Good afternoon chaps

May I just say before I start on this post.......

Has anyone else noticed that some of the photos are coming back on the posts from Photobucket?...really odd as there was no warning....all the photos from some of my old posts from other models I have made years ago are returning!...please let me know if you are experiencing the same thing....not complaining but don't trust the beggers and I won't be returning to them!

Any how..onto the old ball turret!

I have added yet another layer of equipment that is found in the turret!....this time its the control pack for the gunner to move the turret from left to right and up and down and also the firing buttons for the 50 cals!

The control box was difficult as I really didn't have many photos of different angles of it , so some of it was guess work I am afraid!....twice I got the scale wrong because of lack of photos but got there in the end and I think it looks reasonably accurate!

I also built a chain gear box for the movement of the ball which I will show you first....... Here it is completely made from plastic scrap......

....and here is the difficult to build control unit!.......

The next set of photos show the two parts built placed in their position in the turret..........

So here we have the parts painted ...................

Hi guys

I am pleased to announce that the ball turret construction has come to an end! leaving me with just the detail above the ball that will be shown inside the fuselage.

I have to say that although it was a challenge.... I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the B17G build!......I didn't realize from the offset how much equipment there was inside the turret and I have learn' t a lot about the operation of the turret along the way.

Since my last post I finished off by placing an electrical box and cable on top of all the other detail!...and had to make the gunners hatch door that I will show you first.........

the next photo shows the inside of the door.....

I have temporarily blue tacked the gunners door in its place on the turret for these next set of photos.....

Here it is turned upside down so you can see the detail!.....

Here is the turret temporarily placed in the fuselage to get some idea of what it might look like when finished!....

Rambo

Just amazing work I wish the rest of the photos in your post was working but the few up of the ball gunner position and what i seen before they disappeared this is a excellent build thank you for sharing it with us.

 

Thanks Clint......I am going to try and sort out the mess Photobucket made and replace the missing photos!...just takes time!

Afternoon all!

Been a while but work on my house was required which didn't give me much time to get on with the radio room...plus I am getting ready to return to the UK for the summer which I do each year due to the extreme hot weather here during the summer months.....which of course means that this will be the last post until I get back to my office at the end of August.

So I have made a start on the radio room with the lower half and the flooring. It's nowhere finished but it's a start!

As you can see the fuselage is Balsa based and the floor was built up also with pieces of balsa which I covered with "ye olde yogurt pots".....usual trick of mine to save money on plastic card!!

The center of the floor has the bay constructed for the camera section that the radio operator could gain access through a trap door.....yet to be built!

The last few photos are of the radio room floor in place leaving the camera bay open minus the hatch  for the time being....I will build the hatch door when all the camera equipment is installed.......

That's all until I get back from my summer break!

Good afternoon guys

I do hope that everyone is "A" OK and you all had a great summer!...I certainly did!

Seems like an age since I last posted on here...in fact it has been nearly 4 months!...I went back to Blighty for the summer and when I returned life's little distractions kept me away from my work shop...what with fixing things around the house ...car maintenance etc etc...you all know how it is!

Any way I have found a bit of time until I get my family  knocking on my door for their yearly visit and until they come lets see if I can continue with this Radio room for my B17G!

Not an awful lot of progress I have to say but I have managed to prep the bottom half of the construction ...covering and strengthening the Balsa construction.

I think the photos will show you what I mean........

The openings you see cut away are for viewing all the gubbings that's found under the Radio room floor...like camera equipment...Oxygen bottles and prop anti icing main tank.

This photo shows the side of the fuselage and the opening will be for the viewing of said tanks!

Here are the oxygen tanks and anti icing glycerol tank ....made from block balsa for the oxygen tanks and a converted 550lb bomb from a Stuka kit!

The two halves temporarily together to get the effect!

what clint said mate , love watching this build .

steve5

This is just a very cool build. I really look forward to the updates on this one for sure!

Cheers Guys!

