BACK IN THE SPOTIGHT--THE BOMBER GROUP BUILD (Medium and Heavy bombers from all eras)

Okay! She's Done! Well... sort of. there are some bits that i want to do over, but it's presentable.

Here's my 1/72 Academy B-17G OOB.

Hi all,

Just another quick update. I created wood grain decals for the cockpit and gunners' cockpit floors. I used the Testors custom decal making system. I initially thought I could just place the decals on the dark green plastic, but they're too translucent for that, so pimed the pieces, then painted them with radome tan. I applied a coat of Future, let it dry, and applied the decals without any problem. They look great!

I painted the inside of the fuselage aluminum, applied the instrument panel decal, painted the seats, and installed all the cockpit parts in the right side of the fuselage.

At this point I've closed up the fuselage and am ready to being sanding the seam. Yay, more sanding.

I'm going to order some replacement white metal Lewis guns and Scarff rings from Aeroclub tonight since the kit ones look pretty bad.

Regards,

mike outstanding work. i love all the detail you put into this one.


scott and frosty thankyou.


joe

Jeeves & fightnjoe:
great looking builds guys, congratz 2 u both !

that's 2 thumbs up 4 each of u !!!!

frosty

OK-- one of the two builds are done-- this is "Nite Life", a Black Cat of VP81. The Patrol Squadron, commanded by Commander Eugene P. Rankin, replaced VP-54 on 11/26/43. At the end of their tour, "Rankin's Night Raiders had flown 1,777 sorties, dropping 5,483 bombs and rescued 7 down airmen.

I used Badger Flat Black paint, and the Yellowhammer "Black Cats' decals...everything else is OOB except for a few homemade pieces to give the crew some "comfort" Weathering was done using the Salt Technique.








This last pic gives a view of a special gun package devised by one of the more industrious Black Cat pilots. The bomb window, along with the Norden bombsight, was typically taken out of Black Cat Cats as their missions typically brought them right down close to the ocean surface, making the use of the bombsight impracticle. Instead, this package of a quad battery of .50 caliber machine guns was used in the approach to drop bombs and did a pretyy godd job of suppressing some enemy fire. Imagine a quiet watch on deck of a Japanese convoy ship or cruiser marred by a hail of lead from these "Lahodney's guns", quickly followed by 2 500 and 2 1000lb bombs....a waking nightmare to be sure!



And with that, I guess I can update my profile now to add in this badge....

Thanks guys....

It has been a series of trials with this one LOL.....I basically took some extra .50 caliber guns I had laying around and glued them inside the bomber window as the Black Cats removed their bombsights in lieu of flying really low over the ships they were bombing to drop them right on target. They had brass ones if you ask me......

Course-- then my decals decided to roll up and crack the day after I had applied the dull cote to them (and yes- I waited 48 hours before doing so)....not sure if it was a reaction with the dull cote, or just a Yellowhammer thing. Either way, I just brushed some liberal amounts of Micro Sol to them and at least they are laying down now...they are still cracked, but I don't think I can do anything to fix that Hope to be done with both soon so I can move on to something smaller LOL

Beautiful Joe! Thats all I can say

Mike, I have naver seen a PBY set up in that array before, it too is a beautiful model.
Scott

i am finished. thankyou for letting me join this gb. the build taught me alot. and gave me inspiration for future builds. but before i end this one pic.



joe

wow some great progress. scott it looks excellent. cant wait for the next batch of pics.


mike outstanding work. really outstanding. thanks for posting it.


joe

OK....some more progress on these beasts...

PBY: mostly done....decals done...just need to add a few small parts... and as always-- at least until my birthday in Nov, please excuse the blurry closeups. This model will be hanging from the ceiling due to it's size....

The first two shots are of my waist gunners. The first gunner is giving some parting shots to the Tokyo Express while the second one is reacting to some flak scrapnel that caught him in the face. I don't normally depict this sort of thing, but decided to after reading one of the excerpts from the VP-81 diary.



And some close-ups of the nose showing off my AM Yellowhammer Black Cat decals...as well as the attempt at scratchbuilding Lahodney's guns-- a quad grouping of .50 calibers that added to the strafing power as the ship went down on it's run-- dropping a 500 pounder, then the 2 1000's, and then the final 500 pounder while flying the length of the ship--increasing the likelihood that the bigger bombs would get hits:



And finally- some shots of the Fortress I am also doing for this build:
Just finished applying Future-- so soon to come are decals, weathering, and some paint retouches.



And finally as close as I can get to my wired up engines...I used copper wire and it went smoothly.


