Fvdm

Hi guys
 
Firstly I want to say that I hope everyone is staying safe out there whilst living in these difficult times.
I have been away for a while as I have been building the smaller stuff!....but I'm back with the big boys now!!
 
Well it is time to get down and finally attempt to finish this Mammoth B17G project. Some of you may know that I started this 7 years ago with a few breaks in between sections to build other stuff.
As a recap :  I was originally going to just scratch build the nose section but kind of got hood winked in carrying on down the length of the fuselage! .....so I then built the Bomb bay....followed by the radio room and ball turret section and now it is time to finish this off with the tail section. Just to let you all know that I will not be building the wings and the 4 engines that go with it!
 
I got together some old post photos from the start of this project and thought I would show you of how I got to this point today!
 
This first photo shows the completed fuselage up to the ball turret position.....
 

 
Here is a shot of the cockpit.......
 

 
...and the bomb bay looking from the radio room through to the cockpit....
 

 
Here is the radio operators table in the radio room.....
 

 
...and finally the ball turret in place on the hanging harness.....
 

 
So my aim has always been through out this project to display as much of the internal detail as possible as I have always been fascinated with the Flying Fortress!.....so to that end I have tried to construct the whole fuselage with the top removed. This over the years has given me many headaches and will continue to I'm sure ... because I didn't want to take away the shape of the B17!... For example my next problem will be how to display the detail with that ruddy great dorsal Fin attached?......well I have an idea which I will show you as we get on with the build.
The other problem I have is how to ship it back to the UK from here?....I have made a bespoke box out of MDF but I am getting ahead of my self!....lets put that to one side at the moment and get this last section underway!
 
So here we go then..the first of many photos and posts that I will have to make!!
 
I am going to make the fuselage out of balsa wood as I did with the the front sections....so after digging out the scale plans that I scaled up to 1:20 I cut out all the formers I would need.
 

 
The bottom half was built up first ...then the top half .....here they are temporarily joined.
 

 

 
A few years ago I started strengthening the fuselage by filling in between the stringers with scrap pieces of Balsa wood. All you have to do then is sand down carefully to the formers and stringers to get the ...hopefully.... correct shape. Here is the bottom half.....
 

 
Here is the top half just  placed in position.....
 

 
So here the scrap balsa was filled in the gaps and sanded. You can see that I have left an area open at the top so you will be able to see down into the detail......
 

 

 
Now I turned my attention to the dorsal fin which runs along the top of the fuselage which eventually turns into the tail fin.At this stage I am only building so far back and will complete it by somehow attaching the tail fin at a later stage...there is method in my madness as you will see later!
 

 
Once I had filled the gaps with balsa ,I glued the dorsal fin on top of the fuselage and as you can see there is still enough open space to eventually look at all the detail.
 

 
I thought I would clamp the front section onto this to see what it might look like......JEEZ!.....It's about 3 feet 5 inches long!! 
 

 

 

 

 
Well that's as far as I have got with this so far!
 
I do hope some of you will come along with me for the ride on this final stage of this project...would appreciate the support!
 
Until the next post.....thanks for looking in and stay safe guys!
 
Fozzy
 

Oops. Sorry to see this. I feel for you

Two minutes after my previous post, my wife asked me to come down. She absolutely had to move the workbench on which the Skywarrior was drying. Talk about reappearing cracks... 
 

Steve (Crossofiron) made them himself and graciously let me order a set.
 
Decided to finish off the nose cap, rivets added inside, a few more things to add in there still....

 
Rivet and screw detail added to the aluminum nose skins


There was often a doped fabric strip put on the lower half of the nose cap joining it to the fuselage.  So this detail night be completely lost anyway as I am thinking of masking certain areas where some of the fabric strips and tapes are slightly more visible with Mr Surfacer and then buffing them down to just show a hint of them at certain angles....
 
Looking at this last photo I realized I forgot to add the 6 round head screws to the circular cover on the nose tip, a few small archer rivets should sort that.
 
Oh and although I have a wash in here to see any mistakes and see what I have done, I wont be doing it on the final paintjob as they were virtually invisible in real life under paint.  I just want a hint of them visible....Oh and I see I forgot to add something else....
 
