B-17C/D W.I.P. ...

I'm also building a couple of Monogram 1/72 P-36's to go with this B-17.

How big is that Convair kit?

Convair? I think you mean Boeing. When finished, wing span approx. 17-1/2 inches, fuselage length approx. 11-1/4 inches.

Oops!my bad!One large model!

Yeah, any bigger and I'd have to put an addition on the house!

Yes I hear you!I just built a Revell 1/48 B-17G and it is a very large model indeed!

Yeah, that kit is in the pipeline after a couple of others.

It is a good kit.Couple of things to watch out for:when you put the wings on it does require a good amount of force when sliding them forward. I tell ya,The snap was so loud I thought that I broke something but it was fine.I also recommend that you mask off the top turret opening prior to painting.The fit is tight and I had to shave the opening a bit to allow it to lock into place.Engineering is good and the turrets turn and the guns elevate and depress.

Buttoning up the fuselage of the B-17 yesterday and today. More pictures soon.

Finished closing up the fuselage yesterday. Had to use some body putty on the seams. No matter how hard I try, I can never get the fuselage halves to line up perfectly. The last two center-line windows on the nose will have to wait until I finish sanding the seam on the nose, then they can go in. In the background is a Monogram 1/72 P-36A to be parked along side the B-17, I guess as a scale reference. I've decided to do them both in natural metal finish instead of camoflage. Mary Ann will come next. I have another P-36A for that build that will be done up in Pearl Harbor marking.

Have you decided to finish this in NMF?  As you know I am working on an F-86 NMF and am at the polishing the gloss black stage.  I plan to shoot the first metal coat later this week.  I will bring it in on the next build day so you can see the progress and NMF finish in person to help you decide on your B-17.

I assume this is the Academy Colin Kelly kit?

I'd vote NMF, plus silver dope of course on the control surfaces.

I bought one of those a long time ago in a bigger project to build a Boeing 307 but lost interest in aircraft models about that time.

No, this isn't the Colin Kelly kit. The marking I'll be using are from the Italeri B-17 kit that has markings for seven different airplanes, including the Mary Ann. When it's finished, it will be an NMF B-17C, Material Division, Wright Field, January 1941, according to the box art. I know that the Academy kit and the Italeri kit are the same kits.

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This is a picture of the actual airplane. It appears to be unarmed so my model won't have any guns. I hope to enlist Route62's help when painting commences to make sure I do the NMF correctly. He's doing an NMF F-86 right now. To add to the painting adventure, I'm going to attempt to paint the rudder red, white and blue instead of using the supplied decal. Should be fun.

When this B-17 is complete, I'll start on the next one and it will be completed as the movie star Mary Ann.

GMorrison

I assume this is the Academy Colin Kelly kit?...

I was about to ask the same question, GM, particularly about the make.  Frank, is this an Academy kit, whatever the kit markings?

Yeah, Baron, it's the Academy kit. This is the one I am building right now:

This is the kit I'm getting the decals from:

I'm familiar with the Colin Kelly B-17 kit but I've never seen one. The instructions in this Academy kit appear to be in Korean.

Airplanes D and F are the ones that I am going to build.

Fantastic work thus far.  I’ll be following along.

Your friend, Toshi

Frank, your MD 105 is actually a B model which prototyped the gun positions at Wright Field for the new C/D models and the revamping of the B models.  As I mentioned before, the bubble is on the right side denoting a B.  Italeri has not done much research for accuracy as the boxart shows a B model in British markings when the British received C models with the bubble being on the center line of the cockpit.  Another faux paux is that Mary Ann is a B model as I noted earlier.  One other one is the G example said to be at March Field, January 1941.  That is totally bogus because during  the winter of 40/41, it belonged to the Cold Weather Test Detachment (CWTD) at Ladd Field, Fairbanks, Alaska painted in Mandarin Red.  On June 4th, 1942, it was sent to Kodiak in preparation for the defense of Alaska from the Japanese.  It performed bombing missions over Attu and Kiska, until it crashed returning from a weather mission on July 18, 1942.    

