1/48 B-17 Group Build...ALL INVITED TO JOIN!

Hell baron, if I was'nt to far away, I'd go pick em up. Where were these kits at again? Then again, PA aint that far, it's a 3 hour drive to buffalo for me, you cant be very far. Man! I wish I was there when you saw those.

I didn't get the seller's name, unfortunately, but I think he said he's from Illinois.  He hadn't heard of either Chicago show (whether toy soldier or military miniatures), but he did express interest in coming back out this way, to our MFCA show at the end of April in Wilmington DE.

He is a modeler himself, but in small scale, and armor, I think.  He sells diorama and scenery supplies.  The models are part of his late father's collection.  His grandfather served in a B-17 crew and was shot down and killed in Europe, and his father collected the kits and all kinds of printed material about the Flying Fortress.  He said his father had built more of the Monogram B-17s back in the day, when the seller was a kid, but destroyed them all, because his kids kept toying with them, breaking little pieces here and there.  So, in a fit of anger, he smashed them.  I guess, better the models than to hit the kids!  But later, he built more.  Those four kits were kits his father had picked up, and had started, before his eyesight started to go, and he never finished them.

I'll check in the program from Cold Wars and see if he's listed in the vendor directory, and post you a PM either way.

Regards,

Brad

Hey guys,

      I just found this group build on the B-17.  My build is taking place here.  /forums/1103926/ShowPost.aspx

Had I known this was going on, I would have started posting in the group build.  Sorry.........  There are some really great builds here, and the weathering is awesome.

I do have a question......Has anyone relocated the waist gunners position to be offset like the G model?  Or did the early G's have symetrical positions??????

Thanks

B-17 Guy wrote:

Looking freak'n sweet hans!!! How did you do the chipping?

I used the rubber cement masking trick.. Painted the aluminum color before the OD.  After the aluminum was dry, I dabbed the rubber cement here & there, shot the OD, then rubbed off the cement mask, exposing the metal underneath..

Also, some was just brush-applied, mainly around the larger holes from the Flak.

Oh, those dirty rats! Lookie what they did to that Fortress! Makes me steamin' mad. I hope those defensive gunners got a piece of whatever downed 'em! WONDERFUL WORK, Hans! It's looking very realistic indeed.

She brought her crew back though... They were able to crashland in England, albeit with a couple wounded on board.. Those recovery guys will get her back in the air again and she'll be poundin' der Vaterland into der flatterland again in a few weeks..

Having trouble finding a good name for her though...

Rob,

Best I can determine about when the staggered waist guns were introduced on the factory lines were the B-17G-50s.  I have Peter M. Bower's "Fortress in the Sky" and there are pictues of B-17G-40's with the unstaggered waist guns.  There is a small section listing Serial No.'s & Construction No.'s with Model Characteristic's but they only mention the enclosing of the waist guns with the -50 models.  These were Beoing built, Vega built seeme to be -5 behind (-55) Not to say field mods were done later on earlier dash models. It appears the enclosed raido compartment and Chyenne tail turrent were installed at this time too. Then again these were easy field mods.  Clear as mud right!

Thanks Mel.

Does anyone have a Chyenne conversion they want to part with?

Hans.....good idea, sort of like salt chipping. I may try that but cant see it going to well with brush paint. I've been trying a silver, colored pencil. Works well because it is perfectly flat on the surface.

Mel....I'm with you on that. Early G's were not staggered, it's roughly half through the G production that they changed it, depends on which book you read.

 Lancair......I dont have a spare cheyenne conversion BUT you can get the parts from revell. The cheyenne tail parts were included in the latest visible B-17 kit. Here's the info you will need....Kit name Visible B-17G, Kit # 85-5614,  greenhouse #78, cheyenne turret #125. Order these through the web site, uner spare/replacement parts. I've done it a few times and had no problems.

B-17 Guy wrote:

Lancair......I dont have a spare cheyenne conversion BUT you can get the parts from revell. The cheyenne tail parts were included in the latest visible B-17 kit. Here's the info you will need....Kit name Visible B-17G, Kit # 85-5614,  greenhouse #78, cheyenne turret #125. Order these through the web site, uner spare/replacement parts. I've done it a few times and had no problems.