Rambo

Good to see you back I love watching your build. Have you got all the broken photo links fixed now on the other parts?

 

Working on it Clint!...I just need a bit of free time but I will definitely get it sorted!

Foz

Cheers Guys!

 

 

Rambo

Good to see you back I love watching your build. Have you got all the broken photo links fixed now on the other parts?

 

 

 

 

Working on it Clint!...I just need a bit of free time but I will definitely get it sorted!

 

 

Hi Guys

Just for those of you who are interested I have now fixed the broken links to the photos at the start of this Radio room build....lets hope I don't have to do it again!!...........a real drag to say the least!

Hi there

Time for an update. .....its a tad boring though as this part of the build always is!...but it has to be done!

Basically I have been shaping the balsa down on the top half of the radio room. Its a little time consuming but it has to be right at this stage else this part of the fuselage (radio room) will not look right!

I had to make the extended part on the top as well as cutting aperture's out for the perspex windows on the side and cutting the access doors out.

The photos will show what I am waffling on about!

Looks a mess but this is a sort of template for the raised bit on the top.as seen in the next set of photos.

...and so you can see where this will all eventually sit.....

Great looking model so far. What material are you using to "skin" your model. It looks too thick to be Bare Metal Foil. Are you using aluminum HVAC duct tape?

JohnnyK

Great looking model so far. What material are you using to "skin" your model. It looks too thick to be Bare Metal Foil. Are you using aluminum HVAC duct tape?

 

Cheers JohnnyK....I am skinning her with Aluminum sheets that a good friend of mine aquired from his work...they are sticky back and yes pretty thick!

Hi Guys

Back again with another installment!...have had more distractions than you can shake a stick at but found some spare time again to try and continue with this build!

I managed to complete both port and starboard Oxygen and Glycol tank bays which are under the floor of the radio room.A bit difficult finding photos of said area but I found a diagram giving the positions of the tanks and decided to roll with that!

So here we have the areas prepared for the tank installation....both port and starboard..........

Starting with the port side ..here are the 2 oxygen tanks installed with all the connecting air lines...

....and here is the starboard side that houses one oxygen bottle and the Prop anti icing Glycol tank

So now the next section will be the camera bay under the floor of the radio room...again not many photos and diagrams of that area but I will have to do my best with what I have!

Cool build. Enjoying your progress on this.

PART 1 OF THE CAMERA PIT

Hi guys

Not much is known of the contents of the Camera pit and to that end it was difficult to find information and photos but after endless trolling of the internet and many B17 sites I came across just a few photos and info of the area. I don't know why more info and photos (even drawings) are not out there to see as I think its quite important to show how the bombing photos were taken. For me this is frustrating because if you have been following this build you can see that I am trying to show every aspect of the B17.

However I have started to build the camera pit (as it is seemed to be known as) ..and I hope that I am on the right track.

I haven't finished it yet but have made a good start with the basic equipment at one end of the pit.

So the camera pit is in a small bay centrally placed beneath the radio room and access to it is under a hatch(not built yet). Here the radio operator could operate the camera via an intervalometer which operates periods of time for the camera shutter to operate....hence hopefully capturing the target hits.

The first 3 photos shows the area where the camera pit is located.............

The Propeller anti icing pumps were next scratched out of a couple of old radio capacitors with a few pieces of plastic and wire...these pumps had nothing to do with the camera operation but were stowed in the pit and were used to pump the glycol from the Glycol tank to the propeller's stopping them freezing over....here's the photos.....

Part of the forward floor ...which was made from wood...was now constructed. The circular glass thing represents the view finder aperture.

Here is a photo of the floor placed in the pit and the camera door control also added....

The frame work for the operators seat was now constructed out of plastic.....

...and the wooden seat built.

The Wing Flap hand crank location hole was then built on the underside of a section of the forward floor....I did this by constructing out of wire insulation.........

These items were then placed into the pit and these last 2 photos show how far I have got so far!.......

