1/32 385th BG(H) B-17G - Fictitious

[Geddyme]

Greetings All,

 

I believe I have the nose compartment complete as of late last night, as complete as I'm going to make it at least. I will be cementing the halves together this evening after a bit of touch up work inside. After a test fitting, it fits nicely as a unit to the fuselage.

 

I will also do a very minor touch up sanding for fitment where the two halves join... there's a pretty noticeable seam in mine that I want to minimize a bit, before filling and smoothing it later.

 

To augment the kit parts;

*I have added the bomb door/release control. It's all plasti-card. It's size, location, etc is a conglomeration of photo's & diagrams I've seen, it's a bit further back than I've seen, because the ammunition feeder is in the way & moving it forward enough to clear the ammunition, the nose glass will not fit. Lesson learned, make the next one a bit smaller... : )

 

* I added the cable supports for the cheek guns and their eyelets using common sewing thread painted MM Aluminum (acrylic) so they would stand out a bit from the Steel elsewhere in the compartment. The eyelets are just Evergreen plastic tube, sliced very thin. I do not know the exact size, it was in an assorted sizes pack. I used smallest diameter that was still a tube. These were painted MM Steel (acrylic).

 

* I used the PE from my MK1 Design set for the bomb aimer's panel, and seat belts for the chairs here.

 

* The map is from a aviation chart I found of NW Germany, near Wilhelmshaven, I may add a folded map to the table as well, or in a pocket on the bomb aimer's panel?

 

* The first thing I added in the nose was actually the plywood flooring, drive mechanism and power/control cabling for the chin turret, after having seen many examples of this around the internet. I used milliput, plasti-card for the mechanical stuff and chin turret floor. The cabling is various sizes of solder.

 

My overall impression... I’ve been in a few B-17s over the years, but always the nose was roped off and not accessible... holy jumpin'...it's tight up front in this bomber! Especially the G with the chin turret and all that comes with it.

 

I did the work in this photo well over a year ago, I’m still somewhat amazed it was not damaged or lost while I took a long break.

 

I did the cables last night, it’s a bit of a trick to keep the thread taught as you glue it in place, to simulate the gun’s weight. I also didn’t want to pull the eyelets loose either. Not a whole lot of contact surface for gluing a circle to a flat surface. I placed them against the ribbing for added surface contact. Eventually I taped the thread to the outside of the fuselage, glued them inside where I wanted them to terminate, and set aside to dry. Once all was set I trimmed the thread to length. I really wanted to fashion pulley’s and springs for the cables, as we see in actual aircraft, but I settled on this. I want to get this beast painted before it gets too cold in my unheated garage. 

 

 

The four seat belts at lower right are used in the nose. They are not easy to pick out in the previous photo. This is another area where MK1 Designs left me hanging. Good illustrations of how they are assembled, no idea where to put them. Thankfully, searching the excellent builds here reveals where they go with a 95% warm fuzzy they are correctly located.

 

 

Next up I will try to complete the cockpit, more to come.

 

Best regards,

David

 

(Edit: I see I’ve put the wrong end on one of the seat belts, it doesn’t show, so I’m going to leave it.)

[Geddyme]

Greetings folks,

 

I’m in the cockpit now, a few last details are needed before gluing the B-17's office together. A few pin marks, seat cushion decals, some switches here and there...

The PE in this area from the MK1 set consists lots of infinitesimally tiny switches (preaching to the choir I know), the pilot’s panel face, co-pilots heater controls, overhead panel faces, auto-pilot & of course the instrument panel. The IP was a bit disappointing here. When properly installed It sits too low, hiding some of it's detail behind the kit’s central control pedestal. I filed enough of the underlying pedestal away before sticking it's PE on so it would sit lower, exposing as much IP as possible.

Here we have an overall look at the pieces for my cockpit. Seat backs and cushions are milliput, painted MM Insignia Yellow, acrylic. Oxygen bottles are the same color, the straps are plastic strip which I painted OD flat from MM, again acrylic. I will trim & paint the clasps, not sure yet, silver or black most likely. They are just 3/32” Evergreen rod.

 

 

A bit of a different view, if you look carefully you'll notice the seats are on the wrong side! They aren't glued yet so I'll fix them. You can also see in the back I'm ready to get cracking on the engines.

 

 

I went a bit crazy with the weathering and dirtying it up, just about everywhere inside. I know less is often more... this kit is really driving that home. This is an expensive model to learn on, but I really love the B-17, & I'm having fun with it. I already want to do another G or maybe the Belle since it's parked 6 miles from my house.

