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Hello all- I started my HK B-17G as a sanity break from my 1/16th scale AT-38B..I've got two HUGE models on the bench right now...maybe the B-17 wasn't the best choice for a "sanity break"? Anyhoo- This B-17 will be an in-flight display; mounted on a stick with a full crew. I think the props need to spin. Some guys will disagree with me, but I think the only way to make props look like they are turning is to actually make them turn. So, I'll have three of the four engines running...number 2 will be shut-down and the prop feathered. I'm using pager motors to spin the props. They fit neatly into the back section of the crankcase The mounting shaft for the props were removed and a hole drilled for the motor spindle Heat shrink tubing around the motor gave me a nice snug fit in the crankcases The prop bosses were modified to accept the small diameter pager spindle, which will have a slightly larger diameter (and longer) stainless shaft ..And I couldn't resist doing some detail work on the engines..Much more to do here, but coming along- All of this is just dry fit for now.. The pager motors run with a pretty high-pitched squeal. I've got Gary from VoodooFX making me a sound board of B-17 engine noise that should drown out the pagers... More to follow- Cheers Pete

Well, as I mentioned in another thread, my wife gave me another HKM B-17G kit. Since I had seen so many great B-17 builds, I decided to do another kit and make it better than the first one I'm doing. I'm not going to abandon the other kit but use the steps in the kit to find places where I need to rewrite the instruction book so the assembly process goes better and more predictable. You can say I'm using the first build to diagnose problems and be able to deal with them for a much better result. I've started with the throttle quad and the cockpit area and have already found a number of "heads up" changes that will hopefully help those that have been following all the B-17 threads and have not started or gotten their kits yet. Depending on your build philosophy, you can pick and choose whether or not to incorporate my minor changes. I don't have enough yet to take pictures (remember that the grandkids are with me now) but here are a couple of things I noticed just messing around with the parts. Over the entire build up, I'll be taking pictures of all the assemblies before the fuselage is closed and literally making a step by step build scrapbook for myself so I can see the insides after the model is done. 1. First tip involves the throttle quadrant. From my research, the covering over the mechanisms for the throttles, propellor pitch controls and mixture levers is pretty much a thin sheet of metal. If you look into the slots on the real thing, you can see the guts inside. I decided to deepen the slots and thin out the upper part of the quadrant. Then I'll insert a plastic rod inside the piece and cement the levers to that rod after making some cuts in it so it will hold the levers when I glue them in. I think it will make the area look more realistic even though it doesn't show much when the fuselage is buttoned up. It will when I make up the scrapbook. 2, Before detailing and cementing the 4 cockpit walls, I fitted wall to each other and to the fuselage. That way, when the interior is in and it's time to close the fuselage, there will be no pressure making it difficult to passively get the fuselage halves together. This will help me cut down on distortion of the body by the bulkheads and making adjustments after the interior parts have been "finalized". This also helps insure that the sidewalls go up at the right angles. More to come.

Please see the LAST comment Page 15 for more information YES I know another B -17 BUT------ MINE IS DIFFERENT-------IT'S FLYING !!!!!!!!!!!! OK here is my version of this cool bomber Milk Wagon--cause nobody uses kit decals--- do they? Aluminum Foil NMF finish Wheels up Bomb doors open BOMBS AWAY ---- bombs mounted to the stand Number 3 prop feathered No aftermarket parts------- all scratchbuilt "imagineered" details I lied--- there are no P/E parts but, 10 crewmen.thanks to MASTER DETAILS 1/32 USAAF COLD WEATHER FIGHTER PILOT I hope this will keep someones interest for awhile. as I will need support to manage all that foil,but not my first "FOILRODEO"

