Mighty 8th GB 1-Nov-2010 - 31-Oct-2011

Check, i checked out that 100th site, and they have the same colour plate view of our gal as i ahve in the osprey book. I assume you will be able to save it. If you still want me to send you the one i have, let me know. But i compared them and they are the same.

Look forward to seeing some pics.

Bish,

Instead of the B, I going to close out the lot on the Academy D's in my stash.  Getting a little assembly line started (don't know if 2 aircraft count as an assembly line).  While the Academy B/C is the bee's knees, their D is almost not worth the money.The Tamiya is superior in just about every way.  The only thing the Academy has going for it, is the dropped flaps.  Don't know if it will be Hurry Home Honey or Arkansas Traveller of the 357th.

maharrin, that's impressive.  It's rare to find someone with a personal connection to a specific aircraft that is capable of being modeled.  I'll check over in the B-17 GB to see how your project is coming, and also look into the website.  Thanks for the resources.

And thanks, Bish, for your efforts.  I'm currently gluing and sanding the wings and fuselage, always a labor-intensive proposition.  Hope to finish that part this week.

Snetterton, Thorpe Abbots and Deopham Green were the 3 B-17 bases in Norfolk. I have a set of AM markings for a 100th BG aircraft, but currently haveing no joy with one from Deopham. The colour plate is of the right side, i get have to take a pic of it, as i have no scanner here, and will try and get it on tomorrow.

maharrin, wow, thanks for posting. I will deffinatly check out your build. The 100th BG markings i have is also an aircraft from the 351st. EP-F Super Rabbit.

If you get your 17 finished while this Gb is still running, please feel free to post a couple of pics on here if you wish. All 8th AAF are welcome here.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Our Gal Sal, a great plane from the 100th Bomb Group / 351st Bomb Squadron.  My father-in-law flew one mission on her as tail gunner (he's my profile pic), but flew most of them on EP-D, The Latest Rumor. After a lot of research and collecting lots of AM parts, I've finally started my build of her,sorry Bish, too late for this GB, so I'll post under the B-17 GB forum. If you go to www.100thbg.com you can find plenty of pics of EP-E "Our Gal Sal", look under the 351st tab

Bish, I didn't know Thorpe Abbotts was in Norfolk.  I think the name sounds kind of neat.  The decals are after-market, from PYN-Up, copyrighted 2004.  Second plane on the sheet is "Double Trouble," an "F" model, for which I have no kit at the present time.

Yes, please do; if you can post the plate, that might help.  I've collected a photos off the net, but they only show the starboard nose and art.  There is one black and white, from port stern that shows the length of the plane.

Thanks. 

Another Norfolk B-17, that gets my attention. Did those markings come with the kit or are they Am. I have a colour plate of that aircraft in one of the osprey B-17 books i have, if that will be of any use.

. . .and I hope to be finished before the end of November.

Thought I'd post some progress photos of "Our Gal Sal," 100th Bomb Group, based at THORPE ABBOTTS 9 Jun 1943 to 11 Dec 1945.

Photos of the plane are rare, other than the nose, but one I did find seemed to show an enclosed waist gun position, which consisted of a three-piece window, and a canted, bulged position for the guns.  These are fortunately offered by Squadron, for both the Hasegawa and Academy/Airfix B-17's.  In this case, I used the Hasegawa items on the Airfix kit.  Photos show they were attached on the outside of the fuselage (wonder what that did to the drag effect?).  I painted the interior color around the edge of the kit windows first, in case anything shows from the outside.  I applied superglue to attach them to the top and bottom, and I will fill gaps on the sides with diluted white glue.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Since the top turret and ball turrets have to be trapped by the fuselage, I painted them up before I close said fuselage.  Masking all the little windows in the ball is always tricky.  For the center, circular window, I used a paper punch to cut out the circle, then sliced a radius from the center to the cirucumference, and applied it around the frame.  For the square-er windows, I outlined with thin strips of masking tape, then filled in the centers with MicroMask.  The unmasked ball is there as a reference for trimming the masks, since I couldn't find the panel lines after I put on the masking tape.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

After I had all the fuselage windows installed, I added the horizontal stabilizers.  I started doing this after I had a stabilizer come loose, years ago, from trying to glue it on after the fuselage was closed up.  First, I slather on tube glue in the mounting slot, put a few dots of tube glue on the mating surfaces of both fuselage and stabilizer, then attach.  After the tube glue sets a little and grips, then I baptize the whole conglomeration with liquid glue.  Once it cures, the stabilizers are not going to drop off.  From the inside, it's not pretty--but it works.

