North American B-25 Mitchell

Scale: 1/32 Company: Hong Kong Models

This was built for my father. It is my first, and last, HKM brand model I will ever build. Perhaps I have been spoiled by Tamiya, but I am deeply disappointed in this kit in several respects.

For such an expensive kit, there are exceptionally few decals. The instructions are unnecessarily large and are printed on glossy paper which makes reading them under most light conditions difficult. Most troublesome: the instructions are very difficult to follow. Of particular note is the alieron assembly, which I'm still not certain I have built correctly (and suspect I haven't). Given how large the instruction package is, a series of alternate views of assembled parts for challenging areas (ie. alierons) would be easy to include and very helpful. Finally, there are several aspects of this kit that are either very difficult to assemble properly or require you to hold the part for long periods of time while the glue dries. This makes for very delicate and error prone assembly. Most of the gun mounts, the top turret assembly and the various small parts in the cockpit center console (throttle) stand out as a PITA in this area.

I do not recommend this kit to anyone except the most experienced of modellers and even then, I suspect other kits would provide a more enjoyable modelling experience. I honestly wish Tamiya made a wider variety of 1/32 scale aircraft, particularly WWII bombers.

Completed: Nov. 30, 2021

Scale: 1/32 Company: Hong Kong Models