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CONTINUATION OF MY 1:20 SCALE SCRATCH BUILT B17G (RADIO ROOM)

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Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Thursday, April 4, 2019 7:56 AM

RADIO EQUIPMENT ABOVE THE RADIO OPS DESK INSTALLED

 

Hi guys 

 

We continue!...............

 

 

I spent all this week since the last post installing all the radio equipment I scratched......As a reminder this included ..the radio ops desk that had the Liaison Receiver ,spare turbo amplifier ,headphones ,transmitter master switch ,transmitting key and desk lamp. I also installed the Command dynamoter and modulator ,the fire extinguisher ,portable oxygen bottle , IFF crash switch and the oxygen regulator and panel...I don't think I left anything out!

 

Here are some photos..............

So staying in this area I will now scratch build all the equipment that can be found underneath the radio ops desk....not as much gear so I will make the radio ops chair as well! 

Happy modelling guys and see you on the next post!

 

 

Cheers for taking a look 

Fozzy

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Saturday, March 30, 2019 11:12 AM

mustang1989

I haven't commented alot but rest assured.....I'm checking in often. Is this going to a museum upon completion? Love your work.......keep it comin'. Yes

 

 

Not sure what to do with it when it's all complete!...I can't think that far ahead!!Wink

  • Member since
    March 2012
  • From: Corpus Christi, Tx
Posted by mustang1989 on Saturday, March 30, 2019 8:48 AM

I haven't commented alot but rest assured.....I'm checking in often. Is this going to a museum upon completion? Love your work.......keep it comin'. Yes

                   

 Forum | Modelers Social Club Forum (proboards.com) 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Saturday, March 30, 2019 3:25 AM

Rambo
Fozzy once again excellent work, I'm learning so much about the B-17 and scratch building in general from your work
 

 

Cheers Clint!...I am pleased I am showing you some insight of this marvellous aircraft!

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • From: Parker City, IN.
Posted by Rambo on Friday, March 29, 2019 10:37 PM
Fozzy once again excellent work, I'm learning so much about the B-17 and scratch building in general from your work

Clint

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Friday, March 29, 2019 10:59 AM

BITS AND BOBS ABOVE THE RADIO OPS DESK

 

Hi chaps

Another week gone by and more equipment scratched! 

 

There is so much equipment in the radio room that I decided to break it down into areas.....so today's post will be concerning the gear above the radio ops desk including what would have been on the desk!

 

So to start with I knocked up the ops table......

....and on this table we first need the Liaison Receiver. ....a 4 sided plastic square with scrap plastic and wire for switches etc!

A bit of paint applied and a paper dial glued into place and hopefully all is well!

So I then scratched the radio ops headset....darn fiddly especially with the small gauge wire I had to use!

Here is the transmitting key and Liaison transmitter master switch (the pin is to show the scale)...........

...and the radio ops light...built using thin gauge wire....

this is the spare turbo amplifier.....

The next few photos are of the equipment so far upon the radio operators desk.....

Here is the Command dynamotor and modulator and its little shelf bracket before and after painting 

The IFF crash switch ( I believe this was activated to destroy all radio equipment in an event of a crash!)

The portable oxygen bottle.........

....and the fire extinguisher....(I have just noticed that when I accidentally knocked off the top of the extinguisher I super glued it back on upside down!ha ha!...will have to fix that later!)

...and finally here is the oxygen regulator and panel......

So that took all week to do!

 

The next post will be all that you see here placed into the radio room on the model.

 

Thanks for taking a peek!

 

 

Cheers guys!

 

Fozzy

 

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2018
Posted by E Baker on Sunday, March 24, 2019 1:54 PM

Foz

 

 
E Baker

Putting my 1/48 B-17 to shame! Great work!

 

 

 

 

Thanks E Baker...but I'm sure its not!...all models that we all do are just as good as all the rest...it's just different approaches to the build!

 

Let me put it this way: Mine is the one people say "oh, that looks cool". Yours is the one people spend 15 minutes looking at, gazing at all the detail! Simply put, they are two very different beasts.

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Saturday, March 23, 2019 2:12 AM

E Baker

Putting my 1/48 B-17 to shame! Great work!

 

 

Thanks E Baker...but I'm sure its not!...all models that we all do are just as good as all the rest...it's just different approaches to the build!

