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

Nice!

Curious how could i get a set of these decals??   Im goning to build "Sentimental Journey"

Hello, Since this is the never ending B-17 group build, I thought I would submit my B-17 build from about 3 years ago.  My grandfather flew 11 missions as the ball turret gunner on this plane "Cash and Carrie" serial number 425915 of the 390th Bomber Group/ 570th Bomber Squadron).  He was shot down on the Munster Raid of October 10th 1943 and was POW'ed at that time. 

This is the product of about 5 years of research.  Carrie was a Lockeed Vega B-17 F with a somewhat unusual nose configuration (at least from what I could tell).  I took the 1/48 Mongram B-17G and removed the chin turret then reworked both cheek areas.  I fashioned a new nose and gun station since Carrie had a single 50 caliber protruding here.   I was able to find nose art for Carrie through the 390th BG website for which my graphic designer friend made for me.  Unfortunately I have since found out the stars and bars should have had the red border.  Here she is:

Vary nice work I love forts that like this. They have so much more meaning when u have a relitvie that served on one. Would love to see some more pictures.

AlaskanWW2

Curious how could i get a set of these decals??   Im goning to build "Sentimental Journey"

You have to make the Sentimental Journey decals yourself.

Great looking Forts!!  Is this an open ended group build with no end date?? May try to join in.....Does anyone have a dependable source for B17 decals?  They seem to be pretty hard to find on the Squadron Shop site....any suggestions?? 

Is this an open ended group build with no end date??

Yupper..

Dunno about the decals... I'm wanting some red-bordered US Star & Bars myself and haven't found any big enough... You'd think that somebody would make a generic sheet of the things...

Unfortunately I have since found out the stars and bars should have had the red border. 

You can still fudge that without guilt... The red-bordered insignia was ordered removed from all US aircraft 14 September of 1943, and to be painted over with Insignia Blue.. Some units made the transition in a timely manner, some didn't, some had a mix of the two...

You say she was shot down in October of '43, so it's quite possible the repaint was carried out by then...  Easy Peasy!

Hans von Hammer

Is this an open ended group build with no end date??

Yupper..

Dunno about the decals... I'm wanting some red-bordered US Star & Bars myself and haven't found any big enough... You'd think that somebody would make a generic sheet of the things...

              You could try this link,,, may take some lookin but I'm pretty sure I've seen the red bordered ones in 1/48 there,,,,   worth a try anyways,,,,,,,,,

                                                                     http://flightdecs.ca/

you should redo your props with those 1/48 Prop Blurs

Tal Afar Dave

Great looking Forts!!  Is this an open ended group build with no end date?? May try to join in.....Does anyone have a dependable source for B17 decals?  They seem to be pretty hard to find on the Squadron Shop site....any suggestions?? 

Zotz has an excellent decal set for F model Forts.  Its called "Heavenly Bodies".  It has tons of Forts to choose from, to include the "Memphis Belle" and the real B-17 to complete 25 missions "Hells Angel's".  It even includes the red 1943 stars and bars for the fort which is fairly elusive in B-17 modeling.   I found a set on ebay and this seller was kind enough to show the planes you can build.  Heres the link:

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Zotz-Decals-1-48-B-17F-FLYING-FORTRESS-HEAVENLY-BODIES-/400282583402?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d32b3816a

Also, once on ebay, just type in "1/48 B-17" in the search window.  This will pull up tons of B-17 decals from other manufacturers.  Hope this helps....

Joe

Ghostriderp-47

Vary nice work I love forts that like this. They have so much more meaning when u have a relitvie that served on one. Would love to see some more pictures.

Hello, Here are some pics of the construction and modifications I made.  My airbrush was new at the time of this build and I was still getting acquainted with it.  I tried making ammo belts out of styrene and they looked like crap.  After these pics were taken, they were scraped and replaced with an Eduard set (as can be seen in the nose gun).  Thanks for looking.  Comments and critcizms are alway welcome. 

Lawdog114 great looking B-17. The interior painting is flawless. Nice close ups of the cowling flaps and the nose too. Very nice.

 After viewing tons of inspiring work from others I thought I'd attempt to make a contribution. It's missing a few items but it is close to being finished. I posed the gear retracted, other than that it's pretty much straight from the box.

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This being my first attempt at a NMF, I wasn't quite sure how to get a battle weary finish. I used pastels and clear coats to dull the luster on Alclad's aluminum.

handiabled

Hans von Hammer:

Is this an open ended group build with no end date??

Yupper..

Dunno about the decals... I'm wanting some red-bordered US Star & Bars myself and haven't found any big enough... You'd think that somebody would make a generic sheet of the things...

 

 

              You could try this link,,, may take some lookin but I'm pretty sure I've seen the red bordered ones in 1/48 there,,,,   worth a try anyways,,,,,,,,,

                                                                     http://flightdecs.ca/

 

Thanks for the link.. I looked for a while but didn't find what I wanted.. However, I got inspired to make my own with my printer, since I found a stencil that's in the right scale on my Testor's Decal CD... I can print up whole sheets of them now, in various sizes..

I tried making ammo belts out of styrene and they looked like crap.  After these pics were taken, they were scraped and replaced with an Eduard set (as can be seen in the nose gun). 

Way earlier in this thread, and I mean WAY back, I wrote about using plastic zip-ties for those... They work really well, and are super-cheap (even free, in many package-items).. I dip 'em boiling water to bend them to shape... Tried flame, but that always rounds them around the edges, so don't bother with that.. Then just paint them aluminum, then the brass for the "bullets", add a black wash to pop out the rounds, and yer done..

I am starting a monogram 1/48th scale b-17 and I want to upgrade the guns for the entire plane. Any recomendations?

