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

Ok, workin' my Forts, so I thought I'd throw out a couple pics... I haven't decided on the paint scheme for the second one, Although I'm leaning very hard towards the CAF "Texas Raiders" B-17 (I've actually flown right seat in that one) or a Fortress MkIII from the RAF No. 214 (Special Duties) Sqn.  I may do it as US Navy PB1-W as well, not to mention that there's also a Clandestine Ops bird flown by the CIA in SE Asia that's kinda nice-lookin' painted all gloss black... Ah, well.. I'll decide later.

 This one's going on a dio, landed post-mission with a fair amount of flak damage... It'll be an OD over grey Fort from some as-yet-unknown Bomb Squadron, but I haven't ruled out the red-tailed 1st Air Division/1st Bomb Wing... Although if I do that, it'll rule out doing "Texas Raiders", since I don't want two red-tailed Forts... Might go with BMF "Sentimental Journey" then.. I dunno...

Anyway, here's some pics with some explainations...

I also stretched some sprue and painted it brass, then chopped it up and added it the floor of the radio room, and I have more to add to waist yet... Waist gunners were known to ankle deep in shell casings after the fighter attacks... There won't be that much in there though, since the gunners likely swept up most of them and their links, and threw them overboard...

I probably will add more damage to the Fort (especially the wings.  I need to knock out at least ONE engine, ya know) and some obvious casualties, but making sure not to damage it to point that it would be unflyable...

I think it's a DRE100 high-speed cutter... The bit's about a 3/16ths and an 1/8th inch shank...

 As far as a "go-to"? You betcha... That one and the sanding drums...  I use the cut-off wheel a lot as well...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

...but making sure not to damage it to point that it would be unflyable...

We've all heard about their ability to get smacked up quite severely and still make it home... It's legendary. The photographic records defy imagination!

Summit wrote:

HVH ! Impressive, thats what I like about Dio People - everything has a story or message about it if you look hard enough.  Well I for one cant wait to see your next progress.  If you have a printer you could size down a "pretty girl Pinup " for the radio room!  Thanks

Lol, thanks, I might do just that... Feel free to become one of us "Dio People"... It isn't really hard, just takes some thought, imagination, and learning a few "rules" and yer off....

Me personally, I can't build a model and let it sit on a shelf... It's gotta be doin' it's thing, or at least just finished or is about to "do it's thing", in the case of aircraft... Although I've done a few shadow boxes where I could model the aircraft in-flight and used mixed scales in a forced-perspective scene...  

If you feel like takin' the plunge, holler... I'll be glad to help out.. 

trexx wrote:

Hans von Hammer wrote: ...but making sure not to damage it to point that it would be unflyable...     We've all heard about their ability to get smacked up quite severely and still make it home... It's legendary. The photographic records defy imagination!

Yeah, I've got a buncha photos of banged-up Forts... Incredible bird.... But you still gotta watch it.  Can't be doing any damage that would cause a main spar failure, knock off half a wing, or cut all the control cables to everything...  I've seen a few folks model that...  I think the most famous photo is that one of a Fort that had it's tail almost completely severed after a collision with a dead pilot's Messerschmitt... IIRC, it broke in half upon landing, but it got home...  

That stuff is the exception though, rather than the rule..

some of the pics in this thread are amazing, as well as the forum in general.  glad i'm in good company! 

i'm sorta dissapointed with the detail in the f model by revel, but the outside fits together nicely.  

here's a pic of my old g model, the bag has all the insides and small parts that are shattered into so many pieces... long story.  i built that 20 years ago when i was 12 or so...

i'm piecing the f together and will put up some pics tomorrow, though they pale in comparison to the artists i've seen posting here.  

edit:  thanks all, figured it out.  w00t! 

edit;  can't quite figure out how to post the pics.  :)

First, have your pictures uploaded to a photo-hosting site, like Photobucket or image shack. Select the picture you want to post and open it, right-click on the picture and click "properties". Copy that url address and then, when you're ready to post them, hit "reply" and up at the top of the reply window you'll see a little tree.  Click on it and another window will open with a line that begins with "http:"... Paste the url you copied in there, making sure that you only have ONE "http:" in it.  Then you click on "insert".  The picture will appear in the post.  OR... You can just paste the url in the reply window.  Then, right at the beginning, put in a left bracket "[", then type "img" (for "image"), then a right bracket "]", then a slash, "/", then "img" again.  Do all this WITHOUT the quote marks though.   Once again, Left bracket, img, Right bracket, url address (http: whatever), Left bracket, slash, img, Right bracket...