I use a cheap dime-store protractor to set the stabilizers at the right angle.  Most of the time it works, so long as the fuselage/tail isn't warped.  If it doesn't work, then the stabilzers sort of resemble the ears on my dog.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Here's the view of the cockpit from the pilot's side.  I used figures collected from various kits, cut the head off and transplanted heads from Airfix's air force personnel set (the soft plastic kind).

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

The cockpit from the co-pilot's side.  On this figure, I also cut off the arms and replaced them with arms from the aforementioned Airfix personnel set.  He's supposed to be holding the wheel, but the arm came out too long--now he's grabbing onto the control column.  His other hand was supposed to be working the throttles.  I have a little touch up to do, since some of the paint flaked off his arm while I was struggling to get him into his seat.  Paint does not stick well to that soft Airfix figure plastic.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Airfix included a nice instrument panel decal with plenty of gauges and dials--better than some after-market decals I've used.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 Hopefully progress will go well, and I'll get this finished up by the time our grace period ends.

Thanks OWL, i have added that to the front.

That might help explain it Scorpio, but even then its quick work. But you wouldn't know it.

lewbud, the GB official ends on Tues. I am leaving it running till the end of Nov for any builds to be finished before i do a round up. maybe just stick to the D and leave the B for another build. I know what you mean, i get like that now and again. Oddly i find it happens when i have been away for a few month, when you would think i would be iching to get back to the desk. I got like that a bit on my 17 and had to force myself at one point. But once things started to come together, i really got back into it.

Bish,

Just started the D, don't know if I'll get the B done.  Haven't really felt like building for a while, but got the bug when I woke up this morning.  Wings are glued together, nothing pic worthy yet.

Scorpiomikey

Thanks for the comps, sorry to hear about your shelving incident (i think i remember this) Its possible it was the same kit we built owl. did yours come with the malcom hood? The one i built is rather old and was found in the back of a model shop in hong kong. (go in-laws lol) I understand its been re-released as a bluenose with masks.

The kit (Flying Scot) didnt come with a Malcom hood. Just the 2 options for the birdcage one: the multi-piece open or one-piece closed. But this box was from like, 1995 or something, so I assume there have been a few different releases of this kit since then!

Thanks for the comps, sorry to hear about your shelving incident (i think i remember this) Its possible it was the same kit we built owl. did yours come with the malcom hood? The one i built is rather old and was found in the back of a model shop in hong kong. (go in-laws lol) I understand its been re-released as a bluenose with masks.

As for the speed in which i built this kit. Having a week off work with a major chest infection certainly helps with model productivity. 

Thanks guys! I had fun scruffing this one up. This will be my 5th 1/48 scale Mustang. I have 4 in the stable though; I lost one of my ponies in a shelving accident a few months back.

This kit was Tamiya 1/48, by the way, Bish!

OWl, i did have your second entry on the front page. I know it a 352nd P-51D, but not sure on scale and make. Is it the same as your firt build or a different kit.

Scorpio, that B-26 is a great looking build. rom what i could find these aircraft didn't seem to stay in the 8th very long before they were moved to the 9th.

OWL, Scorpio, some great work there, i will get those on the front page now.

Scorpio, i realised i hadn't changed your entry and so went to check on what it was your were building. I noticed you said you wouldn't be done in 10 days. You were right, you were done in 8. I don't know how you gouys can build so fast and still get good results.

Well, im calling her done. After some research i discovered at the time she was shot down she was very clean. So i decided not to do any weathering.

The real deal at the top of the picture.

And now without further adue. I present to you, Pappy's Answer.

357th FG 364th FS

Capt. John L "Pappy" Medieros Named the aircraft initially. The aircraft was then inherited by Lt. Henry Pfeiffer after Medieros was MIA? (Records say "Lost") The aircraft itself was lost on 19 Sept 1944 while being flown by Lt. Jerome Jacobs who was taken POW. (That was rude, losing someone else's kite.)

357th Yoxford Boys. Stationed at Leiston.  

As always, Comments and criticism welcome.

Guys, great looking mustangs going there.  Owl the finishing touches on the weathering are great.  The little weathering details look well thought out and executed.  That model really gives me a feel for the way those great old birds got battered around.  I was happy how good my decaled  invasion stripes looked, but I'm more impressed how your painted on stripes capture the way they really looked.  Very nice work.   Rick  

Thanks guys. Yes it is Y5-O, The masking was easy. Just got a big brush and slathered on the X-11. Masked off all the straight lines in about the right place. Got the same big brush (after cleaning of course) and slathered on some olive green. Seems to have come out pretty well. As for those websites, i havent seen them, thanks for that.

