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453rd Museum build 1/72 B-17F Academy with a possible friend!


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  • 2 weeks later...

So I feel like this resin and PE set has taken me forever! But Feel I’m moving forward, still more to do in the waist gunners section and radio room, but the cockpit and nose section are nearly there. 
 

first up a few shots of the cockpit.

avLWJmY.jpgI’ve weathered the floor and side walls, no washes just dry brushing different shades of lighter colours. The oxygen tanks look too dirty in this pic which is a shame.

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quick dry fit. 
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And a little exploded diagram for you.

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that’s most of the seatbelts added and the control column.

 

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ip added, and was a disappointment I used white card behind the thin plastic sheet with printed dials and lined them up with the PE IP but you can’t see any of the dial detail. 

then everything was dry fitted and glued in place.

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And shock of shocks, it fits in the fuselage no problem! I had to remove most of the location stubs for the kit parts, but so far so happy. My only issue is with the accuracy to the real deal. The back wall of the nose is not flat and the rear wall of the cockpit should be further back to allow the upper turret to move freely. 
many how.

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may need to watch out for that Back wall when I add the turret actually!

 

The eagle eyed will have noticed new windows have appear on the upper nose. As discussed earlier in the thread Belle had no Astro dome but had four upper windows… I’ve done my best by making a template and drilling out the corners then cutting them out. They need a clean up. 
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here’s where I’m at with nose floor, weathered and the first layer on the wooden ammo box. Slowly getting there. 
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Here’s what needs to be added…

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the table, site and box are fine as is the fire extinguisher, the little seats however not so much as they have all pinged away never to be seen again… I will build them from bits of plastic.

 

anyway that’s pretty much it. Comments and thoughts always welcome.

 

Rob

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Hey Rob

 

Great looking B17 you have going on there, just an observation (that could be wrong) didn’t the US Army Airforce only use lap belts in heavy bombers during the war? 
 

Anyway keep up the great work

 

Iain

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22 minutes ago, (ex)Sgtrafman said:

Hey Rob

 

Great looking B17 you have going on there, just an observation (that could be wrong) didn’t the US Army Airforce only use lap belts in heavy bombers during the war? 
 

Anyway keep up the great work

 

Iain

The short answer is, I don’t know…. They probably did however I was just blindly following the instructions. I have to say I must think that’s the case somewhere in my mind as I’ve only ever added lap belt on my other build using masking tape… it is however done now at to pull them off would take a lot of paint with it!

13 minutes ago, giemme said:

 Impressive paint job on the interiors, Rob! :clap:

 

Ciao 

Cheers muchly G.

 

Rob

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54 minutes ago, SaminCam said:

This is great Rob, your dry brushing technique on the floors looks VERY effective 👍

I bow to your superior skill, I was just going to post pictures of your work but realised it’s not a B17. I’ll have to wait until I start the B24 Until I rip you off 🙄
thanks for the kind comment.

 

Rob

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16 hours ago, SaminCam said:

This is great Rob, your dry brushing technique on the floors looks VERY effective 👍

 

Agreed and echo wot others have said about how good the interior looks

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/2/2021 at 8:49 AM, Fritag said:

 

Agreed and echo wot others have said about how good the interior looks

Again many thanks, means a lot!

 

still working on the interior… some ribbing and fettling.

 

AiYNwWm.jpgbit wonky and needs trimming but it’s a start! And it’s just for some detail not supposed to be accurate. As it’s over sized. 
 

some resin sanding to get this sitting flatter.

GZEZg10.jpg

 

unfortunately that’s it… this week has been a nightmare, I’ve been having to sort out a lot at work, sub station that feeds my store electricity was on fire and has been cutting out for the last two days which has been cutting the power the everyone. I’ve been trying to keep 23,000 sq ft of fridges cold without electricity is not fun! 
 

any how enjoy the weather!

 

Rob 

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  • 4 weeks later...

So the progress is still slow, even though I’m off with covid I don’t appear to have had much time! I’ve been working from home (essentially doing all the computer stuff other managers don’t want to) it’s not that bad. 
 

any way, little bit more work on the nose section ribbing, is all I’ve really managed.

 

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obviously this was entirely planned but the ribs actually match up with the external pane lines…. What a fluke.

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now I’ve started on the other side.

 

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first time I’ve tried this kinda thing really and I think it’s going ok! Isn’t it?!

 

Rob

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3 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Looking good Rob, hope you're not feeling too bad?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

3 hours ago, SaminCam said:

Framing is looking great Rob! Hope you're not feeling too ropey?

To be honest I felt fine for a few days a now feel like I have flu, jo my girlfriend has been pretty bad and struggled with her breathing to the point 111 called an ambulance but she’s fine now. Very hard to focus with it but just need to be ridden out, not much else you can do.

 

cheers for asking and hopefully all staying safe and well!

 

Rob

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11 hours ago, rob85 said:

To be honest I felt fine for a few days a now feel like I have flu, jo my girlfriend has been pretty bad and struggled with her breathing to the point 111 called an ambulance but she’s fine now. Very hard to focus with it but just need to be ridden out, not much else you can do.

 

cheers for asking and hopefully all staying safe and well!

Eurgh, not fun, glad you're both on the mend now and looking forward to seeing some of the B17 taking shape. I've been lucky and dodged covid so far (touch wood), second jab next week but if I'm going to get it will be when snotty nosed students start to return in the autumn and we'll (hopefully) be able to start teaching them in person again...

