"Size Matters" - Large aircraft build '06-Whenever

I'm still plugging along on the An-124 and An-225.  I added another update to this thread:

/forums/754234/ShowPost.aspx

Bruce

Good news!  I scored!  I ordered the some Ploesti Raider decals (limited run, only 300) from Meteor Productions and they still had some in stock!  They arrived on my doorstep yesterday afternoon!  Woo Hoo!!!! 

Midnight Storm wrote:

Scott, You should put lights & motors in your B-24. I'm doing that to my P-3B when I start it next month. That would be sweet on your warbird.

That would be cool, and since there is no end date.... wait, don't even get me started down that road.   I'm already buried in model projects.  

Scott,

You should put lights & motors in your B-24. I'm doing that to my P-3B when I start it next month. That would be sweet on your warbird.

Thanks Geof,

I'm just about ready to begin construction.  I'm still analyzing the instructions to determine the best "order of operations" so to speak to facilitate air brushing.  I seldom build my kits in the exact sequence of the instructions.  They work great if you're brush painting, but not for spraying. 

This will be my first multi-engined aircraft build so I want to be as pro-active as possible and avoid any possible snags.  If any of you have built this kit, I'd appreciate any "heads up" or pointers you can share with me. 

Eddie the Antonov is looking great!

Scott, good luck with your Lib, and post some progress pics!

Midnight Storm wrote:

Sounds good, if I were doing a B-24 I'd do that two tone Blue one. I forgot it's name. Another great B-24 is the Strawberry B*tch or the current B-24 flying, WitchCraft. Those are some sweet looking planes! No matter what the B-24 is a great choice. Always been one of my fave.

Funny you should mention WitchCraft.  My daughter and I drove down to McClellan AFB on Saturday to check out three flying WWII bombers (Collings Foundation), the B-17G "Nine-o-nine", the B-24J "WitchCraft" and the B-25J "Tondelayo".  It was awesome being able to check them out, climb inside and best of all, see them fly! 

Here are just a few of the pics from that afternoon. 

You can see the rest of the photos here: http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/Zushia/2007%20McClellan%20AFB/

See it's the same color you are talking about.

Sounds good, if I were doing a B-24 I'd do that two tone Blue one. I forgot it's name. Another great B-24 is the Strawberry B*tch or the current B-24 flying, WitchCraft. Those are some sweet looking planes! No matter what the B-24 is a great choice. Always been one of my fave.

looking good Eddie! 

I ordered my decal sets for the B-24D from Meteor Productions, so far so good as I haven't received any indication that they are out of stock and can't fill the order.  I'm leaning towards the pinkish sand scheme of the Ploesti Liberators based in Libya. 

Here is an update on my AN-124!

Just basic paint as of right now. I still need to paint the edges and fix a few things here and there. The wings and flaps still need to be painted silver & white. Also the nose gear is not installed on these photos.

Midnight Storm wrote:

I just finished painting my AN-124. I just need to gloss coat her and start decaling. Looks like there are over 150 decals per wing and much more to go on the body.  I better get started!

Yikes, looks like you've got your work cut out for you!  Good luck!

Actually, I'm thinking of making this GB open-ended. Mostly because I've gotten very little done on my B-24 and I too, will not be able to finish by July. I kindof got burned out on it and moved on to other, "less frustrating" kits. I'll come back and finish it eventually, though! 

So let's make it official then......this GB now has no end date. Keep up the good work guys and post some pics!

Here's an update on the An-124/-225:

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Bruce

I'm glad to see someone is still here, I was beginning to think this GB had died.  I'd love to see some pics of your superfort when it's complete. Good luck with your decal issues, I know what you mean, I tried to do a couple of old kits before and the decal sheets were a complete loss.

I'll get my airbrush back in working order tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to post some progress pics of my Libby soon...

Your Antonov's are looking great, Bruce, I'm really impressed on how much work you're putting into those things! The use of brass rods to reinforce is especially cool. Keep up the good work and keep posting pics!

As for me and my B-24, I've stalled out a bit because my CO2 regulator needs to be replaced. So, I'm dead in the water with no AB until I get a new one. But, once I get that up and running, I'll be able to make some progress.

