B29 Build Progress

Liking this build. Learning some stuff as well. Keep it up.

Thanks, Allen109.  I am getting to the hard stuff now, the canopy putty work and the paint job on the whole airplane exterior.  I feel much better about it now than I did when I first began the build, though, thanks to the tips from the forum. 

cheers, Bob

More progress to report.  This weekend I installed the canopy and chin bubble on the aircraft, then puttied the seams.  I also glued the wings onto the aircraft.

I have to say, the fit of the canopy and the wings are generally poor.  The canopy required a lot of putty or filler to make it smooth and I am not sure I am done yet.  Also, it is tough to work around all the rivets on the canopy frame.  I was afraid I would sand them all off. 

The wings fit is also not very good.  The weight of the wings is carried by the spars which fit inside.  One of the four spars had to be trimmed down a bit to fit inside and the wing root seam will require a boatload of filler and sanding to be made smooth and blend in.  As pleased as I have been with this kit overall, this portion has been a bit of a disappointment. 

Two photos:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I painted the canopy base coat as the interior green, which is why it is already painted. I also masked off all the glass windows and plugged the various holes for the gun tubs, etc prior to priming the aircraft. 

Next step for me is to attach the horizontal stabilizers tomorrow, then begin work on the wing roots before I put on the primer coat.  I foresee a lot of sanding in my immediate future...

cheers, Bob

Looking good Bob, I have no doubts you'll be able to pull it off

RCH73

Joe: thanks for the tip, will do that when I spray the canopy.  I don't plan to paint the inside, so having the first coat be green should be perfect.  I assume you meant 90%.  Can you elaborate a bit on how you measure out the right proportions in an airbrush color cup?  So far I have not thinned any of my paints, and I think I am missing something by not doing it.  Do you mean isopropyl alcohol

Yep....Isoprophyl...sorry.  In my Tamiya acrylics I use the 91% variety that you get at a drug store.  I can't give you a proportion because I never measure.  I mix my paints in those concave artist pallets.  I use an old Testor's plastic paint brush and pull the paint out of the bottle then into one of the concave sections of the pallet.  For convenience, I keep my 91% Iso in an old soap container (like softsoap or dial) with the pump on top. so I just pump out as much as I need into the paint.   It works great.  I usually just eyeball the paint mixture.  I then dump it in the top of my airbush cup.  If its too translucent, Ill add more paint and vice-versa. 

That B-29 is coming along nicely....and I like your props, very convincing

Joe

Joe:  thanks, that is very helpful.  I'll have to go look for the 91% solution.  I appreciate your detailed info on how to mix it.  I'll give it a whirl.

7474:  thanks for the vote of confidence.  I will start my seam work tonight and let you know how it goes.

cheers, Bob

Well, one thing I have found out is that it took a whole lot less time to build a real B-29 than it has taken me to build this model of one...

As I suspected, a lot of seam work has been in my life lately, not just because of ill-fitting seams, either.  I have done a lot of discovery learning and re-learning.  I have finally settled on Tamiya white putty as my putty of choice, and am happy with how it is turning out.  Photo below shows one underside wing seam and the center seam between the bomb bays.  I have also stuffed tissue into the wheel wells to avoid overspray when I prime it.

photo 1 by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Next photo shows overview of entire underside:

photo 3 by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Center seam is almost (but not quite) finished, with about 3 inches aft of the rear bomb bay still to be sanded (it is drying as I write; it included a round hole for the clear plastic support to be emplaced, upon which the tail would rest when the model was displayed.  After putting about 15 pounds of lead weights in the nose, I don't think I need the plastic strut and so puttied over the hole)

The starboard horizontal stabilizer had a significant ridge where it mated to the fuselage.  This could be a bad design or it could be that I screwed up somewhere when I installed it.  To remedy the situation, I took two white styrene strips, one .02" thick and the other .01" thick, and used them to make a "stair" gradually sloping down from fuselage to stabilizer.  A little putty and a lot of sanding later and I have a smooth blending of stabilizer to fuselage.  That is what that the white strip is on the right side (starboard when the airplane is right-side-up). 

