Revell's 1/48 B-17F Flying Fortress "Mini Movie Memphis Belle" Completed!

If you have my level of patience you'll be throwing out about 85% of that PE, Keyda!  But the remaining 15% ususlly helps the final looks enough to be worth the frustration.

jeaton01

If you have my level of patience you'll be throwing out about 85% of that PE, Keyda!  But the remaining 15% ususlly helps the final looks enough to be worth the frustration.

 

Lol, right!  I realized I bought it cause despite it being frustrating I did after all fly in, and work on this plane.  So it's got a special place.  I don't usually cram the PE on.  I'm usually building stuff OOB. 

I'll follow this with interest.  I've got the Revell -F in my stash, to revert it back to a -E flying off Midway during the battle.

Yeah, the aftermarket stuff available for this kit-and for Monogram's -G...I've gotten to the point where I am more likely today to skip adding things, if they are truly not visible when the model is closed up.  It will be interesting to see what you eventually decide to use and not to use.

the Baron

I'll follow this with interest.  I've got the Revell -F in my stash, to revert it back to a -E flying off Midway during the battle.

Yeah, the aftermarket stuff available for this kit-and for Monogram's -G...I've gotten to the point where I am more likely today to skip adding things, if they are truly not visible when the model is closed up.  It will be interesting to see what you eventually decide to use and not to use.

 

I know most of it won't be visible, but if MMB has it, I'll try to make sure I add it.  I ran into a guy one day out there while inside the plane taking my reference pics.  He had one of those fancy 360 degree cameras.  He took pics inside MMB, and he emailed me the link to the pictures.  So I can literally look around in the plane right on my screen.  It will make things a bit easier anyway. 

I am running out of modelng time and probably will never get to build the B-17 F in my stash.That means following your MMB build will be as close as I get to ever buiding one! So, go for it Keda.

I pulled up a chair and will be following along. 

This is going to be slow going to start with, lol.  Once I get past the interior and get the fuse glued together it should go fairly quickly.  But until then things are going to go at a snails pace.  As anyone who has done PE before would know you have to pay attention to what goes where.  Making things even worse is the fact that I'm building a specific aircraft, and have to study my reference pics very closely.  I think my best bet at this point is to work one section at a time.  Start at the nose and work my way back.  Hopefully I'll have some progress to report with later on this evening.  Thanks for following along!

Decided to make things even more difficult for myself by cutting out the hatch, and rear door.  Cause where is the fun in not making more work, lol.  Bit of putty on the window areas that I modified.  Still going to need quite a bit more work. 

This project was supposed to help me keep my sanity over winter.  I think it's going to do the exact opposite and send me to a padded room.  The Revell kit has no detail to speak of.  The fuselage sides are completely smooth.  Well I can't live with that.  The interior pieces themselve aren't detailed at all either.  So lucky for me I have the Monogram "G" kit as well.  Since I really don't have room for a second 1/48 B-17 I'll be using parts from that kit as well. 

I spent the majority of the day adding ribs to the inside of the fuselage.  Not done yet either.  Ugh. 

Started in the nose.

Nose finished.

This is going to be a Frankenstein build.  Pieces from both kits will be used.  Hacked up a couple pieces, so if you were that small you could crawl through it just like the real plane. 

Where I've left off for today.  The silver stuff is candy wrappers I used to imitate fabric.  Hopefully it works the way I would like it to.

Back at it tomorrow.

Took me a couple of days, but I managed to finish adding ribs to the interior of Mini MMB.

Starting checking each "compartment" for the detail it has or doesn't have.  If the bulkhead had raised details that MMB doesn't, I chopped it off.  I'll work on adding stuff once everything is painted.  I'm just going to work section by section with the pictures and PE.  It doesn't look like I'm going to be using any where near all the PE.  But that is fine by me. 

Just a "see how it looks" placement of the interior pieces.

Hoping to get paint on it in the next day or two. 

Slowly but surely I am making some progress on Mini MMB.  It is very slow going however, because I'm using two different kits, going section by section checking the regular instructions with the PE instructions and looking at pics.  I managed to at least get some painting done.