How's everyone else doing?

Another update in the Aircraft forum:

/forums/754234/ShowPost.aspx

Enjoy,

Bruce

Posted a new An-124/An-225 update to the Aircraft Forum:

/forums/748381/ShowPost.aspx 

Bruce

Bruce, you obviously have a lot more patience (and time) than I do! I'm really looking forward to seeing that Antonov finished. Post more pics whenever you can, I'll be watching your build!

Oh, I almost forgot, I hit up the Evergreen Air Museum over the holidays and got a few decent pics, namely a B-17, a B-25, and of course a bunch of the "Spruce Goose".

Lucien, if you're interested, I've got "Goose" pics of both the exterior and interior, including the flight deck. Let me know...

Hello guys,

Nice progress on the B-24 and the B-29!  I've finally made some progress on the An-225 and An-124.  I've managed to get the fuselage profiles and cross sections created and cut out.  I decided to add a few extra cross sections that weren't on the plans by taking two cross sections and drafting a third partway between the originals.  I was worried that the cross sections were too far apart to allow me to build up the fuselage.  Surprising how much time this took to get to this stage - just to deal with the plans and get the plastic cut out.

So here's a few pictures.  Not very flashy, but at least it's progress. 

The An-124 fuselage profiles and cross sections laid out (the yardstick and the 1/72 scale Bf.109 are for scale):

The An-225 profiles and sections:

A shot of the An-124 nose with profile locations marked (the An-225 is the same as the An-124 in the nose area - it's stretched around the wing box):

Some sample fuselage profiles:

Next up is cutting the profiles in two, attaching them to the patterns, and then beginning to create the fuselage shape with plastic sheet, strips, and putty (oh, there will be lots of putty).

Maybe I'll finish by the end of this year... yeah, right.

Bruce

Well, as promised, here's a couple pics of my progress on the Lib. Obviously I'm just getting started. Like I said before, I have the entire bird rescribed, the engines are painted and in, the wing halves and tail section are assembled. Now I'm "working" on filling up the bad fit around the engines and then it's on to the interior......more pics later.

Looks like you're off to a great start, wirr, I'll have to take some pics of my libby and post. Even though all I have done is the scribing and the wing halves are together. I've kindof stalled out on this build because I have alot of filling and sanding to do, and that is my least favorite part of modelling....

This GB has been pretty quiet of late.  So, some pics of my 1/48 "Enola Gay"

First coat of primer showed a lot of work still to be done on seams and wing roots.

Anyone for spaghetti ?

plenty of room in the engine nacelle for the 1.5 volt motor.  prop shaft is ballpoint pen tube (thanks Lucien Harpress)

still a lot to do and also have to transform a piece of 4ft x 4ft board into a little slice of Tinian Island.  C'mon guys, lets see some pics !

Hi, can i join in on this one, bit late i know, but just found this, i will be building the revell 747-400, i am thinking of dropping the flaps as if it is on final approch, if i can pull this off.

thanks 

seefivein wrote:

Will this help http://www.buran.ru/htm/cherch.htm  Will take awhile to load  and scroll down to the 225 and click on the tab to the right  Daniel

That's the 3-view I was planning on using - I have a .tif version of it that is a bit better resolution than the .jpg file (less compression loss).  I've got better An-124 plans that I'll use for that plane (and to supplement the An-225 drawing - which doesn't really have enough cross sections).  I wish I could find An-225 plans as good as the ones for the An-124, but no luck so far (I'm sure they'll turn up once I'm well into construction).  I've got the plans already scaled up and printed, I just need to clear some space to start.

Thanks,

Bruce

bwr1 wrote:

Still planning on the An-225 (and stupidly I'm going to try to do an An-124 at the same time since they share so many components) - I probably won't finish by June, but I'll post updates.  Should be able to start sometime next month - I just have to get the Bv 238 far enough along first. Bruce

Will this help

http://www.buran.ru/htm/cherch.htm

 Will take awhile to load

 and scroll down to the 225 and click on the tab to the right

 Daniel

HEY HEY HEY! i forgot about this GB, but found it now.

about the Bv222: i simply left it aside. as i said, paint spill. red paint. i think i'll get another, as this was a nice build.