Hello everyone, I have been lurking here for a long time (too long) and decided it was time to come out and contribute. First off, I would like to say that this forum has an incredible amount of talented people posting on it, I hope my contributions don't bring it down too much. I should probably start out with an introduction. I build pretty much anything that catches my eye. I really like the one-off stuff and odd-balls, mostly military, but I also do some civilian stuff. I have built a few large scale kits in the past including aircraft, cars and a couple of 1/6 military vehicles. I was working on a 1/6 DML M4A3 Sherman when I got my B-17 kit. After a few months, I decided to put the Sherman aside and work on the B-17. I have always been a fan of the B-17 and consider it my favorite WWII aircraft and I was thrilled when I heard that a large scale kit was going to be produced. I knew I had to get one. I must warn everyone that I am an extremely slow builder and this may take a while, but I will try to keep posting my progress as I go. I also apologize in advance for my photography skills, or lack of them. I didn't take any pictures of my progress until now, so I don't have any “start†pictures except for a couple I took with the Sherman to show someone the size of it. I have a few aftermarket sets, but not all of them. I will try to scratch build the details that I don't have aftermarket for. I am also going to try to light the interior to make it easier to see. I have some ideas and some small, surface mount LEDs that I am going to try to incorporate into the build. At the moment, I am skipping around and working on different areas as I find information about them. I started in the radio room and after modifying the kit floor and not being happy with it, I decided to make a new one out of .040†sheet styrene. Then I got the crazy idea to open up the strike camera bay and detail it out. I also opened up the doors in the bottom of the fuselage. I don't think I am going to put the camera in there for a couple of reasons: First, I haven't seen any good pictures of the strike camera to use to make it and second, almost all of the reference I have of the camera bay show it without the camera installed. I still have to add the wiring and a couple of other small details. To be continued. . .

Hello @ all from Germany! I want to show you my built of the big B-17G "Flying Fortress" in the large scale 1/32 by HK Models. I am using several etched parts from Eduard and parts from Profimodeller. Decals are coming from Kitsworld. Please accept my excused for my English - it is ok so far, but the technical words concerning airplanes are mostly missing..... I will try my best I have started with the floor of the Cockpit where I installed a new floor (later - wood). This is made of plastic card. In the front part there is a photo etched part added on the floor for building the round turnable part on the floor. It will become also wooden design later. The center console of the cockpit is new detailed with Eduard parts as well as the entrance to the cockpit in the nose. In the nose I added some wire and cables as well as the turning mechanism on the floor. The sides of the cockpit received a plane made of magic sculp. After the mounting of all parts so far I started with a painting of some "mostly used" areas in the cockpit (floor, seat frames, ...) in Aluminium before I added some salt on these areas.After its drying I airbrushed the interior in Lifecolor's interior green. The planes on the sides were painted in several olive green tones, the wooden floor in beige before adding the wooden decals on it. After that further etched parts (prepainted ones by Eduard) were added. Now further parts will be installed before the whole interior will receive some washings. I hope you like it... one more B17... Micha

Greetings to all! I have been a guest on this site browsing the many topics and enjoying everyone's work and finally decided to join myself. As the title suggests, I am working on the HK Flying Fort. This model has some scratch building mostly the airframe as I am deleting the molded on details and replacing it with Evergreen styrene strips to more accurately depict the real deal. Also included is pretty much every Eduard set for this kit and alot of components from the parts bins. Once I figure out how to download pics, I will post what I have as the kit is well under way. I look forward to any input or comments from other skilled modellers!

Hey guys I'm planning my hk b-17g build at the moment, I've already figured out how I'm gonna unstagger the waist gunner windows. But I'm stumped with the chin turret drive motor. I've seen all the excellent work you guys have done on your forts, So I was hoping to get some help making one. I don't want anyone to hold my hand through a build but any advice anyone could share, or just point me in the right direction. I've never really done any scratchbuilding so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well, my first pics. More related to the wood discussion but you have to start somewhere with your first ever WIP post...

I resisted for as long as possible, but upon entering Hannant's warehouse earlier this week I couldn't hold out any longer... for a B-17 nut seeing a pile of the new HK Models' 1/32nd scale kit resistance was futile After all, my 1/32nd B-29 needs some company... Obligatory box shots: I plan to build this pretty much out of the box, with the only enhancements being good old fashioned plastic card and some imagination. Also, after forking out £200+ for a kit, my wallet (or my wife's patience) won't stretch much further - especially when seeing the price of the aftermarket goodies. Although the colour scheme provided in the kit is attractive (the 447th Bomb Group's "Milk Wagon" with the bright yellow tail feathers of the 3rd Combat Wing) I don't fancy natural metal so I am going to do an olive drab over neutral grey aircraft from the 306th Bomb Group based at Thurleigh towards the end of the war. "You can't build a camouflaged B-17 from this kit" I hear you say... well all will be revealed as the build progresses. I'm a teacher on half term next week so stay tuned for some regular updates. I can't wait to get cracking on what seems to be a stunning kit of my favourite aircraft. Tom

