patricksparks Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Like brahman 104 I spent today working on super chargers, I am fortunate that the HK B-17 sprues that I bought for the props and engines also yielded the exhausts with butterfly valves , flanges and the fairing that goes over the turbine disks. The first photo shows the Hobby Boss turbo charger with the HK B-17 parts above it. the second photo is the HK parts installed onto the Hobby Boss part. Martinnfb, scvrobeson, Derek B and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Nice!!!!! The colours look really great Pat! Craig Martinnfb and patricksparks 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricksparks Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) Started doing a little work again, had to "Time Out" for a little bit, I was hitting the wall modeling wise... Anyway I did some re-scribing on the engine nacelles, not quite done yet. I finished putting in the "Tunnel Gun" windows. I started to re-work the lower nose, the conversion to a PB4Y-1 with the ERCO nose turret requires a different profile on the lower nose, this only applies to the early conversions of "D" model air frames, the first PB4Y-1s were standard B-24 Ds and then they started to convert some of them with the ERCO turret, later production aircraft had the nose more the shape of the "J"s lower nose shape. Of coarse I chose to make the earlier. The first photo is the kit's nose being cut off and the clear bomb sight window is in place to show the shape difference, the second photo is a forming(black styrene) that I made to replace the original lower nose. The earlier nose didn't have the clear sides on the bomb sight window, only some small rectangle windows that I have to add, other versions had no side windows at all. You have to do some research when building one of these!!! Edited July 30, 2020 by patricksparks LSP_Kevin, Martinnfb, Landrotten Highlander and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phasephantomphixer Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Well you sure chose correctly I say Pat, that nose conversion you have going seems to address the controversial too-wide lower nose of the kit! I am still trying to wrap my mind around the outer main wing thinning job you did, getting rid of the "boulbosity" they gave us. Did you literally flatten the wing plastic? I only picture that sanding would also taper the wing while thinning. Also gotta bug ya about which B-17 sprue you got since they released a few types, or they all the same? And finally, any chance you have the bomb bay fuel tank 3D info? From recent research, found I need them to do my Ploesti B-24D build... Remarkable work - going to be grand. patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leoasman Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 I think your tunnel windows look great! I’m not sure how mine will turn out... I’m using some packaging clear plastic. We’ll see. Do you have any further pics of howyougotyours so nicely fitted? Leo patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastterry Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 I'm not into bombers but the work going on here is up with the best. Very impressive. TRF patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Top Shelf. Sincerely, Mark patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricksparks Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 15 hours ago, phasephantomphixer said: Well you sure chose correctly I say Pat, that nose conversion you have going seems to address the controversial too-wide lower nose of the kit! I am still trying to wrap my mind around the outer main wing thinning job you did, getting rid of the "boulbosity" they gave us. Did you literally flatten the wing plastic? I only picture that sanding would also taper the wing while thinning. Also gotta bug ya about which B-17 sprue you got since they released a few types, or they all the same? And finally, any chance you have the bomb bay fuel tank 3D info? From recent research, found I need them to do my Ploesti B-24D build... Remarkable work - going to be grand. The outer wing thinning started with cutting all the ribs out of the upper and lower wing halves, I left the center spar that runs out to the wing tip on the upper wing and removed in on the lower. Using double sided tape I taped the wing halves onto a FLAT board and used a very coarse sanding block to thin the wing starting from where the outboard flap hinge starts and worked out to the tip. I also made a partial saw cut into the leading edge where the wing tip panel line is, I only cut in about a 1/4"(back to this later). I cut out the molded in spar on the upper wing halves about 2 inches from the end of the tip of the wing. In order to get the "twist" on the wing tip so that it is basically horizontal to the top of fuselage you need to sand the rib that the aileron attaches to on the upper wing halves down to zero out at the tips and sand a constant taper back to the outboard flap hinge, you want to remove most of your material from the trailing edges of the upper wing halves in order to get the lower halves to "twist" up to get the tip to become more horizontal. You need to sand the leading edges as well to get the overall outer wing thickness reduced to look better, leaving the wing halves taped down flat , you start sanding from the outer side of the outboard engine