Sure thing, painklr, I'll put you on the list. Any specifics about the your Fort? (Squadron, special nose art, scale, manufacture, etc)

As for my B-24 goes, I finally pulled it down and did some work on it. I got most of the wings scribed and the enginges are painted up and halfway installed. I'm still debating if I want to buy the nose conversion kit and comence to hacking of the existing one...I'll keep you posted.

No problem, deltaheavy, welcome aboard. And don't worry about the 1/144 scale, it's the aircraft represented that's important. Besides, I'm pretty sure a pair of 4-7's count as "large aircraft". I'll put you on the list.

I'm still chugging away on mine still. Just trying to button up the cockpit then it's on to the races.

Still planning on the An-225 (and stupidly I'm going to try to do an An-124 at the same time since they share so many components) - I probably won't finish by June, but I'll post updates.  Should be able to start sometime next month - I just have to get the Bv 238 far enough along first.

Bruce

Ok, fellas, I just wanted to give this thread a litte nudge to make sure it doesn't get forgotten. Has anyone been working on their builds? Or have you all been like me and either working too much, or spending most of your spare time out on the river or out tromping around in the woods. Well the nasty weather is soon to come, so I'll be doing more modeling now. Keep an eye on this build 'cause I'll be posting progress pics soon. By the way, if anyone has been working on their "bigguns", I'd love to see some pics (no comments from the peanut gallery on that one!).

Mighty fine looking decal you're going to have there.

Bruce

I finally have a little progress to report. Although it's not on the actual "building" part of my B-24, it is however, an important step (to me at least). I've been doing a lot of work on my custom decals, and I've completed the nose art. I was lucky enough to find the artpiece in a pinup book at my local library and then do some editing. So, here it is, prior to shrinking down for printing so you can see the detail before it's lost:

CAN I JOIN IN I HAVE A 1/72 VICTOR TANKER? I'VE JUST DONE LESS THAN 25% OF THE WORK.

Hi, I am back! Not sure what the heck happened but Finescale kicked my ID out of the forum and I can't unlock my old ID , ipms33206. Now I am photoman_68. Anybody else with this issue? I will give an update soon.

HOLY S*** THAT'S HUGE!!!!! AND HIDEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOOOO!!!!!!

Well, that's my rant for now, and I am here to report that the Zwilling needs to be painted so that some clear parts can be added. Otherwise it's done.

Ekranoplan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekranoplan

There are lots of different versions.  A couple of them have/had wingspans over 40m.  I have plans for those and have toyed with scratchbuilding them but that's probably a long way off (too many real planes I want to build first).

Bruce

Hey, guys check this beast out! I saw this today and thought about the "ugly aircraft" conversation from the other day. It's some kind of "Russian Amphibious Assault Ground Effect Thingamajig". Whatever it is, it's hideous!

rudy_102 wrote:

Lucien, are you trying to get that to be RC? It stand out among these stand-outs....

• High Wing- Putting the main wing spar on the top of the fuselage leaves more room for cargo.  A low- or mid-spar would get in the way.
• Many Fuselage Mounted Wheels- Many wheels make for a smoother ride and spread the footprint of the aircraft out more, which allows greater rough-field performance and is easier on runways.  They're fuselage mounted becuase (with a high wing) wing-mounted landing gear would have overly long weak(er) struts, and take up more room in the wing.
• Nose and Tail Doors- Allows for straight-through loading and greater flexibility.
• Four + Engines- What can I say?  Cargo loads are heavy! 

Rudy, if you're wanting to join with a 1/72 Zwilling, I'd say "heck yeah", and welcome aboard! Having never heard of that aircraft, I got curious and did a quick image search, and man, that is one crazy looking aircraft! I can only imagine the cracks that must've formed in that middle wing spar.

Keep us posted on your progress, Rudy.

Hey gang!

Is it too late for me to join? I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to planes...but I just started the 1/144 Revell Antonov AN124 kit....

Swanny's site is awesome.

Living Legend wrote:

Well I think Ive just about got it ready for primining.  As long as I dont bust open any more seams.  This has been a difficult build for me.  I must say that I have improved at rescibing panel lines, but I still have much to learn...

