ChuckD Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 Here she is at long last. It's been 1008 days since cracking the box (Feb 19, 2017) that this model has come to fruition, but in the end, I'm very happy with the result. This is The Swamp Ghost In early 1942, B-17E 41-2446 was ferried across the Pacific and arrived in Townsville, Australia on February 20th. In the early morning hours of February 23rd, with pilot Fred Eaton at the controls, she took off as part of a nine ship group that was to bomb Japanese positions on Rabaul. This historic first offensive use of American heavy bombers in the Pacific saw the fledgling group separated by night and bad weather, so that when Eaton arrived over Rabaul, he and his crew were alone. The bombs failed to drop on the first run, so Eaton swung around and tried again. This time the bombs released and he sped away towards New Guinea with Japanese fighters hot on his tail. Shot up and leaking fuel, he knew he didn't have enough gas to clear the Owen Stanley mountains on New Guinea, so he decided to put the aircraft down in a field. The field turned out to be a festering swamp full of 8' tall kunai grass, snakes, spiders, and crocodiles. He and his crew abandoned the bomber, slogged for days through the thick razor grass, and finally met up with friendly natives who were able to get them home over the course of several months. For decades, the bomber lay undisturbed. Finally, in 2004, she was plucked from the swamp and made her way to the Pacific Aviation Museum in Pearl Harbor, HI where she is on display today in her original state. This is my rendition of the aircraft as she would have appeared during her brief stay in Australia prior to her loss. As mentioned in the build thread, the biggest issue was that I had to scratch build the remotely operated belly turret, as the HKM kit only includes the far more common ball turret. I'm not much of a scratch builder, so this was a challenge for me. In the end, I feel it came out pretty well. I was able to use a lot of parts straight from the kit in order to fashion the remote turret. I did throw some Eduard PE at it, though in the end, I'm not sure it was totally worth it. The pre-painted stuff just isn't all that impressive to me, but to each their own. There are no known pictures of the aircraft prior to her loss, so some creative license was taken here and there. I made some assumptions based on pictures of aircraft from the same unit or around the same timeframe. Wherever possible, I referenced photos of the actual aircraft both in the swamp and after her recovery. It was painted primarily with Tamiya paints. The tail numbers were a custom stencil I printed and hand cut. The insignia stencils were custom ordered from Maketar. As it was essentially new when it was lost, I went very easy on the weathering. Kit fit was okay. Seam cleanup was a bear and I ended up having to re-rivet a good chunk of... everything. The turtle deck doesn't like to fit well, but in the end things came out okay. Anyway, enough blabbering. Hope you enjoy. It's been a great ride. Durangokid, florin13, johncrow and 26 others 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrish Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 That there is a thing of beauty! id be proud of that!! LSP_K2 and ChuckD 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 WOW! That's awesome! Sprayed on national insignia looks very good. I've been to Townsville several times from when I was stationed on Okinawa. I saw a picture of Swamp Ghost from way back when it was found I think. Guy standing on a wing holding about a 5 foot long black snake that I'm sure was deadly. I felt poisoned just looking at it! Nice job...I know it took awhile but you should be proud of it. Cheers...Ron LSP_K2 and ChuckD 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 That IMO is exactly how an early B-17 should look, Fantastic work! Barry ChuckD and LSP_K2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 5 minutes ago, aircommando130 said: WOW! That's awesome! Sprayed on national insignia looks very good. I've been to Townsville several times from when I was stationed on Okinawa. I saw a picture of Swamp Ghost from way back when it was found I think. Guy standing on a wing holding about a 5 foot long black snake that I'm sure was deadly. I felt poisoned just looking at it! Nice job...I know it took awhile but you should be proud of it. Cheers...Ron Snake could have been a Habu for which the SR-71s on the island were nick named. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 I don't know if the Habu was off the island of Okinawa. The ones I saw when I was at Kadena were laying under my car or beside the path to the BX! Never saw one in the northern training area! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, aircommando130 said: I don't know if the Habu was off the island of Okinawa. The ones I saw when I was at Kadena were laying under my car or beside the path to the BX! Never saw one in the northern training area! Could not say for sure myself. My stay on Kadena was a short 90 day TDY from Thailand in 74 in support of the KC-135s. Edited November 25, 2019 by Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 I loved being at Kadena. Was there 93-96 in the 353rd SOG...MC-130 loadmaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 Fantastic result for all of your epic work! I also love the color choices and the sprayed insignia. Cheers, Tom ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reconspit Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 Absolutely amazing..., what a great looking model..., great job, beautiful and inspiring ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 Wow !! ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn M Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 outstanding work, loved the WIP and the finished product is fantastic ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 Thanks for the compliments, everyone! I appreciate the support through the group build. Probably the most rewarding part of this whole build has been the excitement on my son's face when he saw this: Heavy duty drywall anchors, 6 strands of 15lb line, several thousands knots, some superglue, and a whole lot of prayer... Landrotten Highlander, Out2gtcha, Gazzas and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Wow! What a fantastic build! congrats! ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradG Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Graet built mate, I will add you to the group build gallery. ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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