B29 Build Progress

Looking great!  

You mention that it took 3 bottles of Tamiya X-1 to paint it (1.5 for the top and 1.5 for the bottom?).  As I read that I thought about modern planes like the C-5A Galaxy and how it takes something like 2000 lbs of paint to cover it!

Fantastic work & build. Bob! As far as the chipped paint, I would make the hole slightly bigger than what you need to cover. Perhaps feather it very, very lightly with some fine sandpaper. Couple of light passes should fix it.

Continuing to work on her, although more slowly.  I can't make a major mistake now!

Fixed the yellow tail stripe; here is a port view:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

And I peeled the masking off the canopy.  I think it came out looking great.  I will sharpen up some of the edges with a toothpick, but it really looks pretty good:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

and a second pic, more from real eye distance:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Onwards and upwards!  Next it is time to start installing the gun turrets, landing gear with gear doors and bomb bay doors. 

cheers, Bob

More progress (gotta love three-day weekends!)

Today she stood on her own wheels for the first time!

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

In addition to the wheels, I installed the bottom gun turrets, the rear gun pod (that 20mm cannon looks enormous compared to the two flanking .50's!)  the skid plate and the radar dome.  There was a certain satisfaction to putting the radome in place, as that was the reason my friend was on board the aircraft in the first place.

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

The asture observer will note that I STILL had to prop up the tail!  Even after all the weight I installed and all my clever girations with the engine nacelle weight, the gun tubs full of BB's and a stack of flattened weight in the lower equipment bay, it still is tail heavy.  I am at a loss as to what to do now, and am about ready to just install the clear plastic tail prop Revell included and call it a day. 

I still have not cemented the upper gun turrets in place, and it is conceivable that I could fill the radio operators space with more weight.  I suppose I could start gluing a stack of nickels in there one at a time so they don't rattle around. 

Another pic:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Letting everything dry real well now and will resume after work next week. 

cheers, Bob

Well done, Bob! Maybe you could put a bit more weight behind the engines? Maybe between that & a few in the radio compartment you will be good. Cheers!

Thanks!  I had a blinding flash of the obvious last night.  Rather than put more weight in the aircraft, I will simply drill two tiny holes in the base upon which I mount it, and loop a piece of clear fishing line to the nose gear, in between the two wheels where it is not visible, and tie the nose down.  I wonder why I did not think of that earlier?

cheers, Bob

Are the turrets permanently attached?  If not you could make a clump of Apoxie Sculpt or Milliput, mix in some steel birdshot and make a mixture that looks like cookie dough.  Then you could stuff it in the turret hole.

I suggest this only because I think that no matter what the fishing line will be visible from at least some angle.

I have this kit it my stash for a future build.

I have a question for anyone to answer.  Has anyone actually determined how many ounces of extra weight need to be added (and where or how distributed) to move the CG forward enough so the model rests on its tricycle gear?

Curt

Just a beautiful piece of work

Thanks, and the best is yet to come.  

Curt, I did not measure precisely, but I have a half ounce fishing weight mashed flat and draped over each engine nacelle, plue five or six more mashed flat in the lower equipment bay.  That is not enough.  I also have one gun tub for the forward upper turret filled with a mixture of ball bearings and expoxy.  Still not enough.  I am going to tie the nose gear down to the base and give up on the weight.  I don't think I have enough volume left (that I can still reach) to add enough weight to level her out.  I'm reluctant to add more to the engine nacelles because I don't want to risk wing joint cracks, especially when I transport it across country.

If I was starting over I would use the bomb bay space, either by weighting the bombs, or filling in the space behind the closed doors. It takes a lot of weight.

Today I spent researching fonts and details on making my own decals.  I found two photographs of "Sweet Sue" online, that show mission markings on the fuselage of thirteen missions, three Purple Hearts and three Japanese fighters shot down.  Those markings were earned on the June 1945 mission where my friend earned his DFC.  I also got a font that looks like the font used to paint the crew names on the side, and what those names were.  So if I can make my own decals I can really make this his airplane.  

More to follow!

Cheers, Bob

God! this looks like a lot of pain.  Pain?  Sorry...I meant paint. A lot of paint. lol =]  Rob, I've been following along for a little while now and I'm excited about your build.  I would more than love to have one of these, but for now I'll still just live vicariously through you.