LL, you might find this link to Swanny's website useful. I personnally skip the part about scraping with the curved blade and go straight to sanding after I scribe, but overall his process works like a charm, especially the dymo tape.

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Scribing.html

Josh, LL, Mike, Martin - good news on your progress, and to you Martin I hope you get it straightened out with the damage!

Hopefully I will be adding my own progress to the list soon!

Geoff - understood, I am just now getting out of my funk... It was a long stretch with no modeling for me....

My stuff from greatmodels gets here tomorrow so I will break it out and study it.  I got the "collectors edition" Eduard PE set for the B-26J (whatever the colloectors thing means... it is not quite as big as the "Big Ed" Eduard set but it's 2 large sheets... should keep me busy for a bit!  I got the True Details wheels and the Eduard Masks... after masking a 1/72 He-111 I live by these things now!!! 

Well I'm glad to hear that many of you are making some good progress lately, because I am not. I haven't even touched my B-24 for a couple of weeks now. I've been a bit busy with that whole "life gets in the way" thing.

As I'm sure most of you are aware of, we are offically underway on the GB, so, even though it's about 10 days late (see "life" reference above), the green flags are out and we're off and running. Everyone that's in have fun and enjoy the build, I'll be looking forward to all of your great offerings. And those of you who haven't joined (or want to), no worries, you can join any time up until JULY 1st 2007.

Happy Building!!! (or for some of you, happy "repairing", if there is such a thing)

I hear ya Legend, I did a 1/48 C-47 last year, and scribing the panel lines and filling up all the seams must've taken me three weeks of steady work nearly every night.

As for my build, I had picked up an MPC 1/72 B-24, hoping that it had the right Ford nose like the pic on the box implied, but it had the "J" model nose. Not to mention the kit itself was just so-so. So, I'm back to the Monogram 1/48 I was originally going with. I'm debating if I want to buy the Cutting Edge nose conversion kit ($28) and hacking off the existing one. Yikes! I may just modify the area behind the nose turret and leave the bombardier's window as is. No real progress lately, just the the tail(s) are scribed and assembled and I've started scribing the wings. Oh, and I had some flat black in the AB the other day, so I went and shot the props and tires. Otherwise slow start.

I under estimated how much filling and sanding that this kit was going to require.  It is almost as if for every seam I sand and fill 3 more seams need attention.  And to think that I have another C-130 in the stash...  Aside from this how everyone else doing?

Like I need another GB on my plate....  

Put me down for the Monogram 1/72 B-36 that's been languishing in my stash. 

gedenke wrote:

Any particular squadron or aircraft name?

VC-3, UF 8228 NAS North Island, CA 1971

Living Legend wrote:

If its not to late Id like to join and do a 1/48 DC-130 w/ drones (its the biggest kit Ive got).

Absolutely, Living Legend, it's never to late to join. Well, up until July 2007 that is. You guys can jump in anytime during the build from now until it ends. So, welcome aboard, and I'll put you on the list for a 1/48 DC-130. Any particular squadron or aircraft name?

And remember, the "official" start is this Saturday!

ipms33206 wrote:

I am so looking forward to this! I have the Concorde sitting in the shed ready to start. Let's get this thing rolling!

Mark, start whenever you want! You don't have to wait 'til next week if you don't want to (or in your case, can't wait! ).

I am so looking forward to this! I have the Concorde sitting in the shed ready to start. Let's get this thing rolling!

There may be a slight change of plans regarding my B-24 in the near future. I've been doing some research (ok, alot of research) and found that the 1/48 Monogram I have has the wrong nose since it's a "J" and I need an "H" (from the Douglas/Tulsa plant). Now, Cutting Edge has a conversion kit that I can get from Great Models for around $28, but I thought I'd try something else first. So, I ordered a 1/72 MPC Profile Series B-24 ($10 on Evil Bay) because from the pics I've seen, it looks to have the proper nose. Or at least close enough so a little scratch building would get it. Besides, I was thinking that a 1/48 might be a little too big (I know, I know, sounds hipocritical for this build) for my display case, so we'll see if this will work. I'll let you guys know more when the MPC kit gets here...

you could try ordering a set of German insignia decals...

