the B-26 Invader in 1954. Unfortunately, for Chile, the B-25's never were equipped with the Norden bombsight, which was still considered as a Top Secret item by the US Air Force into the 1950's.

This is the Hasegawa 1/72 scale kit with some home made decals and other decals from the spares box. Other than the antennas under the nose of the aircraft and the markings, the kit is out of the box. 

John "Johnopfor" Lanning

Photos and text © by John "Johnopfor" Lanning