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

Any body make any progress on their B-17s.

I got the flaps made and working on fixing up a resin copy of the bomb bay doors.  The top turret is done and is waiting on the glass piece to be painted, as with the ball turret.  Need to paint all these assemblies and add some minor details and exhaust stains and then she'll be done.

Shoot guys I didn't know about this thread, please forgive I'm new here! Should I post some of my tips here as well? My two are posted One under NEW Here, And the other Under Ain't Miss Behavin' 3. I must chime in on the interior debate. After all my research I have come to the conclusion that no matter how you do it, it is right. There were so many field mods to them that they all had there own personality. The ones I built Are Correct to those two planes alone, I have been talking with the radioman of said planes for months now, about once a week. These are the planes my wife's grandfather flew on. I have found they all have had changes made that make them unique. Some were left unpainted in areas only to be painted after a repair due to flack or such, or panels were pulled from an older plane to make the repair. So I say Do what feels right to you, or is correct to that plane. Other things such as staining on the wings is more a point of correctness as they follow a diferent set of rules, such as air flow and the type of paint on exterior,ie; Flat OD stains different than NMF as the paint absorbs the staining different than a smooth metal finish. Just my thoughts on this.

I'll bump up my New Here thread in case you would like to see and can't find.

James

No progress on my end .... just back into town a couple of days ago. Had to open up the box again and retake inventory of everything! THAT's how much I'm involved in my '17 build .... sad, I know.

However, this one IS on the chopping block to be completed this coming year (2010). And kind-of a late addition, but since I'm modeling mine in flight, on a bomb run, I'm considering animating the props ..... now just have to figure out how to get them PERFECTLY drilled out ..... Hmmm.......

James - Your post was well said. I don't think anyone here was really trying to argue that there was only one particular way a '17s interior was found ..... if they were, I'll be the first one to public say that person was an idiot! Besides .... right or wrong .... you still can't see a damn thing after its all closed up anyway!!!!

I have used nylon bristles from a brush to pin the gear doors back on my A-26 after I had carefully used a razor saw to removed them from the wheel well side walls.  That way there is a little "flex" in them if they get bumped.  I used them also to hinge the bomb bay doors on the A-26 and a B-25.

Was just re-reading some of the older posts, getting back up to speed on the build thread ...

Hans - Sorry again to hear about the cat knocking the '17 off the shelf .... any plans to do a "down plane" dio? Or myabe a "making repairs" dio.

Just curious.

I havent made progress on my forts either. Got kinda burned out on them. I'm still stuck on a few things I wanna do but cant figure out the how I wanna do them. The 2 bigget things I need to figure out are how I'm gonna do the single .50 through the plexi nose on the F model, plus the radio room .50's for each. Basically the mounts for the guns in the radio rooms, which way I'm gonna go there. Then the .50 through the nose, I wanna add the bracing from the gun mount to the opening of the nose, just cant figure out either right now so I took a break. I currently have 4 mustangs on the bench now.

I think we're doing the same thing in reserve!  I have three mustangs left out of a collection of 9, well actually 10, I gave up on the twin mustang serious wing wrap developed.  I took a break from them to concentrate on finishing the 17, even though they're are in the final stages as well.

How many 51's do you have going at once? All 3? Craziness aint it?! I'm kinda doing the 4 of them in 2's. Two of them are camo, two are partially camo with NMF. One the 2 NMF's is getting aluminum foil for the NMF.

Currently I have three 51s going.  They're all painted NMF and are waiting to be weathered.  I kinda of got burned out on mustangs and concentrated more on the 17.  At one point I had 9 mustangs and the 17 going.  Crazy ain't it?

I got 6 mustang completed for the Mustang collection I have, with the final three waiting finishing.  I had a twin mustang started as well, but it developed serious wing wrapage so I set it aside.

In the future I think I'll stick to 3 or 4 at a time,  unless I have multiple 17s going on at the same time.

I was able to work on my 17 this past weekend, since the previous weekend the weather decided to play nice allowing me to paint a couple of things.  I was able to get the flaps on and the other doors painted.

Here's pics of the flaps installed:

Damn pilot, those flaps look sweet! I may have to try that some time soon, I spent so much time detailing the interior on mine that I was burned out by the time i got to the exterior. I like how she look's, seems to some weathering going on the upper wing panels.

What's up the half B-17 fuselage? If your not gonna be using it for a build, you could make a fairly quick little dio out of it. I'm planning on that when I chop the tail off a revell F to convert it to D. I'm gonna make a crash dio out of the remains. Just the tail, no forward fuselage.

Thanks!  The half of the fuselodge came from the started D kit I picked off ebay (its next after the G is done).  I pulled it out of the D kit, cause while building the G I accidently knock off the ariels under the fuselodge and need to use that half to put the replacements in the right spot.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it.  I do have a couple more of the C/D conversions, so I might use it to perhaps do a factory dio scene with the three cut off tails.

