Marine Mud Mover: PBJ-1H Gun Ship “Love Bug” VMB-613 in early 1945

[Clunkmeister]

VMB-613 got a late start in the war, and was issued the fearsome Mitchel gunship, complete with the 75mm cannon and a multitude of .50 caliber guns pointed every which way.

Once in Service, it became apparent that targets for the big gun had become quite few and far between, and many of the big guns were removed, and several extra forward facing 50s installed in its place.   The cheek package guns were soon removed, as well, as it was found that their vibration tended to break things in the airframe.   These aircraft ranged far and wide, attacking targets of opportunity and wrecking troop and airfield facilities with parafrag bomblets.  Eventually, the top turret was removed to carry extra fuel as well.  
 Those of you may remember this being started by me years back.  It powered down, due to the insanity of my use of much PE, and framing up the interior. The model is roughly 10% complete, and my pics show what has been accomplished to date. 
I may revisit the jump seat. I need to check references.  
Note: these were single pilot aircraft, and under the copilot’s panel sat the radar set for the wingtip mounted antenna. 

[Clunkmeister]

Resin parafrags.   

[Clunkmeister]

The other fuselage half is bare.  Ooooh joy. 

[Peterpools]

Hi Ernie

Holy. smokes, you're off to a great start and an incredible amount of work in an hour and thirtyfive minutes 

 

[PanzerWomble]

34 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Hi Ernie

Holy. smokes, you're off to a great start and an incredible amount of work in an hour and thirtyfive minutes 

 

Yeah I'm still having my coffee in bed ....mind you it's a 'ginship' ....comes with ice and lemon ? 🤪

[mark31]

off for a great start

looks good

 

Mark

[BlrwestSiR]

I remember when you started this. Glad to see it back. Can't wait to see what else you do with the interior.

[Clunkmeister]

14 hours ago, PanzerWomble said:

Yeah I'm still having my coffee in bed ....mind you it's a 'ginship' ....comes with ice and lemon ? 🤪

More of a Glenmorangie guy myself.

[Clunkmeister]

8 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I remember when you started this. Glad to see it back. Can't wait to see what else you do with the interior.

The H and J used a suspended gun system for the waist guns, so I'm trying to figure out how to replicate that.

[BlrwestSiR]

2 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

The H and J used a suspended gun system for the waist guns, so I'm trying to figure out how to replicate that.

Do these help? This are from my aborted build. 

Some of it is scratch built and some came from a Profimodel set. 

[BlrwestSiR]

2 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

More of a Glenmorangie guy myself.

On that note, happy Robbie Burns Day!

[BlrwestSiR]

If you need any reference pics, I have the big Schiffer book on the B-25.

[Clunkmeister]

1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

On that note, happy Robbie Burns Day!

A man with good taste is always a very, very good thing. 

[Clunkmeister]

My cabinet is rather embarrasingly bare these days after burning through some of my better stuff over the Holiday season, so I’m left with bilge water.  Note to self:  anke a trip to your favorite Scottish Whiskey store tomorrow.

I also don’t keep any of that hideous swill the Irish mistakenly refer to as whiskey (must be Gaelic for piss)  within 100 yards of my home. Not a Bourbon drinker either, which is surprising given my love of fermented corn products, but I do keep bottle of delightful Knob Creek in my cabinet at all times.  
 Plus a couple bottles of real Canadian rye whiskey.  
I’m slipping, I know.  Ever since Martin and I destroyed ourselves on Johnnie Walker black label, my standards have generally gone up.
I have a batch of corn fermenting right now, so I’ll be good again soon, as soon as it’s ready and I can get to cooking. 😀

Then I’ll probably go six months and not take even a taste   Odd….

 

[Clunkmeister]

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Do these help? This are from my aborted build. 

Some of it is scratch built and some came from a Profimodel set. 

That looks great, Carl.  I always wondered what came of this build.  It was headed for a beautiful finish.  The issue with this kit is that you can truly burn yourself out on AM and scratchbuilding the interior. 
My next one will be pretty much OOB, but for decals, wheels, props, gearboxes, and a bit of cockpit stuff. 

[Clunkmeister]

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

If you need any reference pics, I have the big Schiffer book on the B-25.

The biggest things I’d like to see are pics of the paint after continuous ops off coral and crushed shell surfaced strips.

I had read that the 345th BG (Air Apaches) stopped touching up paint on their gunships and straferx dire to constant erosion.