HK Models 1/32nd scale Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress This model represents ‘Skipper'; a Douglas-built B-17G 42-238129 assigned to the 367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group, based at Thurleigh. This aircraft was one of 234 built by Douglas that had both staggered waist gun positions as well as the factory-fitted Cheyenne tail turret, and were delivered in camouflage finish. This particular aircraft entered service on 25th February 1944, and was still on strength with the 306th on VE-Day. The replacement natural metal starboard stabiliser, fin centre-section, both elevators and tail turret were necessary after the bomber was rammed from behind in a taxiing accident at Thurleigh in November 1944. After repair, ‘Skipper' went on to complete over 100 missions. After hostilities ended, this veteran was transferred to the 398th BG at Nuthampsted on 28th May 1945, before flying back ‘across the pond' in January 1945 where it resided at Kingman before succumbing to scrap man's torch on 28th December of the same year. This model has been built more or less out of the box, with only very minor additions. I made the small 'ice windows' on the pilots' windscreens from careful masking and Archer rivets. Aftermarket seat-belts came from Eduard, and a few additional details were added here and there from Evergreen strip where I felt them necessary, such as under the flightdeck floor. I used Eduard's exterior set which provided some vents and grills omitted by HK, as well as more detailed fuel filler caps. I didn't use any interior sets, as I felt that the kit parts were perfectly adequate when painted up, and Eduard have used ‘standard' US interior green on components rather than ‘bronze green' used on the B-17. I sprayed on the bomb group markings myself, and used the kit decals for the ‘stars and bars' etc. The ‘Skipper' name was printed for me, and I used KitWorld's excellent stencil set. All paints were from Hannants' Xtracolour range. All in all a very straightforward and enjoyable build… although it's an expensive model, if you're a fan of the B-17 it's a ‘must have' kit. Was it worth the money? Roll on the B-17F version would be my answer to that! More detail pictures to follow...

I finally decided to put up some pics of my model in my own thread so I don't hijack anyone else's thread. I've pretty much been building this model OOB but with a few added features. Please note that any assembly is not really complete since I'm still in the process of figuring what I want to add if anything. Here's the cockpit. The floors are birch plywood pieces that were stained and waxed. The door at the back is the only one that works. The bombardier and nag compartment. The nav part will be finished when I have the nose halves cemented. This is the radio room. This is the top piece just about completely foiled. Don't be too critical since this was my first attempt at using something other than BMF. I'm using a really cheap light weight foil. It allows me to see the panel lines and rivets that the heavier brands do not. Finally, the bomb bay. I used BMF for the roof. More to come as I muddle my way through the build.

Heres my next duo build..this time ,2 HK B17s! Certainly a logistics nightmare in my workroom. The first one will be 'Baby' using Zotz decals. Im also using the MKI detail set on this one.. I havent seen any reviews on it yet..but so far the only thing Ive found in this set to be worth it is the landing gear and MG barrels..the prepainted photo etch parts are flat,bland, and some actually blurry... the photo etch set for the flaps..basic, as inaccurate as the molded on kit details, poor engineering , and poor instructions. The only thing you get out of the flaps is added ribbing ,rivet detail, and a huge headache. The set comes with paint masks for the windows..but is missing a few, alot of them are undersized..and a few are mis-numbered in the instructions. Have I ripped it enough yet? heres one more.. it contains 2 aluminum/photo etch bombs, but theyre too short on the fin end (almost nothing there) to attach the fins to. did I mention the gun barrels?..it has really nice gun barrels! wish they would sell them separate. ok..I think thats enough ripping for now..maybe more later.. for the interior ,Im keep the painting and details basic..since you can see it..but you cant... a note about the ammunition belts..in the instructions, HK misnumbered a few of them, some are called out twice,I cant remember which,but I discovered that while assembling the nose section. Did I mention the nice gun barrels? Heres the useless flap details..I'll take a better detail shot in a bit to show how worthless they are. Heres where Im at so far with 'Baby' for some reason the left wing fits perfect..but the right wing ,the top half sits too high..not sure what I did wrong there..never could figure out what was causing it.

