WIP: Part 3, UPDATE 11-26-17 (Almost finished!!!) Building the Revell 1/48 scale B-29 in Bare Metal Foil

Excellent progress, and nice job handling the "soft" details, shall we say, like those exhausts!

That should work just fine! Make sure that you wear eye protection:

JohnnyK

 

 

Greatmaker

Amazing stuff.  I have this one in my stash. Looks like I'd better stock up on putty

 

 

 

 

I'd recommend stocking up on sanding pads instead of putty.

 

g9717-37f43fe66b0eb2f985731877d526a1d7 by Robert Pederson, on Flickr

ENGINE EXHAUST

This is a photo of FIFI's engine exhaust. The larger pipe is the engine's main exhaust and the smaller pipe is the turbocharger's exhaust.

This is what Monogram provides. A single pipe that does not fit properly in a recess in the nacelle. Why Monogram thought that this is a good soultiion is beyound me.

I decided that I might be able to do better, so I bought some aluminum tubing of two diffetent sizes. First I cut the tubing then painted it with Testores flat black and Testors rust. I varied the amount of rust that I used.

Next I pulled out my Milwaukee drill and prepared to drill some holes. I took a deep breath and drilled the holes at an angle to match the angle of FIFI's exhaust.

Next, I used putty to fill-in the recess that surrounds the holes.

I inserted the tubing into the holes and glued them in place by using a blob of epoxy inserted through the front of the nacelle. I completed the foiling and added rivets.

Greatmaker

Amazing stuff.  I have this one in my stash. Looks like I'd better stock up on putty

 

I'd recommend stocking up on sanding pads instead of putty.

After the paint dried, out came a few sheets of Bare Metal Foil. The foiling of the wings took waaay longer than I expected. The top of the wings wasn't too bad because part of the wing was painted. The underside of the wing took a long time because, except for a very small painted area, all foil. Again, I used two colors, Aluminum Plate and Improved Chrome for variety. Each panel was individually applied. Patience is the key, but I could only do so much foiling in one day before my eyes got tired.

This is a Main wing from the Anola Gay. The really polished the aluminum because I am sure that it never looked like this when in service. Anyway, this is the appearance that I am trying to achieve.

A comparison of the rivets on the Enola Gay wing and my model's wing. You will probably need to click on the photos for a larger view.

Amazing stuff.  I have this one in my stash. Looks like I'd better stock up on putty

fotofrank

What a massive undertaking! I certainly admire your patience and determination.

What was that patience liquid you occasionally use?

 

Woodford Reserve

Yes one of the more epic builds lately!Public service aspect is in evidence for  those contemplating tackling this beast of a kit!

What a massive undertaking! I certainly admire your patience and determination.

What was that patience liquid you occasionally use?

Skillfull save on the nacells mate, well done

It seems that Revell and Monogram big bombers have the same problem regarding the nacelles. There is a really large, ugly joint running down the middle of the nacelle. I guess that Monogram thought that the B-29 was such a big model that it derseved a really big joint. It is hard to believe that Monogram would have allowed this to happen.

This joint can be reduced by getting out the trusty sanding stick and going to town.

The joint is gone after glueing, clamping, filling and sanding.

Photos of the real plane indicate thet the middle section of the main wing was painted to protect the alluminum aloy from corrosion. Only the top of the wing was painted. So it's time to get out the blue tape and mask the top of the main wing. Once again I used Testors Metallic Aluminum Plate with Metallic Sealer.

MAIN WINGS AND ENGINES

Okay, it's time to deal with the biggest problems with this kit: warped main wings, poor joints at engine nacelles, bad looking engine exhaust pipes, and really bad engineering regarding glueing the engine cowling to the nacelles.

The main wings are really large and are noticablly warped between the outside engine and the wing tip. The way I fixed the problem was to clamp my architect's scale to the winge as the glue dried. The architect's scale is very stiff and will not bend as it is clamped to the wing.

This worked really well. The wing is straight as an arrow.

keavdog

Looks fantastic.  Do you use soap to float the bare metal foil as well?

I've only done small surfaces in the past and spent a lot of time burnishing with a toothpick.

 

Simply outstandng

It will look impressive when completed. I'm really impressed!

Looks fantastic.  Do you use soap to float the bare metal foil as well?

I've only done small surfaces in the past and spent a lot of time burnishing with a toothpick.

Ha ha! Nope, no stock in the company.

Shaping up to be a beautiful build, Johnny! With as much Bare Metal Foil as you have used here, I sure hope the manufacturer has given you some stock in their company! Really nice work!

FUSELAGE

I put on as much Bare Metal Foil as possible until I had to assembly the two sides of the fuselage. The plastic side windows were manufactured too smaller thatn the openings, so there was no way to securly glue them to the window openings. I had to cut new windows from clear plastic and glue them into the openings. Unfortunetly, the  two side gunner observation bubbles are mounted to the inside of the fuselage and they are a poor fit with a gap between them and the window opening. I filled the gap with clear cement. The two sides of the fuselage fit pretty well. 

I used tape and clamps to hold the two sides together while the glue cured. It is important to remeber to install the tail skid before glueing the two sides together. The main wing spars make the fuselage really clumsy to handle after the fuselage is assembled.

