Monogram 1/48 Boeing B-29 Superfortress

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The engineer's position is ready for painting.

 

[Johnny_Sokko]

Oh man, you even got the tiny throttle levers. I wouldn't have the patience!

[Shalako]

1 hour ago, Johnny_Sokko said:

Oh man, you even got the tiny throttle levers. I wouldn't have the patience!

In 1/48 scale it's relatively easy to add the throttles, all it needs is patience, which Jamie has proved to have👍

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The single levers are easy but the twins are quite fiddly and try their hardest to rotate 45deg in the quadrant. It can be hard to see exactly where you are when it's bright brass against bright brass. The eyes can't quite work out where to focus!

 

Little bits at a time generally and working on bite-size pieces of the model are the order of the day. Try to hit it all simultaneously would lead to the shelf of doom I think - for me at least!

 

Thanks for looking in, and do feel free to chime in

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I fitted the first of the replacement engine lower cowlings. I wasn't feeling much like doing the rest today so I didn't. The fit is okay, but some remedial work is likely to be required on all of them. That's to be expected really.

 

[Jfgred1]

Nice work on the B-29 model (and the others too). 

 

Have two of these so will unashamedly be copying some of your work in this one. 

 

Shame that the kits manufacturing companies don't get to come up with an updated model of such iconic plane... among others. 

 

Have a good one and stay safe.

[Shalako]

24 minutes ago, Jfgred1 said:

Shame that the kits manufacturing companies don't get to come up with an updated model of such iconic plane... among others. 

Hear, hear!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I changed out another engine nacelle yesterday. This time I went for No.1 engine - the port outer. This required the complete removal of the nacelle leaving a very flimsy wing which obviously is a concern

 

To provide myself some comfort I measured and cut out a spar and glued it in.

 

 

The Flightline Engineering cowling fits the lower wing reasonably well

 

... but some plasticard build-up and filleting will be required as with the inner nacelle to match the kit plastic on top of the wing. It's clear that all the original kit surface detail is going to be obliterated. That's why these old Monogram kits are so unpopular nowadays - you can do a bad job or a huge job with one. It is not possible to build a good model from an old Monogram kit quickly. Still, I've built Monograms before and couldn't pretend I didn't know it would be a chew to achieve anything of acceptable standard.

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Here's the part where one questions the wisdom of buying the undercarriage PE sets...

 

It's a complete replacement wheel well. You don't use the kit plastic part 44. Anything I do here has to be strong enough for this chonker of a model so the first thing that seemed necessary was to solder the main photo etched box up. I don't always bother, but when I need things to be strong (and the double laminations of brass do need to be strong here) I always sand the gluing face(s) flat on the bench before any folding or bending to give the CA the maximum key surface area to bond to.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Well, this isn't going to happen without a fight.

 

[Johnny_K]

You are making some great progress.

 

You will face a challenge when gluing the main wings to the fuselage.  The fit between the spars and the wing is loose and I could not figure any way to use clamps. So I decided to use gravity.

 

 

I know that this looks very strange, but it works really well. I set up some patio chair cushions on my worktable and wedged the fuselage between the cushions. I put a lot of Testors' glue on the wing's mating surfaces and let the glue set a few minutes until the plastic became soft. I then slid the wing over the spars and onto the fuselage. Then I moved the fuselage slightly until the wing was at the correct angle to the fuselage. The wing is heavy and it's weight helps make a strong bond between the wing and the fuselage. 

 

I let the glue cure for a couple of days and then flipped the plane over and glued the other wing to the fuselage. 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

It's not stupid if it works!

[Johnny_K]

I could not use tape to hold the wings to the fuselage because the model is finished in Bare Metal Foil. Tape would lift the foil.

[neilfergylee]

Crumbs!  Having read "Atomic Bomb Island", I am minded to resurrect the Monogram B-29 that I bought shortly after leaving school in 1979.  God alone knows where I would place the finished model, but this thread has been in inspiration!

 

Best wishes,

 

Neil

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

It's been a while. To be honest those main wheel bays really knocked the wind out of my sails. They're very nice. They simply don't fit, and by a large margin. They especially don't fit the Flightline Engineering nacelles, but there's still one wing untouched in the box (quite deliberately) and the Eduard PE is miles off fitting that properly too.

 

To get the mount of the main gear in the right place the Eduard item is too wide aft:

 

...but the worse problem is that it's about 3/8" too short

 

 

Here's how the Flightline Engineering cowling compares to the kit item, and you can see the forward bulkhead of the Eduard assembly miles aft of each of them.

 

It's a shame as the Eduard ones do like nice and they're definitely more accurate at the aft end anyway

 

 

Now, since I've used the Flightline Engineering cowlings and frankly gone too far with those to go back now, the only practical way forward is to adapt the kit parts and just accept that the main gear bays are going to be rubbish.

 

The turbocharger recesses are a major intrusion into the kit item though.

 

 

This really has been the reason this thing has sat in its box the last 2 years, as no solution seems like it'll be an attractive one in the end.

 

I've committed now though and adapted the kit parts to fit. The only good thing I can say about this is that there are very, very few angles to view this thing from where one gets a good look in the main gear bays, and as a result of that there are very few images online showing the forward bulkhead in particular.