I recomend the quickboost resin gun barrels. A hell of a lot cheaper than the brass master barrels. Not knocking them, just saying they are expensive and would cost probably more than the kit itself for all the guns on a B-17. 

Lawdog, out freak'n standing job on that B-17!!!!!!!!!!!! The mods you did to it look fantastic!!!!!!!! Piant to weathering, damn fine job!!!!!! Only gig against it I can find is an easy fix, I didnt see pitot tubes on the nose, which is an easy add-on. Do you have more info on the mods you did? The engine cowl flaps are aftermarket right? Where did you get the top turret from? Etc....

And like Hans said, dont sweat the red border on the star and bar, they were only used for a few months and then ordered to be painted over with insignia blue. And from what I can see on the decals, it looks to me like that is reflected on your decals. The blue border looks differant then the rest of the blue.

Thanks for the tip on the guns. I have decided to post a couple of pics of my project. I am not doing much to the interior since it will not be seen on this model. I am excited about this build. My grandfather , who was a tail gunner in a b17 in WWII, gave me this model since he never got around to building it. [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0][View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0][View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

B-17 Guy

Lawdog, out freak'n standing job on that B-17!!!!!!!!!!!! The mods you did to it look fantastic!!!!!!!! Piant to weathering, damn fine job!!!!!! Only gig against it I can find is an easy fix, I didnt see pitot tubes on the nose, which is an easy add-on. Do you have more info on the mods you did? The engine cowl flaps are aftermarket right? Where did you get the top turret from? Etc....

 

And like Hans said, dont sweat the red border on the star and bar, they were only used for a few months and then ordered to be painted over with insignia blue. And from what I can see on the decals, it looks to me like that is reflected on your decals. The blue border looks differant then the rest of the blue.

B-17 guy, Thanks for your kind words!  Your the only one who noticed the missing pitot tubes...impressive!  Actually they have been on the list to get added with some Evergreen Stock and rod, but I had gotten sidetracked and then apparently forgotten about them.  I'm gonna have to add them now.  At least I remembered the "football".  Other mods were Quickboost gun barrels and the Eduard Armament set.  The rest was pretty much kit parts or scratch built. I scratch built the bomb bay with Evergreen and used Eduard bay doors.  The cowl flap are also from an Eduard set.  They were kind of a pain in the a@@ to install if memory serves me correctly (I built this plane almost 4 years ago). 

Reference the red border.  I was only concerned because when I built it, I felt that by October it would have had the dark blue border common in late '43.  I later got ahold of that photo (on my original post) which showed what appeared to be a red border.  Also I noticed the "DI" was not present (Bigfoot1 later pointed out that this may be due to editing).  As Hans logically reasoned, that pic was likely taken much earlier than October.  Carrie was in service from July of '43 till October 10th of '43 when she was shot down.  I have pics of her nose art on both sides but I can't post them because they are seriously X-rated....lol. 

Thanks again,

Joe

B-17 Guy

I recomend the quickboost resin gun barrels. A hell of a lot cheaper than the brass master barrels. Not knocking them, just saying they are expensive and would cost probably more than the kit itself for all the guns on a B-17. 

I agreed with B-17 guy.  Go with Quickboost barrels.  They look great and are easy to use!  Just lop off the the kit barrel and super glue these on in place....done.  The down side is that they are "extremely fragile".  They have a tendency to snap of you bump them wrong.  Check this link out:

http://store.spruebrothers.com/148-quickboost-b-17g-flying-fortress-gun-barrels-rev-kit-48042-p4612.aspx

Heres a pic of my B-17 (or any american bomber for that matter) 50 cals with with Quickboost barrels:

Hope this helps,

Joe 

B-17 Guy

Where did you get the top turret from? Etc....

 

Sorry B-17 Guy.....I forgot.  Since the F and G turret glass was different, I swapped out the Turret glass from the Revell "Memphis Belle" B-17 F.  It fit fine with little modification if I remember correctly.

Joe 

Those look great. Thanks to you both for the suggestion. I plan on ordering the barrels this week.

Wow.. Looks like you got one of the original Monogram molds of the kit there, from the 70s.. Could be one of the re-releases though, but it's pre-merger... The fuselage molds were re-tooled in the 80s with the interior detail on the vertical stab...

i've got 2 Monogram B-17G Flying Fortress kits, 1 from the 70's and 1 from the 90's, and the 70's version has much crisper moldings, so Im going to mix the 2 kits together so I can get the best of everything

Not surprising the first one was crisper, since the kit was released in '75 (at least that's when I got three of them for Christmas) and the molds were new (I've bought it at least a six more times, plus two of the ProModeler versions)..  The later releases added the parts for the top turret pedestal and ammo-boxes, and the ball turret got the redone suspension system and O2 tank as well..

                          Just paid a quick visit to the bird I have in the Richard Bong Museum,, they have the display finished and it is a great tribute the the men who flew on them,,,,, as far as guns depending on what variant your building the Aires MII set is super!!!!!!  If you had to you could scratch altitude/airspeed correction sights on them.

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This is likely from the 70s. My grandpa had it in his closet forever. He recently gave it to me since he was not going to build it.

asucorrado

This is likely from the 70s. My grandpa had it in his closet forever. He recently gave it to me since he was not going to build it.

If this is the box-art, then it's pretty likely that it's an original, provided the fuselage doesn't have the ribbing in the vertical stabilizer..

You can deffinetly see that the molds are getting old on the newer boxings of this kit. I've had to polish the exterior of the last 2 that I bought. The surfaces are getting to be pretty rough and grainy in some places, I really dont remember that on the ones I built when I was a young'n. This part of the reason I want a new tooled kit.