You can test it in the Test Forum down at the bottom of the forums index page... Good Luck..

Here's your picture's url with the "Image" commands at the begining and at the end:

edit:  got it, thanks mate, was initially thrown off by the image scrolling the length of the screen, and didn't realise they auto resized.  :)

here's the f as of this evening.  not overly impressed with the interior, actually it sucks worse than some lindburg models i've seen.  but it should look nice hanging from the rafters.  :)

Hammer - Nice work on your bird man...I like the little details.  The door, the shells and the note pad and pencil...I was thinking of doing some paper and a pencil for the navigators desk and the radio room too, but couldn't think of how to excecute it...Thanks for the tips.  The shells look sick...I've seen it on that classic old diorama article (can't remember what its called)...nice touch. 

UPDATE - I finnished my props last night.  I started on the landing gear, cleaning up all the mold lines.  I'm gonna do up a wash, weather them and plumb them...thanks to Freddie's pictures.

I'm patiently waiting on the bomb racks from Hammer.  Once i have them, it will not be long untill I stitch up the fuselage.

QUESTION???  What is the best soruce for aftermarket decals for this bird?  I wouldn't mind doing something different and unique.  Hammer, you seem to know alot about this bird, can you give me some ideas on unique B-17G's and how to duplicate the paint scheme and decals?

Hammer, you seem to know alot about this bird, can you give me some ideas on unique B-17G's and how to duplicate the paint scheme and decals?

B-17 Guy's probably your best source for unique real-world Forts...  I just search the web and dig through some of the reference books I have...  But 99% of the time I use a squadron and markings that existed, but make up my own, notional, serial number, ID letter, and nose art...  That way the rivet-counters can't tell me that, "Suzy Fatbottom (Serial No. 42-134567) didn't have the Cheyenne tail, that was Suzy Fatbottom II after she was refitted on the 12th of Octovemberuary of '44 and Lieutenant Hugh G. Rection took over as aircraft commander from Captain Pat McGroyn!" stuff... 

Lately, the bomber names reflect my Household 6's name in some way, like (her name's Dorri), "Hunky Dorri" (a B-24), "Dorito's Banditos" (B-17), "Devastatin' Dorri" (P-47)...  You get the idea...

The only actual aircraft I plan on modeling again are my Dad's Mustang and F-86, and the B-17s of three of my uncles (one was a B-17 pilot, the other two were both tail gunners one B-24 and the other a B-17)... 

On a side note, regarding relatives in WW2, I wish that I had had a chance to compare war stories with my Dad, his brother Bud (pilot), and the two brothers-in-law (the gunners) and my late father-in-law.  My father-in-law was an 88 crewman in a Luftwaffe Flak unit before he was captured in 1944 and shipped to the States, where he remained until 1946.  He was repatriated to Germany then, and in 1950, immigrated back into the States and eventually became a US Citizen... But I wanted to "compare notes" because conceivably, my father-in-law shot at my Dad and Uncles ... Sadly, none of them are alive today, the last of them passed in 1998... However, I digress...

The door, the shells and the note pad and pencil...I was thinking of doing some paper and a pencil for the navigators desk and the radio room too, but couldn't think of how to excecute it...Thanks for the tips.  The shells look sick...I've seen it on that classic old diorama article (can't remember what its called)...nice touch.