Below pic is a close up of the strips.  Sanding is almost completed on them now.  The white line on the left side stabilizer is just the putty seam; no styrene needed there.

photo 2 by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

It was a stroke of genius to use different size corks to plug the gun turret holes prior to painting.  You may also notice that the horizontal stabilizers themselves are already primed; I got ahead of myself and primed them before they were installed.  I then got to sand away much of the primer for my haste.

I have found if I sand away the panel lines that a light scribing with a metal ruler makes a suitable replacement.  I know one is raised and the other is not, but it fools the eye for a short panel line. 

Anyway, just wanted the forum to know I was plugging away and making progress.  Figuring out my own best technique for putty and sanding was a major step (and with a lot of mis-steps along the way!).

BTW, in my spare time I have also now begun the Trumpeter 1/48th C-47 aircraft, in honor of my mother-in-law who was a flight nurse on one in WWII.  She now lives with us, became interested in the B-29 work and inspired me to do something for her service as well.  I probably won't go on writing about that build until the B-29 is done, but it gives me something else to work on whilst waiting for stuff to dry or if boredom sets in with sanding.  There are about a zillion parts in that Trumpeter kit.  I will have to scratchbuild stretcher racks inside, I guess. 

cheers, Bob

Looking great. Have you tried the acetone trick with Tamiya Putty?  Basically fill your seam with the putty then put regular strength nail polish remover on a Q-tip then wipe the seam.  It removes the excess and leaves the seam filled perfectly.  I know it works great with Squadron Putty but I'm not sure about Tamiya.  I look forward to your progress.   

Joe

Joe: have not tried that yet.  Do you do it when the putty is still wet, or do you do it after it has dried?

Cheers, Bob

When the putty is still wet.

Time for another update.  As predicted, much putty and sanding was necessary.  I have heard that one of the resons for primer coats is to reveal the flaws in your seam work.  It certainly did that in my case...  I have primed the whole model and re-worked almost every single seam, sanding and polishing my little heart out.  I think I am almost done now and ready to re-prime. 

I shot a few photos but my Flickr account has suffered some sort of catastrophic software enhancement and now I can't paste my photos in here like I used to. 

Once I figure out how to unscrew Flickr I'll resume posting photos. 

cheers, Bob

cheers, Bob

Bob,

She is looking beautiful.  You have done a great job and I have learned a great deal from your posts.  I have a 1/48 B-29 with some aftermarket goodies waiting for me to finish some of my ships models..... The plan being that I would do some planes in between ship builds to mix things up a bit and hang them from my boys ceiling.  I finished the Hawk/Linberg Graf Zeppelin for them a couple of years back and they want more.

Thanks again,

Steve

Thanks, Steve.  The good words are much appreciated and fuel to keep going!!

I think I got Flickr figured out.  Photo below shows the port side of the cockpit after sanding.  Trying to be careful not to remove the rivet detail.  We'll see how it looks when the second primer coat is applied.

The photo below shows one of the engine nacelles.  Remember, I thought these seams looked pretty good BEFORE I primed it.  As you can see from the sanding required, not so much.  Given the unforgiving nature of the Alclad finish, I thought I had better continue working on it.

You can see I still have sanding dust on the upper part; haven't wiped it off yet. 

Its coming along nicely!   All that seam work sucks now but in the end it will pay huge dividends!

I'm really enjoying following your build here.  I'm working myself on a couple of B-17s after being out of the hobby for quite a while, you're getting back up to speed very well.  Looking forward to seeing how she comes out!

thanks, Maharrin.  I am really enjoying the build.  One of the best parts about returning to the hobby again is this forum.  Great resource, good tips from everyone and a nice way to stay in touch with others.  My experiences in life so far have taught me that horse people and modelers are always willing to help and share information.  Great communities to be involved with!

cheers, Bob

So, I have finally completed the sanding and puttying step (I thought it would NEVER end!) and have begun to put on the metal paint job.  First step was to prime the model all over, which I did in gray.  Sharp-eyed readers will note there are two shades of gray on as primer.  I ran out of one, and rather than stop I just shifted to a different shade of gray.  Figured it would not matter in the end since there would be gloss black over it all. 