Hello everyone, Here is my new thread on the build of the B-17G from HK models. I have already started threads on the Accuracy, Backdating and aftermarket parts available and have been putting up some build info with pics in those threads. Things have gotten a little messy with bits and bobs all over the place so I've decided to start this new thread which will cover just the building aspect, and to show you all what I'm up to. Hopefully the mods I'm doing will enthuse some new members into having a go at some of them themselves? I'm going to go back over the work done already, just to set the stage, so if you are seeing stuff you've already covered, skip through, we'll catch up at some point..... So, here goes. We have all discussed the difficulty in modelling an accurate War bird if you want to keep the staggered waist guns and not have a NMF scheme. I have decided to build Little Miss Mischief, which is the famous Fort, built out of 13 different aircraft, most recognisable by the two tone scheme of NMF front and OD aft fuselage sections. This Aircraft has the Cheyenne turret as supplied in the kit, but has the non-staggered waist windows, so I need to convert my model. Here's how I did it... As many will be aware, I want to build my B-17G as Little Miss Mischief, which entails some backdating work. Probably the biggest surgical operation is converting the HK models Staggered waist gun arrangement into the older non-staggered guns type. I have had a good look over this area of the kit and decided that rather than try to cut the exact window hole out of the fuselage, I would cut out a section of the fuselage and the window surround then graft the cut plastic back into the fuselage side. The window aperture is not quite square and is perpendicular to the fuselage split line. I decided trying to achieve all these features accurately would be very difficult indeed. There will be much re-scribing and re-riveting to be done as the staggered windows used different panels than the non-staggered versions. The moulded in ribs inside the fuselage are identical side to side, so I am using these as a reference to ensure the window is correctly positioned. Here we can see the fuselage marked up for cutting... It is quite nerve racking cutting the whole side of the fuselage out of a £250 kit, but hey, it's gotta be done!! Here we go.... Now, you're probably thinking, "Why not just turn the cut out piece 180 degrees" Well, this is not possible as the window would not be perpendicular to the split line and the clear part will not fit correctly upside down. Just to give you an idea of how it's gonna look, here's a pic of the piece slotted into the hole, but as I say, this is not a permanent fix, it's just to show you why I've done this to my beautiful HK B-17G. The ribbing on the inside is what I've used to make my cuts. Note the window falls perfectly between two vertical ribs and the top and bottom align with two horizontal ribs. After all the gluing is done and set, the ribbing will be removed. Here are the panels placed in position. Note the white strip used to take up the gap left from the saw cuts and clean up, and the 1.75mm strip at the base of the window to lift it into the correct position. The forward position has a larger diameter so the window is moved down to keep it centred vertically. I've moved it back, so it needs to go up. The radius of the panels also needs tweaking due to the differences in fuselage diameter. Now I need to decide how I'm going to glue the panels in?? So, it's all done now.. I glued the panels in with superglue from the front to tack the panels and fill the gaps. I then ran a heavy coat of extra thin on the back of the panels. Here's a picture taken along the fuselage after polishing. This is how I check all is straight.. If you can build a nice model aeroplane, go on, give this a go, it really does open up your options on camouflage and decals. Thanks for looking in. any questions, feel free to ask.

I took a moment today to look at one of my 40 year old Monogram 1:48th scale B-17's, I decided to carefully trace one of the fuselage halves and enlarge it to 1:32 scale(X 1.5) The attached photos are the enlarged print-out of the Monogram kit mounted on cardboard with the HKM Kit fuselage laying on top, I also made a print out of the upper fuselage "Turtle" deck and put it on top of the HKM kit's top. The vertical pencil lines on the print out are where the Monogram's kit Radio room windows and upper turret opening, navigator's dome, etc are located. Looking at what I found today I don't think that the HKM kit is really off that much. My opinion only though, but I know that most modelers consider the Monogram kit to be the most accurate kit ever produced of this airplane I can't help from what I found today sort of vindicates HKM a little bit. Hope this might help some. Pat