Could someone remind me of the technique of using drops of pigment to simulate oil along the slipstream...I seem to remember reading something about adding a drop of wash or paint, and using a wet finger to wipe it away towards the direction of the slipstream.....

Heres a link to a poor pic at my finished B-25.
http://images1.fotopic.net/?iid=yfd26k&outx=600&oq=0
I have some better ones coming from the processor that I took in 35mm, but had to take on with my old digital just for confirmation that I did finish this plane. I wish it would show the handpainted noseart better. I'm really not that shakey, honest!

Scott

Hi all,

Here's an update on my Martin MB-2 build:

The build isn't too bad, but clean up has been a lengthy affair. There were some strange bumps on the top of the top wing from a mold flaw. There were three of them, and I had to carve, and then sand them off without ruining the wing rib detail. That went pretty well.

Then I had to sand off four raised ejector pin pillars from the bottom wing's bottom part, and six from the top wing's bottom part. These pillars were about a 1/4 inch in diameter and maybe a 1/16th inch high. I finally broke down and bought some Squadron sanding sticks, and they made short work of the ejector pin marks.

They also made surprisingly short work of the long seams on the bottom of the wings. Each wing is approximately 10 inches long, which makes for 22 inches of seam to sand on each wing! To top it all off, this plastic is very hard and not easily sanded. In fact, it's the hardest plastic I've ever worked with.

I sprayed primer on the undersides of the wings. Naturally, I found some small seams that still need to be filled. I used White-out to fill the small seams and sanded that after it dried. The wings aren't perfect, but they?re pretty good now. I primed the upper surface of the wings last night. I'll be starting on the fuselage tonight or tomorrow.

I've been doing some work in Photoshop to do the artwork for the wooden floor decals I'm going to use in the cockpit and gunners' stations. I'll be using the Testors Decal System, so we'll see how that goes. I scanned the parts, and then overlaid some wood grain graphics on a different Photoshop layer. I'll just print that layer and see how the decals look. There are some good reference photos on this site (click the link), that seem to show the interior of the cockpit is an aluminum color, with a wooden floor, so that's what I'm going to do.

I tried out my new pin vice. I plan on drilling holes in the wings and fuselage for the rigging wires. I've never done this before, and was worried that I'd break something while drilling the holes. With that in mind, I drilled a hole through the sprue, and it worked fine! I was very pleased at this.

So, that's where I am. I'm enjoying the build, working slowly, and generally having a good time with it. I have an issue of Scale Modeler magazine from May 1989 that has been a good reference. There's also a build-up online here.

Both build-ups mention scribing triangles in the trailing edges to simulate the seams where the wings would fold. I don't know if I'm going to do that or not. The guy in the build-up above painted his interior wood colored, but as I said, I'll be going with aluminum. He also added a windscreen that doesn?t show up in any of the reference photos I've seen. He replaced the kit Lewis guns and Scarff rings with Aeroclub parts, and I'll do the same. I like how he folded the one wing and cut out the control surfaces, but I don't think I'll attempt that this time.

Regards,

Mike,

I bet you're glad you took some pitures, then. You did some really fantastic work. For some reason, I especially like the can/head that you built.

Regards,

Heya Drew...

I can answer this honestly now that I have closed her up...the engineer station and crew compartment do not show up....but the waist position and navigator/radar station do Guess I can't complain LOL

Scott-- I am!

Mike,

Your cat looks fantastic! Is there enough glass for the interior details to be visible when the fuselage is closed up?

Regards,

Mike,
I love your details, especially the pin-ups hee hee. You seem to be having a lot of fun!
Scott

Is it too late to join?

I'm looking at picking up a Dornier 217K later this month.

It's the Revell kit in 1/72.

Karl

OK...more done on the Black Cat PBY...

First up is the front end...showing off the front office where the pilot and copilot are looking for stray Tokyo Express ships...



Behind them is the navigator and radar/radio compartment....I imagine the dimensions are all wrong....but I work with what Monogram gives me, so what can I say ;) The chairs I got from a Luftwaffe BoB personnel set... the table was scratchbuilt-- the top was from the Eduard PSP Base accessories and the legs are toothpicks. And behind that compartment, you can just see the engineer's station in the tower. Next to the window is a control panel from an old Mustang kit, and a seat suspended on a strut. Not sure if the wheel well should show through...but once things are closed up, it won't matter ;) Now just to add Lahodney's quad .50's to the nose!

Next up is the crew quarters....complete with a comfy tissue and toothpick cot and my favorite pin-up once again....good old Rita



And lastly....the waist area sans blisters for now....and guns and gunners ;) But you can see where one would find relief if needed...or just to provide some extra ordinance for those long overnight flights ;)



The "can" is a top of a pen cap and some spare plastic. Bombs away!! Ewwww......

