fozzy

I'm with you on that one Tony!....read somewhere yesterday that "some" gunners used to carry a pistol for a quick exit from their life rather than be trapped in the ball hurtling down to earth!. As I build this turret I can see that the gunner is totally surrounded by equipment and there really isn't an inch to spare....and as for a fast exit?....

Once again guys....thanks a lot for your interest in this build. As for the survival rate of these gunners I have also read different opinions!..some say as Bstarr3 has pointed out that the tail gunner was the worst position and then I have read that the nose section was a pretty dodgy position to be in.....(until they installed the chin Turret)...personally I think where ever you were positioned in the Fort flying over Germany in the early 40s was not a good place to be!....my greatest respect for all of those real Heroes! BTW....apologies for the photos on here that seem to have a mi

Afternoon guys! I have just returned from UK and I am now back in my office and can get to my bench!....the last time I posted was 15 March and of course not being able to do any modelling this post is going to be a small update. So its the continuation of the Ball turret that seems to get more and more complicated the more I look at the photos. I have many photos of different angles of the interior of the turret that I have collected over the months and its a real slow process of interpreting what I see!....not to mention that some of the equipment I have scratch built will be able to

Hi guys I have been going through my RFI posts and replacing the photos that Photo bucket decided to steel from us all! This is my Super detailed Spitfire Mk 1 I posted about 7 years ago!..... Hope you like the snaps! Cheers Fozzy

Fabulous!

Thanks lads!

Thanks bud!

Thanks for your kind words Brian...your too kind!

"Ball of death".......I like that Shawn!

Hi there Lads and Lasses! I am off to the UK tomorrow but was able to do a quick update before I set off. I haven't done much but its a start to complete the ball turret part of this build. Looking at photos convinced me that the next best thing to scratch build should be the ammo cans that are inside the ball!....they sit just above (and I mean just above) the gunners thighs!....I can see why the ball turret gunners had to be small...there is just no room to move an inch!...no wonder they got cramp!.....lying there in that draughty enclosed space ...dangling under the belly of the

Thank you fellow modelers!

Thanks a lot chaps! ....appreciate your support!

Afternoon all! OK then.... I took photos of the bottom half of this turret this morning so that I could show you the progress that I have made so far. I have to say that I found researching the Sperry Ball Turret fascinating and it was ...and still is...pretty difficult to put it all together!...If I thought the lower section was hard it will be nothing compared to the upper half!.,..as I said in my last post it was difficult at times to know which part to scratch build first...wires and cables were hidden behind parts so I really had to think it all through!....this is my excuse in case y

Hi guys I have managed to finish detailing the lower half of the Ball turret. I really had to think carefully how to approach doing this...because A. ..there is a hell of a lot going on in there!! and B....what I scratch build in the lower half will eventually have to marry up with the top half!. Luckily I have of photos of "said subject" but of course no dimensions!....and so this was all done by eye balling the photos and trying to scale it in my head down to 1:20.....how ever I am used to this and this is the part of the build I love doing. I started by building the two 50 c

Wonderful!...simply a joy to look at Michael

Thanks a lot guys! . Tony ...I welcome any suggestions mate...keep em coming....and if I had enough decent clear plastic I would have used it to vac form the turret!

Hi guys Time for an up date on this Ball turret! So after a lot of cursing the designers of this turret...namely Mr Sperry!...I finally managed to complete the outer parts of the bottom half of the turret..... leaving me to start next on the dreaded interior! The hardest part was trying to replicate where the 50 cals go into the turret....I tried all sorts of ideas but in the end decided to use wire insulation. Very fiddly I have to say and a few attempts had to be made before I was kind of satisfied that it looked the part. Here's a photo of me in the process of making them...

Cheers Tony....but I just like to do it the hard way! .....no...The truth is that I didn't have any decent clear plastic to use...but it will be ok doing it this way.....I hope!

Thanks for reminding me Rich!...would be quite a disaster if I forget!

Hi chaps Here is a quick up date on the problem that shall be named......."The bl#@$y Sperry Ball Turret" :angry: I wasn't going to start this part yet because I knew that I would have problems with it!....just kept putting it on the back burner!....I thought that if I cant manage to scratch build the ball turret then the whole B17G project would come to a grinding halt!...so I started trying to think of ways how I can replicate it with the least amount of fuss and specialized tools...that I don't own!! That little yellow kids ball kept staring at me!...taunting me!...because it knew that i

Hi....its me again! Got to keep at this else I might run out of life! The last two days were taken up by constructing with Balsa wood the area for the camera hatch and the ball turret. I mapped out where each hole had to cut and then made a frame in said area!...for want of a better description!...here is the hole for the ball turret. ...and you can just see the frame work for the camera hatch on this next photo... After it was all sanded down and checked this is what we have.... Here is a view from the underneath of the radio room and turret location...the red

Absolutely Harvey!...it's great that you can pick up ideas from fellow modelers!

Cheers Tony.........Snooker ball too small....comes in at 52.4 mm...there is a huge store here in Bulgaria full of bits and pieces....I am definitely going to check it out!

Well its the right size Torben!.....thanks for the link!..will keep that in mind also...gonna check the shops here where I live for a few ideas!

Some great ideas chaps!...so much so that I checked the internet for the dimensions of a ping pong ball and found out they are 40 mm...whereas the turret on my B17 is 65 mm ....but it has definitely given me food for thought! So thanks a lot for your help