Thanks, thanks, but the credit goes to Shep Paine (St. Shepard of Monogram ).  He built the  B-17 diorama for Monogram back in the early 70s when this kit was first released (Plane was named, "In the Pink").  It depicted a shot-up Fort that uffered a main gear collapse while taxiing back to the ramp...  The Revell Fortress I just got the other day had a reprint of his diorama sheet in it.  He did the shell casings first, I'm sad to say, lol... But I'm ahead of him because of the chenical toilet I added a little while ago. Shep left it out... (Psst... It goes on the right side of the waist compartment, aft of the rear door, in case you're interested.) But I AM duplicating, more or less, the shot-out engine and resulting fire...

If you didn't get the sheet with the new Revell kit, you can look at it here, and download it..

http://sheperdpaine.com/monogram/index.htm

All the diorama sheets are more or less the same tips, tricks, and how-tos, with kit-specific info in the picture captions...

More of his dios are here:

http://sheperdpaine.com/index.htm

And now...

Back to m' Forts...

PS....  Thanks for the kudos, guys.... Y'all are doin fine work too... I think I enjoy the build-alongs and group builds more than just posting WIPs and finished models/dios...

uglygoat wrote:

here's the f as of this evening.  not overly impressed with the interior, actually it sucks worse than some lindburg models i've seen.

Gawd, I'd forgotten about that problem with the Revell F-model... (Note to self. but more strip styrene for ribbing).  It's been about 25 years since I built that bird.  I pre-ordered the re-release due out soon... That oughtta be a fun scratch-build on the interior...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Gawd, I'd forgotten about that problem with the Revell F-model... (Note to self. but more strip styrene for ribbing).  It's been about 25 years since I built that bird.  I pre-ordered the re-release due out soon... That oughtta be a fun scratch-build on the interior...

I decided against pre ordering that kit, I wanna wait and see the reviews on it first, see if they might have made any improvements to it other than a second decal option. It does suck badly by copmarison to the G but it is the only F kit in that scale known to man. I ended up picking up 2 of the older releases awhile ago. I'm gonna build OOB with LOTS of scratch for the interior, the...she is a my hangar queen. I chopped off her nose just aft of the panel seam directly in front of the cockpit and will graft that onto another G that's waiting in the stash. The rest of the kit is for some spare parts and experimentation, possibly using the wings and fuselage in a boneyard dio later in the future.

The one I'm building, I'm gonna use all the bulkheads from the G kit as templates to make them from stock card for the F, or maybe just order the needed parts from revell. Plus I'll probably go with the true details resin interior sets for that kit.........but I could change my mind 100 times by the time I get around to building her.

Hammer - I think I slipped up here...I know that wheathering and dammage are pretty random and pretty much up to the artist, but hear me out...

I did up my props with paint chipping, but from what I've seen in pics and even on the 'In the pink' dioramma, the props are spotless...am I wrong in wheathering the props in this manner?  I think I am and am considering re-doing them and just doing chipping on the leading edges of the bird...

the g kit is really the standard, too bad it's so hard to find these days.

i'm gonna strip my old one, it got tossed in a box, and crushed when the folks moved ages ago.  i've got a bin full of old warbirds that got smashed during that move.  

what was cool about that monogram kit was it had a full color pamphlet showing you how to weather it and buld a scene;  it was a great b-17 crash landing.  well done. 

i still suck at building models and aspire to that diorama.  anyhoo, i enjoy building them, and it keeps me idle time not so idle.  :)

Yeah, that's kinda over the top, Tiny... The chipping's gonna be on the leading edges almost exclusively...  Remember too that on multi-engined birds, not every prop has the same amount of time on it... You might have one prop that only has a few hours on it while the others are 500-600 hour "veterans"...  On Paine's bird, you can see where at least one engine had been replaced prior to this mission, most likely the prop as well was too...

Heavy weathering and chipping on props will be found on Pacific island bases that use dirt or coral runways, and will look like they were sand-blasted on the leading edges (they were, actually), while props on birds based in England will only  show a little chipping.  Here's Paine's P-61 in the PTO.  Check the chipping on the leading edges of the props and wings/cowls.

 Overall, you won't find any chipping in the middle of the blades like that...

Ugly goat: Welcome to the forums and our little build along! Your fort is looking good so far, keep us posted. I see your a clevelander, what part of town?

