PV-1: Turret, tank and tail, and a little wing work too

Who doesn’t like gun turrets? I imagine a lot of builders of bombers. They’re open areas full of details, usually right on top where everyone can seen them. I’m getting to like them, though. The PV-1 had a Martin CH250E Amplidyne turret, a version of the 250CE turret that was also used on the B-24, B-26, A-20, PB4Y-1 and PB4Y-2. As luck would have it, I had recently detailed and re-worked a turret for the B-26 based on the CMK set for that aircraft. Pavla gave me a decent starting point, with a turret ring, a main body including the ammunition cans and a rudimentary set of controls and a seat. I refrained from stealing the B-26-bound turret and instead dressed up the Pavla turret with some enhanced control handles for the gunner, some improved detail on the turret ring and seat belts for the gunner’s seat. I also made the electronics for the turret, since they might be visible through the open fuselage door. Styrene rod and strip was converted into the amplidynes, junction boxes and other components, and wiring made from .2mm lead wire was added to match my photos. The Ginter book on the PV-1 has good images of the Ventura’s turret, and my Marauder resources had additional photos that helped fill in the blanks. .4mm lead wire was bent to shape to form the gunner’s foot rest and CA-glued in place.

The machine guns from the Pavla set were somewhat blobby, so instead I used .50-caliber bodies from Eduard drilled to accept Master Models perforated barrels. Some surplus .50-caliber belted ammunition was added from the feeds to the guns’ receivers. The final detail was the very visible wind shields mounted to the guns, which appear as braced semi-circles on top of the weapons. I tried making these from styrene strip, but drilling holes for the barrels cause the plastic to twist and break. Instead, I found the brass frame on a photoetched set that was the right width and carefully drilled holes for the barrels. Using the holes as a guide, I trimmed the brass shields to an identical length, then bent them around a paintbrush handle. They were slipped over the gun barrels, the bracing was added with styrene rod, and they were painted in place. With that, the clear turret top was added and the turret was ready.

Most of the green stuff is resin, while most of the black and silver stuff is scratch-built additions to replicate the turret’s electronic and mechanical hardware.

With the lid on: the details are less visible but still there (especially the guns and wind shields). Note the gunner’s foot rest at the bottom front of the turret.

The only issue now was how to get the turret to stay in place in the fuselage opening. I made six small rectangles of styrene strip and glued them into place in the fuselage halves as supports for the turret – the turret can sit on them and they provide gluing area to hold it in place permanently.

Note the three little rectangles just inside the turret opening – they’ll support the turret, which in turn will hide the supports.

And with that, I ran out of excuses to avoid assembling the fuselage halves. The two halves were placed together and joined with CA glue, working a little at a time. The nose needed a small shim, but otherwise the fuselage fit together very well for a 1986-vintage model with a lot of detail shoved into it. Sanding with four or five grades of sanding sticks eliminated the seams; I also eliminated the bumps on the centerline at the front and back of the bomb bay, since those were actually part of the bomb bay doors and would be added later.

Next, I rescribed the lost panel lines with a UMM scriber, joining the panel lines across the top and bottom of the fuselage and totally reworking the nose. I drilled out the machine gun positions on the nose to accept Master Models barrels later, and the K17 was added to the nose compartment.

I had one more major detail to add to the fuselage – the bomb bay fuel tank. I made this by laminating two .250 by .250  and one .205 by .100 lengths of plastic rod and then sanding it all to shape, with rounded horizontal edges.

A block of styrene! The first step in any scratch-building project!

I added reinforcing strips with lengths of masking tape, then painted the whole thing Floquil old silver.

Tape is your friend – and a great way to cheat on details.

Old silver – a great way to replicate painted silver or rough metal.

To weather it, I first shined it up with some old SNJ polishing powder before hitting it with a brown-black Future wash.

Weathering helps pop out the detail and give the suggestion of spilled fuel.

Once dry, a .100 by .100 square of styrene was glued to the tank’s top, which gave me a way to glue it to the bomb bay roof with a small clearance, just like the real item.

In the bomb bay, amid the plumbing, the tank looks right at home!

I added the ventral position’s glass next, mostly to protect the fragile camera assembly inside the fuselage. The fit was just so-so; the leading edge of the piece needed significant sanding to eliminate a step. Multiple grades of sanding, followed by polishing with Blue Magic auto polish, restored the clarity of the glass.

Plus Models did replacement forward nacelles, replacing the misshapen and clunky kit parts. The required the nacelles to be cut off, just ahead of the leading edge on the inboard side of the nacelle, along a panel line. I used my motor tool to cut off the nacelle on one wing about 2mm ahead of the panel line, then used files to remove the last little bit. For the other wing, my motor tool decided to stop working – I took that one off with an X-Acto saw blade. The resin replacements fit remarkably well, but it still took several applications of CA glue and sanding to blend the resin nacelle fronts to the kit nacelles. Any lost panel line detail was restored, using Dymo tape as a guide to keep things straight.

The Plus Models cowling/nacelle in place on the left wing, with the kit’s blocky, misshapen nacelle at right. This is before final sanding of the resin to blend it in with the wing.

Usually, with airplanes with single vertical fins, I add the wings next and align them with the tail. In this case, I had no reference point. Instead, I added the horizontal tail pieces first, aligning them with the top turret ring. The fit was OK, although the lower joint of the right horizontal had a small step that took some work to clean up. Once the seams were eliminated, I re-scribed the horizontal stabilizers and polished the plastic with a tri-grit sanding stick. The vertical stabilizers went on with nearly no issue. I adjusted their alignment by holding them up with a picture frame behind them – when the horizontal stabilizer was aligned with the lower edge of the frame, the vertical stabilizers needed to be aligned with the sides. Minor adjustments made it just right!

The tail – vertical and horizontal – in place. The horizontals were aligned with the turret opening, and the verticals were place perpendicular to the horizontals.