I found these here:  German insignia, the 1/72 are for fighter so maybe the smallest of the 1/48 ones would work on your plane.  I am sure you can find some pictures online and eyeball the size of the insignia compared to the wing.  (i.e. if the top edge looks very close to the leading edge of the wing, and the bottom edge of the insignia comes to the point where the flaps are you can find one that is approximately that size from the sheet)

gedenke wrote:

tho9900 wrote: Chris - if you can find it, Floquil old silver provides a NMF very close if not better than Alclad (better because it's half the prep time)  It's an enamel so it goes on flawless and has a very metallic sheen to it... just an idea in case you want to tackle it later... it brushes well too with very little thinning! How do you think the Model Master Metalizers would stack up to the Floquil? (my LHS has them in stock)

The buffable ones provide a nice finish but they are a little fragile.  Make sure to get some of their metalizer sealant when you get the NMF.  If helps protect it.  This is for the buffable finishes mainly, the regular metal finishes should be fine without it... The bottles look very similar so be sure to read them before ya buy so you know if you need the sealer...

Good Luck!

-=edit=-

I just looked at squadron and they have an "aluminum plate" MM buffing metalizer that should do the trick nicely... it would need the sealer...  I've used their burnt metal and burnt iron buffig metalizers and they look good so I am sure this one won't dissapoint!

tho9900 wrote:

Chris - if you can find it, Floquil old silver provides a NMF very close if not better than Alclad (better because it's half the prep time)  It's an enamel so it goes on flawless and has a very metallic sheen to it... just an idea in case you want to tackle it later... it brushes well too with very little thinning!

How do you think the Model Master Metalizers would stack up to the Floquil? (my LHS has them in stock)

Sturzkampf wrote:

can i join? i have a revell germany 1/72 blohm und voss bv 222 to contribute.

that would be a good build to see!  An interesting looking aircraft....  Welcome aboard!!!

PanzerWulff wrote:

I think I'm going to hold off on my B-36 at the moment I really need to get up to speed on my NMF skills before I want to tackle it, so I'm going to do a 1/72 B-52 instead I'll get back to you on which version later TTFN

Chris - if you can find it, Floquil old silver provides a NMF very close if not better than Alclad (better because it's half the prep time)  It's an enamel so it goes on flawless and has a very metallic sheen to it... just an idea in case you want to tackle it later... it brushes well too with very little thinning!

-Mike, I'll definately wish you luck on that one, I still think you're partially insane! I can only imagine trying to do that in my little townhouse, that beast would nearly fill my living room! Keep us posted.

-Chris, no problem man, I'll update the list.

A bunch of work has been done on the H-4, but unfortunately, none of it is very picture-friendly.  I've spent about a week (and half a tube of putty!) on a seam about 9 inches long.  My problem is that, because I plan to finish it in overall aluminum, the seamwork needs to be flawless.  I've finally got it acceptable (not perfect...), but there's still a few feet (dare I say yards?) of seams left to finish.  This is gonna take a while...

Wish me luck!  I'm gonna need it... 

hmmm I gotta go get the AccMin B-25 in 1/48 now... to keep in the spirit of things at least...

On a side note I finally found the link to my uncle almost definitely flying in B-36's... immediately post war he went to "Advanced Gunnery School" which appears to be where they taught the 'computerized' turrets used on the B-29's which most of his unit converted to... and around 1953 the 42nd bomb Group became the 42nd Bomb Wing and at least part of the squadron went over to B-36's... still plodding along with the history though...  the details of what I have found are over in the Memorial Day GB..

Geoff - I looked up some specs on your printer and it should be able to handle small and moderate sized decals just fine!!!  (I don't know how it would handle B-29 nose art in 1/48 but maybe so!) If you do try it use the "Best Quality" setting by going into the printer preferences and changing it there.  Just remember to let it "cure" about 48 hours before spraying it with the fixative...   I've used the Testors paper with no probs, I've heard the paper micro-mark sells is good too, maybe a little thinner than the Testors which would let it settle in better I would think...

