Fozzy

Thanks a lot guys for your kind remarks!😀

Thanks a lot!......there is quite a bit of reference material for the P/F-80 on the internet.....for example.... http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/awa01/201-300/awa280-F-80/00.shtm http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/t-33/f-80b_walk.shtml......this is the sort of thing I was looking at...hope it helps! Hi Marklo I used a sheet of sticky back silver card sheet to skin this F-80...I can't remember where I got it from as I have had it lying round for a few years but think that most Art/hobby stores will have it...if only they were open at the moment!! If I tell you how I make the rivets ...then I would have to kill you!.....😉........ Turn the panel of foil you are going to use to the glue side and simply use a pin to make an indentation....simples!....making sure the next panels rivets line up....laborious but worth while in the end....good luck!

Hi there Bill....cheers mate!

Hi Guys After being away from for a good few months and not being able to do any modelling I finally started scratch building this F-80C and recently managed to finish it ...what with having more time on my hands, now we are all self isolating in these trying times! I really like the late 40/50s jet era and decided to have a go at scratch building this Shooting Star in 1:48 scale. The P/F-80 was the first operational Jet aircraft used by the United States Air Force in combat...although too late for the Second World War it was used extensively during the Korean War. The markings are of the F-80C that is housed in the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.Ohio. For anyone who is interested the construction of this model can be seen in WIP on this forum. I made this Shooting Star from a balsa wood construction and card and skinned her with sticky back silver foil. I hope you like the finished model....... I don't normally scratch build jets as I find them difficult to do! ....but I did enjoy the challenge never the less! Thanks a lot for having peep! Stay safe everyone Fozzy

Howdy Pete!😉

Hey Mike...I was doing the river walk in San Antonio and visiting The Alamo less than a month ago!....Great City you live in!...thanks for your remarks! Hi there...yes I sealed the balsa with Cellulose dope! Thanks guys for your input!

Afternoon to you all! Thanks for the replies to yesterdays post.....and here are the remaining photos I took whilst tackling this build! I left off yesterday starting to skin the fuselage and wings with sticky back silver paper and here is the end result!... The main undercarriage wheel wells were next...odd bits of plastic was used for this..... Here are the 6 x 12.7mm machine guns in place in the nose.I drilled out the holes and glued wire insulation that represented the barrels.... ....and the tail pipe was made by a wrapped piece of paper pushed through another hole that I drilled out!.... Now came the hardest part! Of course I had to get together my own markings for this F-80C.The national insignia was taken from my stash of kit decals I collected over the years and unfortunately I had to hand paint the rest. The way I do it is hand paint the markings on a piece of baking foil (nice and thin)... and when dry .....simply glue them in place!....actually it wasn't that simple!....this is why I chose this particular F-80.....F9696...as it was easier to replicate the markings! Here are some of the markings cut out from the foil..... So the next 6 photos are of all the markings in place...... The two tip tanks were made from a couple of old kit bombs that I had to cut and shape up a bit!... The main wheels made from balsa wood....... The nose wheel was stolen from an old kit and attached to the scratch built undercarriage leg.... Here is a shot of the reflector gun site...or a bunch of pieces of scrap plastic glued together!! The last 3 photos are of the undercarriage ..... So ...that's it! I forgot to take a photo of the canopy that I vac formed....but you can see it in this very last photo of this post. I don't normally scratch build jets as I find them difficult to do....I find prop jobs easier for some reason....but I really wanted to give it a try......not sure if I would do another one....just yet! I am going to post some completed shots in RFI in a bit.......but for now...thanks for your interest in this build! Stay safe everyone and cheers! Fozzy

Good afternoon everyone I haven't been on this forum for a good few months as I have been visiting family and friends in the States and I just got back home to my office before all the lock downs due to Coronavirus!.....what a terrible state of affairs for all of us and I do hope that you all are staying safe in your self isolation! The only positive I can think of whilst isolating for us modellers is of course hopefully more bench time! I am in the process of scratch building a 1:20 scale B17G but I really needed a break from it ....so I thought I would have a go at the F-80C. Just love the lines of the F-80 and I'm interested in jet aircraft of this era...early 50s! I wanted to see if I could build it in 1:48 scale out of the usual materials I build in ...which is balsa wood /card/wire....well anything which looks useful I guess...and as usual I am building this the old school of modeling way...ie no C.A.D ,special tools...just look at photos of the real thing and try to use the materials I have to replicate an aircraft the best I can. I have actually finished this build but thought I would show you some photos I took whilst building it....so it's not in real time (hence the quick photo upload!) So lets start..................... First up....I searched for some decent scale plans of the Shooting Star and re scaled them to 1:48 I started on the fuselage...... Formers were glued into place and the cockpit and front wheel well area were prepared.... Mustn't forget the lead weight in the nose as she will sit tail heavy....something I always forget to do!!! Next up I filled the gaps between the stringers with scrap balsa....something I always do so that I can sand down to the stringers and get a good shape of the fuselage. Here is the fuselage sanded down and the tail unit (made from balsa wood) and the wing roots and fillets prepared.... Balsa wood wings were then shaped from a block and fitted to the wing roots.... It was time to build up a basic cockpit...I say basic as I wanted to display this F-80 with the canopy closed....(the aircraft looks better that way in my opinion!) so actually you wouldn't see much of the detail anyway...... I wanted to try something completely different than how I normally skin my scratch built aircraft and that was to cut each panel separately from a sheet of sticky back silver paper. This took me a few days I have to say but I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. As I cut each panel out I made the rivet markings with a pin as I went along...as hopefully you might see!! The air intakes on either side were a nightmare I might add!! I am about half way through the photos now so I will have a break and get back to the completion of this F-80 either later or tomorrow! Thanks for looking in ....and please stay safe out there! Cheers Fozzy

