1/48th Scale B-17C/D Conversion

[The Inspector]

Aircraft mechanics and modellers are wired genetically to keep at least one '20 year drawer' of odd stuff, The modellers creed states 'NEVER throw away ANYTHING!!' I've got a couple plastic drawer desktop storage boxes crammed with parts, I can rifle through a drawer, pull out a 20+ year old part and recall the kit it came from, and now I have had to move on to the bigger clear plastic shoe storage boxes top keep bigger things like car bodies and interiors.

[Second Air Force]

Yes. We are very "frugal". My lovely wife just asked me the other day why I still had two short blocks for split-window Beetles in the shop. I told her that I might just get a '50 to put the engine into someday........ Don't even get me started on airplane stuff, hardware, tractor parts, WWII airfield artifacts etc.

Here are two of my airplane parts boxes:


There are a couple more like this and then there are the smaller caches of little parts in shoeboxes, cabinets, and plastic bags. Then there is the model car stuff. Without saving all these pieces I don't know how I'd get anything done.

And, like the Inspector mentioned, I can dig in the boxes and remember building the models that the parts came from thirty-odd years ago. In many cases I can remember when and where the kit was purchased.

[b29flteng]

Did you remember your aniversary? Did you remember it's Valentines Day?

"You remember what model you built 30 years ago but can't remember our aniversary" Blah, blah, blah.......

I understand.

I see some B-29 stuff in there!

[The Inspector]

WELL, Since I'm twice divorced and live by myself, and don't really have much use for any holiday real or made up-your's is sort of a moot point.

[Second Air Force]

Did you remember your aniversary? Did you remember it's Valentines Day?

"You remember what model you built 30 years ago but can't remember our aniversary" Blah, blah, blah.......

I understand.

I see some B-29 stuff in there!

Our anniversary is September 11--can't forget that one for at least two reasons.......

There are pieces from a Monsoon Goon and the Enola Gay in the piles. I wish I'd saved the Goon decals for a time when my modeling skills had improved.

[Second Air Force]

The bomb trailer is looking great! Are you going to modify the tires or look for something that doesn't look like it's from a Nylint toy?

Django,

I'm working on those Nylint tires. Our blacksmith back home always said you can fix anything with a forge or a lathe, so I chucked the tires up in the Unimat. First, the tread face:

Now, the sidewall:


Then I narrowed them up to a scale 7.50x18 size and glued them together:


Getting better

[The Inspector]

[Django]

Bravo Scott!

[Second Air Force]

I tried to find a suitable treaded tire in the parts boxes and sandwich bag-storage but no joy. I attempted to cut the fluting into the sidewall edge but couldn't get it uniform enough for my taste. These tires will have to do. They'll look okay after I run them through the dust when I weather the trailer.

I restarted work on the waist gun blisters last night. I must get these fitted and design the inside framing of the openings before I can finish the interior work on the aft fuselage.

Here is the first "practice" blister after cutting out the opening. Making the opening is turning out to be tougher than I had thought it would be. After I am satisfied with the shape of the opening I'll use another blister to provide the moving portion of the plexiglass. The moving part of each blister will be a separate project that should be very "entertaining".


A couple of photos of the blister taped to the fuselage. Notice that the aft crew entry door opening has been cut. This goes into the Monogram fuselage just a little bit but it isn't as tricky as I feared it would be.

[Steve Nelson]

Great stuff as always!

I don't know if you have this one or not. Somebody posted it over on Hyperscale..it's from the Life archive under "Wright Field."

SN

[Second Air Force]

Thanks, Steve. I did have it already.

This is one of the best pictures I've seen that shows the silver lacquer finish on the interior. Even the color Life photos don't show the paint as well as this one does. The bulkhead at frame 8 (just behind the airman's head) is different on this airplane than on some of the other pictures I've seen.

These blisters are turning into kind of a %^&@#$ to construct. It's easy to vacuform the primary parts but a lot harder to keep everything aligned while you add the framing and details. The practice blister I'm working on is a good learning experience and if I don't screw it up too badly I might be able to use it on the belly position.

[the330thbg]

Good Grief.

How in the heck are you going to do those?

Didn't Academy do 1:72 version of the B-17C/D kit?

Maybe you could at least see how they came up with those.

Or were those a more flat version than what you are trying to achieve?

I see this as two parts. You almost need to do a resin cast of the flareout part from the fuselage, then the glazing portion. Yikes

[The Inspector]

I think there might be an old TIMEX that's facing a 'procedure' pretty soon!

[Second Air Force]

Good Grief.

How in the heck are you going to do those?

Didn't Academy do 1:72 version of the B-17C/D kit?

Maybe you could at least see how they came up with those.

Or were those a more flat version than what you are trying to achieve?

I see this as two parts. You almost need to do a resin cast of the flareout part from the fuselage, then the glazing portion. Yikes

You're correct in that Academy did a C/D version. However, the waist windows were flush on those versions, the radio room window is like the E-F-G, and they used the bathtub for the ventral position like they're installing on The Swoose.

The vacuformed blister will be glued onto the fuselage as-is and faired in with a little filler. The interesting part of this from the 1/48th scale engineering standpoint is the fuselage frame in the opening. Your idea of resin casting makes me think I might fabricate one frame and replicate it for the sides and bottom.

[Second Air Force]

I finally joined the right wing halves permanently last weekend, the first thing to happen to this project for a while. Other stuff got moved to the fore, including actually finishing a couple of other projects. Here's a photo of the wing with the flap slid into the trailing edge on its actuator/hinge tubes.


As an update, I finished the M-5 trailer and decided to scratch together a bomb stand and the three-wheeled cart. The tires on the three-wheeler were the ones I cast in the resin/RTV thread. Incidentally, while researching the cart, I learned that they were found to be excellent lifts for changing P-51 radiators.