Tecs wrote:

Hi all, I would like to join in,I am going to be building the Monogram EA-6B in 1/48, is this big enough?, I have the Black Box resin cockpit set on order so once this is with me I will be ready to rock and roll.

Well, initially, I was thinking that an EA-6 was more of a fighter size aircraft, but then I checked the stats compared to a B-25 (which up 'til now was this build's smallest). Turns out the Prowler is actually longer and heavier (empty weight) than the B-25. So, given that, the fact that you're working in 1/48, and the EA-6B does have a crew of 4, I guess I have to say OK. Welcome aboard, Tecs.

Here's my B-24 as of a couple days ago. I decided to use a new technique I like to call "prefading", where I applied an irregular brush coat of MM Faded olive drab over MM| green drab, followed by a thin blotchy coat of MM Olive drab. These pictures show the a/c before the final OD was applied. I'll try to get some more pics posted later in the week. It now has the final OD coat applied and I've applied the National insignia decals to the upper wing and left fuselage, I'll do the other two tonight.

Here's a close up of the pattern of faded OD

An overall shot

Holy bagels, Batman! Mike that thing is massive! I can't wait to see it finished! Keep us posted.

Oh, I almost forgot, this is to everyone, large helicopters are also welcome in this build. So, if you have a Super Stallion or a Hind sittin' around, jump on in!

Here's a little appetizer for the GB. It's an old 1/48 Monogram C-47 I did last year. Although it's not my offering for this build, I thought I'd post a pic anyway. I've since added antenna wires, so maybe I'll update the pic later...

Okay, another update- a comparison pic (or two):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/compare1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/compare2.jpg

The wings are just temporarily taped together to a temporary wing spar.  (If you notice, the wings are flat, with no dihedral)  But you can see the size of this thing.  Both kits are 1/72, and you can see the foot-long ruler at the bottom.

You can also see some of my putty-work around the cockpit- and I'm still working at it.  Sanding goes on...  

Geoff - I'm not sure which I'll be building yet, I have the Hasegawa B25J in 1/72 but I'm thinking of getting one of the AccMinn 1/48 B-25's ... I mean, size matters right?    I'll let you know after I go through some more pics of his unit and get a feel for which variant was used the most in the S. Pacific...

Sounds good, Tom! So, B-25, right? What scale are you working?

And Mike, you are indeed an animal! ....53" wingspan?! Wow!

Mark, happy to have you, we'll look forward to your Concord.

gedenke wrote:

No problem, Mike, I've got you in for a "possibly". By the way, what scale will your Goose be?

She's gonna be nice and big, in spirit and in fact- 1/72!  (The wingspan's about 53 inches, just over 4 feet, and the fuselage is just over three feet long)  Yeah, put me down as fully committed.

I've done quite a bit of work on it already.  Both wing floats are glued together, and one is pretty much fully sanded.  I already scratchbuilt an interior, and the hull is glued together, and in the process of puttying and sanding.  The putty/sand stage will probably go on for quite some time.  The kit is only 14 vacuform parts, but the fit is so bad it's still a pain in the rear.

Half of the tail is done, and pretty soon I'm going to need to start scratchbuilding some control surfaces.  Add to this my goal to motorize it, and there you go- enough work to keep me busy unitl the end of the Group Build! 

I forgot to mention that the Concorde will be in Air France markings. Lots of white paint! Thanks for allowing me to join this group!

tho9900 wrote:

gedenke wrote: So now I need to track his history from the end of WWII forward.  And unfortunately the B-25 wouldn't be a big bomber so I will be enrolling it in Chris's Memorial Day GB... Thanks for the point in the right direction!!!

Tom, for what it's worth, a B-25 is big enough for my GB, so you're welcome to join if you wish. If not, no problem, and I'll see you in the Memorial Day GB.

gedenke wrote:

Tom, you may want to check out www.b24bestweb.com. They have a ton of info on B-24 crews, noseart, 1000s of pics and I think a forum. That's where I found out most of the info on my grandfather's service. Another great research tool is www.armyairforces.com. Oh, by the way, my B-24 is also a tribute build of one my grandfather flew on, hence my participation in the Memorial Day GB.