  • Member since
    June 2018
Posted by E Baker on Friday, March 22, 2019 4:52 PM

Putting my 1/48 B-17 to shame! Great work!

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • From: Parker City, IN.
Posted by Rambo on Saturday, March 16, 2019 2:33 AM
Wow Fozzy, it's looking amazing, I've said it multiple times already, your scratch building skills are topnotch.

Clint

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Friday, March 15, 2019 10:13 AM

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

 

Then started the real fun and games!

 

 

 

I never thought that adding the control cables would be such a pain!..I mean I put the cables into the nose section and the bomb bay without the blasted hassle I had this time.....is was all done by trial and error...starting over twice as I just couldn't get it to look right...I tried different gauges of electrical wire....I even tried using some fishing line!..the glue wouldn't set or I couldn't get the cables to tighten...but in the end I found some other small gauge electrical wire which wouldn't bend and made some guiders(for want of a better word) so that the cables were at equal distances to each other!....

 

 

Not sure if I know what I'm talking about!!....so here are the photos of the end result!!

 

Oh .....I also sprayed the internal walls and placed the two window perspex on either side of the fuselage.

 

So that's it for another week guys.........thanks a lot for looking in

 

Laters

 

Fozzy

 

 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Saturday, March 9, 2019 5:31 AM

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!!

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • From: Parker City, IN.
Posted by Rambo on Saturday, March 9, 2019 2:25 AM
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.

Clint

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Friday, March 8, 2019 4:05 PM

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

 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Friday, March 8, 2019 3:40 PM

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!

Next up will be scratch building all the radios etc after spraying the top half with colour!!

Till then.....Thanks for looking in!

Fozzy

 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Friday, March 8, 2019 3:32 PM

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.

You can also see in the last photo that I have shown the scale by putting my coffee cup next to it!.....

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

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Friday, March 8, 2019 3:25 PM

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 .....

 

 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Sunday, December 2, 2018 3:07 AM

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!

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • From: Parker City, IN.
Posted by Rambo on Saturday, December 1, 2018 3:44 AM
Absolutely beautiful, I wish I had your scratch building skills.

Clint

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Friday, November 30, 2018 3:42 PM

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........

 

Now comes the unsure of what's what section!!

 

On the floor of the camera pit there is a viewfinder aperture....as far as I can make out ,the operator would attach a view finder onto the aperture which was long enough for the operator to just bend forward and look through it whilst sitting in the chair.

 

This is what I think it looks like from some dodgy photos.........

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

 

I will leave the camera pit door open so that all this work can be seen.

 

So that's another section complete and it's now onto the radio room itself starting with the lower section....lots of radios to be built!

 

As usual thanks a lot for your interest in this build especially to the guys who have followed this for over the past 4-5 years...you will deserve a medal...along side me!!

 

 

Cheers for looking in and all the best!

Fozzy

 

 

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • From: Parker City, IN.
Posted by Rambo on Monday, November 12, 2018 10:10 PM
Very cool I never knew how or where the camera equipment was located.

Clint

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Sunday, November 11, 2018 8:26 AM

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!.......

 

Phew!!......

So I will be back with the second half of the camera pit as soon as I have completed it.

Thanks again as always for your interest in this megga build!

Cheers

Fozzy

 

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Sunday, November 4, 2018 12:17 AM

Cool build. Enjoying your progress on this.

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Wednesday, October 31, 2018 10:14 AM

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!Wink

So until the next post ...cheers for looking in !

Fozzy

 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Tuesday, October 23, 2018 9:55 AM

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!

  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Close to Chicago
Posted by JohnnyK on Monday, October 22, 2018 10:04 AM

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?

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • From: Parker City, IN.
Posted by Rambo on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 9:52 PM
Looks great I look forward to seeing any progress in this build.

Clint

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 2:00 PM

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.....

 

If this gets any longer I am going to need a bigger office!,,,,,,,So there you have it.

Hopefully I will be able to start detailing in the next post,,,starting with the bottom half ,so until then chaps....

 

Thanks for looking in

Fozzy

 

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Tuesday, October 9, 2018 4:00 PM

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!Super Angry

Foz
  • Member since
    April 2011
  • From: S.E Bulgaria
Posted by Foz on Saturday, October 6, 2018 1:20 AM

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!

 

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