Next is to paint the fuselage stripe around the tail, which was an identification marking for the 9th Bomb Group.  This marking is three equal size stripes:  first black, then yellow, then black again.  Recall that I plan to put a coat of gloss black over the entire airplane as an undercoat to the Alclad II Polished Aluminum.  The color scheme for this tail marking is a lot like the prop colors (black with yellow tips).  Just to prove that an old dog can learn a new trick, this time I decided to paint the yellow on first, then put the gloss black on second.

Photo below shows the masking job for the yellow stripe.  Strictly speaking, this step was unnecessary, as any overspray of the 1/2" yellow stripe would be covered by black later.  However, I generally don't realize steps are unnecessary until I have completed them...

Note this is the underside of the airplane, and that is the tail turret.  Of course the paint job has to run over the turret; nothing easy about this.

Next photo shows the paint applied:

Finally the view after the masking tape has been removed.  There still was some overspray but by now I was not worried about it. The turret is shown underneath.

Next step will be to let this dry thoroughly, then mask off the yellow strip.  Masking then will be much more critical to keep the proper width of the stripe all around the compound curves of the fuselage and gun turret. 

Then I will wipe down the whole model, and carefully spray the gloss black over it all.  Once that is all dry, I'll mask off the two 1/2" black stripes, one on each side of the yellow, and then begin the Alclad spraying.

Starting to look like an airplane now! 

Cheers, Bob

Doing a great job, I was hoping you'd spray the yellow first before the black stripes. I'm not sure if the yellow would also go on the turret. I think it might have been the fuselage it self, not including the turret. That's all I have, I'll keep checking back on your progress.

7474:  Thanks for the kind words.  I learned from the prop experience not to spray the darker shade first; much easier to begin with the lighter shade.  Especially since the whole aircraft will get a black coat on its way to Alclad Polished Aluminum.  Just made more sense.

I have the following to photos to guide me for my friends airplane.  First was taken on Iwo Jima on the mission in which they won their Distinguished Flying Crosses; his is Number 5.  Second was take on their home base at Tinian North Field.  Both look to me like the colors extend to the turret itself.  Seemed strange to me as well, because the effect would get lost as soon as the turret rotated, but what do I know?

Sweet Sue on Iwo Jima by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Number 5 by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Taking a short vacation with the Missus so will be away from the workbench for about a week. 

cheers, Bob

Nice work bob, a good bit of masking over that turret.

I have major progress to report today.  After I painted the yellow portion of the tail stripe, I went on Spring Break with The Missus and let everything dry thoroughly for one week.  When I returned, I sprayed a coat of Future over the yellow stripe (both to gloss it up a bit and to protect it from masking), then I masked the yellow off and prepared for the overall coat of Gloss Black.

The masking:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I then mixed up the black paint.  Earlier I had come to the conclusion that I was using paint that was too thick as I started having some airbrush issues.  So for this coat I wanted to be meticulous about the paint.  I used Tamiya acrylic, Black (code is X-1), and made a mixture of 2/3 paint and 1/3 Tamiya thinner (X-20A).  That seemed to me to be the right consistency (which I have heard is about the consistency of 2% milk.  I don't drink milk, so I had to go to The Missus to find out what consistency that actually was.  She squared me away...).

Then I cleaned the model off with an old T-shirt and just sort of buffed it up a bit over the primer.  I made a soft towel base on a lazy susan so I could turn it easily, yet could still reach all the sides.  Earlier experience with the primer coat taught me that the vise I had the model mounted in prevented me from covering the whole fuselage; the vise sides got in the way.  So for this adventure I took it out of the vise and laid it on a soft towel.  I then sprayed on the coat of black on the top portion of the aircraft:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

The lazy susan and soft towel are not visible as I covered them with a sheet of newspaper to avoid spraying them black.  The coat shown (only the top) took 1 and 1/2 bottles of black (the 1/3 oz bottles).  Did I mention this thing is HUGE?  I have another 1 and 1/2 bottles left to do the underside tomorrow.

