Jump to content

B-17 Liberty Belle


Mike N

Recommended Posts

To kick off my 2021 modelling, I’ve decided to tackle one of my ‘special’ projects, the B-17 warbird Liberty Belle, in which I had a memorable flight back in 2008. When I was on secondment in Wichita for a year, I heard on the local news that a B-17 would be doing ‘air experience’ flights the coming weekend. That B-17 was the Liberty Belle. I immediately called to book a seat!

 

b2bfa827-2d39-4001-832a-677c86ba5d6e.JPG

 

de6a87d8-e84f-4bbc-8d9b-3ad8cd3ec1a9.JPG

 

The flight was fantastic, and the best $425 I’ve ever spent (especially as the exchange rate was about $2 to the £). Once we were airborne, we got the word to say we could get up and move around. I immediately dived into the tunnel beneath the pilots to get into the nose compartment. The view was superb.

 

resized_9bb071a0-caf1-40cc-bbc1-a05a0d24

 

 

resized_9ab29fb1-443b-4624-a032-193d3f48

 

resized_e8711ba2-a698-4781-bfee-c31cb6f0

 

I then went aft, through the bomb bay. The whistling of the air through the bomb doors brought home just how vulnerable the crews would have been. The furthest aft we could go was the waist gunners’ station, the tail gunner’s position not being accessible. Then it was back to the cockpit. Apart from the whistling of the air, the other thing that struck me was the noise, even through the headsets.

 

8d3ac219-0f02-446c-8ae4-1e48030a9c21.JPG

 

Soon enough it was time to land. Once taxied and parked up, we made our way out. As I exited, there were a few veterans there enjoying a chat with the crew. The entry door was covered in signatures of those who had flown in the war.

Tragically, 3 years later Liberty Belle was virtually destroyed. According to Wikipedia, she suffered an in-flight fire shortly after take-off. After an emergency landing in a field, all 7 people on board managed to escape without injury, but due to the muddy state of the field the fire trucks were unable to reach her and prevent the fire gutting her. Apparently, there is a restoration effort ongoing using the front fuselage from another B-17, but whether it will return to the skies is yet to be seen.

One of my modelling themes is to depict the warbirds I have flown in. This is a very small number to do, but I’ve still only managed 1 so far! With the release of the new Airfix kit I decided it would form the basis of my Liberty Belle project.

82cf0e66-9663-428f-bcf8-dc4c5a6d0e56.JPG

 

 

For the markings, I have the very nice sheet produced by Warbirds Decals.

 

44157adc-aeaa-4b89-b49e-3392d3f510bc.JPG

 

61845065-f0ff-4739-a727-a4730e643dd3.JPG

 

Sadly, at the time I had my flight I didn’t have the forethought to take lots of photos to support a future model project, but I did get a few internal shots and videos during the flight which will help. There are also useful shots on the web, of course. Essentially this will be an out of the box build with a few scratch details, including a few changes needed to suit the warbird variant such as extra seating.

 

Intro done: next, on to the modelling!

 

Mike

  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starting with the cockpit, I made a small modification to the floor part. The aperture between the seats is the accessway to the nose compartment, but the kit part has the vertical web of the step going down to the level of the floor, when it should be a bit higher. I only noticed this as I had a photo of this area, so I reprofiled it. A tiny mod that probably won’t be seen, but there’ll be a few of them in this build. Sorry for the blurry photo, I only realised this after construction had progressed.

resized_b2386a92-4f76-496a-9f65-5a4fc0e0

 

The throttle levers are moulded as a solid blob. I attempted to give them a bit of definition by shaving a little from each half to produce a gap between them, and then ran a saw blade down each one to produce the levers. Not great but a bit better than the starting point. The one on the left just has the initial filing for the gap and will be going into another kit I won’t be going to town on.

e923c9d1-3c49-46b4-bcad-02bb21be63c8.JPG

 

The cockpit had two extra seats directly behind the pilots, one of which I occupied on my flight. I simply fashioned these from plastic strip and glued them to the pilot seat structure. Liberty Belle also had wooden flooring here so I replicated that using thin plasticard. A final detail was to add the clipboards to the yokes that can be seen in this shot from my flight:

6aa5c9a6-49c2-462c-9bc5-eac3b9279bc5.JPG

 

The cockpit currently looks like this, ready for paint.

fc26f8f8-bc00-4b9e-8380-65adfa429f06.JPG

 

Moving to the waist area, the floor around the ball turret was different in Liberty Belle from the kit representation. Annoyingly I don’t have a photo from my time aboard but the step down from the radio room occurs 1 frame forward and is boarded only on the port side. I cut the kit part and added a new floor aft of the doorway. I also added a bit of detail to the bulkhead.

fa8b6816-8134-448e-af8a-48a45ea7158d.JPG

 

5b59b633-7811-417f-95e1-e06f60953276.JPG

 

The radio room coincides with the aft section of the wings, which results in the wall stopping at the point. I toyed with fashioning a new wall there but thought that blending it in would be tricky. As the only real view is from above, I decided to use plastic strip to continue the truncated frame detail, hoping that once painted and in the dark it would be good enough – fingers crossed.

Further aft, I added the wooden steps underneath the waist gunner positions and some of the frame detail exposed around the ball turret from my modified floor. Finally, I extended the stringers for another frame on the opposite side to the door as this area will be seen with the door open.

efac2ad7-5b7c-4885-a61a-13da6542b399.JPG

 

fdd7139c-9bca-4689-afc2-7afcc4fbc3e9.JPG

 

Next step will be getting some paint on plastic.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Mike

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watching with interest. I saw the Belle at the Duxford Flying Legends show, I think in 2008.

b17_08_033.jpg

I'm sure that boxing of the B-17 by Airfix is the Academy version, so you'll need to shim the top of the wing roots to correct the excessive dihedral and don't forget the four vents behind each engine are VENTS, not exhausts!! So many modellers spoil a nice B-17 build by painting four dirty great stripes behind each engine!! 😉


 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Army_Air_Force said:

Watching with interest. I saw the Belle at the Duxford Flying Legends show, I think in 2008.

b17_08_033.jpg

I'm sure that boxing of the B-17 by Airfix is the Academy version, so you'll need to shim the top of the wing roots to correct the excessive dihedral and don't forget the four vents behind each engine are VENTS, not exhausts!! So many modellers spoil a nice B-17 build by painting four dirty great stripes behind each engine!! 😉


 

It's Airfix's own new mold of a few years ago the Academy kit doesn't have that much internal detail only the cockpit and nose section 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Army_Air_Force said:

and don't forget the four vents behind each engine are VENTS, not exhausts!! So many modellers spoil a nice B-17 build by painting four dirty great stripes behind each engine!! 😉

 absolutely correct Sir! i did Revell's "Little Miss Mischief" back in December and spent a lot of time viewing getty images and other photographic sources to get this effect. The dividing metal between the 4 vents has a small exhaust marking. Air from the vents seems to disapate the exhaust stains on the wing.. This is what i did to mine. If i may be so bold as to post my RFI picture to illustrate 

 

20201215_125741

 

and another view.. hope it's clear from the pics.. I looked at so many original reference pics i started seeing B17s when i closed my eyes! lol

 

20201215_125606

 

Edited by Col Walter E Kurtz
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a great project - I did a 1/72nd Liberty Belle using the Revell kit a few years back. It's on here somewhere but I can't get the search function to work to share it.

 

The restoration of the real thing is progressing well - there's a great facebook page called 'Hangar 13' who are doing a lot of the rebuild. Central fuselage, nose section, nacelles and wing spars are done, with the rear fuselage being rebuilt in a separate hangar in Georgia I believe. This is not my picture, but thought it worth sharing here:

 

50877904321_39cb69b162_z.jpgUntitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr

 

I'll look forward to more updates.

Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The oil and dirt is from the oil overflow on the nacelles, plus dirt and much blown through the engine and cowl gills. It stains down the nacelles, following the airflow, flows fairly straight back on the port wing and curves in on the starboard - it's all to do the the prop vortex and its interaction with the airflow over the wing and around under the fuselage as it leaves the trailing edge.