Thanks......I just placed the order with Revell.  The cost was $0.00.  We'll see if the parts ever arrive.

Cheers

Guys,

This post and others on the B-17 rekindled my intrest and I've been reading through my "Fortress In The Sky" and gleamed some more statistics for those interested in when the major changes to the B-17 G occured.  Of course most of these mods were retro fitted to early "G's" and late "F's" so what aircraft had what when is up for debate. 

Bendix Chin turrent   B-17 G   with exception of B-17F-75-DL had chin turrent installed at factory

Cheek side guns  B-17G-25-DL, -35-VE, end of -60-BO at 42-102944

Sperry Ball turrent changed to A-2A type.  B-17G-15-BO, -10-VE, -30-DL,  suspect external ammo feed at this time nothing in writing to support this.

Staggered enclosed waist guns  B-17G-50-BO, -50-VE, -25-DL

Enclosed radio comp. gun  B-17G-45-DL, -55-VE, -80-BO at 43-38274

Deleted raido comp. gun  -75-DL at 44-83236, -85-VE at 44-8817, 105-BO at 43-39206

Cheyenne tail turrent  B-17G-45 DL at 44-6251, -55-VE at 44-8283, -80-BO at 43-38473

Now I have throughly complicated things for most of you, have fun with your build!  Remember, "Hey, it was field modified!" 

 I think I'll Google the Sperry A-2A.

Lancair IV wrote:

Thanks Mel.   Does anyone have a Chyenne conversion they want to part with?

I can vac-form one for ya...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Lancair IV wrote: Thanks Mel.   Does anyone have a Chyenne conversion they want to part with?     I can vac-form one for ya...

I might take you up on that if Revell doesn't come thru.  According to B-17 Guy, I will get them.

Thanks

Hey guys/and or girls,

Please tell me its not too late to join this GB.I just found B-17guys thread about his build and was commenting that I had a slightly started B-17 that I hadn't worked on in over a year, but now with all this I want to get it out and continue, ASAP. If its not too late, how do I sign up for the GB? Thank you all for the inspiration!  Chris F.

May I have your Attention please, Feld Marschall Model has returned.

I got started back on my B-17 yesterday, did some work on the main body, sanding getting the seems smooth, and working on the wings.  And getting the area were the engine face covers.

More to come.

Hey FMM glad to see you picking up the torch, I let it fall, my bad.

I havent touched my 17's in a month or so, just too much going on right now so I'm pooped by the time I get the chance to work on them. This might be the kick in the a$$ I need to finish them.

I recomend painting the fronts of the nacelles before attaching the engines. I had a few minor problems with fit of the engines to the wings, some went on really loose, some tight to were I needed to do a lot of sanding to get them right.

Looking forward to updates.

Yeah I've been away for awhile, mostly working on other projects, like my 1/48 model coaster, and HO train layout.

I did more work on the wing's, sanding the edges, sanding off some glue that rain while I had tape holding that section tight.  I was woundering if I need to paint the nacelles, from that fact that with the engine face on you can still see the color of the mold.  Only tryed on one wing so far for the engine face cover, just need some sanding for a better fit.

(Test fit)

Yeah,....I would highly recomend painting the front of each nacelle's, you will see the mold color otherwise. When tiny finished his 17, he didnt paint the nacelle's and you could see it, big time. He went back and painted them and it look'd much better. I did mine in flat black.

48th model coaster?! As in roller?

Ok I will paint them flat black, yeah the scale size is in 1/48.  Coaster Dynamix is the brand name.

Heres the one I am working on right now.

I don't think that I've ever "officially" joined the "unofficial" B-17 Group Build, but the lastest posting have got me eye-ballin' my 17 that's been holding down my shelf for the past year or so. Its been about 5 years in the making and was actually my first build when I decided to get back into modeling again. However, work (the military), deployments, getting married, and life in general just got in the way. I moved about a year ago, and just never unpacked it. I think nows the time .... well, to at least work on it a little more.

I lost a lot of pictures a while back when my external HD crashed, however, I'll find and post what I can. If needed, I'll take more.