[BlrwestSiR]

16 minutes ago, Clunkmeister said:

The issue with this kit is that you can truly burn yourself out on AM and scratchbuilding the interior. 

Sadly, that's exactly what happened to me. I ended up binning it as I couldn't see myself slogging through and getting it across the finish line. 

I did send the engines to Harv for his gunship build so part of it is still around. 

[BlrwestSiR]

24 minutes ago, Clunkmeister said:

The biggest things I’d like to see are pics of the paint after continuous ops off coral and crushed shell surfaced strips.

I had read that the 345th BG (Air Apaches) stopped touching up paint on their gunships and straferx dire to constant erosion.

I took a quick look through the couple books I have. Most show the wing leading edges with badly chipped and weathered paint. Very weathered paint paint overall. You can see it when they remove the cheek guns and the fresh paint underneath is so much darker. 

Here are pics of the waist gun position. 

The tail gunner position. I found it interesting how the ammo belts twisted so much before feeding into the guns. That was a pain to model. 

[Clunkmeister]

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Sadly, that's exactly what happened to me. I ended up binning it as I couldn't see myself slogging through and getting it across the finish line. 

I did send the engines to Harv for his gunship build so part of it is still around. 

Yeah I thought about that as well, but I couldn’t bring myself to bin the thing.  The cost of AM alone was mind numbing, and half the stuff that I had for it is off on patrol somewhere, so I placed an RTB order to it all.  I’ll give it a few days and see what shows up.

It’s been packed up for a few years now, and I have a new interest in it now.  So, out it comes and back at it we are.  A good portion of the BS work is done, so we will just continue. 

[Clunkmeister]

The Marine birds had their waist gun frames and glass completely removed from the aircraft, and a simple sheet metal wind deflector added to each side ahead of both openings to keep wind down.  

[GusMac]

That's a nice Balvenie you've got in the cabinet there Ernie. Those Speyside malts are nice and mellow. I do like a good Islay one occasionally such as Bunnahabhain if I want something to chew on. 

[Martinnfb]

Nobody is binning anything, that’s my gig . lol 

[Clunkmeister]

15 hours ago, GusMac said:

That's a nice Balvenie you've got in the cabinet there Ernie. Those Speyside malts are nice and mellow. I do like a good Islay one occasionally such as Bunnahabhain if I want something to chew on. 

I’m all over the map, and agree on the Balvenie.  I’m a sipper, and unlike almost everyone else, I take mine neat and simply sip it, savoring it.   They say a bit of ice releases the undertones, but I know what I like.  Everytime someone insists on On the Rocks, I wince and take one for Queen and Country.  Still not used to the new one yet. 
 

Dronach is a bit chewy to me, so much so that it chews back.   Waaay too much going on at once.   But oddly, when I can find it, a quiet evening in front of a fire with a good Lagavulin does my constitution well.  Puts me in a nice, reflective mood. 
Obviously, our choices are minuscule compared to yours, unless you have a man on the inside….

[BlrwestSiR]

On 1/25/2024 at 9:23 PM, Clunkmeister said:

My cabinet is rather embarrasingly bare these days after burning through some of my better stuff over the Holiday season, so I’m left with bilge water.  Note to self:  anke a trip to your favorite Scottish Whiskey store tomorrow.

I also don’t keep any of that hideous swill the Irish mistakenly refer to as whiskey (must be Gaelic for piss)  within 100 yards of my home. Not a Bourbon drinker either, which is surprising given my love of fermented corn products, but I do keep bottle of delightful Knob Creek in my cabinet at all times.  
 Plus a couple bottles of real Canadian rye whiskey.  
I’m slipping, I know.  Ever since Martin and I destroyed ourselves on Johnnie Walker black label, my standards have generally gone up.
I have a batch of corn fermenting right now, so I’ll be good again soon, as soon as it’s ready and I can get to cooking. 😀

Then I’ll probably go six months and not take even a taste   Odd….

 

I've been trying to slowly (very slowly) get through some of the bottles in my collection. I haven't actually bought anything in the last couple of years but it keeps growing through gifts from friends and family. 

Some of the single malts I currently have. There's some more plus some eyes, gin, and bourbon. Note the empty space on the shelf due to my attempts at finishing open bottles. 

I think enjoying a nice Scotch is almost required if you're married to a Scot. Which I am. 

[GusMac]

Nice collection Carl. The Macallan seems to be popular in Canada, well I know it was Neil Peart's favourite. 

We were in Orkney last August and went to the Highland Park distillery which did a really good tour and tasting.