"Foiled" Again: B17G Build

i was wondering if you had made progress, I noticed a fall in availability of foil and an increase in aluminium prices 

those wings look awesome.

Bravo!  Beautiful, meticulous work.  Will follow with real interest.

These are really coming along!  Can't wait to see more.  =]

Thanks for the kind words.  I finished one of the wings and discovered the B-17G's had vents on the wing tips because of the Tokyo Tanks.  I had to pull the foil, and cut out an opening in the wing tip.  I then used a spare wing and carefully cut one of the vents and put it in place.  More sanding and I got the result I wanted.  Set me back a few weeks and then I needed a break from the foiling!  

Great efforts on the wings!!  Looks awesome, love the foil finish!!

Keep up the great work!

I FINALLY got the wings almost finished.  Progress on them was slow but I like the way they turned out so far.  I still have a few touch ups but hope to be moving on to the vertical stabilizers soon.

I cut away the area where the super charger pipe passes because of the wheel well.  I then cut an aluminum tube in half and filled it in prior to foiling.

Thanks for looking!

I was able to get one of the engines foiled up.  

I also cut away the side where the super charger pipe would pass.  I cut an aluminum tube in half and filled it in.  

awesome foil job, i admire your skill and patience!

I began the wings last week.  "Chaplain's Office" #3 engine broke off from its mount upon crash landing.  I therefore cut away the kit firewall and scratch built one.  

Thanks! Working my way back toward the tail.  Chaplain's Office had several panels damaged and tore loose when the tail broke.  I cut this area away and will make foil panels to simulate this later.

Seadog, that's beautiful work!  It looks very natural.  You're doing a superb job.  In fact, it looks so natural, that I'm inspired to try the same thing on my B-17G.

Here are a few more as I work my way back toward the tail.  Finishing up where the panels come together along the upper portion of the fuselage.  Have to finish the nose which is last, tail and tail gunner area.  The black marks are from my Sharpie and I haven't cleaned them off yet.

Thank you :)

Another technique that can be tried is running the tool along the foil and making a line of rivets. Then using a straight edge and a sharp Xacto knife trim the foil away leaving only the rivets.  You can use the rivets to fix details sanded away or make your own rivet seams without doing the entire project in foil.  If you trim the foil close enough it will never show up.  Works great on tough to sand areas like wing roots.  I'll post more photos soon. Almost done with the fuselage and will be starting the wings soon.

Rick

This looks fantastic; I too now want to go out and pick up another B-17 project.  I will definitely be following this thread and getting ideas.  I am seeing things here that can be used on many different projects not just WWII aircraft.

I am currently getting ready to start an F-4G in the markings of the 124th FW, Idaho National Guard, the last operational unit of F-4G's and the only Air National Guard Unit to fly the F-4G model.  I will be doing updates and photos of this for a group build taking place here.

Great story and a great build!

Rick, thanks for posting the pictures. That puts a whole new light on the entire project for us observers. You ever thought of writing a book about this event? It would make a great story. I would definitely buy it!

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the comments.  Good question on why the foil on a painted B-17.  When I started this, I had no intention of the foil.  My problem began when I had to re-arrange the nose windows and sanded all of the details off.  Trying to scribe panel lines also tore up my putty work and I needed a solution for the nose.  When I foiled the nose and put the rivets in I knew I had to do the entire plane.  Because I always wanted to do a big project  this was the one, especially with my collection of artifacts etc.  

Time for you to get going on your Grandfather's B-17, rivets and all! :)

Rick

What a great homage to these brave men.  Its looking great Rick.  Loving the detail work in the waist gunner section and the spent shell casings.  It reminds me of Shep Paine's B-17.  Isn't it a shame most of this work will be sealed up?  Cool reference pics too.  I was able to get a photo of my Grandfather's B-17 belly landed in the German countryside.  You can almost make out the port outboard engine all shot up.  I am however curious, why the foil on an Olive Drab over Neutral Grey scheme?  Perhaps you said and I missed it.

Anyways, I'm following your work and can't wait to see it completed.

Joe

In my experience I would say no.  I sanded my work  until the seams were as smooth as I could get them.  After that, I used a cloth buffing wheel in my Dremel tool to smooth the plastic and seams-turned out like glass!  Then I would apply the foil and never had a problem.  Although it is thin, Reynold's Wrap does have a thickness to it and so far seams and blemishes have not surfaced.

I'll add one more technique for the brave-after putting a piece on, if you gently removed it the foil will get really small wrinkles in it.  If you then put it back and lightly smooth it out, it really looks like the stressed skin of a WWII plane.  I found this out by accident but was already almost done and there was no way I was going to start from scratch! :)

Rick

I have one more question about the foil, when using Alclad or any silver paint the plastic has to be prefect, does it need to be polished to perfection for foil? I wouldn't leave huge scratches I always smooth seams out, but with metal paints you have to be anal about it, and I was wondering if it was the same for foil?

LT. Zitnik

Sgt Rimmer

Major Hackl

These are the actual men involved.  I'll post a photo of LT. Pelley when I have one.  He was the bombardier that tried to pull Sgt. Rimmer back up prior to the crash.  Progress has been a bit slow but I'll be back at it this week and post more photos.  Hoping to FINALLY finish the fuselage so I can start on the wings.

Rick

Starboard side tail.  Some items of interest:  The crew entry door appears to have collapsed inside from the tail breaking.  The tail wheel is visible and I'm not certain if the recovery team was trying to lower the wheels as the plane was lifted or if the wheel was possibly forced down where the damage was.  There were no squadron codes painted on the sides.  This aircraft was transferred from another group and never had numbers painted on the fuselage.   There is also damage around the elevator.

Here are a few photos of the actual B-17 crashed at the field.  They are of low quality but if you look close at the nose and cockpit window the white marks are actually bare aluminum where bullet holes are.  You can also see the engine is tore off the mount and was possibly smoking.

Amazing! Simply amazing!

This is all I've gotta say here:

Incredible building by the way, especially with the wood!