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B-17G 42-31582 Ol Scrapiron --- FINISHED!!!


Ol' Scrapiron

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I confess to spending much time (waaaaaaaay too much time) appreciating so many fine projects from others but not finding any time at the workbench... until this B-17 group build came along. 

It's about time some worthy cause inspired me to dust off the toolbox and break out the brushes. I have several of these Monogram 1/48th Fortresses in the stash but I'll just start with one until I'm sure I can still do it. Besides, this finally gives me an opportunity to use all the reference pics I have been shooting -- so far I am up to 33 on my "Personally Photographed B-17s" list (and counting!). I realize virtually all the Forts today are restored and shouldn't be trusted blindly, but it's nice to have good clear shots at my disposal with some common sense. Anyway, on to the model! 

 



I will be building to represent my grandfather's plane: B-17G 42-31582 Ol' Scrapiron. He flew 30 missions with the 447th BG out of Rattlesden starting with the Group's toughest day, April 29, 1944. 

 

 

 

Just to see if my vision was still up to building models, I traded my bifocals for the Optivisor and started with the engines.

 

A little rough at first, added some brass wire...

B-17-1-48-10-30-18-7679.jpg

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Then the wires were trimmed (left) and painted (right) and some wash added and a bit of engine oil form AK

 

B-17-1-48-10-30-18-7683.jpg

 

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I am not concerned that one wire should enter the top front of the cylinder and the other goes behind. I figure at this scale the cowling will take care of that.

 

Here's a bit of the look I was going for (my pic of B-17F 42-29782 Boeing Bee here in Seattle)

B-17-Boeing-Bee-MoF-2014-06-18-1410.JPG

 

or this shot of B-17G 44-83735 Mary Alice (or whatever she is painted as these days) that I took during a trip to the IWM Duxford back in 2008.

 

B-17-Mary-Alice-IWM-Duxford-2008-02-17-6

 

 

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That's all for today. I look forward to seeing everyone else's progress for the next few months and hope I don't embarrass myself along the way.

 

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On 10/31/2018 at 5:08 AM, vppelt68 said:

Good to see 447th BG aircraft bringing some YELLOW colour to this GB! V-P

Actually, she was in the OD/Gray with just a white square on tail... too early for the 4th Combat Wing's yellow tails. I do think the 447th BG's late-war markings were the most striking scheme.

 

As for the demise of Ol’ Scrapiron, her fate really is remarkable. Thank goodness my grandfather had completed his missions long before the collision.

Interestingly enough, Byron Schlaag who did survive the drop after the plane was cut in two, was president of our  447th BG for some time but I didn't realize his connection with Ol' Scrapiron until I read it in his obituary. One of the reasons it is so important to share this knowledge now before it disappears forever.

 

 

On 10/31/2018 at 1:13 AM, TonyW said:

... the finish on the prop blades on the top picture is interesting, there seems to be a bit of a red cast to them.

 

No, it looks like everything from that one afternoon has a reddish-orange cast to it. She was out in the sunshine and I probably still had the camera white balance set for the museum lights indoors.

 

Here’s a shot of me with the Boeing Bee in her current positioning under the Pavilion. So nice to know she is under cover and better protected from the elements.

B-17F-MoF-2016-10-07-4329.jpg

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Made a little progress today while the kids were out trick-or-treating.

I decided to leave the kit part as it was even though my heart is telling me to extend the command deck platform substantially. If I am not mistaken the back legs of the chairs should be long extensions, but the front legs actually meet the raised area… and rather than a trap door it is just a hole in the flooring that leads down to the hatch/tank storage and ultimately the nose.

 

Here is a shot of B-17G 44-83785 Shady Lady that shows what I mean (looking at the amount of flooring from the edge of command deck before the throttle quadrant)

B-17-Shady-Lady-Evergreen-2015-11-22-518

 

Anyway, on to the build.

Mostly painting, but I did add the four levers made from stretched sprue.

B-17-1-48-10-31-18-7684-cockpit-start.jp

 

 

While I waited for those to dry enough to snip to length, I set out to reproduce the larger throttle handles. They are small!!! Unfortunately, the paint revealed some of the glue film, but I hope I’ll get a pass on that (I’m not re-doing them).

