fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Hi guys Firstly I want to say that I hope everyone is staying safe out there whilst living in these difficult times. I have been away for a while as I have been building the smaller stuff!....but I'm back with the big boys now!! Well it is time to get down and finally attempt to finish this Mammoth B17G project. Some of you may know that I started this 7 years ago with a few breaks in between sections to build other stuff. As a recap : I was originally going to just scratch build the nose section but kind of got hood winked in carrying on down the length of the fuselage! .....so I then built the Bomb bay....followed by the radio room and ball turret section and now it is time to finish this off with the tail section. Just to let you all know that I will not be building the wings and the 4 engines that go with it! I got together some old post photos from the start of this project and thought I would show you of how I got to this point today! This first photo shows the completed fuselage up to the ball turret position..... Here is a shot of the cockpit....... ...and the bomb bay looking from the radio room through to the cockpit.... Here is the radio operators table in the radio room..... ...and finally the ball turret in place on the hanging harness..... So my aim has always been through out this project to display as much of the internal detail as possible as I have always been fascinated with the Flying Fortress!.....so to that end I have tried to construct the whole fuselage with the top removed. This over the years has given me many headaches and will continue to I'm sure ... because I didn't want to take away the shape of the B17!... For example my next problem will be how to display the detail with that ruddy great dorsal Fin attached?......well I have an idea which I will show you as we get on with the build. The other problem I have is how to ship it back to the UK from here?....I have made a bespoke box out of MDF but I am getting ahead of my self!....lets put that to one side at the moment and get this last section underway! So here we go then..the first of many photos and posts that I will have to make!! I am going to make the fuselage out of balsa wood as I did with the the front sections....so after digging out the scale plans that I scaled up to 1:20 I cut out all the formers I would need. The bottom half was built up first ...then the top half .....here they are temporarily joined. A few years ago I started strengthening the fuselage by filling in between the stringers with scrap pieces of Balsa wood. All you have to do then is sand down carefully to the formers and stringers to get the ...hopefully.... correct shape. Here is the bottom half..... Here is the top half just placed in position..... So here the scrap balsa was filled in the gaps and sanded. You can see that I have left an area open at the top so you will be able to see down into the detail...... Now I turned my attention to the dorsal fin which runs along the top of the fuselage which eventually turns into the tail fin.At this stage I am only building so far back and will complete it by somehow attaching the tail fin at a later stage...there is method in my madness as you will see later! Once I had filled the gaps with balsa ,I glued the dorsal fin on top of the fuselage and as you can see there is still enough open space to eventually look at all the detail. I thought I would clamp the front section onto this to see what it might look like......JEEZ!.....It's about 3 feet 5 inches long!! Well that's as far as I have got with this so far! I do hope some of you will come along with me for the ride on this final stage of this project...would appreciate the support! Until the next post.....thanks for looking in and stay safe guys! Fozzy Fvdm, Sepp, Greg W and 25 others 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Amazing work Fozzy! Derek fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Awesome Foz!! Derek B and fozzy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 Cheers guys! Derek B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett M Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Looking great! The interior is brilliant. fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 (edited) Oh yeah, Fozzy’s back with some more scratchbuilt Fortress goodness! Loving this project still! Keep em’ coming! THOR Edited May 6, 2020 by bdthoresen fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn M Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 awesome my man! cant wait to follow along fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvwse4 Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Brilliant work very impressed by this build. I will follow this. fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 Thanks again guys!...I'll be back soon for another installment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Great start (again!) Martin! ANY B-17 is a good B-17 in my book, the tail is coming together nicely so far. Looking forward to the rest Craig Kaeone57 and fozzy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAG Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Yea, fozzy, stoked you've got this beast back on the bench, hope you've been eating plenty of yogurt cuz that's a lot of real estate to cover! fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Absolutely stunning to say the least! fozzy and Kaeone57 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaeone57 Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Fozzy, Maaaaaan!!! GORGEOUSNESS of work from the start to the present day on your 1/20th scale, scratch built B-17G. I really LOVE the innovative, yet traditional modelling going on here. Balsa flies better, Lol. "Scratch that itch" to the fullness my Brother. EXCELLENT WORK ALL AROUND!!! PLEASE, keep at the art of this build as it just moves forward in the Modelling and Art world of those that use brain, hand, eyes and whatever available material to make it "Happen"!!! In simpler words... Great execution by hand and eyes, guided by thought and driven by skilled passion from the soul, in a large scale! Alfonso Derek B, Dutch Man and fozzy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themongoose Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 A lovely bird it is! Those pics to kick it off show how realistic your work is. Can’t wait to see the tail come to fruition! You sure made quick work of the Fuselage framing. fozzy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fozzy Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 32 minutes ago, themongoose said: You sure made quick work of the Fuselage framing. I seem to have more time on my hands due to this lock down!...the only good thing about it! Out2gtcha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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