Owl. The primer is just Tamiya XF-4. Its a really good sickly yellow green colour.

Thats a mighty fine razorback youve produced. How many have you got in your stable now?

and here my late entry, squeezing past the finish line!

It was much harder to find info on either of Flying Scot/Vicious Virgie's pilots. The only info I found was an excerpt from the book 352nd Fighter Group, by Tom Ivie. He writes: "Lt Furman 'inhereted' this aircraft from Lt Murdoch 'Scottie' Cunningham, and flew it on the first 'Russian shuttle' mission. [The plane] was written off 12 September 1944 when Lt Gen Wensh was involved in a landing accident." Photos were even more difficult to come by! For references I used the description supplied in the decal sheet, rooting through the littlefriends website, as well as looking at what other modelers did with this plane.

Without further ado, I present The Flying Scot II/Vicious Virgie of the 352nd Fighter Group. One of the famed "Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney":

OWL

scorpio, you so punny! 

great work on your pony, btw. I dont have any of that yellowish primer color, so all my planes get the green. I should probably get a hold of some, it will be nice to add some variety in my primers! And the Marauder looking pretty nice too!

Very excellent looking aircraft, Scorp.  It cannot have been an easy job, masking and painting the NMF and OD on the B-26.  Well done!

It looks from the markings like the Marauder is from the 344th BG, 495th BS--code is Y5-O?

Here's a nice website; but maybe you know it already:

http://www.publicenquiry.co.uk/commands/bc9th.html

and here:  http://www.b26.com/page/344th_bombardment_group.htm

Thats a hard worked pony you got there Miss Owl. You could almost say its a "Work horse" lol. im so lame.

As for my pony. Ive had the last week off work with a chest infection and while ive been going slowly stir crazy at home i put in some hours on the tamiya stang. She just fell together. The hardest part of the kit so far is the superscale decals. Not going down exactly as planned. But they still look good.

Below are the full collection of WIP photos. It kinda went together in less time than it took me to get my camera out of the bag lol.

Cockpit. The interior green looks ALOT greener in real life. The flash has washed it out to a wierd brown colour.

Pre Paint. I used Eduard masks on the canopy. They fit great on the Malcom hood, but the windscreen theyre a bit off. Eduard dont make them for the malcom hood tamiya stang, so i used the ones for the Accurate Miniatures which has a slightly steeper windscreen profile. 

Painted it up. I used XF-66 for the belly and XF-58 for the uppers. The Invasion stripes were very carefully measured out. 48mm total width. 9.6mm wide stripes.

Well, thats me for now. As a "Till next time" I shall leave you with photos of my recently completed B-26 "Lak-a-nookie"

Not part of the GB. but part of the Mighty 8th.

here is an update on the Mustang: decals finished, now onto the final weathering and fiddly bits!

Thanks John. And theres nothing wrong with being fussy. It's your build. i totally re painted the OD on the 17 because i wasn't happy with it.

Yes , congrat's again Bish on your B-17 "Ole Puss" build and the history behind the aircraft was very informative ....

As for me , I've been getting a little cranky with myself a lot lately and probably fussy as well ; So I decided to remove the white decal wing stripe and do it again with a spare decal sheet from another Tamiya P-51D ;

I used some ordinary sticky tape and kept burnishing it down over the white decal stripe and after multiple applications I was able to remove about 99% of the white stripe ;

First thing tomorrow , I'll carefully airbrush the small area where the white stripe was and once dry , try again with the other wing white stripe's from the second decal sheet .

                               John .

Nice looking "Old Crow," John.  The paint work and markings are superb.

And, Bish, again, congratulations on "Ole Puss."  She's a top-notch model and a memorable tribute to the air personnel of the 8th.  I read your "B-17F" thread and posted comments there, too.  It's an exemplary achievement.

John, thanks very much.

Thats looking really nice. Old crow is one of those aircrfat that seem to stick in my head. It always seems to pop up, either in books, photos or models.

As for the trucks, that certainly a busy looking space for a couple of 72nd vehicles.

Bish

Thanks OWl. I am certainly alot happier with this OD than the first one. I think it was you that pointed out that it looked greyish the first time, and you were right. Funny thing is, i found to get a faded OD i was happy with, i had to add grey. Where as before i had added white, go figure.

LOL. its weird how things end up working out, huh?

Thanks OWl. I am certainly alot happier with this OD than the first one. I think it was you that pointed out that it looked greyish the first time, and you were right. Funny thing is, i found to get a faded OD i was happy with, i had to add grey. Where as before i had added white, go figure.

That is one impressive war memorial isnt it?

Great job on the B-17. I love the splotchy faded look you got