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

what clint said mate , love watching this build .

steve5

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!

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!

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!

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!....

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 ...................

JohnnyK

For the life of me I can't imagine how anyone could squeeze their body into that thing. It must have been really uncomfortable.

 

The maximum height for a ball gunner was 5 foot 4 inches....even so ..it must have been a tight squeeze!

For the life of me I can't imagine how anyone could squeeze their body into that thing. It must have been really uncomfortable.

Hi everyone

Just when you thought that it was impossible to cram any more equipment into the turret Mr Sperry thought it was best to install the K4 gun sight!....and it isn't a small piece of equipment either!...it sat just above the gunners rib cage!

I made the gun sight by shaping a small piece of balsa wood and then covering it with some plastic card....then all the bits and bobs were simply glued on!

Here it is before being painted......

So here are some photos of the gun sight squeezed into the turret.......poor gunner!

Looking through the gunners hatch.......

Here is a shot through the front glass on the ball turret showing the (blue) sight glass.......

Hi there chaps

 Been a while since I last posted due to the fact that Spring is here and every year I have to fix house problems tend to the garden etc etc also add to the mix that this turret build is pretty complicated!

I am also experiencing problems with these posts as the photos keep disappearing..( Photobucket springs to mind!)...since Photobucket went silly I have been using.... Postimage....I haven't had any problems until just recently.I found out that they had been hacked....but I was told of a solution which works...some times!I am going to replace all the photos of this build one more time and hope that this time they stay here....but I'm not sure if they will...if they don't then this whole Radio room blog is just a waste of time!....I will try again......is anybody else having this problem?

Any way on with this post............

I have a method in scratch building this turret now and that is to build it in layers!...from the top of the ammo cans to the next piece of equipment and then the next layer would be another part of the system to the next part and so forth. ....because of the amount of stuff that's packed into the ball its the only way I seem to be able to do it!

So here is the next layer! .....

As you can see all the white parts are the detail that I have added since my last post.......

This shot is looking in through the gunners hatch.........

So with a bit of paint added here is what it looks like so far........

I think I found the problem and have now rectified it.....(hopefully)....we shall see!!

I think postimage was hacked , I believe everything is alright now though . because I really like what's doing in this build too .

steve5

Dont know why all my photos have disapeared...I hope its not going to be another Photo Bucket muck about....havent had any problems with Post image until a few days ago...any one else having problems?

Afternoon guys!

I have just returned from UK and I am now back in my office and can get to my bench!....the last time I posted was 15 March and of course not being able to do any modelling this post is going to be a small update.

So its the continuation of the Ball turret that seems to get more and more complicated the more I look at the photos. I have many photos of different angles of the interior of the turret that I have collected over the months and its a real slow process of interpreting what I see!....not to mention that some of the equipment I have scratch built will be able to be seen but only if you look carefully in all the nooks and crannies!.....as in  the real turret there isn't a spare scrap of space!

So I continued with building an electrical control box that sits on the front of the ammo cans.....here it is.....

The last 3 photos show the progress I have made by looking at the white un painted parts.......

So as you can see....real slow progress for such a small part in this B17G project!

Hi there Lads and Lasses!

I am off to the UK tomorrow but was able to do a quick update before I set off.

I haven't done much but its a start to complete the ball turret part of this build.

Looking at photos convinced me that the next best thing to scratch build should be the ammo cans that are inside the ball!....they sit just above (and I mean just above) the gunners thighs!....I can see why the ball turret gunners had to be small...there is just no room to move an inch!...no wonder they got cramp!.....lying there in that draughty enclosed space ...dangling under the belly of the B17 with the deafening thunder of the 50 cals a few inches from their ears!....... great respect for them!

Scratch building the ammunition cans was a huge task in it self and I hope that they look something like them....I built them from a small block of balsa wood and then covered it with some yogurt pot plastic....just to save some of my plastic card!

The rounds were made by cutting teeny pieces of telephone wire and gluing them on a strip of paper.

 Here is a photo of the can's and some of the ammunition that will be seen before painting.....

The rounds were then glued into position and the whole thing was painted......

Then the real tricky part started!......fixing the whole lot into the small ball.

....and here is what it looks like with the top of the ball temporarily attached...