Here are a couple more shots...although I am sad to say my digital camera doesn't do close up very well so poor Rita in the radio room is a bit blurry




I am holding off the closing up of the fuselage for two reasons-- one I fear the fit...and two-- I don't want to hide the redhead LOL

Heya scott...

Well-- I am going to add a pin-up to the mix somewheres.... nothing against Pix and his Betty Grable...but I gotta go with Rita Hayworth...something about those redheads, right joe?

The addition of the map is a great accent. Bombers are littered with maps, charts, checklist, and procedure manuals. Maybe even the occasional lucky rabbits foot or other lucky charm hanging overhead and a picture of a sweethart or child taped to the bulkhead. Find out from your vet what other personal effects that he might remember that may be in or on the plane.

The crewchief I built the B25 for said, for luck, that he'd tape a pack of smokes to the inside of the wheel well door before every flight. He figured that she'd better come back so that he could get a smoke. So, look real close to the back of the left narcel wheel door on the model, and there will be a small strip of tape with a lump in it representing a pack of luckys.

He also rolled up a bunch of socks and taped them to the top of the access hatch and bulkhead door into the nose because the bombadier, who was 6'-6" (a tall man for a B25, he was orginally assigned to B24s but and administrative mix up put him in B25s) would scalp himself when getting into his position. He said this guy, when wedged into the nose, looked like a chick ready to hatch. If he had to navigate, he would tape the map to the top of the canopy and read it lying on his back. All what would be in the nose was a 50 cal, without the ammo box, it was rigged up farther back into the plane, and the bombsight, which also was installed in flight.

Your doors and other scratchbuilt details are looking awsome.
Scott

And some progress on the other build for this GB while I wait for a PBY book....

I am also building the Monogram B-17F for a local vet who was a ball turret gunner on this plane...but interior detail on the F is lacking. Luckily I have built a -G in the past that I hate to look at-- so instant solution I ripped open the G and stripped it of all the good interior details and will add them into the -F instead.

Here are some of the latest progress shots:

First the front end...I realize after uploading these pics that the map is a bit too big, so I am going to try to reduce it further and see if that will help...



And here is my first real attempt at scratchbuilding LOL I am opening up the bay and the doors are null for detail-- so break out the styrene!! Just gotta add some color to it! Also-- since he's a ball turret gunner, I opened up the Sperry turret and will add a seat and some other detail as well...



Thanks for looking...

Nice Peggy, great to see a few Japanese bombers.
Scott

Here is my ki-67 Peggy. I had a few problems when it came time to mask. I tried cutting edge masks and was not happy! They left a lot of glue on the canopys, and some fell off during paint. Here are a few pics anyway.
Jason

Sweet I appreciate the input...unfourtunatly I came across this site a little late, as most painting and assembly is complete...much to my chagrin. its not turning out to bad...i've been working on it on and off..and id like to get more serious because im really enjoying modeling.

Its not as easy as I thought..lol

The B-25 isn't a bad kit for being on a budget and a beginer. Two things that will need some experience on will be installing the engine narcells to the wings and the canopies over the cockpit and nose. These areas do not fit up well and will require some putty and an emery board. I use "spot glaze" putty from Walmart. I also buy the value pack sandpaper from there as well and it has all the fine grit paper you need. Get some masking tape. You can get by with Krylon spray paints for this plane. They make a good primer to paint the entire plane with, then they make a good olive drab that hunters use. All these paints are under $3 a can and spray nicely. Also pick up an exacto knife. I use the liquid non-toxic cement by Testors. It's not the greatest. Iput a dab on a piece of paper and use a toothpick to apply it to my parts.


The best advice is to be patient and practice. I can't stress enough that sanding makes a good finish. Also, have fun, it's your first model so don't be to critical.

If you havn't checked it out, there is another GB here that requires that you cannot spend over $25 to complete a kit

Scott

Im new to modeling, and my first one that my friend pointed me to is a B 25j Mitchel 1:48 Revel.

Im just getting married and we are on total budget..and im not to good since this is my first model..but I should be done in like 2 weeks :) what do I need to do?

ouch thtas going to be hard to fix

still waiting for the parts to convert this to an h6 version. but here is a little of what happens when a kit is stored in an attic here in texas

ARRRRRGH! #$%$ $%%^$ #$%$ digital cameras. Got my B-25 set up for a shoot and the battery died. Well, guess I'll dust of the ol Nikon and use it. Just will take a little more time to get the pics back.