1/48 Monogram B-17G Flying Fortress

 Alright Mr. Modest, you're scratchin like that, and you worried about the show..c'mon!

Looks like a great start, lookin forward to more!

( see ya saturday!!!)

What a great start. Look forward to following the thread!

Charlie

Holy bee-geezus! Quite the detail goin' on there.

What are you, a brain surgeon on your off time? You're definitely a nano expert. Wow.

It looks as if you soldered the metal parts. Must be a teensy little soldering iron for that!

Fantastic!  Personally, I think every greta project starts out with the tailwheel. ;D  I look forward to watching your progress- cheers!

chuk

Some great scratchin, that's for sure.  Keep us posted as you progress.

Regards,  Rick

Great start and stunning scratchbuilding. I take it that the tail assembly was soldered?

...Guy

I'd like to join in with the rest of the gang, very nicely done!  You've got some really great precision work there.  I'm not confident enough with a soldering iron to try what you're doing.

The strut and the box both look fantastic!

Regards,

Brad

That is friggin' cool.  I'm curious as to what pictures you may have used as reference.  Every picture I have of the tail wheel assembly shows the upper brace attached to the oleo strut and then disappearing into a giant bag/tarp-like thing.

I scratched something similar out of styrene for my build.  Not to hijack, but to show comparisons, here's a picture of what I came up with for that assembly

-Fred

Gigatron wrote:

That is friggin' cool.  I'm curious as to what pictures you may have used as reference.  Every picture I have of the tail wheel assembly shows the upper brace attached to the oleo strut and then disappearing into a giant bag/tarp-like thing. I scratched something similar out of styrene for my build.  Not to hijack, but to show comparisons, here's a picture of what I came up with for that assembly -Fred

Hi Fred,

    Here are a few pictures that sold me on the structure

I looked for 3 days gathering information before I even cut the parts off the tree.  I know it's not perfect, but it's close.

Cheers

Lancair,

Great detailing, this is the kind of stuff I like to see in the forum.  Looking forward to seeing more of your work on this build. 

Thanks for posting. 

Steve

Thanks for all the kind words.  I ordered Big Eds PE so while I wait for that, I continue on the tail area.  I rebuilt the Tail Wheel electric motor support.  The 1st one was too big.  The tail wheel housing is ready for paint.  I'll make the canvas cover after it is installed.  Most of the bulkheads are complete that support the Horizontal Spar attachments, the Elevators have been cut apart and hinged and will be joined by the elevator torque tube.  Tomorrow I'll concentrate on the elevator torque tube and the arms that the cables attach too, and start the rudder pivots and torque tube.

Tail Components 

Elevator Hinge Components

Elevator in the down position

Elevator in the up position

Thanks for looking

I made a similar one out of plastic, don't know if it will support the aircraft, but that was over 20 yrs. ago and it's sitting in a box on the shelf.  I don't think I had any detail shots of the retract mechanism, just the good side shot of it showing the bracing.  I crawled from the waist past the tail wheel assy on the CAF's bird in flight but that was way back in 1979.  Only thing I really remember was ducking under the elevator spar and rudder post to get into the tail gunners seat.  Great work with the brass!  When you get to the main gear they need to be lengthened at least an 1/8 of an inch.  The main tires are way too close to the wheel wells.  I cut some spacers out of brass tubing to keep them from setting into the sockets too far.

These are some of the after market parts I have acquired for this build.

True Details
Cockpit Section

Bombardier Section

Waist Gunner Section

Tires

Crystal Clear Canopies
Cockpit canopy & Ball Turrent

Nose Cone, Upper Turrent, Radio Room Hatch, Astrodome, Tail Turrent

Quickboost.net
Radial Engines

Gun Barrels

Eduards PE was shipped yesterday from Czech Republic.

Cheers

B-17 Guy wrote:

Hey rob, I've got the cockpit set to, I noticed mine has only one control column and yoke, same with yours?

Ya mine is the same way.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that there is another in the bombardier kit.  This stuff is a pain getting it to fit right.  I'm stopping the cockpit until I get my Eduards PE.  There's going to be a lot of mixing and matching.

Cheers

Lancair IV wrote:

B-17 Guy wrote: Hey rob, I've got the cockpit set to, I noticed mine has only one control column and yoke, same with yours? Ya mine is the same way.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that there is another in the bombardier kit.  This stuff is a pain getting it to fit right.  I'm stopping the cockpit until I get my Eduards PE.  There's going to be a lot of mixing and matching. Cheers

That's really stupid, not much really makes me angry, but this does for the principle of it. I should not have to buy a differant set to get the parts to finnish another set, those two parts dont even belong in that area of the plane, so why would they come in that set? i dont get it.

B-17 Guy wrote:

That's really stupid, not much really makes me angry, but this does for the principle of it. I should not have to buy a differant set to get the parts to finnish another set, those two parts dont even belong in that area of the plane, so why would they come in that set? i dont get it.

Marketing, how else are they going to get you to buy more of their products.

Eric... 

wow, Rob! Very ambitious....I like it. I, too, will be following what you do closely. Some day I'll get to my B-17, and seeing your build will both speed that date up and also provide a lot of tips.

The Eduards PE arrived today.  WOW.  They really have nice looking stuff.  Can't wait to start adding it to the model.

Eduards Masking

Eduards Seat Belts

Eduards Engine Details

Eduards Exterior

Eduards Flaps

Eduards Nose Interior

Eduards Rear Interior

Eduards Cockpit

Eduards Mid Section Interior

Cheers