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/15/2021 at 7:13 PM, giemme said:

Hope you get sorted soon, Rob 🤞

 

In the meantime,  nice ribbing there! :clap:

 

Ciao 

Yeah I’m all sorted, it wasn’t nice but no worse than a flu for me. Jo had to have an ambulance sent out as NHS were worried about her breathing but she was fine. All better now!

 

On 8/15/2021 at 9:05 AM, SaminCam said:

Eurgh, not fun, glad you're both on the mend now and looking forward to seeing some of the B17 taking shape. I've been lucky and dodged covid so far (touch wood), second jab next week but if I'm going to get it will be when snotty nosed students start to return in the autumn and we'll (hopefully) be able to start teaching them in person again...

those darn students! Jo works at a UNI as support staff, don’t think they are planning to fully return to face to face yet. Hopefully you will as it’s just a better way to teach. Stay safe though.

 

so the B17, still not broken into the B24 as not sure what I’m building yet, but the B17 is moving on!

 

first up nose section, both sides of ribbing don’t and paint going down. I feel I have achieved what I wanted but would use a much thinner plastic strip in future. 

vjOb5rY.jpg

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obNQIvG.jpgthe floor is much more level and will need a small amount of plastic strip at the nose to fill the little gap.

 

Ribbing is also being added to the waist gunners section.

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and there is resin and PE to add to here too.

 

the radio room was finished and dry fitted and is a good fit.

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doubt much will be seen in there in the end. The little seat was scratch built as all the bits pinged off.|

 

thats about it for now, I have a week off with the kids and then will be back at it after that.

 

Rob

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On 8/25/2021 at 10:15 AM, giemme said:

Great to know you're both good now, and that you are back at the bench with this! :thumbsup:  Interiors looking the biz! :clap:

 

Ciao

Cheers G appreciate it!

On 8/26/2021 at 2:40 AM, Cookenbacher said:

Glad you guys have recovered Rob!

The interior is up to your now usual high standards!

Woah there partner, let’s not start throwing things like ‘usual high standards’ around… save that kind talk for the man above 😃. He can handle the pressure!

 

thanks cookie glad you like it and appreciate the comment! Very kind.

 

Rob

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looking great. I love the yellow seats and the walls look really nice. Glad to heard you guys are all better after the Covids. I’m checking up on all the museum builds. Does any one know if we have a time frame ? 
 

sorry I haven’t checked in on this build before now.
 

I’ll pull up a sand bag if that’s ok. 
 

All the best.

 

Johnny.

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  • 4 months later...
On 9/12/2021 at 11:28 PM, The Spadgent said:

Looking great. I love the yellow seats and the walls look really nice. Glad to heard you guys are all better after the Covids. I’m checking up on all the museum builds. Does any one know if we have a time frame ? 
 

sorry I haven’t checked in on this build before now.
 

I’ll pull up a sand bag if that’s ok. 
 

All the best.

 

Johnny.

Hey Johnny, I need to get my backside back in gear and check on everyone else’s progress! I’ve started working on this again as had some time over the last few days so an update is below.

On 9/13/2021 at 2:44 AM, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Those crew stations are amazing—really enjoying how you are sorting everything out—much to learn here—best, Erwin

Cheers muchly Erwin! I’ve been doing a bit more scratch building and it’s progressed pretty well.

 

so this will be a fairly heavy update, so sorry, but had two days off just to focus on building!

 

can’t believe I haven’t done an update since September! It’s been a busy few months with work snd being Christmas, any day off I’ve had had been taken up by sleeping! Very low on drive as been using it all up in the store, chucking turkey’s and potato’s into fridges from 4am each day. Anyway, the model!

 

first up I added a bit of plastic to make filling the astrodome area easier.

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that got painted silver, don’t really need a pic of that, just looks like the above… but silver.

I then scratch built the cheek gunner windows as the kit ones are like the bottom of a milk bottle.

 

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i then drilled a hole for the gun…. Without checking my references.

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it was completely in the wrong place, so at that work for nothing. I remade the window. Also looking at the pics the windows are a bit oversized, and have bare metal round them so might try to replicate that with some foil.

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They have been sanded and polished to blend them in and of course got a good layer of aqua gloss to make sure they were clear.


I then started scratch building the seats that all pinged off the resin block never to be seen again.

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and a little fire extinguisher!

RO1zUWl.jpgin place. Also below are the last bits of resin in place, table and the little black box next to the bomb aimer. 
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A little seat made, and in place.

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a lot more detail will be visible through the new windows (before aqua gloss)

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both little seats in place.

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then a pic of the windows after aqua gloss and over night drying.

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50 cals were added using some gator grip, a glue I pic up from @CedB and his builds, very handy stuff! 
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it will dry clear, of course.

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then the frame work was made for the two field modded forward facing 50 cals. 
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not perfect just and approximation but I think will look ok behind the nose plastic. The ball and turret and upper turret completed.

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then the front guns were painted, green for the frame as per ref shots.

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Bit of the internal detail from the front, the floor is now flush with the front of the aircraft not raised as in the shot. 
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And then finally she got closed up, all that detail gone forever 😃.

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bsoUimP.jpg
 

hope everyone is well and let me know what you think, still a lot to do to get this ready for June!
 

 

 

 

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