Here is another photo:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

And another of the cockpit area:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I am pleased with how this came out up to this point. 

Next step is to turn it over tomorrow night and put the same coat of black on the underside.  It should be thoroughly dry by then.  I erected a tent of poly film over the model on the workbench to prevent dust from settling on it.  I'll buff the black paint again with the old t-shirt and make any minor corrections to the seam work if necessary.

Careful prep and attention to detail with the paint mixing has paid off so far.  I hope it continues to do so with the Alclad II Polished Aluminum coat.  I have a three week business trip coming up on Sunday, so my plan is to shoot the black on the underside Thursday night, then the top portion with Alclad on Friday and the bottom with Alclad on Saturday.  Then I'll cover the model with the polyfilm tent and secure from General quarters for three weeks while I attend to the day job.  Hope to post some pics Saturday of the Alclad II coat.

cheers, Bob

Man, Bob, this is so cool!   It's so obviously a true labor of love and the dedication shows.  Dayum , this is making me want one now!   Thanks for the update and the inspiration.

Gary

Bob, it looks like you are spraying inside your house. How are you getting rid of the fumes, or staying alive, or staying married? Tamiya acrylics are bad enough; but I understand that Alclad is pretty potent.

Haven't had any complaints yet from Herself.  Partly because I'm downstairs and she is mostly upstairs when I've been painting.  I have not venilated well and need to improve that.  There is a good window I could use.  Mostly my strategy has been to ignore it, but after tonights session, with a whole bottle and a half, I think I should be more careful.  

Thanks.  It is a labor of love; he is a wonderful teacher and mentor to both my wife and I.  i am enjoying doing it!

I just discovered this thread today.  Fascinating !  very good of you to post all these steps as it helps me (and many as well )  as a modeler.  Instead of hitting the "honey do list " i've been reading every word and studing the photos.  The SWMBO is not happy LOLO.

A couple of tips for you mate;

Have you tried masking the turret holes etc. with foam ear plugs instead of corks ?  The kind that you roll in your fingers before sticking them in your ears.  They expand to most any shape and are easily obtainable and cheap.

The base coat used for the Alclad II makes a big differance in the final appearance. ie. gloss black, flat black and grey primer all make the Alclad appear different in sheen and give the appearance of different metals.  I use the same Alclad paint for most of my metal finishes, so I don't hafta buy several colors of Alclad, I simply area prime with different colors.

Jay:  have not tried foam earplugs but they would work quite well if they come in different sizes.  As long as the plug was smaller than the hole.  The gun turret holes in this build might be too large for ear plugs.  But I'll add it to my tips file!

Don Stauffer alos mentioned once about the use of different colored panels underneath the Alclad coat and I was considering that.  I may try it on certain panels on this aircraft.  It does seem to me to be the easier way to achieve panel shading.  

thanks, Bob

Annnddd we have liftoff!  First photos of Alclad II Polished Aluminum on the upper surfaces...

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

And the cockpit area:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

After it drys I will roll her over and do the underside.  Needs a little polish work but I am quite pleased overall with how it has turned out.  the top of the monster took a full bottle (1 oz) of Polished Aluminum and half of another! 

Cheers, Bob

If you haven't already...I'd stick your head into the NMF GB going on right now in the Group Build section.  You'll definitely see some great things in there and it may give you some food for thought in tackling this behemoth.  =D  I can't even imagine how much Alclad you're gonna go through on this one!!  Holy cow.

I've been keeping tabs on this thread for a while now, and I'm happy to see it get to the fun part.  Usually, I see a nice build in progress and I think how much I want to add one to my collection.  But on this one...I might just be happy to live vicariously through you. =]  Good luck.

So, I am back at the workbench after a three week business trip.  First thing I discovered was that my yellow stripe on the tail chipped when I removed the masking   So, I am seeking advice on how to fill it back in and re-spray.  My first thought was to cut a small hole in a frisket sheet about the same size as the missing paint chip and slap that puppy over the spot and respray.  But then cooler heads prevailed and I thought I ought to ask the advice of the forum before I leaped.

Any good advice on repairing chipped paint?

cheers, Bob