1/48 Mon B-17G Ain't Miss Behavin'II CRASHED! the Dio. build

Very nice diorama and thankyou for the explanation of your techniques. Very informative.

Hello, I’m new to the site and was fascinated to find your dio of Ain’t Miss Behavin II. I work at Wattisham Flying Station and have the excavation licence for this aircraft. I have been digging up debris for a couple of years but find that very few people knew about it.

Leon here are some more pics, the first a repeat of the actual crash, circled in the photo is the engine pictured under the two of the plane the second pic is the redo of the original. Plus I add some others as well.

Thanks,

James

 

LeonV84

Looks nice, I got one question though. did the plane fall straight down? coz there are parts like the enginge cowlings infront of the plane, wich i would expect behind the plane if it slides over the ground.

Hey Leon, thanks for looking and asking. On her approach with three engines out, only one was able to be feathered and the left inboard on fire she was unable to maintain altitude and clipped a tree top with the left wing tip. This caused her to spin in, first touching the ground with left tip, breaking it off, this is where the engines on the left side left the plane. If you look at the over head shot you can see their track as the rolled across the ground. If you notice the swirling pattern left on the ground you can see she was in a spiral. I'll add some more shots for ya in next post, don't want to repost ones already here and I can't remember which I have here. Hope this helps with your quandary.

James

Looks nice, I got one question though. did the plane fall straight down? coz there are parts like the enginge cowlings infront of the plane, wich i would expect behind the plane if it slides over the ground.

WOW!!!!!!!

Your dio looks amazing.

Now you have to do one with the 1/32 B-17.

redraider56

I am speechless!  Awesome dio!

That came together very nicely, I like the ground work especially!

I am speechless!  Awesome dio! I was wondering on what how to construct the base for my own B-17 dio and now I know exactly how....thanks for posting this!

shoot&scoot

Was lurking over in a/c watching this.  You're making great progress on this one.  Can't wait to see how you do the vegetation in the field.  Keep up the good work!

                                                                                    Pat. 

 

Hey pat forgot to reply to this. I use Static grass for vegetation in the build you can see it applied above, I left some bareish spots as this field was being left Fallow for the Year and a full coverage would not be achieved in such a short period of time.

James

OK guys here we go, I now have enough plaster to finish the base, got a 25lb. bag this time as I have another in tow of this build. After I get the base poured I begin to smooth the plaster by hand to give a rolling effect to the plaster as fields are rarely completely FLAT, then by taking the mock-up plane with the nails in it, and swinging it over the still pliable plaster I leave streaks cut by the nails giving me the direction of the swing out during the crash. I then begin carving out the earth damage areas where the wing tips, nacelles, ball turret, and fuselage contact the earth (nail Marks). As the plaster dries the pigment wicks to the surface it splotches and gives a good mottling of the Fallow field of oats and clover (grown there over one year for field to recover nourishment) only to be plowed the next year for new crops. After I carve out the damage I grab some of the scrapings ( as they are the same color as the base) and begin placing it in the divots as it would be rolled and churned as the plane moved across digging it up. During the hand smoothing process you build up little balls of plaster that make bigger clods used to pile up at the lead points of contact thus keeping all the soil the same color. As you apply glue to hold it all in place, I use Elmer's, the color again wick to the top of the clods and give a nice effect of varied coloration. I then line up the plane and mark for drill holes. I drill them in and replace plane then with a smaller bit I drill into the plane leaving it in place as I screw it down, then proceed and repeat until secure. Then I begin placing the bigger clods and glueing at the end points of motion building it up there as if pushed. then I add all the little stuff that either broke off or fell out of the plane. If you look at the left wing front just before the tear you can see the landing light has broke lose from it's mounting an hanging by the wire. It's the little details like that, that makes me love doing Dios. I'm surethat I forgot something so I'm sure there will be questions so ask and I will try my best to answer. I too have this build going on in the A/C forum where I go into more detail as to the cause and effect of this crash so please visit there to get " The Rest Of The Story". Thanks for Looking, Enjoy!!! James and now for an over head shot.

Very nice soot effect on the wings, looks just like the photo. Nice work

Was lurking over in a/c watching this.  You're making great progress on this one.  Can't wait to see how you do the vegetation in the field.  Keep up the good work!

                                                                                    Pat.