 

 

Questions, concerns, comments always welcome.

 

Best Regards,

David

[MikeMaben]

 

 

[Geddyme]

Thank you both for the kind comments.... enjoying this build!

 

I feel I have more to learn to keep up with the modelers here, it's a great community to be a part of!

 

Cheers,

David

[Dennis7423]

Dave-

 

I didn't know you live near Dayton! My brother and I were just out there a few months ago for the unveiling of the Belle. We try to make a trip out every year for a week to work on Champaign Lady up the street. Next time we're in town (hopefully next year), we should meet up. We often connect with another one of our model-building buddies who lives in Portsmouth.

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

[Geddyme]

1 hour ago, Dennis7423 said:

Dave-

 

I didn't know you live near Dayton! My brother and I were just out there a few months ago for the unveiling of the Belle. We try to make a trip out every year for a week to work on Champaign Lady up the street. Next time we're in town (hopefully next year), we should meet up. We often connect with another one of our model-building buddies who lives in Portsmouth.

 

That sounds great Dennis! Next time you guys are in the neighborhood we'll have to get together for sure. I avoided the crowds for the Belle opening, given I can go poke around there any weekend or even an extended lunch. I did go see her about a month ago. Tremendous job by those folks... hope they can do the same for Swoose.

 

I've never been to see Champaign Lady, did know about her until a year or so back reading this forum...  but I have been to Portsmouth a few times... usually on motorcycle rides. It's a decent ride from here but worth it. great town!

 

Cheers!

[Geddyme]

Didn’t have much time this weekend to work on the Fort, but did manage two attempts at the rear of the instrument panel. Mine won’t have the “blanket” covering the guts as a couple attempts to create one that I was satisfied with didn’t turn out as I’d hoped. I may revisit that for the cockpit walls.

 

So the wiring will be exposed... I hope.

 

I’m using common sewing thread that I had laying around, Black and Red. A few random will be silver-ish, maybe some field repairs/mods were done? You will no doubt remember that not everything behind the IP is wiring as some tubing, etc. is back there, and not everything is one wire per gauge. I’m just going to pretend it is, for my own sanity... on this build.

 

For the three big gauges in front of the pilot, I wanted to have red AND black braided wire for each. Still experimenting on how to keep the braiding tight, the example below at the bottom is not, I’d like it much tighter. I can twist it tighter, getting it to stay is another story. Neither plastic cement nor super glue will hold it, even left to dry over night.

 

I will find a way!

 

 

Another angle. If and when I am happy with the result I will flat it all and assemble

 

I will install more this evening, braid it too, if I can get an hour or two at the bench, and post the results next time.

 

Thanks for looking and commenting throughout this thread!

 

Best Regards,

David

[Vynce804]

This is coming along brilliantly and am enjoying being along for the ride!  Looking forward to the next update. Cheers. Matt

[Gerhard]

Very inspiring build. 

[Geddyme]

I finally got some time to finish the wiring I wanted to add. I was hoping for a bit more color, but am happy with my first attempt at this.

 

I considered using some of the very thin solder I have, but ultimately decided on plain sewing thread in three colors, red black and light grey. I have quite a bit of that and it came in handy as I botched this a number of times.

 

I used super glue to hold the braiding together and stiffen it a bit and regular plastic cement to secure it at both ends. I then dry brushed the red and black with MM Aluminum, and the grey with Flat Black, also acrylic.

 

Then all was sprayed with MM flat enamel from my rattle can. Any remaining fuzziness of the thread was dealt with with a quick pass with a lit match (after everything had dried for almost two days).

 

 

I have also managed to complete the radio room, which I will share tomorrow. I’m very close on the cockpit as well, and that should follow shortly after.

 

Until then,

 

R/S

David

[Geddyme]

On 8/13/2018 at 7:12 PM, Vynce804 said:

This is coming along brilliantly and am enjoying being along for the ride!  Looking forward to the next update. Cheers. Matt

 

On 8/14/2018 at 7:55 AM, Gerhard said:

Very inspiring build. 

 

Thank for the kind remarks gentlemen, very kind of you to say!

 

David

[Neo]

Dang tgats some good stuff

[Geddyme]

On 8/28/2018 at 9:21 AM, Neo said:

Dang tgats some good stuff

Thanks Neo! The learning curve is steep with this kit and what I want to do with it... but enjoyable nevertheless.

