Still Too Many Props GB - 2013

B17Pilot thanks ,and yes I've been dry fitting ,shaping sanding and dry fitting again! I believe the fit is going to be okay at this point.

I'm happy with the floor and bulkhead fit now,still need to add a lot of details yet. For that reason I'm not hard glueing parts in yet. For fit reasons it was essential to get the front floor level and fitted first,after a lot of test fits its properly aligned and level now. The forward bulkhead IP assembly ties into the front floor nicely now and a test fit of the fuse halves shows no major alignment problems in this area now. This has been the most challenging resin interior I've encountered to date!

The next issue was dealing with the nose turret. The resin parts deal away with the kit mount and solid floor which was innacurate. I needed to scratch the support assembly and attachment point from styrene tube and square stock. A pretty straight forward affair and was fairly easy to align using the top hole on the chin turret as a guide for placement

gave a basic wash to the navigators station,once buttoned up most of this area will be entombed and not seen

Opened the Verlinden upgrade set and wow lots more resin goodies to add!

Another test fit of the fuse and all still fits well

Lots more to come stay tuned

Looking pretty awesome Trey ... daunting standard to live up to!  I must get some photos up of my Beau.

Thanks Paul,looking forward to seeing some of your Beau pics! Thats one on my to do list!

Even though this area wo'nt be seen in great detail once its entombed I could'nt just leave it as is. First I cut away this clunky blob of what ca'nt even be identifed and replaced the hole with some sheet styrene

Then after cutting down the kit supplied front table it was painted and glued in along with the support leg made from a standard wood toothpick

Next up was building the radio stack. I finally found a use for the resin mold bases,after some sanding they turned into suitable replacent boxes for the equipment.

Added some details and painted it

Finally installed

I've been ordered to open the bomb bays so broke out the razor saw. The Verlinden update set included some nice brass doors with some rib detail added.

I had to adjust the nav/radio seat and desk position to a more 'scale' size and location

Then added some more radio detail and gave it a light wash to perk it up

Waist gun areas up next ,more True detail resin. The kit details removed with a dremel and the parts fit right in.

More nose detail added and more yet to come,the small resin bits to the left will be the bomb sight eventually

Trey, awesome job! Nice use of the resin pour stubs, I never thought about that. I did the same thing to the radio table on mine. I think I'm going to do that on all my B-17s from now on.

I'm making some corrections in the waist gunner area ,had to remove some details first

Got it all sanded will start adding the corrected floor and replacing stringers next

well i guess i best be about figuring out how to build stong wing mounts for the wings and stabilizers on my ME-264. hey bish i may even finish it this time.

I hope you can wayne. I would love to see one of these built up.

Just dug out my B-24, i will be starting that next, once my Me 262 is done.

TREY, looks like you got a lot of work going into that.

I have started my B-26. By started I mean, I sprayed things interior green, cause I had to spray that color on one I was finishing, and I figured, why not just spray the B-26? Been sitting like that for a couple of weeks as I finish up a couple of others for a show in two weeks.

OK all ... despite my silence, I have (FINALLY) been able to finish my Beaufighter.

Sorry there were no "Work In Progress" pics.  Painted using predominantly Tamiya colours (scheme was easy - Med Sea Grey and Sky!!).  Decals are aftermarket.  Otherwise built out of the box.

So its a Tamiya 1/48 Beaufighter, done to represent a 489(NZ) Squadron aircraft - part of the Banff Wing. As a Kiwi, this aircraft goes towards a representative "squadron" to represent the seven NZ squadrons serving in the RAF during WWII.   So now have completed 485 (Spitfire Mk XVI), 486 (Tempest), 487 (Mosquito), 488 (the Singapore edition - so a Buffalo), and 489 (the above).  That just leaves 75 and 490 (Wellington and Sunderland respectively).  Those two are going to have to wait until I have a LOT of space to display!! :)

I hope you enjoy ...

Paul, nice looking build.

Real sharp looking Paul !

Thanks gents.

Was fun - I have just a couple of regrets:

1.  I could not find a definitive reference for this aircraft as to the alignment of the Yagi radar in the nose - I went with vertical, cos I thought it looked best.  If it ever gets snapped off, I might change my mind :)

2.  I prefer painting on the identity stripes.  This caused me two problems.  Firstly, I didn't consult my reference material (i.e. the Tamiya instructions!!), so blindly masked up, and painted standard fighter stripes first.  Only to THEN see that these were too narrow.  So out with the stripper, sandpaper, etc, and repaint / remask /repaint.  Lesson learnt!!  But the one thing I did not go back to fix, is that I did not allow for the faint register of the while on the side roundels.  So the black does sorta show though, if you look closely.  So memo to self - make sure I leave mask off white for under the roundels next time!!

Nice Beaufighter! Looks great! Got me one of those kits, I'll get to eventually. Front page updated.

Made some headway correcting the waist gunner positions and starting to add details back in. The stringer detail first and this will be followed by some misc O2 bottles and ammo boxes.

Working my way aft I decided to tackle the tail wheel next. The kit detail is obviously innaccurate yet beefy to support the assembled kit. I went with a compromise to add detail and still maintain strength. Rivet counters will no doubt be screaming obceneties at me. I trimmed away some of the bulk from the mouting points and the protrusion through the bulk head was completely sanded smooth as it will be seen with the aft access door posed open.

Using some evergreen plastic rods & sheet stock I added the missing support arms and strut assembly,also removed more of the kit supplied assembly arm

The resin parts just needed some minor drilling and cleaning up and they are a great improvement over the kit supplied parts

.32 stainless safety wire added for the axle and attachment to the strut assembly

Finished assembly ready for some paint!

cheers Trey

Coming along nicely TREY, nice work as always.

Awesome job on the tail wheel! Don't forget the wood planks used for the floor in the waist area

Looking good Trey :)

A lot of nice looking models here!

I have to join this one as well (those GBs are addicting as hell)

I'll build a B-25D Mitchell. It's the AM kit reboxed by Academy. It says B-25G on the box, but you can build a B, C, D or G model out of it.

As far as markings go, I'm most likely going for a rather unconventional nose-art:

A B-25D called "Yankee Warrior". It is stationed at the "Yankee Air Museum".

You can look up it's story here: http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/b25flightse_2.htm

I'm afraid I wont be able to replicate the Waist guns on my model, as they aren't supplied in the kit...

Clemens

Welcome! Looking forward to your Mitchell!

I hope I can start the build in July (the Mitchell will need untill the end of June to get here, sadly...)

Clemens

That will be a nice build, how come it will take so long to arrive.

I don't know, Bish

The owner of my local store just got a message that there are some problems with the availability of this kit and he won't recieve it this month. And the next order he will place will be in June so it wont get here before the end of June.

But I have a lot of other birds to build untill it arrives so I'll be busy anyways.

Clemens

Right, I see now. I am sure it will be worth the wait.

I hope so! The decalsfor this are going to be an interesting project on their own!

Clemens

I wo'nt forget the floor planking B17Pilot thanks!

I scratched the inner wheel well using a plunge mold,only took 3 tries to get a useable part!

Then added the tailwheel bulkhead,leaving the wheel itself off until the final assembly to avoid damage and make masking for paint a little easier

Starting to add seats and some more fiddly bits up front,the pe legs on the front seat were a bear to get bent correctly!

Thats a nice looking fortress, Trey!

I want to build one so badly, but it seems like the Revell kit needs some major improvements. I'll just wait untill the big one from HK-Models comes out...

Cheers, Clemens

Look what I came across:

www.themodellingnews.com/.../now-this-is-large-scale-modelling-folks.html

I NEED that kit!!!

Clemens