B29 Build Progress

I have this kit it my stash for a future build.

I have a question for anyone to answer.  Has anyone actually determined how many ounces of extra weight need to be added (and where or how distributed) to move the CG forward enough so the model rests on its tricycle gear?

Curt

Are the turrets permanently attached?  If not you could make a clump of Apoxie Sculpt or Milliput, mix in some steel birdshot and make a mixture that looks like cookie dough.  Then you could stuff it in the turret hole.

I suggest this only because I think that no matter what the fishing line will be visible from at least some angle.

Thanks!  I had a blinding flash of the obvious last night.  Rather than put more weight in the aircraft, I will simply drill two tiny holes in the base upon which I mount it, and loop a piece of clear fishing line to the nose gear, in between the two wheels where it is not visible, and tie the nose down.  I wonder why I did not think of that earlier?

cheers, Bob

Well done, Bob! Maybe you could put a bit more weight behind the engines? Maybe between that & a few in the radio compartment you will be good. Cheers!

More progress (gotta love three-day weekends!)

Today she stood on her own wheels for the first time!

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

In addition to the wheels, I installed the bottom gun turrets, the rear gun pod (that 20mm cannon looks enormous compared to the two flanking .50's!)  the skid plate and the radar dome.  There was a certain satisfaction to putting the radome in place, as that was the reason my friend was on board the aircraft in the first place.

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

The asture observer will note that I STILL had to prop up the tail!  Even after all the weight I installed and all my clever girations with the engine nacelle weight, the gun tubs full of BB's and a stack of flattened weight in the lower equipment bay, it still is tail heavy.  I am at a loss as to what to do now, and am about ready to just install the clear plastic tail prop Revell included and call it a day. 

I still have not cemented the upper gun turrets in place, and it is conceivable that I could fill the radio operators space with more weight.  I suppose I could start gluing a stack of nickels in there one at a time so they don't rattle around. 

Another pic:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Letting everything dry real well now and will resume after work next week. 

cheers, Bob

Continuing to work on her, although more slowly.  I can't make a major mistake now!

Fixed the yellow tail stripe; here is a port view:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

And I peeled the masking off the canopy.  I think it came out looking great.  I will sharpen up some of the edges with a toothpick, but it really looks pretty good:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

and a second pic, more from real eye distance:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Onwards and upwards!  Next it is time to start installing the gun turrets, landing gear with gear doors and bomb bay doors. 

cheers, Bob

Fantastic work & build. Bob! As far as the chipped paint, I would make the hole slightly bigger than what you need to cover. Perhaps feather it very, very lightly with some fine sandpaper. Couple of light passes should fix it.

Looking great!  

You mention that it took 3 bottles of Tamiya X-1 to paint it (1.5 for the top and 1.5 for the bottom?).  As I read that I thought about modern planes like the C-5A Galaxy and how it takes something like 2000 lbs of paint to cover it!

So, I am back at the workbench after a three week business trip.  First thing I discovered was that my yellow stripe on the tail chipped when I removed the masking   So, I am seeking advice on how to fill it back in and re-spray.  My first thought was to cut a small hole in a frisket sheet about the same size as the missing paint chip and slap that puppy over the spot and respray.  But then cooler heads prevailed and I thought I ought to ask the advice of the forum before I leaped.

Any good advice on repairing chipped paint?

cheers, Bob

If you haven't already...I'd stick your head into the NMF GB going on right now in the Group Build section.  You'll definitely see some great things in there and it may give you some food for thought in tackling this behemoth.  =D  I can't even imagine how much Alclad you're gonna go through on this one!!  Holy cow.

I've been keeping tabs on this thread for a while now, and I'm happy to see it get to the fun part.  Usually, I see a nice build in progress and I think how much I want to add one to my collection.  But on this one...I might just be happy to live vicariously through you. =]  Good luck.

Annnddd we have liftoff!  First photos of Alclad II Polished Aluminum on the upper surfaces...

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

And the cockpit area:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

After it drys I will roll her over and do the underside.  Needs a little polish work but I am quite pleased overall with how it has turned out.  the top of the monster took a full bottle (1 oz) of Polished Aluminum and half of another! 

Cheers, Bob

Jay:  have not tried foam earplugs but they would work quite well if they come in different sizes.  As long as the plug was smaller than the hole.  The gun turret holes in this build might be too large for ear plugs.  But I'll add it to my tips file!

