1/32nd scale HK B-17G - (very) nearly there...

[tomprobert]

I've been working on the nose section of late.

 

Here is the floor of this section, with the chin turret motor scratch-built using various bits and bobs from the spares box and installed below the bombardier's seat:

 

 

Here are the seats installed with some Eduard belts, and the navigator's table with a map of Wilhelmshaven reduced in scale and added to liven the area up a little. The pencils are painted Evergreen strip, and the ammunition feeds for the cheek guns are from the box:

 

 

With the guns installed a test fit reveals no fit issues at all:

 

 

 

I reduced the worst of the ejector pin marks with a scalpel blade, and although they are still just visible in this macro shot, it's dark enough in there when the nose is installed not to cause any further worry.

 

A test fit to the fuselage shows that there will be no issues in terms of mating the nose to the fuselage:

 

 

Revell's 1/72nd scale B-17 gives a sense of scale here...

 

I'm now going to turn my attention to the waist area, and will update you again when this is done.

 

Tom

[Silver Dollar]

That's looking really good, Tom.  Now I see that I forgot to put the seat belts in.  That shouldn't be too difficult I hope.  I like the way you did your map with the ruler and the pencil.  I hope you don't mind me stealing that idea from you.  

[marauderdriver]

Looking good Tom     

  Jack

[Azgaron]

Looking very good Tom!

 

HÃ¥kan

[tomprobert]

I've spent a couple of evenings on the B-17 this week and have got the fuselage joined. The rear of the fuselage was spayed in aluminium, and I added the armour plate for the waist gunners from thin plastic card and added them below the waist windows. The walkway around the ball turret was added to the rear radio room bulkhead, and each of the interior sub-sections were installed in the fuselage, taking special care to get them in their slots correctly to aid with the joining of the fuselage halves. The tail wheel structure was painted bronze green and inserted, along with the floor which was covered in fine sandpaper to replicate the anti-slip mats in this area:

 

 

The interior of the turtle deck was also painted up, ready for installation later on in the build. I'm currently waiting for a stencil sheet from KitsWorld as I want to add some of their interior stencils (for the doors etc.) before adding the roof section.

 

The fuselage halves were allowed to dry thoroughly and the joins cleaned up - the fit was impeccable and required no filler at all, quite impressive for a kit this size! I then added the last few details to the rear bulkhead for the nose section such as the additional rack of instruments for the navigator and the fire extinguisher, too: 

 

 

The nose section was then ready for joining:

 

 

Despite my best efforts to line everything up, the nose section seems to have a slightly smaller diameter than the fuselage where it joins. This leaves a slight step that needed a little filling. I'm pretty sure it's me having got something wrong somewhere rather than the kit - I'd be interested to see if others doing this build have the same issue:

 

 

 

After a quick once over with some sandpaper and then a fine brushing of Mr Surfacer 500 along with some re-scribing, this was the result:

 

 

 

 

Note the cockpit decking is just slotted in here and not glued - when a bit of pressure is applied the fit is excellent.

 

So here we are now:

 

 

Coming on nicely. Next up is the tail turret.

 

Tom

[Silver Dollar]

That looks like it went together fairly nicely, even the turtle deck joint which was where I had my problem.  I did a little adjusting on the lip at the nose junction and am getting a fairly good fit with the nose assembly.  

[Guest Peterpools]

Tom

Thoroughly enjoying your build and thread. It's great to see how good the kit can be basically built from the box with some strip and sheet styrene, bits and pieces and a delicate hand in detail painting.

Keep 'em coming

peter

[Azgaron]

Nice work with joining the fuse and the nose! Looking good!

 

HÃ¥kan

[pzcreations]

lookin good..I too had an issue fitting the nose section to the fuselage..I thought it was me too..but perhaps not

[LSP_Ron]

Very impressive!

[Showtime 100]

Very nice progress, dude !

[tomprobert]

lookin good..I too had an issue fitting the nose section to the fuselage..I thought it was me too..but perhaps not

 

Well that makes me feel a little better - in hindsight I wish I'd spent more time trimming it a little as that may have improved things but as it turns out it's not been a major issue and the filler has taken care of it rather well.

 

I suppose a kit this size with a minor fit issue of less than 1mm is not really something worth worrying about.

 

Tom

[marauderdriver]

Looking Good Tom

[JRutman]

  This looks like a B-17 to me!

J

[tomprobert]

More progress to report on the big Fort.

 

The Cheyenne tail turret was constructed, painted and attached to the rear of the fuselage. The fit was very good here and only a quick swipe with some Mr Surfacer 500 was needed. The only problem area was on the roof of the turret where the rudder will sit - a little more filler was needed here. I've left the guns and ammo feeds out for the time being - they'll be added just before the glazing:

 

 

 

Now that the fuselage was complete I turned my attention to the wings. The first task is to assemble the wheel bays - this I did out of the box as detail is pretty good. They had a spray of Halford's aluminium, and then were weathered with AK INteractive's 'Engine Oil'. Having had my head in a few B-17 wheel bays I know how mucky they get in there and wanted to re-create the look on this model:

 

 

 

The oil tank is still to be added, and this will be done after painting. The instructions suggest adding the landing gear at this point, but it'll be very easy to instal it later on in the build.

 

The wings were then glued together - fit was very good with only some minor cleaning up needed along the nacelle joins - again Mr Surfacer was more than able to cope with any minor gaps:

 

 

 

The stabilisers were assembled and then attached to the fuselage, and the wings themselves just slotted into place over the cleverly designed spar system:

 

 

For a kit this size the fit was once again very good, with only a small amount of filler being needed to close a slight gap on the right upper wing root:

 

 

ANd a little more needed on the lower joins, but again nothing drastic:

 

 

When you consider the size of the parts in this kit you have to take your hat off to HK in getting a very good fit overall 

 

Some people who have this kit are shocked by the size of it... I don't know what all the fuss is about...

 

 

Until the next update,

 

Tom