B-17 cutaway

so you are just doing the main part of the fuselage but not the tail gunner's postion nor tthe main wings including engines & landing gear, correct?

Thats the plan right now. I have another project to finish first so it may change when I start tearing into the plane. An engine nacelle with panels removed may happen as well. Tail gunner will probably be closed up. It will be sitting on its gear so they will be down and locked. I'm just trying to accenuate the interior that so often gets closed up. I think it would be great to see the bomb bay and the waist gunners position, and bombadiers station and the like. Also I'll be modeling after the B-17 Nine-o-nine

This was the original Monogram kit that once came with an optional clear fuselage half. You could check eBay to see if anyone has the clear half for sale.

I have the regular 1:48 B-17G from Revell that I'm going to be starting sometime in the next few months.  For those that have done this kit, how much of the interior is actually visible when complete?  I don't want to pour a lot of work into the interior if it's just going to get sealed up and never seen.

Spitfire, I built the 1:72 and it covers 90% of the interior detail. I also popped the fueslage halves off the sprue tree and it would cover up a lot of detail as well. Not quite as much as the windows are bigger and you can pear inside more but the vast majority is still unseen to the eye.

I agree with Rob. I, too, have seen the clear B-17 kit on ebay. That might be the best route to really get the fine details you're looking for and more.

Hi,Squatch !

Listen, you can find plastic packaging in the shapes that will work as windows in the different areas. This way you could retain most of the structural integrity. That's if you cannot find a clear side .       T.B.

I haven't been able to track down the clear half. I looked at a lot of pictures and builds of it and wow. That would be nice to have. My plan is this I think...at least for now. I will make it with a few removeable sections. The top part of the plane will be removeable, the section with the navigation window and top turret along with the main windsheild.  I will also make a small section of the tail/vertical stab removeable to better the view of the interior. This will give the viewer a top down view. I have an A-10 I'm finishing up now but this has peaked my interest. So I'll be hurrying to get to the B-17.

this is something that I origianlly wanted to do...scroll down to get to the B-17.

www.westway-aircraft-models.com/18.html

Hey Squatch88 I opened mine up with a Dremel,it was nerve racking but doable.Hope that helps

Neat! Here's a nice challenge for you since you wanted to do a cutaway. How about putting pilots, navigators, and gunners in combat poses as if fighting off FW190s and Bf109s 20,000 - 30,000 feet over hostile skies. Include empty bullet casings,  wounded occupants, etc... That... would be something no one has ever done.

That would definitly be amazing. I'll have to think on that one. My figure painting skills is a joke at best. But I really like that idea....maybe I'll have to do 2 B-17's!

Nah ! Do three .You gotta do one for me !( I'm to lazy to do it on my own now ) LOL. LOL. LOL.  - - T.B.

I have done this ,with one difference . I take a no.11 knife brade and follow certain panel lines .Then I am very careful with the piece I cut out ! I Build an edge around the opening and re-insert those pieces with duplicates made on the Vac-U - Form machine .That way I still have smooth lines when looking at the model from a distance

I was wanting to have the pieces removable, so the exterior remains the same. But cutting out panels and then building a lip for them to sit on seems pretty difficult. Fortunately, I went home for the weekend and actually found out I built this kit years and years ago when I assembled the entire kit in one sit. No paint and massive amounts of glue. So I have a kind of test bed. I'll have to try a few things on it before the real deal.

Hi;

The cutting and opening aren't really a problem .Actually neither is building the edge .This way you don't have to cut the edge down because of the thickness of the plastic . Use .010 strip from EVERGREEN plastics and you will be surprised .

If this can be done on a 1/700 carrier deck ,you can do it a whole lot easier here . I would take that Glue Bomber you referenced and try more than one option .Then build ,choosing the one You like best . It's not mine or anyone else's .It's yours .      T.B.

I will definitely try a few methods on the trial plane first. I like the idea of it looking like a normal plane with pieces that can be removed. But the open holes is also very interesting and you automatically know what you are looking at. I shall post pics whenever I finally get to the build

I have successfully used rare-earth magnets to hold some kits together.  The most recent was a 'visible heart' model I did for my wife.  I got some small (1/8" dia, IIRC) magnets, drilled small holes in some panels, epoxied them in just below the surface and covered them with putty and paint.  You can't tell they're there, but the model doesn't fall apart at the least little bump.  

You might be able to do something similar.  I think I'd try to find a way to hide some magnets on the airframe on the plane, out of the way, but near your cutout, and perhaps get some thin sheet steel you can glue onto the panel, again at the edge of the panel, and get things to hold.  

Carefully-cutting the panel away, and keeping the edges at 90-degrees may help, as could making thin styrene tabs you glue to the inside of the removable panel, carefully fitting it so the panel pops in place, but doesn't lock down so you can't remove it.  Carefully-cutting panels, though, may require getting a couple of kits and using one for the cut out fuselage and the other for the cut out panels.  

I see several ways to skin this cat.  Hopefully you do a WIP on this forum!!

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

Hey Gene !

I have done that on cars .When I had a certain car I wanted to look like it was being worked on in the scale garage ( Tamiya's of course ) , I would do just that . It works great for door,hood and trunk latches too !