You mentioned the weight still being a problem.  Have you considered anchoring the front end down onto whatever you are placing it on... i.e. a base or tarmac of some sort.  you could place a rod secured into your base and glue it through a small hole in one of the tires of the front landing gear.  Just a thought.  There's definitely more than one way to fix something like that. =]

Looking forward to seeing more from you.

aaaaaannnd of course I just read more of the above discussion...and consequently feel like an idiot.  Anyhow, it seems like you're on the right track.  =]

LOL...wish I had thought more about it before I got started!

Cheers, Bob

Bob

Thanks for the info.  Sounds like the best approach for me in the future is to mount the nose wheels to the display board.  Easiest method, plus I won't run the high risk of stressing and breaking the landing gear under too much weight.

By the way, you have a great looking build there.  My compliments.

Curt

Curt, it seems to me that if you just nail down the nose gear the tail will not sag but what will keep it from shifting left to right and twisting off that nose gear? I would suggest at least a two point mount; or, more is better.

That's a good point actually.  When you do happen to start moving it around, I bet it'd be a good idea to have each gear secured especially if you've added weights somewhere along the way.  

Would it be hard to drill out some openings in the wheels and insert some of those small but strong magnets?  Then you could put the other magnets in the base.  Those wheels should be big enough to do that.

Shipwreck is right.  If I just attached the nosewheels (either with fishing line or magnets, a screw, or whatever) then the model could easily shift from left to right if jarred, and that would put a lot of strain on the single attachment point.  

My plan will be to secure all three landing gear.  I plan to drill two very small holes just left and right of the gear centerline, then loop a clear piece of line over the gear axle and tie it off underneath.  If I do that to all three gear it should sit pretty securely.

Two more photos of today's progress.  First, I painted the tip of the tail assembly white, which was another part of the squadron markings for 1st Squadron of 9th Group.

You can also see where I have painted the fabric-and-dope covered control surfaces of the horizontal stabilizers.  Same for the rudder.  I did those in plain aluminum, vice the polished aluminum I used on the aircraft body.  I think the contrast is subtle, yet highlights the difference between the fabric surfaces and the aircraft skin.

I did the same on the ailerons on the wings.  I also touched up the trim tabs in polished aluminum afterwards, as they were metal vice the fabric:

Tomorrow is Monday so I go back to the old grind again.  More to follow next weekend.  My plans for then are to turn the aircraft over and paint the stainless steel panels along the exhaust path, then attach the bomb bay and gear doors.

I think I'll hit the whole thing with a coat of Future before I put the decals on, to give them a smooth surface to cling to.

cheers, Bob

Bob, before you do the coat of Future...I'd recommend you checking out the NMF Group Build going on right now.

Try starting here.  That way you're not wandering through too much boring forum talk.  Start there and move forward and you'll see the general discussion unfold for you between everyone in the group.  Generally though you don't need to apply Future or any type of clear coat to Alclad on account of the fact that you should already have a very pristine surface that is very smooth.  The decals will adhere without any trouble.  However, should you weather your B-29 and want to protect it, there is a Light Sheen offered by Alclad that wont detract from the shine too much.  Just lay it down in light coats....very light coats.  It will provide for a weather-beaten warplane that looks the part.  =]

That's the short version.  Give it a look see.

Bob, earlier you mentioned that your bird took 3 bottles of Black paint for an under coat. How much Alclad II polished aluminum did you use? I like the way your plain aluminum worked out for your fabric control surfaces. I am ordering some Alclad II to start some practice runs. I expect to start my B-29 by August. Yours is looking really good!

How did the Alclad over Tamiya acrylic work out; especially when pulling up your masking tape?

bvallot:  I did check out the NMF group Build you suggested and it was great, thanks so much for steering me there.  Lots of good ideas and tips.  Best thing about this forum!

Shipwreck:  I used two 1 oz. bottles of Polished Aluminum.  A little goes a long way.  The Alcald did OK over the Tamiya gloss black.  I did not have any Alclad surfaces pull up when I masked them later.  Last night I sprayed some of the lower engine nacelles Stainless Steel, and had to mask over the original Polished Aluminum; the masking came off just fine with no issues.

However, the original purpose of putting the Stainless Steel down was to emulate those panels that were stainless to disseminate heat and I did not get that effect.  Instead, it looked almost just like the Polished Aluminum that it was sprayed over.  I figured out (later, of course) that I should have put more Gloss Black down on the masked portions.  The Stainless Steel was reflecting the undercoat it was on, which was Polished Aluminum.  Lesson learned here is to re-apply the base coat on any panels you want to overspray with a different Alclad color.  Probably should have figured that out beforehand, but I didn't.  Story of my life   So I guess I will get to re-mask and do it all again. 