 

B-17-1-48-10-31-18-7686-cockpit-start.jp

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B-17-1-48-10-31-18-7687-cockpit-start.jp

 

 

This is only the early stage -- there will be another session of cleaning up the paintwork, plus adding some thinned black wash to accent the detail. A long way to go, but it’s nice to be moving forward.

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I finally put some pieces together, but there’s certainly detailing left to do.

Here are some photos of the project as she stands for now (proof that I will share this warts and all)

B-17-1-48-11-01-18-7690-cockpit-assemble

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B-17-1-48-11-01-18-7691-cockpit-assemble

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B-17-1-48-11-01-18-7693-cockpit-assemble

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B-17-1-48-11-01-18-7694-cockpit-assemble

 

 

That's it for now.

 

I plan to add some armor plating and tensioning springs to the seats, and apparently another coat of the darker green is needed on the seat legs. Funny how seeing the pics on the screen at 10x sizing points out the blemishes that are all but imperceptible looking at the actual piece.

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Not sure if I moved forward or backward on the Ol’ Scrapiron build today.

Started fiddling with the supports for the seats and wound up with pieces coming loose.

 

I put some Tamiya putty in the holes, but I was impatient and tried to affix some wire “bungee cords” in there … but the wet putty was preventing the wires to adhere to the seat back and everything started to get messy. Gave up after the bungee on the right seat was in place. Definitely too small a detail to worry about (at least on this build).

I also added some crude representation of the crossbeams on the seat backs. Ugh. Calling that good enough and will paint them when everything is dry.

 

B-17-1-48-11-02-18-7699.jpg

Now that I see the photo I notice the left seat never went back to the correct place on the supports. Dang.

 

Just so I can move on to other parts of the plane I shot the interior with spraycan silver. The actual color is Nybco Silver Touch #6602 and it is a very nice bright smooth paint for large NMF areas.

B-17-1-48-11-02-18-7700.jpg

I slopped on a thinned black wash to accentuate all the areas that will be visible. At this point I am also thinking I might hide some tiny LED lights inside so there is at least some chance someone might be able to see it. I’m guessing the modern lights available produce far less heat than the old wheat bulb lights we were unintentionally melting our models with back in the ‘70s.

 

That’s it for now. I need to step away from this and get some actual work done on the magazine or I am going to miss a printing deadline and lose my model-building privileges from the wife!

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I got a bit out of my comfort zone tonight… which was good.

 

One of the things I had been dreading is the overly simplified wheel well within the inside engine nacelles. Monogram offers a large plate piece that the landing gear connects to. With all of the reference shots I have taken over the years, I was not satisfied to accept that. So tonight I rummaged through the garage and found the hand-me-down Dremel-type rotary tool (that I have never used before) and decide it was time to butcher some styrene.

 

I wanted to keep the mounting points for the kit landing gear and also use the plate to ensure it would be located correctly. The solution was to remove much of the plate while leaving the outer edge and also the hole that the support will attach to.

 

Left is the original plate and right is my modified piece (bear in mind these are “flipped” for the left and right wing.) Then I added some sheet plastic to represent the bulkheads within the nacelle.  Small pieces for the lower parts (beneath the plate) and a much larger piece for the upper back bulkhead. I found it was easier to attach the sheet for the forward bulkhead to the upper wing, especially since there are two posts that reveal where the plate will meet.

 

B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7703-nacelle-interior

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7704-nacelle-interior

 

 

I added some evergreen strip for some of the ribbing. I melted a bit of sprue into an angle and added it for the supercharger ducting. On the other side, I cut a chunk of balsa wood, added a couple styrene straps and put that in for the prominent tank.

 

B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7701-nacelle-interior

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7702-nacelle-interior

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Added the first round of paint...

B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7711-nacelle-interior

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7712-nacelle-interior

 

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7707-nacelle-interior

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7708-nacelle-interior

 

This is all very crude and the camera doesn't capture the effect that you see when looking at the actual model , but it really does the feel of the wheel well more like the real deal than what Monogram would have you do.

 

I still plan to hit it with a greenish-wash and some AK oil effects.

Looking at the reference shot I took of B-17G 44-83546 “Movie” Memphis Belle,  I see I really ought to add a red tank (fire extinguisher?) ... but I may have used up the room.