Don Stauffer alos mentioned once about the use of different colored panels underneath the Alclad coat and I was considering that.  I may try it on certain panels on this aircraft.  It does seem to me to be the easier way to achieve panel shading.  

thanks, Bob

I just discovered this thread today.  Fascinating !  very good of you to post all these steps as it helps me (and many as well )  as a modeler.  Instead of hitting the "honey do list " i've been reading every word and studing the photos.  The SWMBO is not happy LOLO.

A couple of tips for you mate;

Have you tried masking the turret holes etc. with foam ear plugs instead of corks ?  The kind that you roll in your fingers before sticking them in your ears.  They expand to most any shape and are easily obtainable and cheap.

The base coat used for the Alclad II makes a big differance in the final appearance. ie. gloss black, flat black and grey primer all make the Alclad appear different in sheen and give the appearance of different metals.  I use the same Alclad paint for most of my metal finishes, so I don't hafta buy several colors of Alclad, I simply area prime with different colors.

Thanks.  It is a labor of love; he is a wonderful teacher and mentor to both my wife and I.  i am enjoying doing it!

Haven't had any complaints yet from Herself.  Partly because I'm downstairs and she is mostly upstairs when I've been painting.  I have not venilated well and need to improve that.  There is a good window I could use.  Mostly my strategy has been to ignore it, but after tonights session, with a whole bottle and a half, I think I should be more careful.  

Bob, it looks like you are spraying inside your house. How are you getting rid of the fumes, or staying alive, or staying married? Tamiya acrylics are bad enough; but I understand that Alclad is pretty potent.

Man, Bob, this is so cool!   It's so obviously a true labor of love and the dedication shows.  Dayum , this is making me want one now!   Thanks for the update and the inspiration.

Gary

I have major progress to report today.  After I painted the yellow portion of the tail stripe, I went on Spring Break with The Missus and let everything dry thoroughly for one week.  When I returned, I sprayed a coat of Future over the yellow stripe (both to gloss it up a bit and to protect it from masking), then I masked the yellow off and prepared for the overall coat of Gloss Black.

The masking:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I then mixed up the black paint.  Earlier I had come to the conclusion that I was using paint that was too thick as I started having some airbrush issues.  So for this coat I wanted to be meticulous about the paint.  I used Tamiya acrylic, Black (code is X-1), and made a mixture of 2/3 paint and 1/3 Tamiya thinner (X-20A).  That seemed to me to be the right consistency (which I have heard is about the consistency of 2% milk.  I don't drink milk, so I had to go to The Missus to find out what consistency that actually was.  She squared me away...).

Then I cleaned the model off with an old T-shirt and just sort of buffed it up a bit over the primer.  I made a soft towel base on a lazy susan so I could turn it easily, yet could still reach all the sides.  Earlier experience with the primer coat taught me that the vise I had the model mounted in prevented me from covering the whole fuselage; the vise sides got in the way.  So for this adventure I took it out of the vise and laid it on a soft towel.  I then sprayed on the coat of black on the top portion of the aircraft:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

The lazy susan and soft towel are not visible as I covered them with a sheet of newspaper to avoid spraying them black.  The coat shown (only the top) took 1 and 1/2 bottles of black (the 1/3 oz bottles).  Did I mention this thing is HUGE?  I have another 1 and 1/2 bottles left to do the underside tomorrow.

Here is another photo:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

And another of the cockpit area:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I am pleased with how this came out up to this point. 

Next step is to turn it over tomorrow night and put the same coat of black on the underside.  It should be thoroughly dry by then.  I erected a tent of poly film over the model on the workbench to prevent dust from settling on it.  I'll buff the black paint again with the old t-shirt and make any minor corrections to the seam work if necessary.

Careful prep and attention to detail with the paint mixing has paid off so far.  I hope it continues to do so with the Alclad II Polished Aluminum coat.  I have a three week business trip coming up on Sunday, so my plan is to shoot the black on the underside Thursday night, then the top portion with Alclad on Friday and the bottom with Alclad on Saturday.  Then I'll cover the model with the polyfilm tent and secure from General quarters for three weeks while I attend to the day job.  Hope to post some pics Saturday of the Alclad II coat.

cheers, Bob

Nice work bob, a good bit of masking over that turret.

7474:  Thanks for the kind words.  I learned from the prop experience not to spray the darker shade first; much easier to begin with the lighter shade.  Especially since the whole aircraft will get a black coat on its way to Alclad Polished Aluminum.  Just made more sense.

I have the following to photos to guide me for my friends airplane.  First was taken on Iwo Jima on the mission in which they won their Distinguished Flying Crosses; his is Number 5.  Second was take on their home base at Tinian North Field.  Both look to me like the colors extend to the turret itself.  Seemed strange to me as well, because the effect would get lost as soon as the turret rotated, but what do I know?