The Black Knight!..I confess I didn't know anything about him....killed in 1977 in his Cavalier 2000 in Germany. He flew the T-33.. 2 seater among other display aircraft ....however I will be having a go at scratch building the single seater fighter ..the P/F 80 probably markings from the Korean war!

Again....thanks for your comments guys!😉

I will try with the P.80 Brian... BTW.....I have left the top of the entire fuselage open and it is quite easy to see all the detail without any thing being hidden.....I don't think my photos show this very well!!....at the end of the day I built this for the internal goings on and there was no way I was going to cover it all up!😉

Cheers!....and will do if I can get it together!!😉

Thanks again Guys!.....and cheers Ian for the info!😉

Thank you all for your comments!😀.....and thanks for the heads up on the title change Simon!😉

Hi there guys! All done!........well not actually the whole B17 but I have finished the Radio room section and all 3 sections have now been attached. Getting the nose/cockpit section to line up with the bomb bay was a real nightmare but managed it in the end! ....and it's BIG!!......well it would be at 1:20 scale!.....in fact so far it is just over 2 feet and 2 inches long (66cm).....and of course I haven't started on the rear section yet! When all 3 sections were secured together I had to touch up the joints the best I could because originally this project was going to be built in separate sections but realized ...too late to be honest....that it would look so much better if it was one complete fuselage. This in turn caused me no end of problems lining everything up and trying to lose at least 1.7 cm in the length. In fact in the end it will be about 5mm too long but I can live with that! When I start with the rear section I will build it as just one section right back to the rear gunner position this will just give me the one join onto the radio room! I managed to modify the display stands I originally built for each section and have made 2 stands which can take the weight of the model so far! I am going to have a rest from this build now and come back to start on the rear section in a few months time. So here are photographs of just over half the fuselage of "Fuddy Duddy" .........unfortunately taking photos of her being so big half of my house and garden get in on the act!....really difficult!!!!....WARNING! PHOTO HEAVY! I have temporally attached the bomb bay doors on to see the effect....these will be attached permanently when the whole B17 is finished!....here are a few shots...... So there you have it guys! As I said I need a break from this now but of course not a break from Scratch building!.....I want to maybe have a go at scratch building a jet....something I haven't done before but would like to have a crack and see if I can do it!....I really like the late 40s/50s jet era and have been looking at the the Lockheed P.80 Shooting Star....I have always liked the look of that aircraft....so maybe I will give it a go! Last thing before I depart......can one of you guys tell me how you change the title of the Thread....eg...I want to continue this thread when I build the last section without having to start a new thread if you know what I mean....I have seen it done on other threads but can't work it out! Cheers for looking in and I will be back to finish this beast off...and in the mean time I will post a few pics of the Shooting Star (If I actually do it!!) on another thread All the best guys Fozzy

Thanks lads!😉

Cheers Bill....yes I thought that about the attachment posts as well!😁

Hello there guys! I have managed to move on from the shock of re adjusting the sections to fit one and other and onto the wing fillets!....a bit fiddly but got there in the end! This is how I achieved it.................. The first job was to cut to shape a piece of yogurt pot plastic (to save using expensive plastic card)....and glue it on the bottom of the fuselage to make up the bottom section of the fillet and then to place a few ribs on the plate to secure it.... All the wiring and pipes etc were then placed in position.......the cover plate I previously made on the last post is in the foreground of the photo...... The same was then done on the starboard side....... The front plate which was cut from plastic card... was then glued into place after first painting all the detail previously scratched....here are a few photos....... The next task was the hardest part and that was to cut another piece of yogurt pot plastic to the shape of the top part of the fillet and glue it in position....here is the finished construction...... So all I had to do now was to paint the face plate and I attached some aluminum tape to the top of the fillet to see what it looked like. Here then are the wing fillets around the Radio room section complete......... So I am now going to do the hopefully last part of this Radio room section and that is to place the Aluminum tape over the fuselage.... So until then.....thanks guys for taking a look! Cheers Fozzy

Thanks guys! Gone too far now Peter!...I really can't give up!!