B-17-Movie-Memphis-Belle-Detroit-2010-08

 

Then if I want to get crazy I am considering adding a bunch of wiring as well. I have to keep in mind that whatever I do on this wing should be duplicated on the other wing.

 

I'm calling it a night before I mess up what I have done. I'll see what the next step is with fresh eyes in the morning.

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Based on last night’s work I set out to repeat it on the other wing. This time I shortened the oil reserve tank (or whatever it is) to leave room for a fire extinguisher as I see in my pic of B-17G 44-83546 “Movie” Memphis Belle. Crazy thing is that I have another shot of the same plane taken four years later that shows no extinguisher on the other side. I had a 50/50 chance but of course, my build has the sides switched.

 

Anyway, here are the pics of the left wing… It went together so much easier than the first one.

 

B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7713-Nacelles-day-2.j

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7715-Nacelles-day-2.j

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7716-Nacelles-day-2.j

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7717-Nacelles-day-2.j

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7718-Nacelles-day-2.j

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7720-Nacelles-day-2.j

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B-17-1-48-11-04-18-7722-Nacelles-day-2.j

 

Next up is a wash and some AK oil... and maybe some wire work (still undecided)

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Next up is the radio room.

After the initial layer of paint, I noticed the huge block that is supposed to be the small table – that wasn’t going to do at all. A little Dremel work and off it went. I did like the actual table surface so I salvaged that.

 

B-17-1-48-11-07-18-7724-Radio-Room.jpg

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B-17-1-48-11-07-18-7725-Radio-Room.jpg

 

I blanked off the hole in the floor with a small plastic sheet. I am not overly concerned that it does not sit flush with the floor because the actual table surface will be above it when it gets mounted to the bulkhead.

 

 

 

As far as the other bulkhead, one thing that jumped out was the lack of the prominent radio boxes. I cut some blocks out of balsa wood to represent them.

 

B-17-1-48-11-07-18-7726-Radio-Room.jpg

 

 

Looking at this shot of me flying aboard B-17G 44-83575 Nine-O-Nine I see there should be a stack of five… but for this model, four will have to do.

 

B17-Nine-O-Nine-Flight-Boeing-Field-2011

 

I wrapped some thin brass wire around a strip of balsa wood trying to get the squared look to the handles, but when I sliced the wire the soft wood gave a little and there was a bit of rounding off. I also hoped that the thin wire would poke into the soft wood like a staple. No such luck. I had to cut about 40 bits in order to get eight attached to the model (more were glued to my fingers than actually stuck to the model.)

 

B-17-1-48-11-08-18-7727-Radio-Room.jpg

 

The handles do not match exactly and they don’t line up perfectly… but as long as they don’t come off I am completely satisfied with the result. No knobs for now because I don’t want my fat fingers to wreck what I accomplished.

 

A little brass for the hinges, some black/brown wash and a bit of the oily stuff and I think it looks pretty good.   There are a few other details to be added (like a key machine so the Radio Operator can tap out morse code) before this section is done but it is on the way.

 

B-17-1-48-11-08-18-7728-Radio-Room.jpg

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B-17-1-48-11-08-18-7730-Radio-Room.jpg

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B-17-1-48-11-08-18-7733-Radio-Room.jpg

 

 

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1 hour ago, vppelt68 said:

This is what I call good, old school model building; improving each and every bit along the way 🙇‍♂️. V-P

Thank you. I am contemplating seeing if a "visible" version is available on ebay or ??? because at this point I could swap in the clear fuselage half and not bury this work forever. I won't invest in aftermarket but since it would be essentially getting another full kit I might give in to temptation.

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Just looked into the "Visible" kits on ebay ... there are a few but the list starts north of $100 with shipping (and some of them get way crazier!)

 

Funny thing is the kit designers chose the left fuselage to be clear, which most often would be the side with any nose art (most often, but not always of course.) And it's 'clear' (pun intended) that they had that plan from the start because all the extra interior structure (like in the tail) and key alignment pins are on the right side. I had to break off the pegs for aligning the radio room because they interfered with the new stack of radios I added. If I go with a clear fuselage or cut a big hole in the left fuselage for viewing I would have to create an extension to the wall section to fill the gap where the kit's fuselage breaks away for the wing root.