Cheers, Bob

Bob -

You and other folks here make a good point about mounting all three landing gears.  Sounds like the method you plan on using will work.  I'll be very interested in the results.

Curt

Curt:  I did a trial run today on the mounting, pics below.  I cut a small piece of plywood as a sample base, just to have a way to work with the model in the last phases, including being able to put it on a turntable for ease of access.  This is NOT the finished base, just a working base. 

Below you can see the nose gear tied down.  I had to relearn my Boy Scout skills a bit and did not get the knot quite tight enough; you can see the wheel is up about 1/8-1/16". I used thread for this trial run, rather than clear fishing line (which is my plan for the finished product). 

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

The next pic shows all three wheels tied down and the model, with its new plywood base, setting on top of a small turntable.

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I spent the little time I had this weekend attaching the gear doors and bomb bay doors.  After I had them glued in place, I mixed up a touch of epoxy and put a drop on each of the hinges for all ten doors, to strengthen the joint a bit in case of bumps.

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I made up some decals on my printer and got clear decal paper and a sealer.  This will be another first for me.  I am breaking all sorts of personal new ground on this build!

Recall that this is for a friend who won a Distinguished Flying Cross (and four Air Medals) in this airplane.  I thought some sort of identification of his achievements was necessary, so I procured the full-size medals of each award (including the three oak leaf clusters on his Air Medal), along with a set of enlisted observer wings.  I plan to mount the wings, and medals, alongside a brass engraved plaque with his name on it on the actual base.  I don't plan on doing a diorama base, just a plain wooden one.  There should be plenty of room!

Stay tuned, film at eleven...

cheers, Bob

Wow! Looks great. I hear you on relearning Scouting skills... But I just have to remember them... even though I'm still involved with Scouting!

Just thought of this.

You could hide the string/fishing line using wheel chocking blocks.

Allen109

Just thought of this.

You could hide the string/fishing line using wheel chocking blocks.

That's a great idea!  I've found some balsa stock at Hobby Lobby that is milled to a trapezoidal shape.  Cut to size, prime and connect with some thread (rope) and presto!   Wheel chocks to conceal your line...

Gary

Another weekend of progress.  I did something new (to me) this time:  I made my own decals.  I wanted the airplane to reflect his own aircraft, so I did research to find the names of the aircraft commander, crew chief and navigator and put their names on a decal sheet to scale.  I also made three Purple Hearts to put on the nose, as my research indicated that they painted those on the nose after the June '45 Kobe mission (where they shot down the three Japanese fighters and all the crew received Distinguished Flying Crosses).

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I also put the remainder of the decals on the aft end of the airplane, most visibly the "Circle X" of the 9th Group:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

I noted in one pic that Monogram has a sense of humor.  Underneath the pilot's names, I installed the kit-supplied decal of the model of the B-29, sort of the Air Air Corps version of the "dataplate" to identify the type of aircraft.  Note the bottom line:

image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Anyway, it is well on its way to completion now.  I still have to install the engines and have been giving thought to a base.  I think it will be cherry plywood with a molding border to provide a lip, and an acrylic cover that sets within said lip. I'll also include a full sized Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and his enlisted observer wings.

cheers, Bob

After further review, I noticed that my humor is not likely to be noticed.  I blew up the decal in question:

IMG_2063 - Version 2 by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

The last line says the aircraft is "suitable for aromatics".  I suppose the actual marking says "acrobatics", but what the heck do I know?

I then moved the model to a large counter and marked off a 27" square base in blue tape.  I wanted to position the medals and a brass plaque (represented by a piece of white paper) to see if the arrangement made any sense:

Untitled by robertholcomb73, on Flickr

Still haven't glued the engine cowlings on. 

cheers, Bob

It means that it able use aromatic fuels. Aromatics are carbon ring compounds such as benzene. They get their name because they are smelly, sometimes nice, sometimes not so nice. They also burn with a smoky flame.

Aromatics have very good octane rating. In Europe between the wars, before tel became available, the way of boosting the octane rating of fuels was to add Benzol. Benzol was the commercial name for a mixture of benzene and toluene derived from coal tar. The disadvantage of using aromatics to boost octane rating is that large quantities have to added as basically you are adding high octane fuel to a low octane fuel to raise its octane rating. In contrast only small amounts of tel need to be added.

When American aircraft were first brought to the UK the engines sometimes encountered problems running with the high aromatic content fuels is use and adjustments had to be made such as replacing the jets in carburetors.

Gasoline used to contain, IIRC, about 60%-65% aromatics but in modern times this has been reduced to about 35%-40%.

Great looking build, and aromatics is referring to fuel.