The next step is to fill and sand the long seam on top and bottom of the fuselage. You can see how large the gunner observation bubbles are. It is important that they are securely glued to the fuselage so that thay are not accidently pushed into the model which would be a major bummer.

The next step is to paint the area of the fuselage between the blue tape with a flat aluminum paint. This area was painted on the 1:1 plane. Again, I used Testprs' Mettalic aluminum plate and Mettalic Sealer. I covered the fuselage in plastic wrap prior to painting. Much cheaper and faster than using tape.

It took some time, and many sheets of BMF, but I finally finished the foiling of the fuselage. AFter I place the foil on the model I lightly rub it with 0000 steel wool. It adds a nice grain to the foil.  I put the model on a large foam block so that I could keep the spars out of the way turn it on its side. 

Finally it was time for the decals. I used warm water with a drop of dish soap to soak the decals in. The soap makes it easy to slide them around on the model.

In the past I have had problems with silvering of the carrier film. Check out the letters USAF in th above photo. To solve that problem I removed as much of the carrier film as possible to reduce silvering. I cut the numbers on the tail apart into individual numbers. 

JohnnyK

 

the Baron

   Well, I've got two in the stash, so I can experiment with them and see. 

 

Baron,

Keep in mind that this kit has a number of issues.

• The main wings are warped
• There are no mountings pins or lugs to align the engine cowelings to the naceles
• Poor rendition of the engine exhausts
• Raised panel lines and no rivets.

It took a while, but I eventually figured out how to fix these issues. I'll make sure that I post the solutions.

Thanks!  I've built it, too, back in the day.  The only thing keeping me from building them now is finding room to display them when I finish

I want to try applying a NMF using aluminum foil, too.  There was a build some time ago, either at ARC or Modeling Madness, of this kit, and the builder used the cheapest grade of kitchen foil--because it's the thinnest--and he used white glue to adhere it.  He also used the technique to discolor some pieces, around the exhausts, for example, of boiling the foil with eggshells.  The minerals in the shell imparted different colors to the foil.  Looked pretty cool.

BUILDING THE FUSELAGE

This is an old Monogram kit and there are few rivets. So I got out my rivet making tool and added rivets to the fuselage. I used photos from the Internet as a guide.

This is the fuselage straight out of the box. It has raised panel lines and no rivets.

Fuselage after adding rivets. I added rivets to all surfaces of the airplane. As one can imagine, this took a long, long time. A little bit of Woodford Reserve helped.

Next thing to do is paint the rudder and elevators. The covering on the rudder and elevators on B-29's were made of painted fabric. Monogram embossed a fabric texture to these surfaces. Unfotunetly, the texture is too heavy, so I lightly sanded them before painting. I used Testors' Metalizer Aluminum Plate on the elevators and rudder. I did not buff the metalizer because I wanted a matt finish. After it dried I sprayed it with Testors' Metalizer Sealer.  Bare Metal Foil was used on the aluminum areas of the horizontal stabalizers. The rivets that I embossed on the plastic clearly shows through the metal foil. I used two different colors of BMF, Matt Aluminum and Chrome. 

Yes it was a hastily thrown together test bed of the forward swept wing concept, flight reports were surprisingly good!

Now that is one odd looking airplane.

Long aft fuselage!  

When I made my JU287 I had room under the cockpit floor to add two 410 grain .50 caliber muzzleloading bullets which I thought was enough weight...it was not!So I had to drill a hole in the rato rockets under the fuselage mounted engines and that did the trick!  

the Baron

   Well, I've got two in the stash, so I can experiment with them and see. 

Baron,

Keep in mind that this kit has a number of issues.

• The main wings are warped
• There are no mountings pins or lugs to align the engine cowelings to the naceles
• Poor rendition of the engine exhausts
• Raised panel lines and no rivets.

It took a while, but I eventually figured out how to fix these issues. I'll make sure that I post the solutions.

This is a picture of the underside of the plane. I temporarily installed one wing and one landing gear. The yellow line represents the centerline of the weights that I installed. The bomb's centerline is red and the landing gear's centerline is blue. The bomb is about half as close to the landing gear as the weights that I installed. That means that twice the amount of weight would be required. I don't think that that amount of weight would fit into the bomb. However, it might be possible to install enough weight in the bomb and engine nacelles. Keep in mind that the additional weight would put a lot of stress on the landing gear.

Just for fun, I weighted the airplane today. The fuselage and nose weights (no wings) weigh one pound and two ounces. The fuselage and wings weigh one pound and fourteen ounces.  An additional seven ounces of weight would be required if the  the nose weights were moved back into the bomb and nacelles. That would mean that the total weight of the plane would be two pounds and five ounces. 

Can you put weights in the bombs ?

I am not sure that there would be enough space in the tunnel to ad enough weight. If you intend to build the model with the bomb bay doors closed, you could put the weight in the front bomb bay. HOWEVER, the model is not engineered to have the bomb bay doors in the closed position. There is nothing to hold them in place!!!

Whoda thought you'd have to do a weight and balance to build a plastic model airplane.