nacelles and work out to the tips, you need to sand material from the thickness of the tips as well, this is where the saw cut in the leading edge at the tip panel line comes into play, I carefully "cold" bent the tip leading edge out to be more flat on cross section, sand a constant taper from the nacelle out, you have to do the same on the lower halves but not as much material needs to be remove, you want the upper half of the wing to stay totally flat and the lower half going up hill all the way out to the tips. You have to go back and forth with your wing halves and constantly check them together to make sure they are going the way you want them to. Also the upper wing's molded in spar needs to be tapered along with the leading and trailing edges especially out by the tips so that it allows the wing to thin out in a constant taper. I used thin very high bond solvent to glue the halves together and it give you time to manipulate the tip "twist" while it sets, I also double sided tape a flat piece of wood to the top of the upper wing half in order for it to stay flat while the glue dried(overnight). I did my wings one at a time so that I learned on the first one to make sure it was going the right way and then applied what was learned to the second. Don't be afraid to sand a lot of material off the insides of the wing tips, they are plenty thick and when you flatten them at the saw cut it actually makes them protrude out in front of the leading edge and simply gets sanded back to match. Here are a couple photos of the back edge of the wings, maybe it will help. The sprue that I got the props and engines from are the standard sprues from the HK B-17s all versions brahman104, Derek B, Martinnfb and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricksparks Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 12 hours ago, leoasman said: I think your tunnel windows look great! I’m not sure how mine will turn out... I’m using some packaging clear plastic. We’ll see. Do you have any further pics of howyougotyours so nicely fitted? Leo For the Tunnel gun windows I went to the parts box and found a clear part that had a similar curve to it, I created a straight side on the piece, then put straight edge on one edge of the opening and the ruffly marked out the other 3 edges and sawed it out and then block sanded them to fit snugly and used future from the inside to hold them. Anthony in NZ and leoasman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Really incredible and substantial work you're doing here Pat! Thanks for summarising your wing correction too.... I think I'll have to read that a few times to get my head around what you did but the result was amazing Keep it up! Craig patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricksparks Posted August 6, 2020 Author Share Posted August 6, 2020 Still fighting COV-19 and then through a Hurricane on top...at least we kept our power !!! Been doing quite a bit of work the last few days, sat down and painted my Eduard tire set finally. Also filled the landing lights on the lower wings as from what I can tell the earlier B-24s didn't have them, there is one light in the leading edge of the port wing, between the engine nacelles. I have also made up some faux MK 41 depth charges, made them from some British 500lb bombs, cut the nose off, put a flat piece of styrene on a strip around the body, fuse props from the Hobby Boss bombs. Just wanted a bit more inside the bomb bay. Also put in the waist 50 cals, I decided to have one gun stowed and the other set in the window, the barrel may appear crooked on that one only due to the barrel is loose so that it won't be in the way while painting. I used the Eduard B-17 resin guns and the ammo feed chutes are from I believe the Eduard B-25 gun nose set that I soldered two lengths together for each gun. TAG, Derek B, Martinnfb and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Very nice Pat! The depth charges really add to your bomb bay, especially along with your fuel tanks makes for quite a unique load. The gun installations look super crisp too. This is one fantastic build! Craig patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Holy cow, that's looking great! Getting close to the finish. patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricksparks Posted August 8, 2020 Author Share Posted August 8, 2020 (edited) To anyone building the Hobby Boss B-24, if you are planning on "weighting" the nose to keep the model from sitting on it's tail, I have put 1 lb/.453 KG, it doesn't seem to be enough weight.....I think she is getting a jack stand, ladder or crates in her back-side... My thinking right now is that this is so much weight that one bad plunk on the table is going to kill the nose gear, weather it's the kit's gear or metal.... I would say if you are building this model and you're not worried about the detail in the rear section of the aircraft, leave everything out, the fuselage walls floors bulkheads, oxygen tanks, anything not needed visually, just throwing out there... Edited August 8, 2020 by patricksparks leoasman, MikeMaben, scvrobeson and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 So it's like a real Liberator then? (They had notoriously weak nlg.) Every post is looking better and better! As always, thanks for sharing! patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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