 

One idea I have is to carefully remove a large section of the fuselage side where the radio room is, clean it up and install small magnets so it could be opened for viewing and closed up again. That would be a bold move... but not completely out of the question. We'll see.

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I posted this as a reply to a comment over on the facebook page (B-17 Flying Fortress Scale Modelers' Workshop) so I'll put it here for your enjoyment as well.

 

 Just to get a sense of the size of the radio room, here is a comparison of the tiny brass wire "handles" I made in relation to a staple. They were so small that when I tried to use tweezers and ever-so-carefully dip the two ends is a dot of cyano glue, I couldn't help but wind up gluing the tweezers shut LOL.

 

B-17-1-48-11-08-18-7739-staple-compariso

 

That is why I am so floored by what I see Thom216 has done to scratch the Radio compartment on his 1/72nd build. Lots of great work in this STGB all around -- so glad I found it and can be a part of it.

 

 

 

Sadly, I don't think I'll make any progress on my build tonight. (just taped the fuselage and wings up so I can "fly" it around the house!)

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I´ve done something... can´t remember what that was, oh it was replacing some davits on an old Matchbox 1:700 warship! - by first cementing one end of a straight piece of brass wire to the deck, and when it had set, I bent it and cut at correct length. Helped a lot handling those pieces. V-P

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1 hour ago, Thom216 said:

That's one tiny handle.😨 I haven't tried handles mine!😁

Your radios look really good and at 1/72 they are even smaller than mine by quite a bit, and I really admire what you are doing with your build. Such clean, precise work for a tiny radio room.

 

As for the radios, you could get away with just putting a tiny bit of stretched sprue directly on the radios and not worry about "depth" of the handle. Hmmm... I probably could have gotten away with that too. If these wires start breaking off before I button her up I might change them.

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At some point, you have to ask: “What in the Hell were you thinking?!!”

 

Tonight I may have hit that point.

 

 

In the Monogram kit, he ball turret is simply two clear halves that contain two guns with a sighting gadget in the span between them. I decided I wanted to slip a seat in there so I went to see what references I had in my archives and got bit by the bug and decided I wanted to build the turret open like you often see when the various touring Fortresses are on display.

 

Before I get to my silliness below, here are some pics I have taken of some ball turret interiors to use as reference… (this is a tiny sampling. Tomorrow I will post a bunch in reference thread in case they can help someone else's builds in the future)

 

B17-Yankee-Lady-Grimes-Field-2018-05-16-

B-17G 44-85829 Yankee Lady

 

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B-17-Ill-Be-Around-Pima-03-23-17-9167.jp

B-17G 44-85828 I’ll Be Around

 

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B17-Aluminum-Overcast-Boeing-Field-2011-

B-17G 44-85740 Aluminum Overcast

 

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B17-Miss-Angela-Palm-Springs-2018-04-12-

B-17G 44-85778 Miss Angela

 

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B-17-Boeing-Bee-MoF-2014-06-18-1419.JPG-

B-17F 42-29782 Boeing Bee

 

 

On to the model.

 

The gunsight apparatus needed to go higher than the guns so I put some bluetape across the barrels to maintain the correct distance and snipped off the spanning portion.

For my first attempt, I tried to construct a structure to hold the sight in the correct place but I attached it to the outside of the guns which interfered with the turret. Also, the discs I cut from some food packaging lid would not stick to the other parts even with crazy glue. This was not working.

B-17-1-48-11-11-18-7803-ball-turret.jpg

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B-17-1-48-11-11-18-7804-ball-turret.jpg

 

 

Time for a new approach.

I replaced the discs with some Evergreen sheet, added the tiny handles and some other details (loosely based on the pics of real B-17s. Then to prove I was committed to this I carefully removed the door from the clear plastic (no going back now!!!)  I attached the equipment to the front half of the ball and added a seat made from a soda can (the aluminum will bend) … Then used the same can to make a door.

 

B-17-1-48-11-12-18-7805-ball-turret.jpg

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B-17-1-48-11-12-18-7806-ball-turret.jpg

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B-17-1-48-11-12-18-7807-ball-turret.jpg

 

 

Still plenty more work to do, but that’s where the ball turret stands for now. Fingers crossed I don’t screw it all up tomorrow.

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