Fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Hi everyone Well it is time to get down and finally attempt to finish this Mammoth B17G project. Some of you may know that I started this 7 years ago with a few breaks in between sections to build other stuff. As a recap : I was originally going to just scratch build the nose section but kind of got hood winked in carrying on down the length of the fuselage! .....so I then built the Bomb bay....followed by the radio room and ball turret section and now it is time to finish this off with the tail section. Just to let you all know that I will not be building the wings and the 4 engines that go with it!😉 I got together some old post photos from the start of this project and thought I would show you of how I got to this point today! This first photo shows the completed fuselage up to the ball turret position..... Here is a shot of the cockpit....... ...and the bomb bay looking from the radio room through to the cockpit.... Here is the radio operators table in the radio room..... ...and finally the ball turret in place on the hanging harness..... So my aim has always been through out this project to display as much of the internal detail as possible as I have always been fascinated with the Flying Fortress!.....so to that end I have tried to construct the whole fuselage with the top removed. This over the years has given me many headaches and will continue to I'm sure ... because I didn't want to take away the shape of the B17!... For example my next problem will be how to display the detail with that ruddy great dorsal Fin attached?......well I have an idea which I will show you as we get on with the build. The other problem I have is how to ship it back to the UK from here?....I have made a bespoke box out of MDF but I am getting ahead of my self!....lets put that to one side at the moment and get this last section underway! So here we go then..the first of many photos and posts that I will have to make!! I am going to make the fuselage out of balsa wood as I did with the the front sections....so after digging out the scale plans that I scaled up to 1:20 I cut out all the formers I would need. The bottom half was built up first ...then the top half .....here they are temporarily joined. A few years ago I started strengthening the fuselage by filling in between the stringers with scrap pieces of Balsa wood. All you have to do then is sand down carefully to the formers and stringers to get the ...hopefully.... correct shape. Here is the bottom half..... Here is the top half just placed in position..... So here the scrap balsa was filled in the gaps and sanded. You can see that I have left an area open at the top so you will be able to see down into the detail...... Now I turned my attention to the dorsal fin which runs along the top of the fuselage which eventually turns into the tail fin.At this stage I am only building so far back and will complete it by somehow attaching the tail fin at a later stage...there is method in my madness as you will see later! Once I had filled the gaps with balsa ,I glued the dorsal fin on top of the fuselage and as you can see there is still enough open space to eventually look at all the detail. I thought I would clamp the front section onto this to see what it might look like......JEEZ!.....It's about 3 feet 5 inches long!! Well that's as far as I have got with this so far! I do hope some of you will come along with me for the ride on this final stage of this project...would appreciate the support! Until the next post.....thanks for looking in and stay safe guys! Fozzy 52 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Brilliant, looking forward to the next installment already! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Smashing! So far it's been easy to mistake pictures of your interior for walkarounds of the real thing. That does seem to be a lot of tail - almost the same length again! Regards, Adrian 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 13 minutes ago, AdrianMF said: Smashing! So far it's been easy to mistake pictures of your interior for walkarounds of the real thing. That does seem to be a lot of tail - almost the same length again! Regards, Adrian She's a BIG bird Adrian!...cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Huge pleasures ahead for us now, yippee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Do the wings . . do the wings . . . do the wings. I DARE ya! Rgds Martin PS very nice, so far. 3 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 4 minutes ago, mike romeo said: Do the wings . . do the wings . . . do the wings. I DARE ya! Rgds Martin PS very nice, so far. Stop it Martin!!!!!😉 10 minutes ago, perdu said: Huge pleasures ahead for us now, yippee Glad you're on board again Bill!😃 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigdave22014 Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 yum yum. More yogurt! Nice to see this wonderful project back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Ward Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Wow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 So pleased to see this back - I was only thinking about this build the other day and wondered if you’d made any more progress. Resubscribing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhouse Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 This has been a great project to follow. I can't wait to see how you tackle the wings and engines. Because you won't be able to stop yourself, will you? 😆 😁 😆 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 2 hours ago, Fozzy said: JEEZ!.....It's about 3 feet 5 inches long!! And boy, doesn't it look good! Glad to see you're still with us and still on the yoghurt, Fozzy. There might be a seat for me at the end of the front row, I hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Yep - I’m watching too! 👀 Nice to see this saga continuing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 When I read the title and it said 1/20 B17G, my first thought was that you must be insane. It would be huge. But then actually 3 ft 5 ins is only 4 inches longer than a 1/350 USS Nimitz or 6 inches longer than a 1/72 Flower Class corvette and there are lots of those out there. 2 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Smashing! So far it's been easy to mistake pictures of your interior for walkarounds of the real thing. I thought that too. The detail, especially for something that is scratchbuilt, is amazing But the piece de resistance has to be that Shepherd Neame ashtray in the background. To take a quite from one of their rivals, "Probably the best brewery in the world"! 2 hours ago, Fozzy said: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Lovely work so far. Will definitely be watching and learning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Your work is not only beyond what I do, it's beyond what I dream of doing. It's truly wonderful! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackroadkill Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 This is crazy and amazing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 Hi Guys.... thanks a lot for all your comments!.....except the ones that are trying to encourage me to tackle the wings....and engines !!......Brian!🤨 It's also great to see that some familiar faces are re joining this wagon!.....it's gonna be a big ride!😉 I'll be back soon! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamS Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 5 hours ago, mike romeo said: Do the wings . . do the wings . . . do the wings. I DARE ya! Rgds Martin PS very nice, so far. Well, I’m with Martin on this one. Great to see ya back. Graham 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookytooth Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Wow great, something to cheer us up. Good to see that you are safe and well Fozzy. Simon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 And I thought I was going insane in lockdown 😜 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Nice to see you back Fozzy. This is a classic build.. Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbudde Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Wow, that looks tremendous and so real. Superb job on that!! Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 1 hour ago, GrahamS said: Well, I’m with Martin on this one. Great to see ya back. Graham ......and you can stop it too Graham!😉 57 minutes ago, Spookytooth said: Wow great, something to cheer us up. Good to see that you are safe and well Fozzy. Simon Hi Simon...yes all good here ...hope you're are ok also! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairystick Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Wooohoooo! It's BACK!!! Such a great build to follow. NO wings, but perhaps the fin and tailplanes?* * for now... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now