Geoff - thanks to your info I am a WHOLE lot closer to finding my uncles career history out.  those guys at armyairforces.com got me set up in about 16 hours with pointing me to the right resources.

All I knew before was that my great uncle flew as a gunner in WWII and likely went on to B-36's after the war.

What I know now is:

Rene L. Broussard enlisted on 3/28/1941 into the US Navy, on arrival at Houston, TX for his processing physical, he was rejected from enlisting in the Navy because of a missing tooth.  He immediately walked down the hall and was accepted by the Army into the Army Air Corps as a flight engineer/gunner.  He was assigned to the 13th Army Air Force, 42nd Bomb Group (no squadron yet).  He flew many missions in the Pacific, S. Pacific and the CBI theaters (around 114 missions), he was awarded with the Air Medal 5 times as well as the South Pacific ribbon with two battle clusters (among others).  I need to find out what for, but one of the awards for the Air Medal he actually received 3 at once for a campaign or operation he was involved in.

Evidently he flew with one Berton H Burns, who if you do a google for the name and add Manhattan Project to the end went on to become maintenance officer for the B-29's used in Operation Crossroads flying from Tinian Island (test nuclear explosions at Bikini Island, you might remember a film clip of a nuclear blast detonating in the center of a battle fleet.. this was it, they were testing what a direct nuclear blast would do to material at sea) .  Just a side note but interesting historically.

So now I need to track his history from the end of WWII forward.  And unfortunately the B-25 wouldn't be a big bomber so I will be enrolling it in Chris's Memorial Day GB...

Thanks for the point in the right direction!!!

Concord, cool! Welcome aboard, Mark.

I am in!!!!!! Lots of choices!!!! Let's see.....................

Pencil me in with a 1/72 Heller Concorde!

No problem, Mike, I've got you in for a "possibly". By the way, what scale will your Goose be?

I might just be tempted... (I really hope to have it finished by then anyway)  We will have to see...

Put me down as a possible.

Tom, good luck with your research, sounds like you have a lot of work to do.

Mike, I completely side with you on the whole "life gets in the way" thing. But, if you change your mind, you can join anytime you want up until July 2007.

Oh, man... I'm tempted to enter this GB with my vac H-4 Hercules, but honestly, I don't think I could get it done by the deadline!    It's better to take it slow and do it right than be pressured into finishing it quickly and make a mistake or two.

That's not to say I'm not going to keep a sharp eye on this Group Build.  It's actually right up my alley!  Unfortunately, once again, life gets in the way.

Good luck, all of ya's!

PanzerWulff wrote:

Tom my B-36 is the Revell AG 1/72 reissue I think it goes for about$80.00 on Greatmodels I'm not sure if there may be somewhere to get it for less. I also know that Minicraft has a family of  B-36's in 1/144 scale I think one of them is the FICON version with the RF-84 and the Goblin

hmmm I'll go back and check... all I saw I believe was the 1/144 kit for it..   which I suspect would still be about as big as a 1/48 fighter!    I might go evil bay but those shipping prices kill me!!!  a lot of them are asking 10 to 15 dollars to ship a 1/48 kit!!!

gedenke wrote:

Tom, you may want to check out www.b24bestweb.com. They have a ton of info on B-24 crews, noseart, 1000s of pics and I think a forum. That's where I found out most of the info on my grandfather's service. Another great research tool is www.armyairforces.com. Oh, by the way, my B-24 is also a tribute build of one my grandfather flew on, hence my participation in the Memorial Day GB. -Geoff

Geoff - I get his monthly compilation of B-24 tail numbers etc... (from B24bestweb.com)   

The problem I ran into everytime is that the incomplete oral history I had wasn't enough to really find a specific unit etc.. most of the people I talked to in the forums only had pilot/copilot MAYBE navigator and bombadier info etc... (he was a gunner from what has been said, based on the fact he said the hardest part of going over a target was lying down for so long (according to the incomplete and in some cases inaccurate oral history) I can only think he was in the ventral gun position.)  He has living children the family has lost touch with, so it would be hard to prove next of kin or closest living relative status to retrieve his service record from the archives (if it still exists after the fire) .. I keep on plodding on though, trying to pick up clues here and there.  He died before I knew him and his wife burned all his military papers and such, so I only have second hand info and a circa WWII picture of him to go on...

