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

[Fvdm]

Wow, great progress. I really llike the lights you're making, when you're finished you can always see the work you have done. Fantastic

[brahman104]

On 9/2/2019 at 11:20 AM, bdthoresen said:

Craig- it is absolutely awesome to see this build starting to come together. Keep the

updates coming!

 

THOR    

 

Thanks Thor. I've been able to get a good run on it lately. It's been good to actually get things moving after all this time!

 

On 9/2/2019 at 3:24 PM, Fvdm said:

Wow, great progress. I really llike the lights you're making, when you're finished you can always see the work you have done. Fantastic

 

Cheers mate. Yes the lighting was a must, especially for the forward entry area under the cockpit. I'd really like to look at motorising at least one engine with sound, but that's some pretty advanced stuff that I have no idea about yet.....

 

The detailing of the right side has been coming along nicely. Very happy how the driftmeter looks installed. All of these details are scratch built, including the microphones and jack boxes. I hate painting white.... I can never get it to look good.

 

 

I also wanted to make the navigator's equipment box which sits above the oxy bottles. I've had a set of wood grain decals for ages so I thought I'd finally give them a go. I don't think the real box was wood, but for a splash of colour in the nose I thought it'd look good :). The box itself is made from styrene and I used the decals to make it look like it has a lid...

 

 

And installed...

 

 

 

The right side is just about done. Just need to do the oxy lines from the bottles, then I'll hit the left side

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

[D.B. Andrus]

Beautiful, just beautiful work, Craig.

 

Cheers,

 

D.B.

[chrish]

Sooooo is this going to run on 80/87 or 100/130?

[SCRATCH BUILDER]

Lights are AWESOME!

[monthebiff]

Absolutely exquisite workmanship, love the wirin5erc you have added .

 

Regards. Andy 

[dodgem37]

Fantastico!

 

'I also spent two whole days re-running braided cable across the top of the bay.'

Home made or store bought?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

[brahman104]

4 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

Fantastico!

 

'I also spent two whole days re-running braided cable across the top of the bay.'

Home made or store bought?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Thanks Mark!

 

I'd like to take credit for making them, but they are brought. Pretty sure it was RB motion......

 

In any case they look the part a hell of a lot better than that horrible thread stuff I used last time.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[brahman104]

A couple more pics from yesterday.

 

I made up an ammo can holder out of litho plate. It probably should have lightning holes in it to be perfectly accurate, but all my punches are rusted up at the moment from months of not being used, one of the joys of living in a high humidity environment!

 

 

A really quick paint up of my 3D printed ammo cans.... they came up really nicely!

 

 

And installed in the nose. Looking pretty busy now!

 

 

Time to hit the other side

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[JayW]

Craig - this looks like the most extensive project I've ever seen.  You should guesstimate part count sometime!  See if it's more than my P-38 with the LG door scissor hinges.

[curiouslysophie]

 

That is the sort of super detailing I like! Fantastic work  

[TKB]

Craig,

By now I'd think I wouldn't be surprised by what you pull off, but every post gives me the same astonishment as when you first started cutting up your G fuselage! You have a unique ability to hack away on plastic, but then bring it back together again. I even have to admire your "mistakes" as not only do you recover from them, you to make them look like  blessings in disguise!

• The outer nacelle was a major surgery and you ended up with minimal "scar tisssue."
• The lighting lights up your work beatifully and is not overbearing --- scale lighting!
• Just as you did with the cockpit and radio compartment, you avoided the "sea of green" in the nose comparment with your use of different shades of your base color and highlights of bronze green. The insulation has the "padded" look of the early forts compared to the thinner type used later. There's going to be plenty of color in the nose without it looking like a carnival.
• Your O2 tanks look so much better then if you would have just used the later "ribbed' type. Driftmeter, ammo cans, heat ductwork --- each thing just adds to the realistic feel. The navigator's box may (or may not) be a bit of "artistic license" --- but it's believable an doesn't look out of place. Love how you got the illusion of a lid.

To me, what makes all your detail work stand out is that it all is done with 3 dimensional pieces. We've all seen beautifully painted "brought to life" molded in detail. As good as they look, they still lack the "separate piece" look and that's where the realism has its roots.

 

I could go on and on, but I don't need to point any of this out --- everyone sees it the same as I do!

 

"Don't sweat the details" --- unless you're Craig!

 

[spartacus2000]

IPNOTIC!!!!!

I've spend all the night to read this topic;I'cant stop me.

Your use of Rhino is fantastic,I use it too for my kit(Win version  i don't like the mac one but I use it from beta version),I'm reskin a 1:48 B24D e rebuild the engine and undercarriage zone.

I've a Anycubic SLA 3D print and the printing area is pretty small but the detail are awesome.

I still tuned 

 

[brahman104]

On 9/6/2019 at 12:04 AM, JayW said:

Craig - this looks like the most extensive project I've ever seen.  You should guesstimate part count sometime!  See if it's more than my P-38 with the LG door scissor hinges.