Thanks for looking in as always on this painfully slow build

Hey dudes-
was wondering how this was gonna go- props to the Live Resin guys for sculpting a figure prior to this kits release that fits!
  
 
 
...that boot print on the floor was a test in a spot I know won’t be visible..in case I didn’t like it-
 
 

 
cheers
 
Pete

Alrighty : ) The baffled outlets are done, thinned, painted, just about ready for gluing, but after a thorough thinking - it turned out that the reat area of the upper fuselage will become very fragile/delicate to touch if I add the vanes. The next pix are quite of a micro - the thickness of the vane is half a milimiter. And because I want to make the ruddervators moveable, I'd rather make them now when the rear part of the fuselage is still not so risky for action.
 

 

 

 
And just a couple pics with the slotted areas over an artificial light... quite nice! But... ruddervators first  
 

 

 

Hey all-
got the IV bags and stuff hung up-
getting closer-
   

 
cheers
 
Pete

Hey all,
this was fun-
the transmission drip tube! Made with clear plastic tubing that I sucked water based wash through for the transmission fluid-
 
 
 
cheers
 
Pete

Cockpit rigging - the fun begins!  Photos show that the internal bracing wires were painted white; large white EZ line was used to depict these. 
There were multiple sets of throttles and other engine controls in the Handley Page cockpit.  I drilled out holes and glued EZ Line to each individual throttle before gluing the pairs together. Notice there are instruments on the right side wall which are below the pilot's seat (instrument decals not applied at this point). The commander had a few instruments here and in the nose which could be referenced while aiming bombs using the sliding hatch, circular glass sight in the floor, or from the nose. 
 

 
Throttle quadrants all glued in place.  The engine control lines are taped to the plastic card for good reason... 

 
...Because they all go into a part that joins the left and right nose halves just in front of the bomb bay. This was the easiest way I could think of to not get lines tangled and glued in the wrong holes. 

 
At this point the engine control lines were kept taped together while threaded through their rear control rod.  The elevator and rudder cables must first be attached to their pulleys at the back of the right nose wall before the engine control rod can be glued in place.  Aileron cables exit through a hole in the roof and meet the upper wing near the rear cabane strut. 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Terrific! You don't to change to s smaller scale, you just need a bigger house.

Terrific! You don't to change to s smaller scale, you just need a bigger house.

Result of a preview photo session...
 

 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for looking in!
 
Kent
 
 
 
 

Hello folks,
 
Now that the camouflage's done, it's time to reveal the true identity of our P.11.
 
It's a plane of the 1st Royal Brigade of the Syldavian Air Force based in Sbrodj at the time of the Kropow incident in October 1938.
 
As every fan of the Tintin series of comic books would tell you,  Syldavia, nicknamed the Kingdom of the Black Pelican, is a country in the Balkan peninsula region. Syldavia has always had an uneasy relationship with neighbouring country Borduria.
For a fictional country created by the Belgian Hergé, author of the Tintin books, the kingdom of Syldavia has struck the imagination of millions readers and has been the object of numerous expertises concerning its geography, politics and even linguistics. You can find them HERE and HERE. And it's only the tip of the iceberg.
 
So I started working on the Syldavian markings. The national emblem was no problem: a black pelikan on a yellow ground. I added a numeral 5 in a vague cyrillic style to soften up the Germanic camouflage and give the plane a Balkanic vibe. The gold painted crown denotes the Royal Brigade, an elite force of 6 aircraft devoted to the protection of King Muskar VIII. The white stripes on the tail are victory markers against Bordurian Heinkel 51s.
 
The sketches

 

 
The model

 

 

 

 

 
I'd like to thank Andrew from the What-If Modelers forum whom I met while searching the subject and who sent me his vector files for the Syldavian markings,
My ever resourceful friend Max/Mozart which provided me with the masks – no, not those –
And Marc my old IPMS buddy who offers his assistance.
 
The model is not finished yet. Still have some small details and slight weathering to add.
 