One day I hope to contact his youngest son to see if I can find some info from him... until then...

Ok, Josh, noted.

Jaypack55 wrote:

I guess I've got to join this one... I've got a Revell B-24D that I started a while ago, I might just have to finish it now. I'm doing it as "Joisey Bounce", and I might add my B-17 (the model's finished, but I still have to build the diorama.)

oh, BTW,  they're both 1:48

gedenke wrote:

Hey, Bruce (bwr1), this might help with your scratch-build: http://www.airliners.net/search/ Just type in "Antonov An-225" in the keywords block an it will come up with quite a few pics, including cockpit and landing gear. Good luck! -Geoff

Thanks for the info.  I'm going to look there and at myaviation.net - those seem to have the best photos.  Maybe they're related sites since the format looks similar.  I've got good 3-view plans and cross sections, but I think I'm going to need lots of close-up photos.  My cross sections don't really show up the distinctive chin "smiley" that the An-225 and An-124 both have.

I think this is going to be a challenge, but hey, that'll be part of the fun.

Bruce

You could try Evil Bay (ebay) too. I just looked and saw a few of the older Monogram kits.

tho9900 wrote:

I wish the B-36 was still in production.... I'd love to do this kit for this build and Chris's Memorial day build... My great uncle flew (apparently, no firm info yet, just letters he sent home) on B-24's during the war.  And researching to units bombing Guam the only heavy bomber unit there transitioned to B-36's after the war while he was still a member.  Problem is, his wife burned all his uniforms and paperwork when he passed way so there is only the oral history to go on.. But I would love to do one of those 36's again if only for the size...

Tom, you may want to check out www.b24bestweb.com. They have a ton of info on B-24 crews, noseart, 1000s of pics and I think a forum. That's where I found out most of the info on my grandfather's service. Another great research tool is www.armyairforces.com.

Oh, by the way, my B-24 is also a tribute build of one my grandfather flew on, hence my participation in the Memorial Day GB.

I wish the B-36 was still in production.... I'd love to do this kit for this build and Chris's Memorial day build...

My great uncle flew (apparently, no firm info yet, just letters he sent home) on B-24's during the war.  And researching to units bombing Guam the only heavy bomber unit there transitioned to B-36's after the war while he was still a member.  Problem is, his wife burned all his uniforms and paperwork when he passed way so there is only the oral history to go on..

But I would love to do one of those 36's again if only for the size...

By the way everyone, go check out PanzerWulff's Memorial Day GB. My B-24 will also be on that build.

http://www.finescale.com/FSM/CS/forums/618468/ShowPost.aspx

PanzerWulff wrote:

HEH HEH HEH let me double check I had a B-36 around somewhere

Now that I would like to see!

Hey, Bruce (bwr1), this might help with your scratch-build:

http://www.airliners.net/search/

Just type in "Antonov An-225" in the keywords block and it will come up with quite a few pics, including cockpit and landing gear. Good luck!

Welcome, Fred. We'll be looking for your Fort.

Great! Bruce and Josh you guys are in, I'll update the list. Oh, and Bruce, thanks for the link, that showed me I was wrong. Man, I can't believe that after all these years, the Spruce Goose is still the widest!

Oh, this is going to hurt but the logo suckered me in.  I'm in and I'm going to try to scratchbuild an An-225 in 1/72 scale - I've been wanting to do it for quite a while, I have good plans, now I have a group build to encourage me to do it.  Just don't tell my wife.  I can imagine the conversation when I'm done: "Umm, honey, here's my latest completed project - I think you're going to have to leave your car out of the garage so I have somewhere to display it".

I think the An-225 is larger than the A380 (except for tail height):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Giant_Plane_Comparison.png

Bruce

Here's the logo, if you join, you can put it in your signature. You don't have to finish your build first. I chose the Antonov 225 because, although it's not as big as the A380, it just looks HUGE! 

Only thing I ask is that you use your own photo hosting, so my photobucket account doesn't get swamped.