patricksparks

Thank you, I might thin out the turret walls it's not too late. I think I re-did the turret about 2 months ago and haven't been paying much attention to it now that I'm in the "Belly of the Beast", the Radio compartment and Cockpit have been really eating up my time so far, but they are both just about finished. Thanks again, Pat

Thanks for your compliments, The markings are going to be "Skipper" of the 306th Bomb Group, I just have to give that multi colored finish a go at !!!

Thanks for the advice, I will give it another try ! Thanks, Pat

Great start on the kit ! Look forward to seeing more !

I can't quite remember how I came about using this method, I first used it for a Fokker DR1's camouflage after trying all kinds of different paint to get the effect, that was about 20 years ago, I think that I stumbled upon it out of desperation to finish the model. I also used it to do wooden propellers, you put down your base enamel color and then use thin strips of tape on the prop to represent the laminations, brush on some pastel, pull off the tape and then apply your second color very ,very lightly to make the "laminations" look different in color.

The wood finish I do is really easy. I use chalk pastels, I first spray on a light coat of Modelmaster Sand with lacquer thinner so that it dries quickly, I only wait about 5-10 minutes for it to dry. I take different color chalk pastels, like burnt umber and raw sienna(you should experiment with your colors) and scrape them into a powder, don't mix the different colors together, keep them separated. You need a straight,flat,chiseled paint brush like you would use for dry brushing. Dampen the brush with regular water but you don't want the brush"wet" you have to experiment with this,but it's not difficult you will pick it pretty quickly. I use the lighter shade of the pastels first, just take dampened brush and put it into your ground up pastel chalk, you don't want a lot of pastel, little goes a long way. Just drag the brush onto your Sand painted surface in the direction you want your wood's grain to be going, leave a "grain" with your pastel,don't try to completely eclipse the original Sand color. Next take your darker shade and use the same brush stroke,here's where you experiment,you can change the way the grain looks by using the darker shade pastel in variation,lighter here,darker there,lift the brush sometimes instead of dragging it the full length of your"wood" this will give the effect of the way real lumber looks where the grain runs out. When I'm done with the graining I spray a coat of Testors gloss clearover it with lacquer thinner, you can manipulate your gloss by using more or less depending on how glossy you want it to appear. I have used this same technique for do WW I German Fokker aircraft camouflage, works great. You have to experiment,before you clear coat you can also wash the chalk off if you don't like it and re-do it.

forgive the funny looking barrels on the chin turret, I've been having issues with trying to chemically blacken the brass barrels. Also I still have to make the zipper guides that the barrels go through. Pat

Thank you for all the kind comments ! I am using the Eduard am stuff, figured there was enough work doing other fixes here and there. To Nigel, the only major fixes that I'm currently doing is as you can see is the Radio compartment, the floor in the Nose compartment, I have cut the section out directly in front of the Windsheild in line with the sides of the cockpit opening and cut across the last panel line before the Navigator's dome and have made a formed styrene piece with the "flatter" section in it(I used the original frame drawings for the shape that had been posted on LSP) I did the same re-sizing to the Cockpit floor that Nigel has done, which means I will have re-do some ribbing in the nose section. I have also added the "oversized" ribbing in the rear fuselage where the Ball turret mounts and around the Waist gunner's windows where the armor mounts below the windows. Thanks,Pat

Thought I would share a few pics of my slow progress....

Here some photos of the exhaust/oil staining that I did on a 1:72 scale B-17 some 20 + years ago, my how time flies !!!

Thanks to flounder_al for posting the overhead photo of the B-17, that's the photo I mentioned in my last post. To Bill Cross, I'm sure that all aircraft have their certain "quirks" with exhaust oil and weathering/staining, to me it's just a lot of photo research, I try to look and look and look again. I'm just a little more aware of the B-17's from being exposed to them all my life, my dad flew 35 missions as a Radio Operator/Gunner on B-17s with the 34th Bomb Group. My first boss who hired me back in 1975 was a Ball Turret Gunner with 25 missions with the 91st Bomb Group, he was a modeler before the war, during the war and after the war(professional) he remembered everything about B-17s, mechanics, weathering,colors inside and outside you name it. Glad to see that the posting is useful. Pat

Until I can figure out how to post some photos, I just realized that if you look in some B-17 reference books or on the internet there is the disturbing photo sequence of a B-17 having bombs inadvertently dropped onto it's horizontal stabilizer from a B-17 in the high formation. If you especially pay attention to first photo when the aircraft is nearest to the camera it is a really clear example of the staining on the upper wings, also note that that staining doesn't always travel directly back, I seen many different photos of B-17s and they all have pretty much the same "shaped" staining, my guess would be that the direction path of the stains were created by the direction in which the propellers are turning.

I will try to post some photos. I haven't been successful yet in trying to post photos, I tried the Photobucket route but when I copy and paste the link from the bucket and hit the "OK" button in the post it doesn't do anything. Any tips ? Pat

I though that I would drop a line on this subject due to the many B-17 models being underway now with the HK kit. I've noticed over the years that when modelers are weathering their B-17's wings they are putting the stains coming out of the upper wing vents(the 4 vents aft of the nacelle of each engine) if you look at some good quality photos looking down at operational forts you will see that the staining occurs in between the vents, not from out of them. It probably does this because of the disrupted airflow of the depression of the individual vents. I have in the past recreated this effect by 2 sided taping thin styrene strips into each vent, standing on end that are the width of the vent opening and about a 1/2" tall and then you airbrush your weathering color from the front of each nacelle back, just the same as the real airflow would be and through the styrene "Fence" for lack of better of a better term. Just do a little paint at a time and build the weathering up as desired. Hope this will help some, Pat