 

 

I've now completed the radio room, with only a couple minor touch ups and repairs needed, couple of the radio handles are gone but there are a few spares yet. Some touch up for my over zealous weathering in places. I have also mated it to the bomb bay, as mentioned before I left the step in place, despite there being none in the actual ship. Below are some pics of this effort.

 

Here is an early on image of most of the kit parts in the area test fitted together. My father made references to the large door in the radio room for the strike cameras, and the radio-man complaining of the rattling and trip hazard it presented... wonder how that worked out for him.. haha. I used 20 thou card for the door and .005 clear, painted silver, for the hinges. I found only a couple photo's of this area with the door, and this fashioned one which looks similar, but not exact.

 

 

The wood floor I used varying mixes of MM acrylics... Brown, Flat White & Wood and dirtied it up with some dilluted flat black dry brushed on. I then scribed the joints and followed with a pin wash. For the table I used the Wood and Flat White again (more of the latter this time) ... with a drop or two of MM Insignia Yellow. Same process to dirty it as the floor, only fewer passes with the brush.

 

 

Then it was onto the PE here. I shaved down all the radio faces here and superglued the PE on. Those tiny radio handles are a pain, but worth it, even knowing I'll barely be able to see them once assembled. Also fashioned some radio knobs from varying diameters of plastic rod. Switches are milliput rolled out extremely thin, painted silver and glued on in 1/4" lengths, then carefully snipped to length after setting up.

 

 

I am working on wood doors to replace those I opened up between compartments... not finished quite yet... with handles and hinges to ponder yet. Doors are 20 thou plasticard and look a tad thin to me... once I get around to test fitting, and looking at examples in photo's, I'll decide if they should be stouter. i'll speak more on those once I complete.

 

 

Weathering was next, then a dose of Flat enamel from my rattle can. Then assembly and mating to the completed bomb bay.

 

The desk lamp... My dad left England in August, 1945. He brought home a smalish desk lamp from Great Ashfield, made a new cord for it, and it adorned my old model building desk in my room as a kid. Heaven knows what ever happened to it??? My Mother hated it tho....hmmm? The lamp in radio room is my best attempt at reproducing its odd shape. Pretty close I think.

 

 

 

Thanks again for looking in.. next up is the cockpit... followed by the wheel wheels for the main gear. Or maybe vice versa depending on my satisfaction level with the cockpit.

 

R/S

David

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by Geddyme

[Geddyme]

I revisited the wheel wells for the main gear last night. I had already painted the kit parts previously (MM Steel, acrylic) so accents, weathering (Vallejo washes, Black & Light Grey) and assembly was about all I needed to do. Or so I thought when I began... my PE set does not include anything for this area unfortunately, but now it's stuck in my brain... duplicating a few of the more visible PE pieces I've seen in this area from earlier builds here. I've already glued it together, but it's not exceedingly tight in there without the gear, so I can stick a few things in there without too much issue.

 

Here is how they look now.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I can get some time tonight to fashion a few details to complete these!

 

R/S

David

[Geddyme]

The best laid plans...

 

Intending to get started on some extra bits for the wheel wells above, I happened across some images of PE flaps going in for a 1/32 Mosquito on reddit. Having a set for my Fort included in my MK1 set I pulled them out. I'll admit when my set first arrived and got a look at the flaps... they looked complicated and frankly, a bit daunting to me having never used PE, ever. I actually thought about not using them. Well, I had some time yesterday and thought I give one side a go, working with just the PE before I start to carve off most of the kit flaps and a good section on the wing.

 

I had long ago primed all the brass and that is what you see here. I should've waited on the primer, I removed some of it after getting a bit of glue on it and removing it with ultra fine sanding stick. I might just keep going and remove the primer then re-prime when the time comes to do the whole bomber.

 

To start I tacked these braces down with a small amount of good old Elmer's first in two very small locations fore and aft. After it set up for an hour, I test fit the long thin ribbing would slide in the tiny slots in those braces, I used a thinly shaved toothpick to apply some super glue along both edges staying away from the ribbing slots. I got this far and came to the conclusion that I could do this.

 

I wanted to mount this base and the other so as not to bend it all up in the process of constructing the flaps, so I started carving and sanding the kit pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

For my PE set, the lip at the trailing edge (top) was also removed, just the ridge, not the underlying plastic, I missed photogrpahing it prior to sticking the brass on.

 

I used regular old Loctite CA to glue the brass to the plastic, in two sections per flap, leaving it set up for 30 minutes each.

 

The progress as of this hour.

 

Tonight I hope to get the one side complete at least, we' shall see!

 

R/S,

David