CAMERA PIT PART 2

Hi guys

I have now managed to complete the camera pit after rather a difficult week or so trying to find information about the equipment that is found in the pit. I do hope that I have done the area justice and hope that it is realistic enough!

Its rather a large post so lets get on with it!....

To start with I made the main Junction box and wired it all up.....here's a photo.....

Here it is all painted.....

I then had to make the Intervallmeter power box which is connected to the camera which allows photos to be taken at intervals for photos of bomb blasts on the target ......this was a fiddly affair being so small but got there in the end!.....

...and painted.....

This insect posed for me whilst taking the shot!!

Here we have a couple of Supercharger control Amplifiers!....who knows what they do!...amplifies the super charger?..ha ha..haven't a clue!

Here they are installed at the back of the camera pit......

The Camera support frame was then built using plastic and wire......

Here is my attempt at scratching the Fairchild K17 camera which was largely used on the B17s......

...and so you can get the scale of it........

So then....here are a few photos of the now complete camera pit.......

Rambo

Absolutely beautiful, I wish I had your scratch building skills.

 

Thanks Clint.....just takes practice and a hell of a lot of patience and time mate!

Hi to all!

Its been some time since I last posted on here...

This is due to the fact that for a while I couldn't log into this forum and by the time that the problem was solved I had departed for a break for Xmas and New Year....but now I have returned ...so it's time for a catch up on this Radio room build!

My last post showed that I had finished the camera pit and so it was on to completing the radio room floor and the floor area that houses the ball turret.

 So we will start of with the constructing photos I took of the floor area behind the radio room bulk head.....

The big hole will be for the ball turret!...eventually!

Here you can see the Azimuth gear ring for operating the 360 degree turret swivel....this took some time and patience as I made it out of scores of very small cut pieces of wire....aaaaggghh!

...and here is the walk way for the ball turret.

The next few photos are of the area painted .....

So now it was back to the radio room floor that had to be finished off.

You will see that I have made the hatch for the camera pit which I will display open to show the pit ...as not many people know of the area!!....the wooden floor boards put in place (lots of carpentry in the B17....less weight!)...and the walkways.I also put in a couple of hand cranks on the bottom of the forward bulkhead which were for the adjusting of heat in the cabin.....as far as I'm aware!

What I wanted to do now was have a look at the initial fit for the ball turret. A few adjustments here and there and she slotted into position......this is just a dry fit as later on I have to do a lot more work on the top of the turret.

...and a few more of the radio room floor.....

Well I have now done all the basic construction for the top half of the radio room. It took some time as the sky light above the radio room proved to be a bit of a pain to get it together...I just hope that it looks ok! 

The insides to the Balsa fuselage was covered with the plastic from yogurt pots as I usually do and then the ribs and other detail was glued into place using plastic card.

Here are the photos starting with just the top half of the fuselage..................

...and here are the two halves put together temporarily using some masking tape!.........

So I am now up to date with this build on this thread!

foz , I'm with clint , I wish I had your skills .

Rambo

Was wondering where you was at Fozzy. The radio room is looking great, I've learned so much watching this entire build come together. Glad the ball turret fit in so good.

 

Cheers Clint.....I was wondering where I was as well!...took a trip back to the UK then spent nearly a month in California visiting family...it's good to be back at this project though....got to see how far I can get with it this year!!

FUSE PANEL ,RADIO ROOM HATCH AND CONTROL CABLES!

Hi guys

Hows it all going in the model world?

Here we have the next installment of the radio room build for this B17G...as the the title states I managed to get 3 things completed since the last post....so starting with the fuse box here are some photos............

Quite straight forward really...a thickish piece of plastic was cut and manipulated into the fuse box!!

It was then painted and cables added to it ....and here it is installed in it's rightful position!

I then played around with the radio room hatch by adding the 4 escape/securing handles....basically I bent a sliver of aluminum from a cola can