1/48 HK B-17G “Man O War II”

[Matt B]

Yeah, oddly enough the 1/48 figure market is lacking when it comes to air crew and just variety of figures in general. Right now I have about 7 sets (several

of which are OOP) that I’m using to piece together a crew as well as numerous RAF “extras”.  I figure a crippled B-17 making an emergency landing at an RAF base would’ve garnered a bit of attention, so counting the crew, I’m planning on 20-25 figures and 2 vehicles right now.  

[fightersweep]

@Matt B

 

The planned diorama sounds like an interesting subject, and as you say, will offer a mix of USAAF and RAF subjects. Looking forward to seeing it one day. What vehicles do you plan to use?

 

It's all good fun planning a dio. I've toyed with several ideas such as a boarding for a mission theme, and engine change scene and countless other ideas. I ended up settling on the scene as the crew and allotted passengers prepared for the flight back to the states in June 45. Main reason being is that it would be something different, and that I wrote to the pilot who flew my B-17 back to the US, and he sent me a lovely series of photos taken on the day. There was other details like the presence of underwing buzz numbers that were applied in early 1945 that I liked the idea of and hopefully, it will tell a story. That's all we try to do when we undertake a diorama. Good luck with the build! I'm along for the ride.

 

Steve 

[Matt B]

2 hours ago, fightersweep said:

@Matt B

 

The planned diorama sounds like an interesting subject, and as you say, will offer a mix of USAAF and RAF subjects. Looking forward to seeing it one day. What vehicles do you plan to use?

 

It's all good fun planning a dio. I've toyed with several ideas such as a boarding for a mission theme, and engine change scene and countless other ideas. I ended up settling on the scene as the crew and allotted passengers prepared for the flight back to the states in June 45. Main reason being is that it would be something different, and that I wrote to the pilot who flew my B-17 back to the US, and he sent me a lovely series of photos taken on the day. There was other details like the presence of underwing buzz numbers that were applied in early 1945 that I liked the idea of and hopefully, it will tell a story. That's all we try to do when we undertake a diorama. Good luck with the build! I'm along for the ride.

 

Steve 

That sounds like a good idea for a dio due to both the uniqueness of the situation and the personal connection.  Telling a story is what a dio is all about.   Hopefully you’re able to make it reality!

 

I had two missions in mind for mine.  Either one after a mission in which it and every other plane in the formation sustained damage during what veteran crews coined “the most vicious opposition” they had seen to date or the one I settled on which was after a mission 2 weeks later during which 2 engines were knocked out by flak during a “milk run” over France and it made an emergency landing at RAF Thorney Island.  It took 2 weeks to repair and made it back to Bassinbourn just in time for its original pilot to fly it to Berlin for the last mission of his tour of duty.  There’s a lot more to the story of the crew and I’ll get to that when I reach that point.  Gotta knock out the actual plane first.  After finding enough RAF figures to make it realistic I figured that would be an interesting occasion to try and depict.
 

Right now for vehicles I have a Tamiya Jeep that I found RAF decals for and also recently purchased an Accurate Armour Standard Tilly.   

Edited August 24, 2020 by Matt B

[woody37]

I've just realised that the aircraft you are building is the one I painted many years ago.

 

 

Looking forwards to seeing it progress

 

[Matt B]

3 hours ago, woody37 said:

I've just realised that the aircraft you are building is the one I painted many years ago.

 

 

Looking forwards to seeing it progress

 

Beautiful painting, Neil!  Indeed that is Man O War.  It seems to be one of the less commonly built 91st BG planes and I’ll be doing it before the red tail/wingtip markings so hopefully it will be unique enough for the people who’ve grown weary of seeing red tailed Fort models.

[Matt B]

Small update.  I've continued work in the nose section.  The perspex cover for the chin turret opening was cut out of .020 clear styrene and fitted.  I also added the main terminal box and azimuth motor from a piece I borrowed from the ball turret and some styrene rod.  Not perfect, but since the nose cone is pretty clear, I just wanted a "busy" look and dry fitting shows I got what I was wanting.  Theonly mistake I made was scribing the X in the panel.  The bracing on the real thing was on the bottom and I wanted to scribe the panel lines so I'm able to accurately locate the legs for the seat.  I was off with my first pass, so instead of correcting it, I made the next pass symmetrical, so its not a perfect 90 degree X like it should be but it works for what I'm using it for.  A couple more wires and it will be complete.

 

 

 

The real thing....

 

 

 

 

And then the other thing I've completed for the most part is the forward bulkhead.  I finished foiling it to replicate the sound insulation and only have a a couple more wires and an oxygen hose to add once some scratch building material gets delivered.  Slowly but surely the nose is coming together.  Next step will be to make the bombardier/togglier and navigator's seats.  Not sure if I'm going to use some True Detail pieces or scratch them.  Possibly a combination of both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Matt B

[antonio argudo]

looking really good those  added details in that interior mate!😀

keep the good, cheers

Antonio

[woody37]

You learn something every day, I didn't know that panel below the seat was perspex. Lovely work on it

 

I just cut the back off the seats and scratch built them using the base, it was enough for what can be seen in there.

 

 

[Matt B]

Here's a little better view.  I don't think anything was accessible from the inside but they could at least see the inner workings.  The above photo appears to show the panel farthest to the right was covered with plywood to support the cheek gun ammo boxes.  The photo below was likely taken from a late F or early G before cheek guns were factory fitted, accounting for the lack of ammo boxes.  Good call on the seats.  I've been too busy scrounging around my spares bin from all the detail sets I've acquired over the years that I forgot to even look at the kit parts.  Cutting them and replacing the back support with aluminum may just be the way to go.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Matt B

[Matt B]

I continue to inch closer to paint in the nose/cockpit but ran into a small issue....the issue of me apparently not trusting the caution on the Chopper.  Since I'm left handed I'll need to take a break for a couple days and let this heal and then get back to finishing the details in this section.

 

[Matt B]

So I'll take this time to continue research, which quite honestly, is my favorite part of this build.  The good thing about modeling a plane from the 91st BG is that the group was well documented.  Two books I've found particularly interesting and helpful are Plane Names and Fancy Noses and The Ragged Irregulars of Bassingbourn.  The first is an alphabetical list of every known named plane in the group and a brief history of each while the second is a chronological history of the group from its formation in the US through the end of the war.  The cool thing about the second book is that at the end it lists in numerical order by serial number every aircraft assigned to the group with codes that indicate when the plane was delivered, any special events and what is fate was.  This list confirmed the scene I'll depict with this plane which is when it landed at Thorney Island with two engines out on April 25th 1944.  At the top of the page you can see the first "Man O War" which lasted only one mission.  It had 3 engines shot out, 1 crew member killed, 1 wounded but they managed to make it back to England and crash land in a field near Sittingbourne.  "Horsepower LTD" turned out be a pretty fitting name for both aircraft.

 

Electronic sources I use are the 91st memorial website which contains every daily mission report (they were transcribed by a 91st veteran who actually just passed away a couple weeks ago) and Fold3.com which contains pretty much every 4x5 photograph in the National Air and Space Museum.  I've spent hours looking at photos on there of crew photos, damaged aircraft, missing crew reports, etc.  It's proved to be an invaluable resource.  Right now I'm giong through the mission reports on the 91st website to figure out how many missions the plane had by April 25.  If I count forward from when it was delivered I get 21 but if I count backwards from when it was lost I get 26.  There are lots of errors and mistakes which the transcriber pointed out but given that, I think it's pretty good that I've got it narrowed down to basically a 5 mission window.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by Matt B

[Matt B]

A little more work today.  The front bulkhead is pretty much complete and ready for paint with the addition of the oxygen hose which was made by wrapping 0.25 mm copper wire around 0.50 copper wire.  Tedious but worth it.  The only thing left in the nose is the seats and another oxygen hose.  In the cockpit, I fitted the control columns, "pushed" them forward since the elevators will be dropped and made the canvas boots out of superfine milliput.  Not the cleanest of jobs but with a little more file work and paint it should be fine.  Next will be to scratch the yokes.  The kits yokes were simplified and molded right onto the columns but I didn't like that look so I cut them off.  Those and a couple more oxygen hose and the cockpit should be ready for paint as well.  Progress is slow, but I dont want to rush and I like the progress I've been making.  The lighting looks reddish since I'm just using my phone but once I get paint on and such and I'll go back to using a DSLR.

 

 

 

 

[Matt B]

Last (small) update for the weekend.  I cut out the correct dual vent for the wingtip tokyo tanks.  The kit comes with a single one towards the rear of the wing which I filled in.  The dual vents seemed to be more common and every picture I could find of Douglas block 25 birds that showed the wing tips showed the dual vents.  I still have some final shaping to do to get the correct "slope" but I like how it turned out.  I'll get out of doing it to the other wing by creating battle damage in that area.  I found a really good photo of a mangled wingtip that I want to recreate when I make the damage to the left wing.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by Matt B

[woody37]

Great progress, both on the cockpit and wing tip vents...but not on your thumb! Those vents look spot on

 

[heloman1]

Excellent work, following on from Neil's build, I watch with interest. I like the idea of the diorama.

 

Colin

[Matt B]

Been a few months since I've worked on this but that's because work continued to stay busy plus fall is my favorite season so other things like fishing, hiking and photography took precedence.  And until this past week we've had a rather mild winter in the midwest of the US without any snow in my area until last weekend so I was enjoying the weather while I could. 

 

With that said, I'm starting to dig into this again and hoping to get a bit done this winter.  When I left off I had just completed painting and assembling the wheel wells and beginning to get paint on the ammo boxes and some of the cockpit and nose section.  The research continues and some goodies also got delivered this week from Santa (aka Spruebrothers).  The Eduard ammo belts may be slightly oversized but the main selling point for me is the ability to bend them horizontally and by that I mean it allows me to bend the belt in an almost 90 degree curve (is a 90 degree curve a thing?) from the nose ammo box to the port side cheek gun.  The Aires engines, in my opinion, are the best ones for the HK kit.  They do include the prop governors and I like the wiring harnessing better than the Eduard ones.  I would've gone with Eduard had they done what they did with their engines for the Monogram kit and include cowl flaps because one of the biggest eye sores for me on the HK kit is the gaps between the cowl flaps.  And for the guns, Eduards .50s are simply the best AM flexible aircraft .50s available.  The E-11 gun cradle is very nicely done and rest of the detail is very well done.  Some of the barrels are warped a little but I'm using Master metal barrels anyway so that wont matter.

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by Matt B

[Matt B]

Pilot/copilot seats are done.  Can't really tell in this light but in my haste to get them done I forgot to go over with a q-tip dipped in mineral spirits to tone down the oil wash before I applied the flat coat so it looks a little exaggerated in the right light, but it shouldn't be noticed when the fuselage is closed up.  Base color is MRP acrylic dark dull green and a custom mix of vallejo yellow for the cushions.  Finished off with Eduard belts and a burnt umber oil wash.  The lettering is from a KitsWorld stencil sheet.  Next step is to finish detailing and paint the center throttle quadrant and finish up the control yokes as well.  Slowly but surely the cockpit is coming together.

 

[Matt B]

I've spent the last couple nights pulling my hair out playing with photoetch and finishing up the center control pedestal.  Lighting isn’t the best and I don't have a good photo set up actually set up for the moment so these phone pics will have to do for now.  I'll take better ones later.  All that's left in the cockpit is to finish painting the floors, add a few more wires to the sidewalls and finish painting the rear bulkhead.  These up close photos exaggerate the imperfections a bit but I really like the way it turned out.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Matt B

[Matt B]

Attempted my first go around at painting the wood floor.  I used the same technique @woody37 used on his build with a base color of Tamiya XF-59 followed with a gloss coat and then dragging burnt umber and yellow ochre oils across it.  Didn’t turn out half bad.

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Matt B

[Dadeo911]

The wood floor and the seats look really good. 👍

 

The idea of the diorama sounds awesome.  I will be following along as well.

 

Take care,

 

Chris

[Matt B]

Humming right along, the rear cockpit bulkhead is done.  Since the upper turret will render this area pretty much invisible when everything is closed up I decided to forgo adding more detail like a couple wire bundles leaving the fuse panel and adding the leather "scuff pad" and fuel selectors beneath the door.  Everything is stock except the fuse panel which is an Eduard piece and the decals on the door are from KitsWorld's stencil sheet.  Note, the oxygen bottles are not done yet and haven't been weathered yet so they're a little bright right now.

 

 

[woody37]

Looking great Matt, love the extra decal details and resin oxygen tanks

[LOX]

looking great Matt. I love the details and the small additions you made to it, it looks awesome. like the wing tip vents, never heard of it until now.

I like it when I learn new things by observing a build like this.

 

And for the extra parts that you add, like the ones from Verlinden and the oxygen tanks. Did you replaced them because the after market parts look better or because it is not included in the kit ?

I would like to buy this model in the future. And I thought the gun barrels and some resin wheels would be enough and the model itself was pretty complete. 

Edited February 8, 2022 by LOX
Words

[Matt B]

On 2/8/2022 at 12:10 PM, LOX said:

looking great Matt. I love the details and the small additions you made to it, it looks awesome. like the wing tip vents, never heard of it until now.

I like it when I learn new things by observing a build like this.

 

And for the extra parts that you add, like the ones from Verlinden and the oxygen tanks. Did you replaced them because the after market parts look better or because it is not included in the kit ?

I would like to buy this model in the future. And I thought the gun barrels and some resin wheels would be enough and the model itself was pretty complete. 

 

Thanks!  Its a combination of both.  Some of the very small details like the navigator scope aren't there in the kit while the oxygen bottles in the cockpit are there, but they're half molded into the side walls so I wanted a little more of a 3D look.  But honestly a lot of the stuff I'm putting in the nose probably won't be seen.  I'm just doing it because this project is a very large rabbit hole that I've fallen down.  I've had the idea for this build in my head for nearly 15 years and have spent countless hours sifting through photographs and archived documents (more so for the specific plane and not the B-17 in general) so I've very quickly got carried away but I enjoy it.  The vast majority of people who build this kit are not going to the lengths I am, and that's not a dig on them at all, in fact, they're smart for doing that since like I said, you can't see a ton of the interior detail.

 

Its been mentioned elsewhere how the kit has a couple minor shape issues, particularly the outboard engines sitting a little too high on the wings, but overall I think its a great kit and if all you want to do is add gun barrels and wheels, you're going to have a fantastic model.  The model is pretty complete, I'm just taking it an extra step.  By no means should anyone look at my build and think they have to do the same things I'm doing to get an acceptable kit.  Just have fun with it! 

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 2/15/2022 at 6:04 PM, Matt B said:

you can't see a ton of the interior detail

 

Is it too late do do a cutaway?