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

Lewbud,

Would you believe me when i say this is my decompression "on-the-side" build? I am doing the new tooled revell B17G for the NMF GB and this thing i work on while the fort is drying or otherwise waiting LOL. It was supposed to be fun.....

Richard

Richard - eesh! Sorry to hear that your decompression build has turned out to be such an unfortunate kit! Nice to see you sticking with it, though! Just think, if worse comes to worse, you can stick it in the background for photos of 1/48 aircraft and do fun forced perspective things with it!

Made a bit more progress with my Mustang last night. I've been alternating, so Mustang one night, Spitfire the next, then the Panzer III, then back around. 

Last night's big to-do was filling the seams on the wings. I got the job done by dabbing Mr. Surfacer 500 into the appropriate seams (had to build up with 4-5 passes). Went back over with 400, then 1000 grit paper. I'm planning on several more sanding passes, but I need to get some paint on the wings first to make sure I've got the seams completely filled. Thing so, but it's impossible to be 100% certain.

I also managed to knock both other gun tubes into the wings. So I guess I'll be redoing those closer to painting time.

Richard,

Hang in there.  Will mosey over to the NMF build and check out your B-17. I have one in the stash, looking forward to seeing yours. 

Doogs,

Your Mustang is looking great.  I've got two of them on the table for my club's group builds for the Nationals, so I'm concentrating on those at the moment.

Bish,

The Academy D is going to serve as a paint mule for my Nationals build.  Will be replacing it with a Tamiya D.

Richard, thanks for sticking with it. It would have been to easy to just throw in the towel. Your doing a damn good job with it, look forward to seeing some paint on it. And i must get over to the NMF GB, see what going on in there.

Doogs, looks like your also putting some work into your Stang. So i guess those tubes are ratteling around in the wings.

Lew, will change that, and be nice to get another one going.

lew, changed that, will you still be building the B as well.

Bish,

Yes, the B/C is still in the works.  Truth be told, I'm getting kinda tired of building inlines, getting a hankering to build a round motored bird.  Saw a Pucara in Argentine markings at the local shop, if it's there Friday I may be joining your Falklands build.  Unlike my usual builds, it will be of the losing side.

Which Pucara kit is it. I can it you have seen the ones being built, some nice work there. Some nice paint schemes possable with those.

It's unusual for me to be building something from the winning side. I am looking forward to doing some armour myself, having touched any of that for over 18 months.

Bish,

Can't remember the maker of the kit, just that it was in Argentine markings.  Will let you know if I pick up on Friday. 

Main assembly complete. Next up - minor seam repair. Joy. Hoping to be priming by the weekend.

Another look at the filled wings. 

lew, i think the Special Hobby kit is the most popular. I think Airfix used to do one, not sure about any others. Those aircrfat have some nice schemes. i am sure you will do it justice.

Look good as always Doogs. Nice job on filling the wings.

Hey BIsh, do you know if there were any fighter fields near Bassingbourn in Cambridgshire?

Off the top of my head i didn't know for sure. Most of my research has been on the Norfolk airfields. My intial response would have been no, as it would make more sense for them to be closer to the coast. But i just did some checking on the 8th AAF site. There were 4 FG airfields in Cambridgeshire.

78th at Duxford

339th at Fowlmere

361st at Bottisham

but the nearest to bassingbourn was the 355th at Steeple Morden. The village iotself is only a short distance from Bassingbourn. The Steeple Morden aircield doesn't show on Google maps, i assume its been plowed under, but it would have been close to the village. Heres the link to the 355th page.

http://mighty8thaf.preller.us/php/1Unit.php?Unitkey=355

Hope this helps.

Yes that does help, thanks.   Just been toying with the layout of the dio for my Fort and since I got a couple of figures that are meant to be fighter pilots (not in flight gear) I just wanted to make sure it would be realistic for a couple of guys to drive over to Bassingbourn via jeep to greet bomber crews on their return., which is why I wanted to see if there would be any fields in the vicinity.  Not sure if this actually wouldve happened, but ya never know....its my dio

I don't see why not. I am not sure what time frame your aircraft is from, but if its from the period when P-47's operated from Steeple, i would assume these would return before the bombers. And i would imagine that even P-51's would speed back once the enemy coast had been cleared. Steeple village is about a mile from Bassingbourn airfield, so it would be easy to do.

Time period would be April 1944.  All I can find on the P-51 combat history is that almost all units switched to it in 44.  The original target for the mission was clouded over and they had to bomb the secondary target of Stettin which is on the far eastern side of Germany and is actually today part of Poland.....this would be a long trip for a fighter

I have also found that most FG's seemed to have switched over to the P-51. Though i guess some must have stuck with the P-47.

Your scenario deffinatly works. Looking forward to seeing this very much. Will bring back memories of my days at Bassingbourn 20 years ago. Had lots of fun running around that airfield.

redraider56

Time period would be April 1944.  All I can find on the P-51 combat history is that almost all units switched to it in 44.  The original target for the mission was clouded over and they had to bomb the secondary target of Stettin which is on the far eastern side of Germany and is actually today part of Poland.....this would be a long trip for a fighter

The 355th was flying P-51Bs by April 1944 (many of the FG's transitioned in March, and then moved to D's in June and July).

