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HK B-17...C 11/2 progress resumes!


brahman104

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Craig you amaze me with every page, every scroll of the mouse you are a Master

As much as I can't wait until this is finally finished I also do not wish it too soon as I am enjoying looking at every obstacle that you encounter and then solve them as though it wasn't an issue at all. :popcorn:

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Craig,

 

The fin came out beautiful! Really quality work --- Boeing standard.

 

How you turned a slab of acrylic into the the cabin roof is outstanding --- and that's in it's "work in progress" state!. When your finished, an area that potentially was going to be a delicate, flimsey area, will be just as solid as any injection molding, if not more.

 

Every major aspect of your C/D conversion have been attention getters, but the small details, like the dome being centerlined while the hatch is offset, are really going to add to this work of art. I'm assuming the dome hatch will be removable?.

 

"Back to the butchers?" Butcher! Sorry, Craig, more appropriate would be "work of a sugeon!" Wnat a recovery from a potential diaster. I don't put anything beyond you, but still --- you never cease to amaze me. I've said it many times before, but even your "gaffes" turn out to be productive; your "recovery rework"  just as interesting as your "error free" work.

 

It's been a lot of work, but with each step, you are  ever so surely capturing the elusive B-17 "face" --- not to mention everything aft!

 

 

Terry

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/14/2019 at 1:34 AM, Shawn M said:

fantastic work Craig!

 

Thanks Shawn!

 

On 1/14/2019 at 2:09 AM, BiggTim said:

Holy moly, that roof required as much work as a whole kit. I bow to you, sir.

 

Haha, going by that premise, I wonder whole many "OOB" kits in effort I will have done by the time I finish this!

 

On 1/14/2019 at 3:56 AM, JayW said:

Craig - what a tiger you have by the tail!   You know I love the machining.  This thing is really looking like a B-17 (early model).  I'd say the end result will be unique on the planet.

 

 

Thanks Jay! Still have a lot to learn on the machining side, but I really love working with acrylic!

 

On 1/14/2019 at 5:12 AM, dennismcc said:

God this is epic !!

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Cheers, Dennis

 

On 1/14/2019 at 6:49 AM, airscale said:

Brilliant!

 

Looks absolutely perfect, really captures the look in the right way

 

no wonder you are happy :)

 

Peter

 

Hi Peter, as always an absolute pleasure to read your kind words! I've got a lot of catch up to play with your Mustang too! 

 

On 1/14/2019 at 7:26 AM, TorbenD said:

Wonderful... looking absolutely bob on!

 

Torben

 

 

Thanks Torben

 

On 1/14/2019 at 7:34 AM, richdlc said:

holy cow, awesome

 

Cheers Rich. You know how important that area is!

 

On 1/14/2019 at 9:11 AM, MarioS said:

Craig you amaze me with every page, every scroll of the mouse you are a Master

As much as I can't wait until this is finally finished I also do not wish it too soon as I am enjoying looking at every obstacle that you encounter and then solve them as though it wasn't an issue at all. :popcorn:

 

Many thanks indeed Mario! I'd hardly call myself a master though! Have you seen how many times I rebuild stuff!!!! Hahaha

 

On 1/16/2019 at 12:43 AM, TKB said:

Craig,

 

The fin came out beautiful! Really quality work --- Boeing standard.

 

How you turned a slab of acrylic into the the cabin roof is outstanding --- and that's in it's "work in progress" state!. When your finished, an area that potentially was going to be a delicate, flimsey area, will be just as solid as any injection molding, if not more.

 

Every major aspect of your C/D conversion have been attention getters, but the small details, like the dome being centerlined while the hatch is offset, are really going to add to this work of art. I'm assuming the dome hatch will be removable?.

 

"Back to the butchers?" Butcher! Sorry, Craig, more appropriate would be "work of a sugeon!" Wnat a recovery from a potential diaster. I don't put anything beyond you, but still --- you never cease to amaze me. I've said it many times before, but even your "gaffes" turn out to be productive; your "recovery rework"  just as interesting as your "error free" work.

 

It's been a lot of work, but with each step, you are  ever so surely capturing the elusive B-17 "face" --- not to mention everything aft!

 

 

Terry

 

 

You always have such encouraging words Terry! Whatever term is used to describe what I'm doing here, I think it's finally starting to get somewhere!

 

On 1/16/2019 at 1:10 AM, Out2gtcha said:

WOWZERS!  That is some serious modeling effort there my friend. Well done! 

 

Thank you Brian! I know you are no stranger to corrective surgery yourself

 

On 1/16/2019 at 1:14 PM, SCRATCH BUILDER said:

Thou are a braver man then I  :bow:

 

Braver or more foolhardy? Hahahaha

 

 

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Alrighty, after replying to 11 comments I think it was time to summarise the latest effort in a new post :)

 

The latest little adventure in the journey has been aimed at trying to wrangle some acceptable looking transparent parts. Now, as you guys know, the early B-17's had some really interesting looking clear parts, prior to the introduction of power turrets on the E model.

 

First of all, and perhaps more importantly, is that after lengthy discussions with Terry (TKB) about cowling shapes and always referring to this build as a C/D as I hadn't made up my mind, I finally decided that I will be making this a C model. The two mains reasons are a) cowl shape and no flaps (just to differentiate a little more from later models) and b) single .50 mounts in the radio room and bathtub, so there's more room to see the detail inside!

 

Anyway you guys came for the pics, so here they are....

 

QH7LX7M.jpg

 

First of all, I made patterns in Hydrocal for vac forming an assortment of clear parts. What's the big rectangular one you might ask? hopefully, that will be become clear soon (pardon the pun....)

 

First of all, I did the observer's dome. This came out looking pretty good, and best of all, a nice match to the hatch I'd already made in the laser cutter.. *disclaimer - I have yet to polish theses too ;)

 

x6FsYW9.jpg

 

GhxD5Lm.jpg

 

Qkq2bJO.jpg

 

pzOEg1K.jpg

 

Seeing I was on a win, next came the waist windows. This is where the rectangular piece came in - it is a representative piece of fuselage with the correct curvature at the waist window. I would form oversize pieces then patiently whittle them down to fit in the previously made holes in the fuselage.

 

EiUACsF.jpg

 

Then, I made the removable window separately, including its triangular shaped depression at the rear for the gun barrel.

 

4z21Rrg.jpg

 

This was then traced onto the waist window and the excess carefully removed. This took most of the day to do, with many, many dry fits!!!!!!

 

USTbY6D.jpg

 

o8XQQXo.jpg

 

Till I finally had a very nice fit in the existing window :)

 

mOd78PY.jpg

 

Now the real trick. I also had to continue the relief on the back side of the existing window (although this is formed in aluminium on the real thing, so I didn't include it in the master shape. I had an idea that I could just vac-form and extra 2 removable windows and graft the triangle piece onto the rear.

 

And so with much more careful "whittling" of the acrylic, I ended up with this....

 

6KuUug4.jpg

 

93bTI24.jpg

 

CXvs4fa.jpg

 

And now for the "in-use" shots...

 

7T3DRfz.jpg

 

4g2b1Ql.jpg

 

 

Yes, they still need a lot of cleaning up, but for something I have been absolutely dreading doing for so long, it didn't really end up being that hard, just a lot of careful and laborious filing and sanding to get things to fit. Not completely there yet, but I'm chalking that up for the win!!!!!

 

I think I'm finally starting to tame this beast!!!

 

Craig

 

p.s. Luckily the Townsville floods did not affect the house, or much more importantly, my workbench!!!!!!!! :)

 

 

Edited by brahman104
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