 

G'day Jay. Always a pleasure

 

I don't know...... I think it'd be more of a close run thing between your gear doors and your R2800! I think you're more of a glutton for punishment than I

 

 

On 9/6/2019 at 12:50 AM, curiouslysophie said:

 

That is the sort of super detailing I like! Fantastic work  

 

Hi Sophie, thanks for looking in. I see you do have quite the eye for details from your builds. I hope you'll enjoy the journey!

 

On 9/8/2019 at 6:58 AM, TKB said:

Craig,

By now I'd think I wouldn't be surprised by what you pull off, but every post gives me the same astonishment as when you first started cutting up your G fuselage! You have a unique ability to hack away on plastic, but then bring it back together again. I even have to admire your "mistakes" as not only do you recover from them, you to make them look like  blessings in disguise!

• The outer nacelle was a major surgery and you ended up with minimal "scar tisssue."
• The lighting lights up your work beatifully and is not overbearing --- scale lighting!
• Just as you did with the cockpit and radio compartment, you avoided the "sea of green" in the nose comparment with your use of different shades of your base color and highlights of bronze green. The insulation has the "padded" look of the early forts compared to the thinner type used later. There's going to be plenty of color in the nose without it looking like a carnival.
• Your O2 tanks look so much better then if you would have just used the later "ribbed' type. Driftmeter, ammo cans, heat ductwork --- each thing just adds to the realistic feel. The navigator's box may (or may not) be a bit of "artistic license" --- but it's believable an doesn't look out of place. Love how you got the illusion of a lid.

To me, what makes all your detail work stand out is that it all is done with 3 dimensional pieces. We've all seen beautifully painted "brought to life" molded in detail. As good as they look, they still lack the "separate piece" look and that's where the realism has its roots.

 

I could go on and on, but I don't need to point any of this out --- everyone sees it the same as I do!

 

"Don't sweat the details" --- unless you're Craig!

 

 

Thanks Terry! Always appreciate your comments. I had a lot of fun with the right side of the nose, something I'd put off for a long time. I really want to get into the right side now, but time is a precious commodity right now so we'll see.

 

 

On 9/8/2019 at 6:45 PM, spartacus2000 said:

IPNOTIC!!!!!

I've spend all the night to read this topic;I'cant stop me.

Your use of Rhino is fantastic,I use it too for my kit(Win version  i don't like the mac one but I use it from beta version),I'm reskin a 1:48 B24D e rebuild the engine and undercarriage zone.

I've a Anycubic SLA 3D print and the printing area is pretty small but the detail are awesome.

I still tuned 

 

 

Thanks for looking in and commenting mate. I'm still very much a novice at the 3D stuff, but I'm learning with everything I do. It's great fun and really bends the brain at times!

 

[brahman104]

Wow, almost 6 months to the day since my last post!

 

What's been happening? Unfortunately not much on the fort,  but we'll get to that in a minute.

 

In the last 6 months I have:

 

Left the Australian Army after 20 years of service,

Done a stack of work to the house to get it ready to sell,

Uprooted our life and everything we own and moved to New Zealand,

Set up a new life,

Sold the house,

Joined the Air Force to do the same job!

Squeezed everything we own 3 bedroom and 1 large workshop's worth of stuff into a very small 2 bedroom single garage house.

 

It doesn't really seem like much to write it, but it's been hectic, which is why I've only just been getting some much needed modelling time in in the last few days. I was terrified of all my carefully packed up modelling gear getting destroyed in the move (we all know how careful moving companies aren't) but luckily the huge amount of prep work I'd done paid off. The really annoying part is that as a lot of my supplies were considered dangerous cargo, I had to ditch them and buy again once in the country.

 

I've been living vicariously through the rest of you making progress on your various projects and always inspired, especially by Peter's stunning Mustang, I decided to explore the possibility of modifying my work on the E/F nose correction to see if I could use it as the basis for a better C/D nose. I know Terry had warned me not to do this but after looking at the comparison photos with all 3 lined up beside each other, I just wasn't happy with the shape of the C and it's rather oversized nose. After all, my main goal in this whole project was to achieve "the look!"

 

Additionally, I found a heap of errors in my E/F drawings that would cause issues in the printing, so I'll be going back to fix them in time. Anyway, on with the pics!

 

 

As I'd lost the lower part of the original nose at some point (and it was a G anyway) I had to add the lower part, modify the length of the E/F and add the extra cockpit window.

 

 

Adding the cutout for the observer's dome (which I'll be able to use from my previous work so that's a bonus!)

 

Onto the print. These are rough for checking my work. I'll do them in resin on the photo once I'm happy.

 

 

Here you can see the existing E/F and then the new C/D below. 

 

 

Laid over the top of my previous work. Looks like everything will line up as far as grafting onto the HK fuselage. The new nose is more correctly shorter than my previous effort too!

 

 

This was what really kicked off the redesign. Have a look at the size difference between my part and the kit (surprisingly HK got this pretty close to correct). I know it would've bothered me later, so there was really nothing for it but to redo it.

 

 

Please excuse the F nose cone, just taped on here to show that everything lines up so much better than my previous work!

 

 

The next step will be to start trying to separate the outer shell from the cockpit "tub." I am hoping that I can reuse that without too much effort as that and the instrument panel do look good and have been a huge amount of work that I really don't want to do again, so here's hoping I can pull it off.

 

Wish me luck!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig