brahman104

Thanks Zac! I was just reminiscing with a mate the other day that this project has been to NZ and back and it's still in the pieces it's supposed to be in . I think it'll do everyone's hearts good when I finally get it done!

Thanks Matt! Because the breaks are so long in between, I find that I have to re-learn a lot of things, but as long as I make the same mistakes it all looks the same

Thanks Kev! It's slow going, but I'm getting closer to imagining the theoretical light at the end of the tunnel

Thanks mate!

Sure has been Jay! Not really much in the way of "exciting and different" updates, just a lot of blank canvas that needs covering. At least I'll now how all the patterns I need for the second wing, so (apart from time available at the bench) it should go a bit quicker.

Thanks Martin!

Incredible mate!

And you guys thought I'd given up...... Nope, she's still going. Getting towards the end on one entire wing, top and bottom! It's been a slog and there's a whole other wing to do yet, but the optimist in me says that I'm halfway. At least now I'm doing the leading edge I can finally start doing some recessed rivets.....These are like a dream compared to the 8 gazillion raised ones I've done so far. A tricky challenge on the latest point has been trying to shape a single piece of skin to fit in between the two nacelles, as there's a whole heap of different geometry going on there. I got it close, but the saving grace will be the strips running around the edges of the nacelles which will (hopefully) hide any gaps. Overall I'm pretty chuffed; just trying to get a panel done, whenever I can. On the flip side, I've still got a long way to go before I really have to think about where to put it once it's done! Cheers

G'day Jay! Been a while since I've been on the forums and catching up on your progress. All I can say is simply WOW! Your dedication to getting things right is absolutely second to none, and I would argue, not even a real one! Craig

Thanks very much Pat! Sorry for my late reply!

Stunning work Pat! What resin/settings are you running in your printer? Cheers, Craig

Always a fan of another B-17 build! Craig

Hi mate, Thanks for the suggestion. I did have a look at your attached photo and it looks good, however when I was closing up the fuselage I had to run both wires down and out one side only (which is the left). To run them as brake lines would also mean running them through the brake booster on the front of the strut, which would also mean drilling into something even smaller! It was my poor forward planning, so I'm stuck with it now. Both wires will have to run down the left leg. I think I should be able to hide them pretty well though. Time will tell! Cheers, Craig

Cool!

That is some crisp work on those flaps Jay! Well done on the fine trailing edge too..... that's tough to get right! Craig

Thanks for looking in Mike. Not sure yet, I'll have to have another look at references. I was thinking about drilling out the spindle that the wheel mounts to as well so I could run everything internally, but the bend radius was going to be too tight. I'll keep playing around with them, but all things considered, I think they'll be pretty unobtrusive for the small amount you'll see. Cheers, Craig

Thanks Matt! Always appreciate you stopping by!

Thanks so much Jay! You know it .... if it was easy, everyone would be doing it! It is indeed Rhino...... I'm glad I hadn't forgotten how to drive it. I haven't used the resin printer since New Zealand, so hopefully that still works too!

Thanks Kev, hopefully get a bit more regular again

So apparently my last post was early April........ when you own a GSP I can tell you where the time goes! He's been a huge investment in time and effort training him, but he's a great dog and we're glad we've got him . I have been chipping away very slowly on the B-17 with some of the precious little spare time I've had. A lot of that time was spent getting the profile of the nacelles correct. The C model didn't have cowl flaps, so there's a substantial gap between the cowling and the edge of the nacelle. Once I got it sorted, it was back to the stainless steel to cover the area near the firewalls. And once they were done I could finally add the engines that have been bouncing around in a takeaway food container for the past 4 years! There's a few alignment points I need to smooth out due to the completely unique geometry between HK, eduard and scratchbuilt elements of the nacelle, but overall it's looking pretty good even under the harshness of zoom. The stainless remains incredibly difficult to work with any kind of finess, so I'm glad I'm done with it for this wing at least! Hopefully you can see the large gap that now exists at the back of the cowls, like it should! Once I build the front cowl ring mounts for the engines I'll be able to skin and paint them. Can't wait to see a colour other than silver! I've been putting off a few things around this area, one of them being the oil cooler intake scoops. Again the C/D models were quite unique with the shape and position of these and one of those many, many subtle things that needed to be done right to get "the look." I started with what I think was the correct drawing on Aircorp library.... After about fours hours of some trying to capture some pretty mind bending curves, I came up with this (all 11mm of it!): I did a quick print on the Kobra2 just to check the dimensions before I commit to resin... You can see it there in black. Might still need a little fiddling with the finished size (I feel it's a tad bit small), but definitely on the right track! And on the inboard engine: The other of the jobs I've been putting off has been working out exactly how I'm going to run power for the lights. Originally, I wanted to make the bomb bay fuel tank a hidden battery holder, but in the end the whole thing is going to be on a board/under glass so it makes sense to have a power supply external. The only issue is how to run the wires? Unfortunately that pretty much meant I was going to have to run them down the inside of one of the u/c legs, but how to drill them out? the mount peg is offset at an angle to the rest of the strut and almost 60mm long....... there's no drill bit the small and that long..... In the end I somehow managed to mount it in the lathe and very slowly bore out as far as I could up the strut from the bottom. I then cut into the mount peg to try and establish a drill hole from the other end that lined up with the original hole. I'm not sure how tunnels are built but I have a whole new appreciation for them now as that's basically what I was doing! Somehow after about 3 hours of very careful work I was able to insert a 2.5mm brass tube all the way down the strut. The wires are probably going to end up being just visible before they go into the wheel, but it's about as I can get! Still not sure how I managed that! I'll just have to fix up the damaged paint at some point, but I finally got it done! Overall, some tricky challenges overcome, but hopefully now I can more or less concentrate on getting the remainder of that wing skinned and be ready to start the other one. The finish line creeps ever-so-closer! Cheers, Craig

Very nice Peter! They're tricky little buggers aren't they? Craig

Oh dear Peter! I guess we all have our moments, but I'm sure this will be but a minor speed bump for you. How do you keep all the grinding dust out of something like the cockpit when you do all that cutting? Cheers, Craig

That is epic Pat! I can't believe your progress! Craig

Thanks Matt! I've definitely learned a lot about the early model B-17s from this experience . Somedays though I feel like the real life Desert Rat rebuild will be finished before mine is!

Thanks Jim!