Here's a crashed example. Photo dated 11 April 1944.

Also found references to them still flying Jugs up through late March, so it seems likely they transitioned end of March/early April '44. 

Bish

I have also found that most FG's seemed to have switched over to the P-51. Though i guess some must have stuck with the P-47.

The only one I know of in 8th is the 56th. Also the top-scoring fighter group of the war. Go figure...

Jugs remained plentiful in the 9th and 15th air forces, though, increasingly in the jabo role.

ye, thats what i was thinking. You see footage of jugs after D-day, but usually in the ground attack role. But i keep forgetting tehre was more than just the 8th in the UK.

Hey guys, sorry to change the subject so suddenyl, but im having issues with my stang. I test fitted the now complete wing sections (Seriously, im never buying AM wheel bays again unless theyre specifically designed for that kit) With the fuselage and there is about a mm gap either side where it should blend smoothly into the wing. Whats the best way to fill this? keep chucking putty at it? stretched sprue? (which im not very good at) sheet styrene? or styrene rod? Its got me a little concerned. Im not overly worried about losing detail because its hyper exaggerated on this kit anyway. Any tips would be awesome thanks guys.

Thanks guys, that really helps.  One last thing....would I be correct in assuming that fighters would fly escort for bombers based nearest them?

red, i would imagine it would not be a hard and fast rule. If you look at the B-24 bases in Norfolk, they had no USAAF FG's close by. There were only 2 in the county, Bodney and wretham, both in the South close to the B-17 bases. So the B-24's would have to get their escorts from FG's based further away. So i guess it would be what ever groups were assigned that day. And, given the faster speed of the fighters, i would imagine they would catch up with the bombers once they had formed up and were over the sea. So it wouldn't really matter. I don't know what the ratio of fighters to bombers was for a mission, but there seems to have been less FG's than BG's so a FG would not be assigned to a certain BG.

But theres nothing to say the local FG would be assigned for that day.

Scorpio, i would sday for a gap that size, styrene strips would be the best bet. But not having built a 32nd kit yet, i haven't come across this, so will be nice to hear what those who are used to that scale have to say.

redraider56

Thanks guys, that really helps.  One last thing....would I be correct in assuming that fighters would fly escort for bombers based nearest them?

Honestly, I doubt it. At least not on a regular basis. My reasoning is that that would probably lead to some nasty airspace problems, and I know the bombers from multiple groups would rendezvous and form up before heading on anyway.

One thing you might want to research is the 355th's role in the Scouting Force Experimental during the summer of '44. Fascinating program of putting some bomber pilots in fighters to scout the way ahead, report back on weather over the target, etc. Added incentive if it's a bomber pilot heading over to welcome crews back.

http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/scouting-force.html

Scorpiomikey

Hey guys, sorry to change the subject so suddenyl, but im having issues with my stang. I test fitted the now complete wing sections (Seriously, im never buying AM wheel bays again unless theyre specifically designed for that kit) With the fuselage and there is about a mm gap either side where it should blend smoothly into the wing. Whats the best way to fill this? keep chucking putty at it? stretched sprue? (which im not very good at) sheet styrene? or styrene rod? Its got me a little concerned. Im not overly worried about losing detail because its hyper exaggerated on this kit anyway. Any tips would be awesome thanks guys.

Strip styrene, hands down.

I actually had this exact problem with the Monogram P-47 I started for this GB many moons ago. 

You can see the nasty gap on the port wingroot here:

I fixed it by taking a thin, flat strip of styrene (Evergreen sells 'em like this), tacked it with Tenax onto the edge of the wingroot starting at the front, tacking and bending, so that the styrene matched the contour of the wing surface. Since using a plastic solvent melts the plastic, it's pliable enough to shape pretty easily. After that, give it a quick sand (on top and from the side), then viola, gap gone!

Well, you may have to sand to taste if the gap varies, but it's a far easier fix, IMO, than trying to putty it.

Awesome, thanks, ill post pics of what im faced with tommorow. Ill definatly try sheet stock though, thanks.

Doogs, just noticed the date on that photo.....the mission I'm modeling the Fort returning from was on the same exact day, April 11

Thanks again guys, that stuff does make sense with the assignments being day to day

At first I thought the white stuff in that photo was snow but now it appears to be fire retardant

Ugh, the P-51s canopy is giving me fits.  Since Tamiya's canopy doesnt sit right, I tried thinning the frame and carving a little bit of the fuselage around the cockpit to make it fit, but that ddnt work so I orderd a vac-form canopy from Squadron.  I got that cut out, went to fit it, and the darn thing doesnt sit right either!  Worse yet, I cut apart the kit frame to get the brace out of it and it isnt the right width for the Squadron canopy.  On top of that I finished stripping paint on the B-17 only to have most of the major seams pop open when  I was done .  Bottom line, I havnt been saying nice things to these kits

O bugger, not going well mate. So much for tamiya kits building themselves.

 I been haveing a few problems with the 17. The PE wheels wells are to big and i had to thin the inside of the wings. But even then it was still to big and had to really press it hard so the inside necells are a bit of a funny shape, and one of them split open on the top. But a bit of filler and sanding and i think i have got away with it.

I guess thats why they call it modeling