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1:32 scratchbuilt B-17 Fortress diorama - update 06/11 FINISHED!


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*update 29/08/12*

Hi everyone - here's my latest update.

I've made a start on the cockpit - the most logical thing to start with was the instrument panel. In my last update I showed you the instrument panel with holes punched out for the various instruments - I've now completed that. My method is this - cut out a duplicate fascia from thin, white plastic card, and give it a coat of gloss varnish - this will give the instruments a nice surface to adhere to and make them show up more against the black of the panel itself. Once dry, place the I.P. over the top and mark out the position of each instrument onto the plastic sheet underneath. I then added instrument dials from Airscale, Mike Grant & Waldron - they are not exactly right, but a close facsimile of what I could see in my reference pics. Data stencils are Airscale again. After sealing these in with a coat of varnish I glued the pre-painted I.P. over the top, and replicated the glass in each instrument with a coat of Micro Kristal Klear. Here's a pic of the real thing, and then mine - the slightly 'frosty' look is what happens when you inadvertently use acrylic varnish over the top of enamel paint! Oh well - it wasn't completely disasterous and looks OK to me:

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There's some more dials and bits and bobs to add but this represents most of what needs to be on there.

Nest up was the throttle quadrant. There's a million pics of this on the net, and in reference books, but once again I will use the excellent images of the restoration of the Duxford B-17G provided by David Whitworth & WIX forum member 'Bomberflight' on the Warbird Information Exchange website - thanks again for allowing me to use them.

Here's what I need to reproduce:

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and the top:

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You can see it is fairly complex - directly behind it, butted up against the instrument panel is the mag box.

Here's mine - plastic card, strip and rod and fine metal wire for switches, along with some spare Verlinden resin boltheads I had lying around:

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mag box:

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at the front, underneath the throttle and mixture controls is the autopilot - here it is:

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I also made the pilot & co-pilot's seats from plastic card, with milliput cushions - I'll add some Radu B. seatbelts at a later date as well as any other details on the seats themselves - I needed to make them so I could figure out how big other things needed to be in the cockpit. I checked the size by using the discarded lower half of a 1/35 figure - and then made the seats a little larger to scale them up to roughly 1/32. bear in mind I'm doing everything by eye here!

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Finally I chucked a coat of paint on the back of the instrument panel. more things need adding, such as a data stencil on the fire extinguisher...plus a load more wiring etc...I can only add this later once the I.P. is glued in place. This is by no means finished, but you get the idea....

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More updates soon!

Rich

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*update 6th September 2012*

Hi everyone - a small update today.

I've been beavering away at some of the other controls found in the cockpit, and adding a touch of paint to what I've already built.

I just bought a great new reference book I wasn't previously aware of, the Wings & Wheels Publications special on the B-17G. Really impressive book - in my opinion slightly better than the Aero Detail book! Of course I didn't really need it desperately, with the available reference pics online...but it has several shots I can't find elsewhere & for that reason is worth the purchase price - the moral is, you can never have too many references!

OK back to the build.

I will use more pics from David Whitworth & WIX forum member 'Bomberflight' on the Warbird Information Exchange website, a big thanks to them once more for allowing me to do so.

On the right hand side of the I.P., tucked up underneath the dash is a control box which also has the fire extinguisher handles. Fortunately, although controls such as these represented state of the art technology in the '40s, by modern standards the cockpit is spartan & the controls are relatively easy to replicate - once again I used plastic sheet, strip & rod & thin fuse wire for details.

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A bit hard to see unpainted so here it is painted up - I used Airscale data stencils for added detail:

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Directly in front of that are the Intercooler temperature controls:

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On the left hand side of the cockpit we have various instruments - An obvious place to start was the one closest to the I.P.....not entirely sure what this one is.

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Same method for making instruments as the I.P. - here's what it will look like fused together:

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Finally here's the throttle quadrant painted up - once again I used Airscale data placards. I prefer these to the Mike Grant placards, which seem to disintegrate at the slightest touch... sorry if the pics are a little blurry, the camera wasn't focusing correctly I think...

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More updates soon!

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