1/32 B24-D... Quite large

[Thom216]

Great looking bomber! And same on the wood effect. I think it looks good.

[Suddensky]

Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location on the south coast, unsanctioned guerilla hobbying had taken place...

 

Just a bit of basic masking...

 

It's not much, but every little helps right?

 

Should have got more done really, but a couple of Bond films, some long walks on the beach with the dog, and some pubs, conspired to prevent me making the paint masks.

 

Got back home this morning, and got some paint on the payload...

 

And here it all is, dirtied up and in place.

 

Have pretty much finished the interior of the fuselage halves, just got to add the ammo box and chutes for the rear turret, and give evertything a light weathering. I'm still in two minds about adding bits to the radio compartment, and then there's the bomb aimers area to look at too. Hoping to have things buttoned up this week.  

 

I think I'm going to paint the upper and lower wing surfaces before taking them off the sprues. The de-icing boot will be over the front seam when I do join them, and I can touch up any required areas pretty easily. It should help with making everything easier to handle, I just hope it's a good idea!

 

So this is where we are for now, with the interior pretty much done, with the exception of anything I decide to add. I mean it's not like I'm up against a deadline here or anything..,

 

 

 

A long way to go, and not much time, but I still think I should be able to get it done... 

 

Thanks for looking in,

 

Peter

 

[81-er]

Good work, Peter 👍

 

James

[Suddensky]

Well I had a plan, and a very good plan it was too, involving me shifting work forwards and backwards, and Susan going to Kenya and Uganda for a week, giving me five straight days to get my first ever GB completed on time and under budget. Clearly that didn't work. Unsurprisingly. 

 

But I've been back at it, although I'm not sure if the thread needs to be moved to WiP or if it should remain here as a testament to my glacial build speed. 

 

Decided to build up the rear control surfaces. Plenty of pre-shading:

 

Followed by the main colour, upper and lower:

 

 

I think I'm happy with it, but I'll probably do a lot more in the way of marbling over the main airframe later. I'll do any oil stains, dirt and chipping when everything is together so it's all consistent. The lowlights are done with a bit of white added to the dessert sand, then I masked and sprayed the de-icing boots and insignia:

 

And all together:

 

Finished off the ball turret (now grey) and mid-upper (which needs touching up a bit):

 

 

The bomb aimer's station looked a bit sparse so added some bits and bobs from scratch and spares, in retrospect I wish I'd added the structural bits too:

 

 

Had a bit of an incident with some CA on the port side:

 

I think it all looks a bit toy-like though. Maybe a lot of piping and wiring would add something to it.

 

Got to get the fuselage together next. I've done a bit of a dry fit and to be honest there's a lot to get lined up. It does not go together easily, and I'm not really looking forward to it.

 

That's about it for now, hopefully I'll be back soon with more.

 

Thanks for looking in, 

 

Peter

 

 

[81-er]

I think you're doing well there, Peter, especially on the exterior paint 

 

James

[Col.]

Good to see you back at this one and making progress Peter. From a personal viewpoint I'd say it's always worth checking how much of the interior can be visible from outside the model when looking in before adding extra details - plenty of my models have lots of invisible and therefore pointless details added to them that were never to be seen again once the main parts were brought together.

[Suddensky]

Had a totally free day today, so managed to get in some work on this, but I still feel I should have made better progress. 

 

Did spend a few hours on Friday sorting out my hobby space, turning this distressing mess...

 

Into something a bit more organised and easier to work with...

 

I stuck the fuselage together, the dry-fitting wasn't too bad, but of course as soon as I put some glue anywhere near it, nothing seemed to want to align. Got there in the end though, followed by much filling and sanding. It'll get an undercoat first thing tomorrow once I've taped over the nose. I decided to not stick the nose glazing in place as I want to leave as many of the guns as possible to the last minute, given they'll be very easy to damage or dislodge as I lug the thing around the bench. It woiuld also seem that I bought the masking set for the later version with the nose turret, so will need to mask the nose panels manually. There are 23 of them in case you wondered. That'll be nice,

 

After that, things seemed to happen in fours...

 

Engines, just aluminium with a black wash in the cylinders, light sea grey for the middle bit, and rust for the wiring. Still need a bit of dirtying up:

 

Exhausts, a base of burnt iron, followed by patches of yellow sand and black, them blended in with some more rust, the colours lok more differentiated in real life, they look a bit bland in the photo:

 

And the propellers. Online photos show a variety of markings on them, so I just went with the basic Hamilton Standard ones from the spares box. Still need to chip, weather and varnish them.

 

And that's about it for now, hopefully should be back at it tomorrow!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Peter

[Col.]

Nice progress on the Lib Peter and working with your newly tidied bench should help to make for a more pleasurable modelling experience

[mick b]

This is a modelling masterclass! Superb interior and the engines look stunning considering the limited effort Hobby Boss have made to create them in 3D!

 

Mike

[81-er]

Very nice progress there, Peter. She's a big one!

 

James

[Suddensky]

A very quick update, it's been one of those weeks when I seem to have spent a lot of time on it, but have only managed one step of progress, albeit an important step... the paintwork. 

 

It's an MTO aircraft, so needs to look suitably sun-beaten and worn. Ended up accidentally going with an odd mix of pre-shading, black-basing and marbling. 

 

Started out with a slightly heavier than normal preshading along the panel lines:

 

 

Followed by a thin mix of filler colour, scribbled over the top. Dark earth for the upper surfaces:

 

And dark sea grey for the lower:

 

I reasoned there would be less fading on the underside, so worked with a bit of a lighter touch.

 

I then moved on to a thin mix of white which I hoped would give a lightened, faded effect:

 

 

 

All of that's done with thin mixes, a hefty slug of Vallejo flow improver, and very low pressure.

 

Then it was time for the top-coat. Again, pretty well thinned, and numerous very light layers (about five or six), before I felt it looked about right:

 

 

 

It's my first attempt at using this method, and I think I'll leave it there, so as not to risk entirely obscuring all that work! Next up will be making masks for the national insignia and squadron codes etc, masking and painting the de-icing boots, and then I suppose I'll have to stick it all together.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

[81-er]

Nice work on the paint, Peter

 

James

[vppelt68]

I only now found this thread - and it's a super one! V-P

[Suddensky]

So, on with the masks. I photocopied the transfer sheet first, so I could work from that and still have the originals as a fallback in case of disaster. Then I found the centre point of the insignia on the copy and used the circle cutter thing which looks like a school compass to cut the outer then inner circles on the masking tape sheet. I took the copy insignia and cut it from the tip of each star point to the next, ending up with a pentangle. Using the centre point holes to align them, I taped that photocopy over the tape circle, and used a pin to mark the points and inner angles of the star, removed the copy, and joined the dots using a scalpel, ending up with a full mask.

 

Then it was on with the stencil outlines.

 

And the outer ring of yellow went on first, Tamiya XF3. Tried to get it super tight over those wind deflectors.

 

To prepare for the white, the outer ring of tape was replaced, and the join between it and the outline mask was sealed with tape, as they never fit back in perfectly.

 

 

Then it was time to mask off the stars. I’m not really one for giving tips, but if I’d thought of this before, it would have saved me loads of hassle! I always had an issue positioning stencils and masks like this accurately. I’ve always found that the more they are respositioned, the greater the chance of paint creep underneath, so I really don’t know why I never thought of this. With the backing paper still on, position the mask exactly where you want it. Then tape one side in place.

 

Peel the backing from the other side and remove it, allowing you to fix that side permanently.

 

Then remove the other side, and stick that down too. It’s like having a third hand just when you need it!

 

And on with the blue; Vallejo Modelair Signal blue. All the paints were laid down in multiple thin coats as I wanted to allow for some random shading, particularly allowing the white to show through the blue for a faded effect.

 

 

All in all I’m pretty pleased with the results overall.

 

Just one fairly minor issue on the fuselage port side, but to be honest I’ve almost got to the point of convincing myself it could be weathering/wear and tear on the real thing. The problem being that I’m almost certain of making things worse if I try to fix it!

 

So this is where we are for now. Almost time to break out the glue and hope everything fits. That’s it for a while though, as I find myself back on the road, so no more plastic for me for a couple of weeks. It’s almost like the before times.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Peter.

[Col.]

Neat work on the insignias Peter and thanks for sharing your technique in detail - there's plenty useful tips and inspiration in there

[Chrisj2003]

16 minutes ago, Col. said:

Neat work on the insignias Peter and thanks for sharing your technique in detail - there's plenty useful tips and inspiration in there

 @Suddensky as Col, says, brilliant work.

