Tcoat Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 56 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Big, beautiful Belle! Very nice indeed! Love the battle damage too! 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swralph Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Lovely build.😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mancunian airman Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Excellent build I must say . . . flak damage looks convincing 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve27752 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcoat Posted February 23, 2021 Author Share Posted February 23, 2021 27 minutes ago, Mancunian airman said: Excellent build I must say . . . flak damage looks convincing 👍 I wanted to convey the damage as seen in the movie but not get carried away to the point the model would break in half if you tried to pick it up. Studied 100s of pictures of the real thing and although some of them made it home with massive sections of aircraft missing I wasn't so sure a model would survive it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 As said above, the battle damage looks most convincing. You've produced a quality build, my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Memphis Belle is such an icon, almost a personality. You've depicted her wounded. That is brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Very well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcoat Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 34 minutes ago, noelh said: Memphis Belle is such an icon, almost a personality. You've depicted her wounded. That is brilliant. I am working on an airfield base for it. I have a lone figure that I am going to have standing beside a staff car just looking at the aircraft. I think it will be rather poignant. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Absolutely. It's definitely poignant. Yes they survived but so many didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kapam Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Awesome job! Definitely one of the most iconic WW2 planes. Your build (and diorama, when done) is a fitting tribute to the brave men who flew B-17 missions . 👍👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Nicely done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulsbrown Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Very good damage, inspiring! Wish I had the shelf room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Beautiful paintwork - your weathered OD in various shades is very convincing. Well done - great build! SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Lovley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzby061 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 It would be a great model without the battle damage but that just lifts it. Look forward to seeing the dio. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Tip Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Why does it still have its ball turret? better wear your seatbelt Sam Gamgee... Great build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcoat Posted February 25, 2021 Author Share Posted February 25, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Johnny Tip said: Why does it still have its ball turret? better wear your seatbelt Sam Gamgee... Great build! Why wouldn't it? I was really torn on how to finish it since there are really three different ways you can go. There is the actual historical aircraft that had the ugly (and totally ineffective) medium green "camo" blotches over the faded light olive drab. It had a replacement vertical stabilizer and rudder after a prop strike that looks to be darker olive drab with lighter fabric. There is the movie version that was pristine dark olive drab over the whole surface. Well at least at the start of the movie it did. By the end of the movie it had sustained all the damage in it's last mission that it did in the whole of it's real operational period. Or there is the restored version that sort of falls someplace in between the two others so includes elements of each. I am/was building this to give away to a friend (I give away about half of what I build these days) that is a huge fan of the movie so I modeled it primarily based on that even though it is probably the furthest from the real operational aircraft. Edited February 25, 2021 by Tcoat 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Tip Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 On 25/02/2021 at 14:15, Tcoat said: Why wouldn't it? because IIRC, it gets somehow shot off on the return journey, and Eric Stoltz' character has to pull the ball turret gunner (there was a poem about him?) inside. Just a silly joke, no criticism on your beautiful model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcoat Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 3 minutes ago, Johnny Tip said: because IIRC, it gets somehow shot off on the return journey, and Eric Stoltz' character has to pull the ball turret gunner (there was a poem about him?) inside. Just a silly joke, no criticism on your beautiful model. Oh I didn't take it as a criticism but was truly curious as to why there wouldn't be one. I have never seen the movie myself and rarely watch war movies at all. I usually just end up yelling at the screen when things get totally absurd. Don't even get me started on that Brad Pitt Fury movie which should have been about 5 minutes long after the take broke down! Tank broke. German column coming. Panzerfuast explosion. Roll credits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 On 2/25/2021 at 7:15 AM, Tcoat said: It had a replacement vertical stabilizer Not necessarily so! A common trait on camouflaged B-15's is that the center section of the vertical stabilizer was manufactured and painted separately and almost never matched the paint that was applied to the rest of the airplane; it almost always was darker that the surrounding paint. I have also read that the subcontractor that supplied that section used medium green 42 in error- this would definitely account for a different appearance in a b&w photo. @Dana Bell would know, I'm betting. That being said, that is a very well-done model and the diorama is going to make it even better! Mike 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcoat Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, 72modeler said: Not necessarily so! A common trait on camouflaged B-15's is that the center section of the vertical stabilizer was manufactured and painted separately and almost never matched the paint that was applied to the rest of the airplane; it almost always was darker that the surrounding paint. I have also read that the subcontractor that supplied that section used medium green 42 in error- this would definitely account for a different appearance in a b&w photo. @Dana Bell would know, I'm betting. That being said, that is a very well-done model and the diorama is going to make it even better! Mike All accurate but in the case of the Memphis Belle it was indeed a replacement tail from an older scrapped aircraft. A quote from one write up "The lanky pilot climbed out of his seat to see exactly what had happened. “It looked like we had no tail at all,” Morgan recalled. “I got back in the cockpit and flew back to the base in two hours. It was tough flying, and tougher than that to set her down." I don't have the book anymore but so can't say which mission but there was a good write up about the incident and the fact they had to change the tail out. You can even see in one of the few in service pictures that the camo blotches are cut off in an almost perfect straight line at the replaced panels. Repairs using parts of other more badly damaged airframes was pretty normal. Here is a 1/72 B-17 that got a whole new wing! Edited February 26, 2021 by Tcoat 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