Hi there A few weeks have passed and I am a tiny bit forward with this build than I was in the last post!...and I want to tell you where I am at with this! For a long long time now I have been fretting over how I will display this B17G when it is all done!....I felt I just had to make a decision before I continued on what was to be done. Originally it was going to be so simple as I was only planning to build the nose section and just put it on some sort of stand!....but of course with a little encouragement from some of my fellow modellers on this forum!!... I decided to continue with the rest of the fuselage....I mean... I really enjoyed building the nose section...lets do the rest of it! So I then separately built the bomb bay and the the radio room (as some of you who are following this are aware) and started to build stands for them to sit on. I put the nose section/bomb bay and the radio room next to each other and it just didn't look right!....not only that , it was almost impossible to try and build a stand for the radio room section because of the ball turret hanging below!....the stand would have got in the way of the turret! There was only one solution to the whole mess and that was to permanently attach all sections together making one complete fuselage ...as it would be on the real thing......that's when the real problems started!😭 Now ...because I built each section separately and now have decided to join them all together I realized that the length of the fuselage will be too long by at least 1.5cm...maybe 2 cm...this is because I built each section from one bulk head to the next (for example bomb bay was built from Bulk head no's 6-8 ....and then the radio room was built from bulk heads nos 8-10.....each bulk head is about 5 mm ....so when you put the bomb bay section to the radio room you have gained 5mm!)....and so on adding to the length of the damn thing!!.....I hope you understand my ramblings!!! I had to lose those millimeters!...and so you can imagine what I had to do!......... By shortening each section by 5mm it of course put some of the detail out of scale!.....aaaaagggghhhh!...utter nightmare!....not only that ....getting the sections to line up perfectly was very difficult to say the least. I have to say I spoke to my wife and said that the whole project after 6 odd years was going to have to be stopped!....she told me not to be so stupid!.....again!.....and get it sorted! .....and so I persevered and after hours of re constructing ...scrapping a lot of the detail already done....de scaling this and that.... I finally joined the bomb bay with the radio room. The photos you will see show you that I have a load of tidying up to do but this will be no problem for me later on...I hope! Here we go................... Now I can get on with the wing root detail ........here is as far as I have got so far!...... Yesterday I made these two plates that will eventually be attached to the wing root... Just to let you know that I have also re constructed the nose section to make sure that it will fit onto the forward bulk head of the bomb bay......and if I thought the R. room and B.bay was a difficult task...then this was just................don't want to think about it!! The joys of scratch building! See you on the next post Fozzy

Thom216 ,Iain and Bill.... Thank you so much for your kind words.......it always gives me the push to get going on the next stage of the build!....After I have finished this section I will take a rest from this project and have a go at something else before coming back and starting on the last section...the tail!

Thanks a lot guys! Thanks Ian.....Its un believable the amount I have learnt my self about the B17 by doing this project...staring endlessly at photos trying to get it right!!!

Afternoon guys! This post will finish up all the interior detail I needed to do before closing both top and bottom halves of the fuselage and then I can proceed to finish off the detail on the exterior of the fuselage. So what needed to be done was the ammunition belts from the emergency ammunition cans and the oxygen bottle for the gunner. I'll start with the ammunition belts.....By using just paper and wire I'd thought I would show you how I went about this task ..photo by photo... 1. The first task was to cut 4 pieces of paper to the length/width of the belts....I used paper as it will bend like a real ammo belt... 2. As you can see I then cut all 4 pieces..(you will see in the next few photos why I did this!)... 3. I then got some garden metal wire twine (I chose this as it looked the right scale for the rounds)... 4. This then had to be straightened using a flat piece of metal rolled across the top of a length of wire...... 5. After measuring the width of the pieces of paper I then had to cut... (loads!!).... of pieces of wire which would replicate the rounds,....laborious task!...although I don't actually mind doing it!! 6. These were the super glued onto 2 of the 4 strips of paper.... 7. Then the other strips of paper were glued over the top of the rounds This is the time that I bent the paper to the shape I needed.... 8. A couple strips of paper were cut and glued to both sides of the belts to make them look more authentic and I then painted them..... So now all I had to do was super glue one end of the belts to the ammo cans and hook up the other ends on a couple of posts....(the reason for this is that because I have exposed the top of the ball turret I couldn't glue them to the entry point of the turret!)...here are a few photos of the task complete...... The last task to do before closing the two halves was to scratch the oxygen tank for the gunner. I have so far made loads of oxygen tanks for this project so I just made them the same way as before....and that is a sanded down piece of balsa wood with plastic strips glued to them!......here it is.... I then glued the tank onto the post and made a couple of paper straps ....to replicate the securing straps! So here is the finished Ball turret connection structure...... So now its at long last time to place the top to the bottom!!..ha ha! I am now getting close to the end of the Radio room section of this B17G....the external detail will now have to be thought about before proceeding......so I'll see you all the next time around! Thanks again for looking in Fozzy

Cheers Tzulscha!....Yes I saw your B17....and I thought my 1:20 scale was large! ha ha!.....good job...well done!

Cheers Brian.... The rounds were gravity fed through the S-shaped chutes which were then in turn connected to the top of the ball and into the round boxes inside the turret....bloody clever I think!...1940s etc! Because I have exposed the top of my ball turret for viewing purposes the connection wont be seen but I have built it so you can see the rounds in the ball turret boxes.....the emergency round feeds I will hang up on two pegs as I hope you will see in my next post!....cheers mate!