Looks like I'm not the only one that got suckered into eduard's PE flap detail set.

Those things were the most awful PE set to build.  Little fiddly parts that broke off for no reason than "just because".  I built one set and the other set got so goofed up, I ended up ordering a new one to start over.  And now that it sits on a shelf, you can't even see them - even from behind.  In retrospect, a waste of a few hours time.  They're cool when you see them, but good luck seeing them, LOL

-Fred

I didn't have a problem with the parts breaking, my problem was they didn't fit in the opening all that well, a little on the long side.  Had to tweak them a little bit to get them to fit.  I also got the resin flaps that Paragon made, so when I do the flaps again, I'll see how good those are.

Yeah Pilot nice looking flap's.

I haven't done much work on any of my models, waiting till spring when it warms up.

Gigatron

They're cool when you see them, but good luck seeing them, LOL

That's why I put them in the full down position.  The instructions indicated a 5mm actuator which would have put the flaps at approximately 10% (you can hardly tell they're down in that position), that plus due to the fit problem, the full flaps position fit better.

Alright pilot, you dogged me out. I put my 17's together for a few quick snapshots. They arent done, neither have a nose cone on yet, also missing tail guns, waist guns and some other bits. Here ya go, I like pictures by the way.

A few more...I said I like pics!

I really like these two pics, cant till warmer weather gets here so I can do this outside. Especially once I get the other forts done.

A few more for good measure, and fun.

This ones a fixer upper, I built her maybe 13 or so years ago.

Before you know it, you;ll have your very own bomb squadron.  They look great!

I too am waiting for warmer (and dryer) weather before I can finish up my 17.  Needs exhaust stains and the little bit parts and a semi gloss clear coat to tone down the shine, so she looks war weary.

You should try doing only some panels, not all. leave some shiny. Thanks for the compliments man, I'm actually getting the bug back to try and get these 2 finished and start the D conversion.

Hello all : Good luck on the B-17 GB. I am a year away from getting back on mine.As far as the Vis B-17 ,and all the 1/48 B-17's , kit inaccuracys should be dealt with. One of the first would be the bbay rack in the middle ,this (I believe) does not go to the top of the fuselage as supplied.The fuselage was built as a tube with the doghouse up on top. I have some photo refs to correlate but I would like to see someone do it right . Next would be the vents in the upper outside of the main wings.I have refs for those but some show them ,some dont . I carved mine into the existing upper wing parts ,using the existing oil cooler vents provided. I am not a rivit counter but what do you guys think of these points? Any other inaccuracys ?

B17Guy, am too and waiting to start a D conversion, followed by 8 more B-17 variants.

krow113: Yes the bbay doesn't go all the way to the top in the real a/c, but you really only have to fix this if you're doing the visible B-17, because you will not see it when the model is closed up.  I have not seen the vents you're talking about on the wings on any pics.  There are some fuel tank caps on the outside wings.  Are those what you're referring to?

Looks like you have the makings of your very own bomb group

I checked quickly and they are vents.I looked at my cutaway view poster and they are there.Also they are on numerous photos in my refbooks.There is no question , they are vents.The cutaway shows only framing under so I think they just may be 'outer wing vents'

OK i went back and looked for those vents.  While I did find them, I only saw them in a few photos, and the 17 was a late G model.  The ones i saw did looke like wing vents, for what I am not sure.

I think you can see them here .or look for a pic of 'A Bit o' Lace' there is acommon one of it flying in daylight you can see the vents and staining..........if you wanna better file of this cutaway email coolneon@shaw.ca

The only other upper wing vents I know of (besides the 4 behind every engine) are either the vents on the wing tips for the tokyo tanks OR the smaller rectangle vents that are nearer to the trailing edge of the wing and closer to the fuselage. They kinda look like a home heating vent, at least to me. I dont know what they are for and are really of little consequence to me. Those are mainly on the later production G models. However, I really would like to add the vents for the tokyo tanks to the wing tips.

Hey krow, where did you get the cutaway poster from?  I've been looking for one to display with my visible B-17.   I have a similar poster for my visible Me-262 and it makes fro a pretty cool display.

-Fred

The vents (whatever they are) can be carved into the wing without too much trouble,just an additional detail. Mine look exactly like the ones in the wing already.I checked another cutaway and cant see anything on the outside of the wing. This is relevant only to the builders of the late model B-17 G..................

I have collected over 25 books on the b-17 and found the cut away in one of them.I recently found a good color cutaway in the book '50 th Anniversary of the B-17' I scanned the one shown and printed it on my 30 digi printer,(coolneon@shaw .ca)  mounted on 19" x 28" fomecore board it hangs over my workbench.It is an excellent reference for the structural and wiring and oxy systems etc.I erased all the writing around the one posted here,if you look close you will see the id numbers .I think the colorcutaway would suit you better for the display of your visb.