 

Chris

[81-er]

Excellent work on the markings, Peter. And thank you for the tip on positioning the star.

 

Out of curiosity, have you got an enormous display cabinet, or do you have a very understanding partner who doesn't mind massive aeroplanes dotted all over the house?

 

James

[Suddensky]

8 hours ago, 81-er said:

Excellent work on the markings, Peter. And thank you for the tip on positioning the star.

 

Out of curiosity, have you got an enormous display cabinet, or do you have a very understanding partner who doesn't mind massive aeroplanes dotted all over the house?

 

James

Thanks for the kind words folks, much appreciated. And yes, I have a hugely understanding partner who indulges my excesses of 1/32 four engined bombers with infinite grace! There is however an unspoken agreement on display space, There's a B17 on the wall in my study, and a Lancaster on a shelf. Other smaller aircraft sit under its wings before being rotated into the loft on a first in first out basis. It's all about making them to be honest!

[81-er]

I've just detoured to read through your B-17 thread, that's one impressive model!

 

James

[Suddensky]

Right. So I got back on Friday night and pottered around a bit with this over the weekend; masked and sprayed the de-icing boots, did a bit of weathering on the wheel bays, nothing too onerous. I've just sat down and tried to dry fit the wing halves around the main spar. And it would seem that - just for a laugh - I've put the said main spar in back-to-front. 

 

This is a bad thing. Very bad.

 

Sometimes I wonder how I make it through the day in one piece. I'm pretty much a danger to myself.

 

• There's no way it can come out and be re-set, as the fuselage is clamed around it. 
• I don't want to remove or weaken it too much, as the wings are pretty hefty.
• There's no place on the wings for any bolts or screws to join them to the fuselage, and anyway, the spar needs to bear the weight of the finished thing and spread it evenly. 

The two spars extending from the solid bit fit around the wheel bays, and thick locator pins/supports fit through the holes you can see. 

 

These are my initial thoughts:

 

• Remove the rear (should be front) spar as it blocks the wheel bay (shaded blue below).
• Locate, mark and drill out new holes for the locator pins.
• Hope for the best.

 

I don't think it's the end of the world, and if I did away with the locator pins entirely then it looks like I'd be able to join the wing halves together before mating them with the fuselage, in a more traditional fashion. 

 

Anyway, the main point of this post is not to moan, or advertise my idiocy, but rather to ask if anyone has any other suggestions or ideas as to how I can make this right. All theories welcome!

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

 

 

[arfa1983]

Depending on if it works with the wings or not, I would cut the whole thing in the Middle of the waffle pattern (middle row of rectangles) with razor saw or scrbing tool,  then flip outer sections and glue after tidying up edges. Then I'd fill the waffles with epoxy or putty to restrengthen the joint. 

 

This is, of course , based on just seeing the picture above. 

 

It's a pretty good stuff up. Reminds me of something I would do!

[Col.]

I agree with @arfa1983 - except perhaps use sheet plastic or sections of the parts runners to strengthen the join if the waffle is present on both faces of the spar.

[81-er]

I'd be inclined to go with your ideas, assuming the profile of the outer edge is symmetrical (not totally sure based on the angle of the photo). If you do go with the “cut the ends off and mirror them” route, I’d definitely recommend Col’s suggestion of additional plastic over the joints. That's day job (structural engineering) coming out in me.

 

James

[Suddensky]

Excellent suggestions, many thanks, and I'm going to go with a combination of all of them. 

 

I'm a bit wary of cutting through the full width of the waffle pattern. The main seam of the fuselage was not a great fit, and the join is under quite a bit of tension. I really don't want to cause so much vibration cutting through all that plastic that it springs the seam. 

 

So instead I'm going to cut off the extended spars and reverse them:

 

A to C, B to D etc. The process should look like this:

 

• Remove all four parts and clean up.
• Dry fit wings over the remaining waffle pieces to ensure they are as symetical as they look.
• Mark out and drill new holes for the locator pins on the wing halves.
• Re-attach the four spars (in the correct places). Going to drill out holes for some steel pins and double up with epoxy. 
• Hope for the best.

If anyone can see anything there which is a bad idea or will make things worse, let me know today, for butchery begins this evening.

 

Thanks!

 

Peter

[81-er]

That sounds like a sensible plan to me, Peter. good luck!

 

James