Sweet Sue on Iwo Jima by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Number 5 by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Taking a short vacation with the Missus so will be away from the workbench for about a week. 

cheers, Bob

Doing a great job, I was hoping you'd spray the yellow first before the black stripes. I'm not sure if the yellow would also go on the turret. I think it might have been the fuselage it self, not including the turret. That's all I have, I'll keep checking back on your progress.

So, I have finally completed the sanding and puttying step (I thought it would NEVER end!) and have begun to put on the metal paint job.  First step was to prime the model all over, which I did in gray.  Sharp-eyed readers will note there are two shades of gray on as primer.  I ran out of one, and rather than stop I just shifted to a different shade of gray.  Figured it would not matter in the end since there would be gloss black over it all. 

Next is to paint the fuselage stripe around the tail, which was an identification marking for the 9th Bomb Group.  This marking is three equal size stripes:  first black, then yellow, then black again.  Recall that I plan to put a coat of gloss black over the entire airplane as an undercoat to the Alclad II Polished Aluminum.  The color scheme for this tail marking is a lot like the prop colors (black with yellow tips).  Just to prove that an old dog can learn a new trick, this time I decided to paint the yellow on first, then put the gloss black on second.

Photo below shows the masking job for the yellow stripe.  Strictly speaking, this step was unnecessary, as any overspray of the 1/2" yellow stripe would be covered by black later.  However, I generally don't realize steps are unnecessary until I have completed them...

Note this is the underside of the airplane, and that is the tail turret.  Of course the paint job has to run over the turret; nothing easy about this.

Next photo shows the paint applied:

Finally the view after the masking tape has been removed.  There still was some overspray but by now I was not worried about it. The turret is shown underneath.

Next step will be to let this dry thoroughly, then mask off the yellow strip.  Masking then will be much more critical to keep the proper width of the stripe all around the compound curves of the fuselage and gun turret. 

Then I will wipe down the whole model, and carefully spray the gloss black over it all.  Once that is all dry, I'll mask off the two 1/2" black stripes, one on each side of the yellow, and then begin the Alclad spraying.

Starting to look like an airplane now! 

Cheers, Bob

thanks, Maharrin.  I am really enjoying the build.  One of the best parts about returning to the hobby again is this forum.  Great resource, good tips from everyone and a nice way to stay in touch with others.  My experiences in life so far have taught me that horse people and modelers are always willing to help and share information.  Great communities to be involved with!

cheers, Bob

I'm really enjoying following your build here.  I'm working myself on a couple of B-17s after being out of the hobby for quite a while, you're getting back up to speed very well.  Looking forward to seeing how she comes out!

Its coming along nicely!   All that seam work sucks now but in the end it will pay huge dividends!

Thanks, Steve.  The good words are much appreciated and fuel to keep going!!

I think I got Flickr figured out.  Photo below shows the port side of the cockpit after sanding.  Trying to be careful not to remove the rivet detail.  We'll see how it looks when the second primer coat is applied.

The photo below shows one of the engine nacelles.  Remember, I thought these seams looked pretty good BEFORE I primed it.  As you can see from the sanding required, not so much.  Given the unforgiving nature of the Alclad finish, I thought I had better continue working on it.

You can see I still have sanding dust on the upper part; haven't wiped it off yet. 

Bob,

She is looking beautiful.  You have done a great job and I have learned a great deal from your posts.  I have a 1/48 B-29 with some aftermarket goodies waiting for me to finish some of my ships models..... The plan being that I would do some planes in between ship builds to mix things up a bit and hang them from my boys ceiling.  I finished the Hawk/Linberg Graf Zeppelin for them a couple of years back and they want more.

Thanks again,

Steve

Time for another update.  As predicted, much putty and sanding was necessary.  I have heard that one of the resons for primer coats is to reveal the flaws in your seam work.  It certainly did that in my case...  I have primed the whole model and re-worked almost every single seam, sanding and polishing my little heart out.  I think I am almost done now and ready to re-prime. 

I shot a few photos but my Flickr account has suffered some sort of catastrophic software enhancement and now I can't paste my photos in here like I used to. 

Once I figure out how to unscrew Flickr I'll resume posting photos. 

cheers, Bob

cheers, Bob

When the putty is still wet.

Joe: have not tried that yet.  Do you do it when the putty is still wet, or do you do it after it has dried?

Cheers, Bob