Cool, thanks, Frank!

Build day tomorrow at the hobby shop. I'm taking my B-17C and one of the P-36A's with me to work on and get recommendations for the natural metal finish for both airplanes.

Progress has been slow on the B-17 lately. I've been working in Photoshop editing pictures from our trip to Moody AFB for their Community Appreciation Days open house and airshow. When I finish working on those pictures, I'll be sharing them with y'all.

With the B-17, I've been filling and sanding the seams on the fueslage. I want to be sure the seams are smooth and not at all evident before laying down primer and the Alclad NMF finish. After the debacle that was the LT-6G, I want to be sure the B-17 finish looks as good as possible.

The nose and turtleback showing the four seats on the flight deck. I first filled the seams with Bondo glazing & spot putty and got everything as smooth as I could. Of course there were still tiny pits in the Bondo after I polished the seams.

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The rear fuselage. After the Bondo, I brushed on Tamiya's gray primer in the bottle. Then I wet sanded all of the seams. The gray primer also helped to fill some of the sink marks in the plastic.

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The underside of the nose. After the wet sanding, I polished the seams and surrounding plastic with emery boards. These little 3" Tropical Shine emery boards are excellent for working on the 1/48 and 1/72 scale airplanes.

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As you can see from the picture of the nose area, I had to glue in all of the little windows before closing up the fuselage. They were painted black on the inside before I shot the interior with green zinc chromate. Now it's time to rescribe panel lines that were filled during the sanding and polishing, then mask the rudder and fin so the rudder can be painted red, white and blue, instead of using the kit decals.

Thanks for looking in.

Man that's looking good Frank, inspiring me to start mine from the stash.  Someday I'm gonna make the trip from Daytona to the build day and meet y'all

Looking good Frank. Inspiring me to dig mine outta the stash.  Someday I'm gonna make the trip from Daytona to the build day to meet Y'all

We have our last meet of the year this Friday Jay Jay.  It's at the Herndon library at 7pm, 

4324 E. Colonial Dr. Orlando, FL 32803

 It's about an hour drive straight down 50 from Daytona.  Would love to see you there.  I'll be there with the F-86 NMF I am working on along with Frank.

Re-scribing panel lines today on the B-17. Route62 suggested that I put a needle in my pin vise and use Dymo label tape as a guide to bring the panel lines back. Using very little pressure I'm able to re-scribe the lines pretty well. My hand-done lines seem to match up with the kit panel lines pretty good. I have a couple more academy B-17C/D kits so I taped together another fuselage to show me where the panel lines should be. Actually, this part is going pretty fast. I should be able to mask off the rudder for paint later today or tomorrow morning. Cool.

Well, the re-scribing of panel lines is complete(?), I think. I've masked off the rudder to get ready for primer and the red, white and blue paint.

I shimmed the tabs on the wings to make sure the tabs fit tight into the slots in the fuselage. In test fitting, the fit was pretty sloppy and as a result the dihedral might have been incorrect when the wings were attached. I think I'll have to do the same with the horizontal stabilizers when it comes time to put them on.

I don't know if this was the case or not way back when, but since this B-17is unarmed, I filled the opening in the gun tub with styrene to close up the big hole.

Well maybe next year when you start the meet up again, I hafta work  ( nights at the Daytona Speedway whenever they have events there

Sorry, the meet is this Monday, not Friday JayJay. 

A suggestion to get a better paint job Frank,. I would recommend you mask off the tail rudder after you have done the NMF on the entire model.  This will eliminate any chance of a sliver of unpainted area between the NMF and the painted rudder.  Even with careful masking it can be hard to get it just right.  Painting the blue over the NMF is much easier then trying to do NMF over the blue without creating a ridge of paint from layers of primer and gloss black.

Excellent work on the rescribe.  I just starting rescribing only 3 years ago after decades of modeling and you are diving right in... I see a master modeller in the making.