This wartime photo shows the staining well.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/7259-7/B_17S_OF_381ST_BG.jpg

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Army_Air_Force said:

The oil and dirt is from the oil overflow on the nacelles, plus dirt and much blown through the engine and cowl gills. It stains down the nacelles, following the airflow, flows fairly straight back on the port wing and curves in on the starboard - it's all to do the the prop vortex and its interaction with the airflow over the wing and around under the fuselage as it leaves the trailing edge.

This wartime photo shows the staining well.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/7259-7/B_17S_OF_381ST_BG.jpg

Thanks Army. That was one of the pics i referenced in fact. You are correct. That's a well used and dirty B17! shows the staining patterns very well

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike,

Great start and I'll grab a seat. I did not have the money available to take a flight but took over 200 photos of Liberty Belle when she visited Lubbock Texas August 2007. I was there for a doctors appointment and visit the Silent Wings Museum. Liberty Belle was parked on the ramp next to the museum. Here are a few photos

100_2953 100_2850 100_2908

A few years latter, my wife and I were in Santa Fe New Mexico and came across Sentimental Journey next to the air terminal. I have some of her there and when she came through Clovis airport.

Let me know what your looking for and I may have them.

 

All The Best,

Ron VanDerwarker

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking forward to this one, you have done so great work already! Also it’s a great subject!

 

I’m just finishing off the 1/72 airfix kit, it’s a good kit, albeit with some unnecessary over engineering in places.

 

cheers

 

Rob

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Slow but steady progress, and worth an update.

 

Firstly, a huge thank you to Ron ‘f111guru’ VanDerwarker for sharing his fantastic and comprehensive walkaround photos with me! These have provided several details that I would definitely have missed. A lot of the photos you’ll see posted here are Ron’s. To make best use of them, I went through the kit instructions noting the ID of useful photos against each step so I didn’t have to hunt through them all to find it again.

 

So, on with the build. Liberty Belle was painted interior green throughout. I know this will upset the purists out there, but that’s how she was! I used Humbrol 158 as this seemed the closest match in my collection. I didn’t apply any weathering to this as the real surfaces were pristine in most areas.

 

I had already applied this colour to the main components when I received Ron’s photos. With all the new details known, I just had to add them! Here you can see some of the scratched details (and where I'd scraped off the paint to glue them on!)

 

5e219a4a-4339-4ea5-b751-f7a04c1658aa.JPG

 

The nose compartment was spiced up with some gubbins on the floor, presumably relating to the chin turret:

 

a95119b7-311a-4adc-bc1d-cf1397b76ba3.jpg

Photo courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

The kit ammo box was replaced with a bit of stock plastic as the real one in Liberty Belle was simple affair.

 

4029d7fe-d781-48a9-9d43-4bac16ef8b0f.JPG

 

I replicated the plywood floors here and in the cockpit by painting them a lightish brown and then drybrushing various darker shades on top. Not perfect, but satisfactory.

 

1998bfac-0a3f-4b0b-94c2-d6c5b7b2c5ea.JPG

 

The aft bulkhead of the nose compartment got some bracketry and boxes on the front, and to replicate some cylinders just through the opening I added some plastic rod.

 

e1724619-52a0-4fc6-883e-32117d9ed1ed.jpg

Photo courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

9ef74ff9-df76-4e0c-bdfc-a1b1e15f69bf.JPG

 

Moving on to the cockpit, virtually everything was painted interior green. The pilots’ seats had cushions prepared from plastic sheet, trimmed to suit the kit parts. The cushions were glued to the ends of scrap sprue to allow me to hold them while painting. The real cushions were a grey-black tight pattern, so I just stippled the black onto a grey base.

 

d3311338-ccc2-489c-aa61-596a6a12ae97.JPG

 

All the seats got lap straps from pieces of masking tape stuck on my craft mat, painted and cut into strips. Cheap and easy, and acceptable in this scale, I think.

