HK B-17...C 5/4 sweating the metal

[brahman104]

Wow, we're halfway through January already, and the big girl enters her second year..... where's the time going?

 

Anyway, a little more to show. I've been continuing to refine the all-important shape of the cockpit section. I took a little off each "sill" to lower the over height of the section as to me it looked a little high. Not much in it but I can see a difference Finally, I marked in what I believe will be pretty close to the overall shape of the windows. The idea is to use the roof, as I've been hollowing it out from the inside, and the whit styrene sections will be used as a guide to remake the parts in brass. 

 

Not only does brass look cool and is stronger for what I want to do, but as I still have to "fair in" the lower section where the windscreen meets the fuselage, the brass will be more resistant to sanding rash

 

 

 

Just for fun, I also cut out the opening for the observation dome to see how it would look. The actual opening from inside was rectangular, so this is far from finished

 

I've also reduced some of the roof thickness, so that nasty step where the section meets the rest of the fuselage is nowhere near as bad now...

 

At this point I had to pause work on the cockpit for a few days while I chased up some "marking out dye" which is a blue ink used on metal to provide a contrasting colour when marking out cutting lines using a scribe. My intent is to use this method on the brass as I need to be very accurate, and I don't want to lose any pencil/pen marks halfway through.... Stay tuned for that.

Edited January 15, 2016 by brahman104

[brahman104]

I never thought getting this stuff would be such a battle....

 

 

I spent nearly a week running around all the tool shops in town and they all looked at me like I had a second head.... I guess no one uses this stuff on those god-awful back yard renovation shows so it's not surprising I couldn't find it!

 

In the meantime I decided I should get around to finishing off the radio room. I still had cushions and seatbelts to add and the highly complex roof section which also doubles as the lower structure for the gun mount. To add to the fun, this piece is full of rivets. In my opinion, a B-17 this size just won't look right without raised rivet detail and I'd been thinking long and hard about how to replicate this. Obviously, it's pretty much the same as what the other guys have been able to do with such mastery, except that all the detail has to be applied from the back side and prior to fixing the piece in place. It also means that parts distort more, and so requires the area around each rivet to be smoothed down.... lots of work, but this is what happens when I get silly ideas

 

 

 

 

 

As many of the other guys have already said, aluminium is very hard to photograph, even using the macro lens on the SLR. It took nearly two days to do this area but I think it's come up pretty well

 

 

 

 

Yes, I am aware that the inside colour should have been more like olive drab as this is supposed to be soundproofing, but I completely forgot until after I'd glued it in place.... That'll just have to be our little secret Luckily it's dark in there....

 

 

[brahman104]

Now the radio room roof was in place, I could now start on the gun stowage area. For those not familiar with the area, look at all the fun going on here

 

 

Now a while ago, Terry had suggested that I look at including the life raft stowage compartment, which sits directly above the bomb bay. I wasn't going as it seemed too much effort but then I got thinking.....You may remember that I'd left the top section of the bomb bay "capsule" off for access later on when I put lights and other things in. In looking at the area it became apparent to me that if I was careful, I could make the lift raft bin and the floor of it could double as the bomb bay roof when viewed from the bottom and no-one would know! 

 

 

This of course took a considerable amount of engineering and dry fitting. So first step was to make the little bulkhead which divides the upper deck between the lift raft area and the gun stowage section.

 

 

 

Time to remove more of the original kit! There's not much left now

 

 

So after a lot of mucking around, this is what I ended up with....

 

 

 

 

 

So have I bitten off more than I can chew? More than likely.... find out in the next post

[brahman104]

Bearing in mind that I never intended to do this, I hadn't really made any allowance for extra detail to squeeze in here, so I spent a lot of time assembling everything and test fitting to make sure it would work. To my pleasant surprise, the dimensions of the bomb bay actually allowed for this quite well, and I can still install and remove it as I please (thankfully!!!!)

 

So after much test fitting and trimming, I managed to make the "floor." As the detail was raised, it would leave impressions on the roof of the bay, so I had to make sure any marks would be in line with the rib and stringers that would be added to the bay once it is permanently in place. Tricky? you bet

 

 

 

I was going to try and make this all in one piece, but there's some very slight differences in bulkhead height which would mean I'd be trying to form a compound curve along the roof. As I'd be able to hide the join line later, I'd didn't see the point. The aft end has yet to be trimmed back in line with the top bulkhead, but you get the point....

 

 

 

 

 

Am I doing both sides? Hell no! This way I can still portray the idea, yet get away with some dodgyness, considering there'll be a lift raft in there too

 

Anyway, I'm more than happy with how that turned out, and now I can build up the structure in the gun stowage area. More challenges to come! Did I mention I never find the easy way of doing something?

 

Thanks as always for looking in, and please feel free to offer suggestions and opinions.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[ClumsyDude]

Wow, Craig, what an update - phenomenal work. I'm amazed that you manage to both form and rivet such complex shapes. Well done.

 

Jim

[LSP_Kevin]

Awe-inspiring work, Craig! Just magnificent stuff.

 

Kev

[brahman104]

Jim, Kev, thanks very much! You guys are always straight onto any updates and your comments and interest are always so motivating It has been a while since my last update, but as you can see there were a few technical issues to work through. Still, the show must go on and hopefully there'll be some more progress to report soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[Guest]

Just plane supper work. Beautiful....Harv

[tomprobert]

Brilliant. Your attention to detail is highly commendable. She's really coming to life now - loving this!

 

Do you plan to replicate the raised rivets on the main airframe exterior or are you going to attempt to keep some form of sanity and use a riveting wheel instead?!

 

Tom

Edited January 15, 2016 by tomprobert

[brahman104]

Hi Tom,

 

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying this as much as I am. I'm fully aware of the implications of what I'm about to say, but I couldn't live with my B-17 having recessed external detail, so even if it adds another two years to my build, every rivet is going to be raised and applied one at a time. Yes it's going to hurt, but imagine what it will look like when it's done. I won't know as I'll be in an asylum...... 

 

I'd love to have a whole year to do nothing but modelling... wouldn't that be sweet

 

Pleasure as always mate,

 

Craig

[brahman104]

Just plane supper work. Beautiful....Harv

 

Thanks very much Harv! I appreciate you checking on me

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[Youngtiger1]

Totally awesome work going on here...you are the man

[Loic]

+1 awsome !!

[Hubert Boillot]

Beautiful and inspiring work ... Great results as well.

 

Hubert

[richdlc]

looking awesome! Ah the life raft compartment.  I too made this initially on my build, but decided against it in the end. Am sure yours will look superb and add another dimension to the build when finished. :-)