Once I finish off the nose section I'll move on to the cockpit, bombay, navigators section and so on.  Trying to pick up on the details that MMB does have.  Still a long way to go.

Beautiful job on the wood stain floor.  How did you do that? Is it paint?

lowfly

Beautiful job on the wood stain floor.  How did you do that? Is it paint?

 

 

Thanks!  Base coat was Model Master wood.  Then I used a paint brush with some water color acrylics, that act kind of like oils, but dry a lot faster, and brushed it on.  Went in with a different shade, and it re-wets the coat underneath.  I just played with it until I liked the look. 

Nice work on that plywood, looks vintage 1940's! That's a serious load of stringers to do on that fuselage. Looks to really liven up that old kids model into a show piece.

Second Mongoose on that, your wood grain has come out very nicely, Keyda!

Thanks guys!

It's been slow going trying to add the detail that is there, remove what isn't.  I have to check the kit instructions, the PE instructions, and then my reference pictures, lol. 

Aside from a few small details the nose and cockpit sections are done.  Bombay area should move along rather quick, navigators section shouldn't be too bad since I've already kind of started on it.  I have to make some scratch seats for aft section, and a floor, but there isn't a ton of detail back there either.  See how far I get next week I guess. 

I'm off to visit Whiskey 7 this morning, and work on my car tomorrow.  So I'll update some time next week when I make more progress.

Put my house on lock down Sunday.  Kiddo won't have school for the forseable future either.  So nothing better to do than make some progress on Mini MMB.

Nose, cockpit, bomb bay, and navigator's section are done. 

Still a few more sections to do before I can close up the fuse.  Hopefully I can have an airplane by the end of the week. 

Very impressive work.

B-17 Guy, Thanks!  That doesn't surprise me.  I'll manage somehow I suppose.  Likely be a while before I get that far. 

Thanks JohnnyK!

Keyda, that interior is certainly a Wow! Most Mono G kits that come with an interior do not look nearly as good. I have a feeling that your rendition has an edge on accuracy. Now you can take it to the next level, and add a crew?

Shipwreck

Keyda, that interior is certainly a Wow! Most Mono G kits that come with an interior do not look nearly as good. I have a feeling that your rendition has an edge on accuracy. Now you can take it to the next level, and add a crew?

 

Thanks!  It's as accurate as I can get to MMB.  Adding a crew wouldn't be accurate because she currently doesn't have one.  She's no longer being leased by the museum I volunteer for, along with a few other B-17's.  The expense has gotten to great due to the rise in insurance costs after the crash of 909.  I just hope she doesn't sit and rot away.

Keep up the great work. Col. Morgan and the crew would be proud. What ever happened to Ms. Margaret Polk (the Mephis Belle)? 

Will do, thank you!

Your efforts are payin' off so far. I've always had strong admiration for anyone that tackles 1/72 scale subjects. Some of the work that I've seen folks do in that scale is off tha charts. This build looks like it's gonna be along those lines.

mustang1989

Your efforts are payin' off so far. I've always had strong admiration for anyone that tackles 1/72 scale subjects. Some of the work that I've seen folks do in that scale is off tha charts. This build looks like it's gonna be along those lines.

 

Lucky for me, it's 1/48, lol.  Still not big enough really.  Some of the PE pieces are so small if I drop it I don't even think about looking for it. 

Well.......look who wasn't paying attention. Sorry bout dat Keyda. I'd probably tackle a 1/48 scale version of this. On second thought.........it'd most likely mean mass sensory overload at all the detail a person could add to some thing like a B-17. lol 

mustang1989

Well.......look who wasn't paying attention. Sorry bout dat Keyda. I'd probably tackle a 1/48 scale version of this. On second thought.........it'd most likely mean mass sensory overload at all the detail a person could add to some thing like a B-17. lol 

 

No worries, lol.  Sensory overload on this build is happening for sure.  Between checking the instructions, then the PE instructions, then the pics of MMB to see what detail she has or doesn't have compared to the PE, and kit pieces.  Fortunately once I'm done with the inside things should go a bit easier.

Great detailing, Keyda!  I may have missed this, but what did you use to replicate the fabric panels in the cockpit?