rob85

Cheers Johnny, I had a few more goes and it appears to be fixed now 👍🏻

Cheers G, as ever very kind of you! The 3d stuff appears to work ok, had to trim it so it would fit the seats but think that’s because it’s made for the revell kit. I have the seat belt set so will try those on another build. Rob

Annoyingly the photos won’t embed, I will have to figure that out

So the b17 hasn’t really progressed much, it’s been mainly sanding filling sanding, glueing, glooping sanding…. The seems have needed an unnecessarily large amount of work to get sorted, and it’s still not completely sorted. I have no pictures of the seem work being done, but I have re done the gun mountings in the nose with slightly thinner plastic, and the correct placement as could not live with the old ones. I recycled the old guns and then drilled small holes in one of the vac form nose cones I have. unfortunately this was rushed and the holes were wonky, so I broke out the spare, made holes added the guns and then the frame. And that’s about it! However I did start on the B24! I still haven’t been given any decals for a particular build for the museum, I feel Jim may be a bit snowed under. Its going to be a B24 D whatever it turns out to be, and if I don’t get any I will just build one of the many D options I have lined up, probably Strawberry B or another polesti raider. any how, started on the cockpit. I’m using the photo etch that came with this kit, it’s the eduard ‘mission centenarians’ edition which comes with photo etch for CP, waist gunners and wheel wells. the CP. https://i.imgur.com/ggrqv0E.jpg I used these 3D decals for the seats and photo etch seat belts. The photo etch controls are a little flat, but I won’t be shelling out for resin again, I’ve already spent a bit too much on these! Bit of a dry fit I think I might need to adjust the IP a bit as think it’s spoiling. then I started building up the waist gunners areas. and that’s where we are at the moment, still a way off! But hopefully more next week. Rob

Wow, that looks amazing Rob

Flipping awesome as ever! A great addition to the museum’s collection. Rob

G I promise to do my best to pull my finger out… in my defence one is complete…. But that’s because I had completed it before this started 😂 that’s probably cheating! I have vac form canopies that arrived this week and I’m rebuilding the forward field mod gun mounts as I didn’t like them…. The leased I could do after seeing you buff out that tiny glue blemish on the stangs canopy. so really the delay is on you (apart from the last 6 months, that’s all me.) Rob

Looks brilliant complete, fantastic job! Rob

She’s an absolute stunner G! All those details you added have paid off, as ever, really fine work! Rob

Your a better man than me G as I would have probably let that go. Looks like your making a great save though which will really add to the finished model Rob

Great update G and some fantastic tips as ever to take to my own build. Love the paint and weathering so far. Rob

Maybe look at them Erwin, then sell them and get a Revell or airfix 😂. I would say I’ve probably picked the worse one for building Belle, the revell kit at least gives you the guns for the nose… not sure how the rest of the kit compares? I really enjoyed the airfix b17G. thanks for the kind comments though! Really appreciate the support! Rob

A very cool subject and a superb model. Love everything about it, especially the weathering. rob

Cheers Roger, it’s good to be back at it, hopefully broken the back of it! That said still have the get a vac form set, make the resin engines fit and get it all painted and decal…. Actually better not make a list of thing that need doing…. Cheers Johnny, much appreciated! Thanks Cookie, a lot of this is a first for me and I’m happy with how it’s going, definitely building my confidence with scratch building. Cheers G, your is looking exemplary as ever! Hopefully I can keep this going in a positive direction! cheers all Rob

This is cool idea cookie, I’m looking forward to it. hope the new apartment is good and life is going well in Seattle! Rob

Hey Johnny, I need to get my backside back in gear and check on everyone else’s progress! I’ve started working on this again as had some time over the last few days so an update is below. Cheers muchly Erwin! I’ve been doing a bit more scratch building and it’s progressed pretty well. so this will be a fairly heavy update, so sorry, but had two days off just to focus on building! can’t believe I haven’t done an update since September! It’s been a busy few months with work snd being Christmas, any day off I’ve had had been taken up by sleeping! Very low on drive as been using it all up in the store, chucking turkey’s and potato’s into fridges from 4am each day. Anyway, the model! first up I added a bit of plastic to make filling the astrodome area easier. that got painted silver, don’t really need a pic of that, just looks like the above… but silver. I then scratch built the cheek gunner windows as the kit ones are like the bottom of a milk bottle. i then drilled a hole for the gun…. Without checking my references. it was completely in the wrong place, so at that work for nothing. I remade the window. Also looking at the pics the windows are a bit oversized, and have bare metal round them so might try to replicate that with some foil. They have been sanded and polished to blend them in and of course got a good layer of aqua gloss to make sure they were clear. I then started scratch building the seats that all pinged off the resin block never to be seen again. and a little fire extinguisher! in place. Also below are the last bits of resin in place, table and the little black box next to the bomb aimer. A little seat made, and in place. a lot more detail will be visible through the new windows (before aqua gloss) both little seats in place. then a pic of the windows after aqua gloss and over night drying. 50 cals were added using some gator grip, a glue I pic up from @CedB and his builds, very handy stuff! it will dry clear, of course. then the frame work was made for the two field modded forward facing 50 cals. not perfect just and approximation but I think will look ok behind the nose plastic. The ball and turret and upper turret completed. then the front guns were painted, green for the frame as per ref shots. Bit of the internal detail from the front, the floor is now flush with the front of the aircraft not raised as in the shot. And then finally she got closed up, all that detail gone forever 😃. hope everyone is well and let me know what you think, still a lot to do to get this ready for June!

Absolutely fantastic work Rob, so many nice little details, paint work is brilliant and I love your attention to the reference shots it’s really paying off. Rob

Some very classy work as ever G, I’ve just been catching up. Really is coming along superbly, loving the variation on the blue and the panels for the metal finish. hope all is well your end Rob

Bill that’s a complete stunner, really inspiring stuff! Hope things are ok your end, I’ve been a little busy at the mo so not fully up on the WIP. happy new year. Rob

That silver finish looks very nice indeed!

Stunning little details as ever G, really like how the UC is coming together! Rob

Inspiring work, and an absolute mammoth task. It’s been great seeing the stages of this develop. Rob

Very much in for this one Stix, it’s been a while since I built one of these! Rob

You don’t do small do you? The float is about the same size as my normal models! Fantastic work here, really impressive as ever. Rob

I’ve been absent from this thread far too long and been desperately trying to catch up Tony. all I can say is your work is phenomenal as always, but you really have raised the bar here. The vixen looks stunning in the white and black, to the point that now don’t understand why they didn’t just spot there with jets… what more could you want. see you in another 50 pages I imagine Rob