Let me unpack it and get things somewhat sorted out, and I'll start up my post.

Hey modelchasm, looking forward to seeing your 17.

I guess I had it a bit lucky, I only deployed once. Married first, then deployed a few weeks later. It's amazing how fast a wedding can be put together.

Thanks for the welcome Guy ... I'm currently working on two dios at the moment, so the bench is a little crowded ....

.... but I don't see why I can't work on an engine or two .... or three, or four! Right!?! And then maybe a wing or two .... Right!?!

I'm digging the ol' bird out tonight, checking what pictures I have and don't have. Hopefully, I'll have something to post up in the morning.

Thanks again for the welcome .... looking forward to getting this thing kick-started again...

Well, I figured now as good a time as any to start my post here. I found just one original picture from when I first started the model. So, unfortunately, I don't have any of the interiro before I closed it .... however, I think I've seen a couple here and there, so I'm going to keep searching my computer.

Here we go. This is a pic of the crew before I closed up the ship. I placed crew everywhere I thought that they could be seen through the windows. The only crew members I didn't place inside were the navigator, ball turret gunner, and the two waist gunners (I wanted to add the two wasit gunners, but you wouldn't have seen anything after it was closed up.) From left to right, co-pilot, engineer, RTO, pilot, tail gunner, bombardier.

Now, onto the ship itself. This model is being build for my late grandfather and the ship he flew most of his misisons in; B-17G, tail number 238087, "Tail Crazy". She was assigned 13 Feb 44 to the 15th AF, 5th Bomb Wing, 2nd Bomb Group (H) stationed at Foggia, Italy. A 20mm cannon was installed in the tail sometime in 1944. After the war, she flew to the U.S. on 2 Dec 45. She was flown to Spokane for salvaged on 5 Jun 46. She flew a total of 88 missions during the war. My grandfather flew w/ her while he was assigned to the 49th Bomb Squadron, but to my understanding "Tail Crazy" also flew missions with the 429th Bomb Squadorn as well (also w/ the 2nd BG). In nearly 8 years of research, I have only found two photographs of the ship. One shows a partial shot of the nose, and the other, FORTUNATLY, shows the ship in flight, full paint job and all .... just awesome! But .... here's what I've got for the build so far.

If you look closely, you can see the bombardier manning the Norden through the nose glass.

Shots of the RTO manning his .50cal .....

A scratched 20mm cannon in the tail .... the 50 got knocked off, but there's one that sits right "next door".

Some flak damage ... and yes, there's some framing in the tail ...

I tried to make my own cowling flaps, but I think I might look for the resin AM kit ...

The top turret ...

Bombay doors ....

Main gear ...

Scratch detaling on the engines ....

Scratched oil tank ...

Main gear bay detail ...

Well, that's all for now ... Hopefully, I'll be able to add a little here and there until my two dios are done, then I can finish her up. Any crits & comments welcome....

B-17 Guy wrote:

I dont have a spare cheyenne conversion BUT you can get the parts from revell. The cheyenne tail parts were included in the latest visible B-17 kit. Here's the info you will need....Kit name Visible B-17G, Kit # 85-5614,  greenhouse #78, cheyenne turret #125. Order these through the web site, uner spare/replacement parts. I've done it a few times and had no problems.

Thank you for that tip!  I contacted Revell on Monday of last week, and had my parts in the mail on Friday no charge!  Way to go Revell!

Hey john feel free to join in if you want to!

Daywalker, glad to hear it worked for ya. I've done that numerous times. Just need to watch how much you order at a time, no more than what comes in a kit etc... I actually had a guy on the arc forums give me the riot act about that is stealing, and I should be ashamed. Gotta love people.

Nice looking B-17 modelchasm,

I did some test fitting of the wings yesterday.

I would be tempted, but I would prefer to do a smaller scale as it is not so tedeous as the bigger one.

Since it has been brought back out, I ordered one, so I would actually prefer to do a Lindberg in 1/64th scale, since being an early "G" model, it has a different chin turret (GE instead of Bendix) then the old Revellogram kit.

Tom T