See you next time,
Until then,
Cheers,
Quang
 

So Butchie is done and on the shelf.  Although a good amount of $ was sunk into this project, if you factor in the months of enjoyment (most of the time) that I got out of this project, it was very cost-effective (again, this is what I keep telling my wife)!   I have to say, I think I was spoiled by the Tamiya Corsair I built before this.  It was a much more straightforward build.  The Mustang has too many toy-like features (retractable landing gear, movable flaps and control surfaces, etc.). that make the build unnecessarily involved.   That being said, the quality and detailing of the kit are indisputably some of the best in the modeling world.   I was also very happy with the Barracuda cockpit decals, I wish they would offer these for every 32nd scale kit!  Also, props to Fundekals and Print to Scale for their very nice decal sheets.  Lastly, a major thank you to Dennis7423 for graciously supply the HVAR's.  I wouldn't have been able to complete this build without these.  Here are some final pictures and when I get around to it, I'll do a RFI.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Last note - a sincere thank you to 2nd LT John Irwin who, during his assignment to the 2nd ID for two years as a Forward Observer, would have probably have been calling in Butchie for close air support.   You are not forgotten! 
 
Thanks for looking! 

Thanks everyone for reading and watching progress. It's done! RFI below the image.

 
 
 

So we've got the basic camo on. It's clear from the reference photos that the mottling was painted around existing insignia, so they're the next thing to go on in the painting sequence. I'm using Montex masks which I transfer in their entirety from the backing sheet to the model using Cricut Transfer Tape. As it's easy to stretch or distort vinyl masks during handling, I find this method helps keep everything in proper shape and register. Here's the sequence for a balkenkreuz on the lower wing. The entire mask is positioned on the airframe using marker lines as guides.
 

 
The mask elements for the white parts are weeded and placed on the backing sheet. The same white mix used for the nose and wing tips is then sprayed,




 
The mask elements are retrieved from the backing sheet and carefully replaced and burnished down.


 
The mask elements for the black parts are then weeded and a scale black mix sprayed.




 
The entire mask is then removed to reveal the finished balkenkreuz. 


 
I find this is the quickest and most efficient method, but it still takes a couple of hours to complete the airframe - well worth the effort though. Balkenkreuz on the upper wings and fuselage were scrubbed with a damp stiff brush shortly after painting to introduce some initial fading and reveal the rivet lines.




 

 
The airframe is now resembling something like its original scheme. So next I get to be a luftwaffe black man and throw mottle all over it!

A little bit more work on the cockpit. I gave the instrument panel and center console a good dusting of North Africa dust to make it look like a dusty helo flying in Somalia. 

Tim

So a little more dine adding Spandau's and other small bits and pieces in readiness for fitting the upper wing.
 

 

 
Needs some touch ups here and there but getting there now.
 
Regards. Andy 

Wow, that's a lot of AM. Have fun with it

Beautiful progress. 

Fantastic result!

Thanks guys!  The G-6/AS is wrapping up.  I've added some additional weathering to the drop tank, which you won't be able to see since it will be on the top side.  Experimenting with intentional pastel wash staining on a matt surface...

 
The drop tank is the last significant hardware to be added to the G-6.  The pitot tube, which was built out of brass tubing, is added and the aerial, using Uschi's elastic thread is the final touch.


 
The Bf109G-6/AS is complete!  The clouds started gathering again here in SoCal so I rushed some outdoor shots with the DSLR before the rain comes again.  I'll probably re-do the final shots when there is some ambient sunlight but here are some pics with the good camera...

Construction completed but still some weathering and general touch-ups to add a bit more character.
 
Its a lovely little model that is well engineered but you still have to think about the order to do things.

 
I am really pleased with the over-painted French roundels on the top wing. As per the early deliveries to the Italians.
 

 
 

 
I am also pleased with the appearance of the ribs. Achieved just by adding a heavier coat of paint over them and patchy spray work between them.
 

 
The prop is done with a coat of Tamiya Acrylic Dark Yellow with some mottled Tamiya Acrylic Red Brown followed by clear orange coat sprayed.
 

 
Still to add some brass paint for fittings.

So, jumping forward a little, I think I can call the cockpit finished. Adding the hydraulic undercarriage lines was a little tricky, but with some time and patience, managed to get all four in place. Also added control lines using Modelkasten rigging thread and the pilot, Rupert, was pinched from a Wingnut Wings kit. I did, somehow, manage to lose the Barracuda resin oxygen hose, so had to fashion a replacement from lead wire.