 

7f205f85-2fa1-4fc5-940f-93cf3ce4b05a.JPG

 

7bacbf43-e54c-4167-9547-b608faa581c0.JPG

 

More to come soon! Thanks for looking.

 

Mike

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Off to a grand start. Pictures do tell a thousand words. My preference is to scratch build where I can versus the metal etched. I don't have the new Airfix kit in my stash yet but will hope to add it soon. I do have the Revell that was released a number of years back and the very old Airfix kit I bought in 1978 from R & N Models Thetford when I was stationed at RAF Lakenheath.

 

All The Best,

Ron VanDerwarker

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Ron. The new Airfix kit is an absolute cracker so far, very nice fit and crisp detail too.

 

I also try to avoid etched details where I can, too fiddly for me. Plus, much more fun if I can make the upgrades myself!

 

Mike 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I put up another B-17 folder in my flickr account. It's of I'll Be Around B-17G 390th BG display at the Pima air museum Tucson AZ. Went there a few years back. Must go again but this time in the fall or winter. Here ar a couple photos that may be of interest. Inside the ball turret.

100_4986 100_4984

A few from the bottom up co-pilots seat

100_4982

Pilots seat from below. All the LOX bottles

100_4983

Other side very similar

 

Enjoy, Ron VanDerwarker

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for those additional photos, Ron. The ones of the ball turret in particular are very helpful. I went to Pima back in 2015, what a fantastic place! I spent a happy few hours walking around in the sun, even though it was November (I think) it was pretty hot. Sadly I didn't have time to go into the hangar with the B-17. The trip to the Bone Yard was fascinating too.

 

Mike 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got a bit more done this cold and windy weekend during a national lockdown.

 

Thanks to Ron’s photos, I was able to detail the aft part of the cockpit which was a complete mystery beforehand and is different to regular B-17s in not having oxygen bottles mounted – that space being taken partly by the passenger seats. The aft bulkhead received some details to give a representation of the box and cylinders mounted there.

 

bb88c70c-7545-463b-9e71-fd8b1567683a.jpg

 

2a9dd952-5c74-4e67-97bd-5eb202668292.jpg

Photos courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

3c215232-518e-4033-bb43-7e9255fe713c.JPG

 

The bomb bay was next, the only change I made was to mount all the bombs to the outboard racks. I also initially painted them a much too light green before changing to a closer colour. Given the lack of visibility to this area (bomb doors closed) I could have painted them bright purple and not noticed on the finished model.

 

0924bbb7-a41d-445c-93ad-f1d9eb727e3c.jpg

Photo courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker


Next up was the radio compartment. The forward bulkhead has a few changes, with only the kit desk and radio being required. Liberty Belle had a medical box and a bell(?) above on the port side.

42beb6c1-d3ea-4c8f-841f-4c35229eedbc.jpg

 

a40038d4-7547-4c83-93c4-7b9446c3e154.jpg

Photos courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

The starboard side had some sort of notice in place of the large units in the kit.

 

40bac853-8343-4071-bdd8-2702d162f217.JPG

 

The aft bulkhead retained 2 of the 3 units mounted to the wall, and the kit parts look good representations.

 

b8f44029-7bb6-4b28-91ba-bb45c476ccd6.jpg

Photo courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

The radio compartment had an extra seat installed and they were of a different type to the kit ones, being fixed metal-framed ones. I chickened out of making the arms but they will only be visible from above so it won’t matter.

 

9e5af8e7-2e9d-4ad2-9950-670b9b50e2c3.JPG

 

This is my effort. The seats have the usual masking tape lap straps.

 

8ec3b191-3665-4caa-9804-0ff8b2539d5c.JPG

 

Next, the waist area.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Mike

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The waist area had a few modifications. As mentioned before, the floor around the ball turret was different to the kit part:

 

ba62f4ba-501e-4ade-a08a-6db9f755870c.jpg

Photo courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

The shaft for the ball turret had a prominent oxygen(?) bottle mounted to it, and being yellow might actually be visible through the windows. I rummaged in my spares box and found something suitable. After painting it had some masking tape straps run around.

