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Revell 1:72 B-17F Memphis Belle +++FINISHED+++


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Hi all...

Unfortunately, I'm still a couple of weeks away from starting this, as I'm struggling to finish a Eduard 1:48 Bf 110 G-4, but I wanted to start my thread to get my motivation going, and to give myself inspiration to get the nightfighter finished and to move on to this!

Anyhow, here's the box:

792c40b8d93009767ec4f0dd8ee2791a.jpg

It's big enough, 32.5cm long, and 44cm wide, pretty much the biggest kit I've made, and my first 4 engined bomber. Apart from some Eduard Masks for all the canopy pieces, I'll be making this out of the box. My first struggle will be trying not to spend far too much time getting the internals 'just right', as I know a lot of them won't be seen at all when it's all closed up!

Once I get the Bf 110 off my bench I'll take some sprue shots. Thanks...

J.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I got around to taking the sprue shots today. There are quite a few, and a lot of clear plastic too (though a lot of that won't be used as they're for different versions). Anyhow, here are the sprues:

Sprue1_zps3d77f9c9.jpg

Sprue2_zps31968703.jpg

Sprue3_zps3aea6282.jpg

Sprue4_zps856119fe.jpg

Sprue5_zps4123e011.jpg

Sprue6_zps7df21c5e.jpg

Sprue7_zps6ec7a46a.jpg

And here are the decals:

Decals_zps8875978b.jpg

Thankfully I have the Eduard mask set all the canopies, so that should make things a little easier there! I also am taking advantage of the decent weather here at the moment to get all the interal parts primed. So I hope to start painting and gluing in the next few days.

Thanks...

J.

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Hi all...

First bit of work done on this...

I got all the bomb bay parts painted up. I did my best not to be my usual exacting self and ignore any mistakes with paint going over lines etc. as I know a lot of this just won't be seen at all.

Here are all the bits:

BombBayParts_zps48ed0c43.jpg

And here are the bombs themselves:

Bombs_zps535ee8eb.jpg

I must admit, when I saw the bombs I was a little surprised that there were only 4 of them. So I did some research (well, Wiki!) and it seems that the B-17 could take around 5000lbs of bombs, say 10 500lb bombs as a payload. But obviously it also took larger bombs, and might take less than 5000lbs if it needed to extend its range. I'm guessing, if Revell are being somewhat accurate, that these are a couple of 1000lb or 1500lb and a couple of maybe 500lb bombs. Whatever they are, the idea of a B-17 only carrying 4 bombs seems at odds with what I had in my head. I mean, 10 crew, even more guns, and only 4 bombs? Just goes to show what I know about it! :)

Anyhow, with that lesson aside, I then glued it all together, and here's what I got:

BombBay_zps81422e51.jpg

There's a 'roof' on top of that, which I left off to make it easier to see.

And that's about where I am now. I'm a bit worried though, after hearing talk of fit issues with the bulkheads, I was originally quite happy to see that dry-fitting mine presented no problems. However, after assemling the bomb bay, those same bulkheads now don't want to fit into their 'grooves' in the fuselage, so that might be fun!

Anyhow, hopefully get more done in the next couple of days.

Thanks...

J.

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Looking great so far... the B-17 is my favourite of all time so will be watching this very fondly... :wub:

Regarding the fit issue of the interior... I have built a couple of the G version and had the same thing. I think the kit is manufactured so well that the tolerances are incredibly fine. The interior fitted fine without paint, but I too struggled a little with it when it was painted.

A quick and easy solution is to carefully scrape the paint off the parts where they contact each other, and then it fits much better.

Hope that helps!

Tom

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Thanks everyone!

I have managed to get the bomb bay fitting better, though to be honest it wasn't so much scraping away paint as scrapping away plastic!

Got some more work done on this today, getting the cockpit done. Even though I'm rushing it a bit and not being too exacting, I still can't help but think that none of this work will be seen and I shouldn't be bothering. But I can't help myself! Anyhow, here's the cockpit:

Cockpit1_zpsa53f6877.jpg

Cockpit2_zpscd2064bb.jpg

I'm pretty certain the non-painted section at the back of the IP won't be seen, but I'll check to make sure and paint it if needed.

I also got the inside of the fuselage painted and put a wash on it. All quick and dirty as issues won't be seen. I'm not a stickler for accuracy, but I read online that the Belle was bare metal from the Radio Room back, so I thought I could at least show that:

Fuselage1_zpsfa37ba5a.jpg

That's it for now, might get some work done on the Nav/Bomb Aiming section, and the Radio room, tomorrow!

Thanks...

Jason.

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Thanks Mish!

Got a bit of work done today. A couple of years ago, I'd just got back into modelling, and I was building a Tardis kit. I was working on the Martha figure and I remember thinking 'How did I end up painting jewelery?'

Well, today I ended up painting office furniture! :

Seats_zps2dd7689c.jpg

And here are the seats in place, for the Navigator and Bombardier, along with a nice representation of the Norden Bombsight:

Nav_zps94ee9678.jpg

At least I think it's a nice representation, but I thought B-17s had a lot more than 4 bombs, so what do I know? :)

And finally, a dry-fitting to show how the fuselage is beginning to fill up:

Fuselage2_zps974395d8.jpg

Still a lot to squeeze in there, including the Radio Room, upper and lower turrets, side guns and rear turret. Getting it all to close will be fun! :)

J.

Edited by Jasonb13
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Again some great progress here!

I also think that the majority of B-17s had a natural metal bomb-bay too, but I won't tell anyone if you won't :winkgrin:

I made the mistake of ignoring the instructions on my first build of this kit and thought I'd be clever by leaving the upper and ball turrets out until after panting. A word of warning... don't! It was a nightmare trying to get them in after the fuselage had been sealed up, and although it's a pain having to mask them off, it's far easier in the long run as I found out with the second one I built...

Keep up the good work, I'm enjoying this!

Tom

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