Tiny.....There is no 1 best source for decals, but here ya go. Most of the decal sheets come with fairly good painting and decaling instructions, you've mainly just gotta decide which paint scheme you want to go with and choose from there, I do it how hans does it. I always use real BG markings and paint scheme's and even use correct squadron codes for the BG I'm modeling, BUT I use the nose art that comes with the decals...depending on what they are. I'll sometimes use the art, but cut out/off the name and paint on my own. I make up the serial number too.

 http://www.squadron.com/SearchResults.asp?offset=0

http://store.spruebrothers.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=sbm&StoreType=BtoC&Count1=974697291&Count2=891837716&Keyword=B%2D17+1%2F48&Target=products.asp

There is a ton of stuff available for the B-17 in 48th scale, a few of these I didnt even know about, might have to rethink some things.

Hans.....how were you planning on modeling either texas raiders or sentimental journey? Also hans.........Send texas raiders to geneseo NY this coming year, I miss having her at the show, one B-17 is not enough. There used to be 3 or 4 every year, plus the B-24 and the lancaster from canada.

Hans.....how were you planning on modeling either texas raiders or sentimental journey? Also hans.........Send texas raiders to geneseo NY this coming year, I miss having her at the show, one B-17 is not enough.

Plan on doing it the hard way, making my own decals for the nose art...  Texas Raiders' is the complicated one, plus there's two differnt versions of it, depending on what year you're depicting her in...  She got new nose art in 1995 or so, done in a more "WW2"-like style, rather than the airbrushed version earlier...

As for sending any of the CAF birds anywhere, I'm so far down the pecking order I don't even get to talk to the bomber guys anymore.. They think I'm a traitor because I left Fifi's flight crew and went to Gunfighter's hangar.....

Holly crap...is there ever a tonne of shtuff available for the Fort...One could get carried away...and spend way too much money...on stuff that will never be seen...hmmm.

B-17 Guy - Thanks for the links...I did find a couple sheets, but couldn't get a decent close up of the sheet...I did find one sheet available...The Thunderbird...might do it, I havn't decided.  I may just build this Fort to learn from...hone in my skills a little more.  I'll probably do it again...spend way too much money...on stuff that will never be seen...hmmm.

Hammer - I knew it...well, it was my first attempt at salt crystal whear n' tear.  I think I'm gonna go get a little bottle of brake fluid and strip em down...that is the best thing I've seen to strip paint...i used to strip my crappy car paint jobs with it.

It's all about learning the hard way...

i was born and reared on the west side.  old brooklyn.  i could walk to the zoo, w49 and memphis. was out in the wiilds of indiana for five years. now a days(2005) i've moved back to the rural suburbs of north royalton. 

edit"  a bit of cool history.  when we shipped the brits some b-17's, they complaingned that the bomb bays failed to open.  this was the result of the crew pissin out the bombbay during take off.  when they hit altitude, the******froze the doors shut.  maybe legend, but fun nonetheless!  

uglygoat wrote:

i was born and reared on the west side.  old brooklyn.  i could walk to the zoo, w49 and memphis. was out in the wiilds of indiana for five years. now a days i've recently moved back to the rural suburbs of north royalton.

I'm like .....15-20 minutes from you! Brunswick, near laurel and pearl.

too feckin funny... i live on abbey south of albion.  west side of the street.

edit:  to keep the thread on topic... here's the wings curing...

I know exactly where your at!!!! We should meet up one of these days, trade notes.

On topic....Your paint look's good from what I can see in the pic, the only critique I can suggest is that the demarcation lines (piant lines) on the engine nacelles needs fixed. You need to brring the OD down a bit farther past the seam lines of the upper and lower halves of the wings. Other than that, your golden, paint look's flawless.

What is the standard color scheme for the guns? The Revell kit come with them all black and shows Gun Meatl on the barrels but nothing on the gun itself.

it was my first attempt at salt crystal whear n' tear.

Personally, I think that technique's a bit too heavy-handed for 1/48th aircraft, unless we're talking about some Japanese aircraft-types, or P-61s... Widows had some real problems with the black paint at first, Northrop's quality-control wasn't the best for a time, and the Pacific climate played havoc with that color.