You might notice that only one side of the ammunition cans are painted....this is because a lot of detail will be attached to the un painted side later.

mustang1989

This is friggin' crazy off the charts!!!!!!! I think I'll be subscribing to this thread. This is definitely different and definetely cool!!!!

 

 Cheers mate!...glad your coming along for the ride!

This is friggin' crazy off the charts!!!!!!! I think I'll be subscribing to this thread. This is definitely different and definetely cool!!!!

Bakster

It looks excellent. Beautiful work sir.

 

cheers!

It looks excellent. Beautiful work sir.

Afternoon all!

OK then.... I took photos of the bottom half of this turret this morning so that I could show you the progress that I have made so far. I have to say that I found researching the Sperry Ball Turret fascinating and it was ...and still is...pretty difficult to put it all together!...If I thought the lower section was hard it will be nothing compared to the upper half!.,..as I said in my last post it was difficult at times to know which part to scratch build first...wires and cables were hidden behind parts so I really had to think it all through!....this is my excuse in case you see any flaws...and believe me there are a few!...

But I am happy with the way it turned out....so far!

So here are the photos then......I think that the whole thing will look better when the top half is joined..........

...and just so you can get an idea of the scale.......

The next few photos show all the bits and bobs that go into the lower half of the ball....

So ....thinking ahead of the upper half I think I am going to have to think outside the box on this one as so far with this project I have put the emphasis on being able to see the internal workings of the B17G.....EG...the nose section was only skinned up to the cockpit plexiglass...so you could see into the cockpit....same as the last section I built...the bomb bay...although I think I might have to re visit the bomb bay as I don't think you can see into the bay very well....and so to this radio room....and to that end this Ball turret....I think I will design it so that the top of the ball is open enabling you to see down into the ball......its a load of balls really......but I think you know where I'm going with this!

Hi guys

I have managed to finish detailing the lower half of the Ball turret.

I really had to think carefully how to approach doing this...because A. ..there is a hell of a lot going on in there!! and B....what I scratch build in the lower half will eventually have to marry up with the top half!.

Luckily I have of photos of "said subject" but of course no dimensions!....and so this was all done by eye balling the photos and trying to scale it in my head down to 1:20.....how ever I am used to this and this is the part of the build I love doing.

I started by building the two 50 cal Browning's.

So it was time to get out my favorite box and tin of the only materials I seem to ever use when doing this................

Scrap plastic and bits of wire!....and I think I used a Christmas card some where in bottom half of this turret!

So here we have the two Browning's ready for a bit of paint...

The guns were placed into the turret ..(that was a nightmare!....took ages!)...and then on with a few more parts to be scratched.

Here for example is the air regulator and heated suit unit that are tucked away in front of the armored plate that protects the gunners under cart!.....

and here are the Air pressure gauges on their panel....

...and with a little colour attached....

There was times I built a part and then had to start all over again....mainly a scale issue...but got there in the end!

Thanks guys!

l love watching this amazeing work.

thank you for sharing

Simply Amazing!  Dear lord I have enough trouble putting together plastic kits.  Can't hardy wrap my brain around this one

Hi guys

Time for an up date on this Ball turret!

 So after a lot of cursing the designers of this turret...namely Mr Sperry!...I finally managed to complete the outer parts of the bottom half of the turret..... leaving me to start next on the dreaded interior!

The hardest part was trying to replicate where the 50 cals go into the turret....I tried all sorts of ideas but in the end decided to use wire insulation. Very fiddly I have to say and a few attempts had to be made before I was kind of satisfied that it looked the part.

 Here's a photo of me in the process of making them..............

I have done this method many times before but this time it seemed harder due to the circular shape they had to be attached to!...Each piece of insulation was 1 cm in length and had to be opened up and cut to shape.....and a small piece of plastic with a hole drilled out that will take the barrels later on........

Here you have it......

Next up was also pretty dam difficult and that was cutting out all the glazing positions.....but finally the bottom half of the turret was ready for glazing.............

After the glazing was done using cut pieces of an old food clear packaging plastic...I then placed all the framing around the glass.

Here it is then ready to start the detailing of the interior........

...and with the top on to give some sort of reference that it is.... in fact... supposed to be a ball turret!!!

That is some simply amazing work. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it's finished. You sir, have some beyond impressive scratch building skillls.