 

 

bf3a6edc-3ba5-44a0-8ae9-d5bb5b04289e.JPG

 

Once complete, it was put aside with the other sub-assemblies. I use small tubs that have a clip-on lid for this sort of thing as it keeps everything safe from damage or disappearing.

 

610fc199-e97c-47e2-b459-3e5fdf7ce8e8.JPG

 

The final detail to scratch build was the extra canvas seating in the rear fuselage, shown below on the port side, another set is further forward on the starboard side.

 

e131e8dd-a753-4a7e-aec8-1db384d21c4c.jpg

Photo courtesy of Ron VanDerwarker

 

I pondered the best way of replicating this for a while before turning once again to painted masking tape. I cut some pieces to size and notched them for the plastic frames I made. Installed in the fuselage I was happy with their appearance. The starboard side front frame is shown loose and was ultimately fixed to the side rather than the floor.

 

ada62edf-e7a7-4eae-ac2d-b8126b30d9bb.JPG

 

I also fitted the ammo boxes in different places to the marked areas to match reference photos; lower down and nearer the window on the port side. I don't know if this is how it was on wartime aircraft or just Liberty Belle.

 

With the fuselage halves nearing the point of being joined I installed the side windows. These are a very good fit, especially the gunners' ones which should hopefully stop them from popping out later. One thing to note for anyone else with this kit is to check the clear parts. Mine had a mould flaw in one of the waist gunner windows:

 

f1a1f1fa-3c06-44ba-b086-2274f5f1d1c3.JPG

 

To progress the build I swapped it with another copy of the kit in the stash, leaving the problem for another day!

 

And with that, it was time to start installing the sub-assemblies into the fuselage. The fit is tight, so all the interfaces had any paint and flash lines removed. Even without the extras I added, I think the internal detail provided in the kit is more than enough. I doubt a lot of the interior will be seen, but I’m happy I added it!

 

e05614a6-566c-4fd9-ae5b-4edb9b361ed4.JPG

 

c68d597b-00a8-4046-ac2e-6bdea12544a0.JPG

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Mike

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the fuselage interior complete, halves joined and left to cure, I turned to some of the other areas.

 

The tail turret is supplied in 2 halves of clear plastic, a design I prefer to having to add individual windows which can easily get knocked in. I had offered them up to the fuselage halves earlier in the build and the contours seemed a good match. This suited me as I wanted to add the turret as a separate unit as it would allow me to add some interior detail more easily. However, when I tried it again after joining the fuselage halves, I found there was a step down onto the turret, i.e. the turret was slightly too small. With a plain silver scheme it would show up too much to ignore. I had already glued the turret together, which actually was only half a problem. I split open the lower joint and tried a couple of thicknesses of plastic strip in the join to get the best match. I settled on 1mm which I tapered slightly at the aft end to better blend into the tail cap part.

 

9215f3ca-7f09-4ce7-aaba-87086c2d7bf3.JPG

 

2473aef6-ff95-4f32-a169-cdaacbb37e72.JPG

 

Moving in to the wings, the upper halves have holes to allow a choice of inserts; one with both as grilles and one with both plain.

 

c1792000-6117-4ec7-8ddd-1922f2b862db.JPG

 

Looking at Liberty Belle, only the inboard one was a grille, the other was plain, not even a panel. The fit of both types was pretty poor, especially the plain one.

 

5bb520f2-89d1-4494-8aff-1fc43b048b74.JPG

 

0733b68b-58c4-4b87-a1c7-e9c8332516a5.JPG

 

Before getting the filler out, I cut small pieces of masking tape to protect the grille detail.

 

aceff9bf-766d-45ec-89fd-0245c22732a2.JPG

 

First application of filler, I’ll see how it looks after some paint.

 

967a4578-0fad-4c2f-a6d5-372f1ae55f96.JPG

 

The rest of the wing assembly went smoothly, the parts breakdown of the inboard nacelles being a little unusual but it worked quite well.

 

Shouldn’t be long before the wings and tailplanes are on!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Mike

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...