brahman104 Posted November 17, 2021 Author Share Posted November 17, 2021 Another quick update with a few more pics. Been working my way up the side of the forward fuselage. I now have aluminium running the entire length of the fuselage. One of the hardest areas to do are the windows, and the nose has quite a lot. Especially when the cut outs go over two panels! I'll let the pics speak for themselves..... Only a couple more to go and the whole LH side is done! (well apart from the turtle deck and bathtub.... ) Cheers, Craig chukw, Ol' Scrapiron, vvwse4 and 14 others 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 SUPERB!! brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted November 17, 2021 Author Share Posted November 17, 2021 Thanks Anthony! Starting to see the entrance to the tunnel now Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richdlc Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 looks great Craig...if I could offer one piece of advice it's to get all of the dust and hairs out of the interior before buttoning it up. They are of course magnified with a macro photo... please don't take that the wrong way, just speaking from experience LOL JayW and brahman104 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted November 17, 2021 Author Share Posted November 17, 2021 Thanks Rich! Yep totally on that! I spent a good couple of days prior to joining the fuselage cleaning everything and making sure it was as dust free as possible. Of course there's still a lot of work to do on the exterior and even with all openings taped up, dust/hair etc still finds a way in. I'll definitely be giving it a thorough clean before the final seal up! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigels modelling bench Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 On 3/29/2020 at 12:02 AM, brahman104 said: A bit more progress to show. I've had some solid bench time lately so I've been able to concentrate on getting things right, and trial a few other innovations as you'll see shortly..... First of all, the cleanup on the nose continues. I'm taking my time to clean up as much as I can now with the two halves together, before they separate again and rejoin their respective fuselage sides. Getting the observer's top hatch to sit nicely has been quite time consuming, but definitely worth it to do now! I also added a bit of a styrene "shim" to the front to make the nose cone fit a little better. And a good scene of carnage for you You'll recall my efforts to adjust the height of the outboard nacelle from a while ago.... While this approach had merit, I would still have to correct the profile for each side, and considering I have two other B-17 projects to do eventually, I wanted a more repeatable, predictable solution..... A bit of a gamble, but I decided on a full remove and replace option. Hopefully, this would give me a much easier solution (as I would only have to draw one side, once). This turned out to really tax my brain, as working out a decent reference point, plus trying to make sure the kit's wing profiles were captured was some of the most challenging work I've done on this kit. Simple, easy to read drawings of the outboard nacelles are a little tricky to find, but I used my good old eyeball once again to make something that while maybe not 100% correct, still looked better than the kit option..... It started with removing a big chunk of wing: I used the kit's rivet lines and rear spar location as my datums for top and bottom (hopefully HK got them the same both sides!) Once I had my hole, I then traced profiles of each face to be replicated.... After a lot of mental gymnastics in Rhino, I made a simple profile mockup to make sure I'd got things right.... Not completely refined or complete yet, but I can't believe I pretty much got it right! I've still got to add a lot of detail and then the final product will once again be in resin, but I feel it's a quantum leap forward in regards to my original approach.... I do apologise in that it is very difficult to portray in a photograph what it actually looks like in real life, but the important thing is that the "thrust line" of the engine is now lower than the leading edge of the wing, exactly as it should be. In all, I only have to tweak the inside aft edge of the inboard profile just a little to get it to line up with the wing profile when viewed from the front... if that makes sense? Anyway, this is a huge step forward once again, and I'm looking forward to showing you a finished nacelle printed in resin hopefully in the near future! Cheers, Craig Thank you so very much for hi lighting this issue. I have looked at the wings of this kit and always known that something looks out, but never put my finger on it. You have done it for me. Thank you!! Nige brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted November 26, 2021 Author Share Posted November 26, 2021 G'day Nige! Thanks for looking in on my build. I know how much you went to town on this kit in the early days and that also inspired me to do something about it. I can't take absolute credit for the nacelle discovery....... I was visiting a real B-17 restoration a few years ago and the guys there actually pointed it out to me. Fixing the issue however is quite a challenge as per the above and not for the faint hearted! One of those many things on this kit that once you see it, you can't unsee it! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Craig, "Fainthearted" ... your not! You ascribe to "When 'good enough' --- just isn't!" Terry brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank83 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 That is georgeous! Every piece of this is mastercraft, you must be a very patient modeler to deal with all these riveting stuff. All the work you have done absolutely seems to pay off! Will there be a paint over all this or will you leave it as a NMF finish, if you don't mind my asking? brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted November 28, 2021 Author Share Posted November 28, 2021 On 11/27/2021 at 11:03 AM, TKB said: Craig, "Fainthearted" ... your not! You ascribe to "When 'good enough' --- just isn't!" Terry Hahaha! definitely not fainthearted but perhaps foolhardy for cutting up a $300+ kit Terry? Nah, I wouldn't have it any other way! 15 hours ago, frank83 said: That is georgeous! Every piece of this is mastercraft, you must be a very patient modeler to deal with all these riveting stuff. All the work you have done absolutely seems to pay off! Will there be a paint over all this or will you leave it as a NMF finish, if you don't mind my asking? Hey Frank, thanks for looking in and the kind words! It's definitely been an adventure; the riveting sure takes a long time, but in my opinion, totally worth it (for this model anyway). Great question! I know most of the early forts we getting painted over in olive drab just before the outbreak of war, but there were still a few that hadn't made it through the paint shop yet, so mine will be representative of one of those machines. I say representative, because I think it will look awesome with some aspects of the B and Y1B schemes too (like the yellow cowlings etc.) It'll have elements of each, wholly and solely because I love the look! Cheers, Craig frank83 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted November 28, 2021 Share Posted November 28, 2021 Craig, Three hundred bucks for your "canvas" was dirt cheap. Your time and efforts far outweigh that initial investment. What you're going to have in the end will be priceless! I know you've always wanted the bare metal finish and it would be a shame to cover that beautiful metalwork with paint. Besides you'll have enough Olive Drab/Gray with the E and F --- down the line! Terry brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share Posted November 29, 2021 Couldn't agree more Terry! Although there very well one day might be a Y1B in the mix too.......... But yes she'll definitely be natural metal..... Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted December 30, 2021 Author Share Posted December 30, 2021 Last post to round off the year Slowly working my way up the right side. Lots of different shaped panels to watch out for, especially around the main cabin door. Turns out that photos outside aren't that great, but you get the idea of where I'm at! Hopefully I can smash out the main ones left on the this side soon and get into the real fun around the cockpit I think we all know 2022 won't see the end of this build, but I sure hope I can continue at the rate of this year! Happy new year everyone Craig Model_Monkey, Landrotten Highlander, JayW and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhard Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 That is excellent work. brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 Terrific stuff, Craig. Happy New Year! Looking forward to your progress in 2022. Kev brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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