 

 

The Flightline Engineering nacelle leaves a hole about 1/8" longer than the gear doors, so you'll notice I've made up the difference with a plastic strip. I was then able to attach the two wing halves together and try the cowlings on. Oh dear...

 

The locating system is better than Monograms, in theory at least.

 

In practise, if you use the shape of the leading edge of the wing as the kingpin for fitting these, you end up with some goofy angles at the firewalls and the firewall piece with the cowl flaps on doesn't sit in its locating horseshoe without a major clash with the upper part of the nacelle from the kit.

 

 

The firewall is important as it's the front end of those outwardly visible turbocharger recesses, so I sawed down the edges of tha horseshoe shape and wedged it forwards to angle the firewall nose-down.

 

Now the cowling fits properly onto the firewall but I really don't like the shape here along the top in profile especially.

 

I've started sawing wedges out of the original top half of the nacelle thus

 

 

And using a wrap of tape to force the top half downwards it's getting closer to looking ok in profile

 

It's still going to need the front edge of that firewall sorted out. I'm approaching the point where I feel I have a sound enough process I can repeat on the other engine and of course on the other untouched wing now.

 

Ever wish you'd just left something alone and built it out of the box? This is what I get for rivet counting...

 

 

 

[LorenSharp]

Jamie, good work on the corrections to the nacelles. They are a pain at the best of times.I definitely know what you're going through. I used a combination of Eduard, Metallic Details and making my own parts when I did mine not that long ago.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

35 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

Jamie, good work on the corrections to the nacelles. They are a pain at the best of times.I definitely know what you're going through. I used a combination of Eduard, Metallic Details and making my own parts when I did mine not that long ago.

 

Thank you Loren. It shames me how long I put off making this decision on the wheel wells. I've run out of CA accelerator so it's taking a while to progress through this waiting for the stuff applied quite liberally in places to harden up. I've made a start on fixing the firewall though, at least as far as will be seen past the cowl flaps. Again, proof of concept on one engine before repeating the same mistakes on the rest!

 

 

Roughly cut 1.5mm plasticard provides the material. Once the glue has hardened this can be faired in and radiused.

 

 

 

[LorenSharp]

39 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

 

Thank you Loren. It shames me how long I put off making this decision on the wheel wells. I've run out of CA accelerator so it's taking a while to progress through this waiting for the stuff applied quite liberally in places to harden up. I've made a start on fixing the firewall though, at least as far as will be seen past the cowl flaps. Again, proof of concept on one engine before repeating the same mistakes on the rest!

Roughly cut 1.5mm plasticard provides the material. Once the glue has hardened this can be faired in and radiused.

 

Well as they say everything in it's own good time. Or As my Mom would say, "All good things com to those that wait. as long as you work like Hell. While you wait."

[fubar57]

Just caught up on this from two years ago. Looking good Jamie. I struggled with the original nacelles and ended up doing a lot of grinding. I don't know how many times the kit hovered over the garbage can. Johnny_K's method of attaching the wings to the fuselage is almost identical to the way I did it. Keep it up

[t15dja]

I've got the kit and all the Eduard etch in the stash. Are we saying that the etch doesn't fit the original parts? If so that would be unusual (based on my previous experience) on Eduard's part.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

15 minutes ago, t15dja said:

I've got the kit and all the Eduard etch in the stash. Are we saying that the etch doesn't fit the original parts? If so that would be unusual (based on my previous experience) on Eduard's part.

 

Hi, the rest of the Eduard stuff I've used on this so far has fit well. There's the usual Eduard type things of the folded boxes not fitting in the spaces they're planned to (noted earlier in the nose gear bay) but generally it's good.

 

The main gear assemblies though are simply miles off. Not even close - and don't fit the unmodified wing and nacelle either. They're just too short, by quite a margin.

[Johnny_K]

That's too bad regarding the landing gear bays.  However, this is my take on the landing gear. That model is very large and very heavy when finished. IMHO, it is dangerous to try to flip that model over onto its back just to look at the landing gear. The potential of dropping the model or breaking a prop is high.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Getting closer to being content with this fit. The cowl flaps piece appears slightly under-size compared with the cowling by around 0.75mm but that means it doesn't quite fit right. That's why there's a small (but annoying) step at the top of the cowling but with shadows at the bottom.

 

I think I'll cut the cowl flap piece in half horizontally and shim it slightly bigger (i.e. make it about 0.75mm taller in the vertical axis so it fits at the top and bottom of the cowling at the same time). The cowling's contours now flow nicely over the nacelle. It's the cowl flaps which look like they're 1/50 scale instead.

 

[woody37]

This looks like a challenging build. Lots of work with little visible progress. I find it hard to keep my mojo with such builds, but that nacelle is beginning to look the part now. 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

12 minutes ago, woody37 said:

This looks like a challenging build. Lots of work with little visible progress. I find it hard to keep my mojo with such builds, but that nacelle is beginning to look the part now. 

 

That's exactly my problem too! It's a struggle actually as I enjoy and get reward from the problem solving and craft involved in fixing issues, but staying motivated to continue it (e.g. "now do that for the other 3 engines") doesn't come easily.