"Foiled" Again: B17G Build

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.

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.  

awesome foil job, i admire your skill and patience!

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.  

Thanks for looking!

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.

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.

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

Keep up the great work!

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!  

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

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

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.

Nice work on those wings.

LOL! I finished my last piece of foil and can finally start putting this thing together.  You should be able to get Reynold's Wrap in the stores again! :)

LOL! I'm done with the foiling portion, the stores should be able to stock up again!

Vertical Stabilizer(s)

Finished the roof of the cockpit.  Windows and other details will come later.  I'm starting on the engine cowlings and cowl flaps.  Hopefully I'll be able to do some assembly soon.......

I've been working on the engines, cowl flaps and engine nacelles.  Almost done and hope to start assembling the entire plane!  Here's the process, step by step.

This is turning out great!  Exceptional work!

Thanks. It took several attempts to figure out how to do this and make it look the way I wanted.  Then, I had to do four times.  I'm almost done with both wings and hope to be moving on the assembly soon!

I finally began painting "Chaplain's Office".  "Chaplain's Office" was an O.D. painted aircraft and was not left in aluminum like later in the war.  After painting the initial O.D and Gray, I LIGHTLY ran fine sand paper over the surface which brought out the surface detail, seams and panels.  Later on I'm going to use pastels but haven't got that far yet.  I've also found it much easier to work with sub-assemblies rather than the whole plane at once.  The wings and horizontal stabilizers will go on last after the windows and decals.

Starboard wing. The "blobs"are small pieces of artist gum that cover the flak hits.  When removed, the holes will be visible with the aluminum exposed around the damage. Tape pulled off my black de-icer boot color which needs a touch up too.

#4 engine.

#1 engine

Here's my tail gun modification.  I drilled out the plastic, used Miliput to form the canvas and hand made the piece where the barrels will be mounted.  Still needs some additional work but I'm getting there.  Hope to put in more time this week.  I'm at a point where EVERYTHING is a sub assembly that takes time. Thanks for looking.

Quite an impressive undertaking and fantastic story to boot.  Given all that tedious work I think I'll refer to you as "Job", because you have to have his patience.

Story gave me a bit of a pause, and reminded me of a bit of poetry I first came across in one of my high school English textbooks -

en.wikipedia.org/.../The_Death_of_the_Ball_Turret_Gunner

Seadog, I missed your last couple of installments here.  This is starting to come together now! =]  I'm thinking about it more now about how jealous I am that your rivets are all raised.  I'm about to mount a massive campaign to rivet a B-17E but alas they will nearly all be lowered into the surface with my riveter tool.  I do plan on getting some Archer rivets to use in conjunction...but let me says "hat's off to you" bud.  You've even given me something to think about with regards to the engine nacelles.  =]

Can't wait to see more.

Great foil work...look forward to seeing how this baby turns out! : )

This looks really awesome.  I'm pretty certain I would not have the patience to foil a whole aircraft and then paint over it.  The results are speaking for themselves though!

Groot

Very impressive

Progress was slow but steady and I finally got time to post.  Couldn't find the parts I wanted to represent the flanges for the supercharger piping.  I finally came up with an idea and can't believe it worked-flex staws cut and glued together!  Try it!

Here's the installed straw piping.  The picture is dark but it looks pretty good installed.  Once weathered I hope to bring out the details.

Radio room gun mount ring still in progress.

Gloss coat and 384th BG decals from Mike Grant.  Bullet holes and tail damage too.

And finally the nose..........I can't begin to say how much Mike Grant helped me with the decals!!!! GREAT GUY!  I'm in the process of sealing the decals and putting the flat coat back on.

And here's the rest of the sub-assemlies.  I have never build a model in sub-assumblies before but because of the size have found it to be MUCH easier!  Right now all the large portions are compleded and ready to go.  I have to put in the windows and a few more minor interior details and will be ready for assembly soon!

Hope you like it, Happy Thanksgiving!

Rick

Just caught up with this Rick,excellent craftmanship! Looking forward to the next update!

seadog30

Hi,

I'm new to the Forum although I have been following it for years.  I'm partial to building B-17's and wanted to post the project I've been building for quite some time.  I'm a long time military collector/model builder and have always wanted to do something unique.  Several years ago, I acquired artifacts from a pilot in the 384th Bomb Group.  His B-17, "Chaplain's Office", was damaged by German fighters on November 26, 1943.  When the crew bailed out, the ball turret gunners parachute got caught on the plane so the pilot and bombardier stayed behind to try and help him.

The German fighter pilots saw what was taking place and instead of shooting "Chaplain's Office" down, they escorted the stricken bomber back to a German Luftwaffe base.  The pilot and bombardier could not pull the wounded gunner back inside the plane and they crashed landed at the base.  The Germans later took several photos of the crashed bomber and it was clear to me that this would be the basis for my project.

I began with Monogram's 1/48 B-17 G and the challenges began almost immediately!  

Above: "Chaplain's Office" did not have modified windows on the port side nose. I therefore had to use an additional kit and conform the nose to match that particular aircraft. 

 

 

 

Followed with interest your project.  The pilot of the plane was my Uncle Ted.  Appreciate your having gotten the story out there. 

J. Zitnik