1/72 Memphis Belle Diorama

[tonyb]

Outstanding work so far. If I may what PE and Resin kits did you purchase?

All from 1 kit by Legend Productions in Korea.
Cheers,
Tony.
P.S. Thanks for the info Drgondog

 

[Wayne Little]

Lot of work ahead of you Tony, enjoy!

 

[tonyb]

Doesn't look like much progress but trust me,I've spent hours on this!
P.E. in 1/72 scale is so frustrating!!

Bombadier and pilots cabins are nearly done,Radio operator's room is getting there too.
I elected to go for a mix of chromate green and bare metal for the interior.I did have neutral grey for the bomb bay but it looked so boring.
The 'wood' areas (tables and ammo boxes) will have a dry brush of brown to get a better colour finish.
Next on my list is the area above the ball-turret and the waist gunner section.
Then it will be all the remaining fiddly bits (oxygen bottles,fire extinguishers,ammo)
By then,I'll have the 'fun' part of gettin the fuselage halves together (eek!)
Cheers,
Tony.

 

[tonyb]

Bit more work done tonight - Top of the ball turret and painting the radio room
I was quite pleased with my weathered wood look for the floor.

Seats for cockpit and navigator room.PE seatbelts to be attached yet.

Cheers,
Tony.

 

[B-17engineer]

Nice job Tony!

 

[drgondog]

Tony below is a link to the duxford B-17G. there are many examples presented when you search on B-17+interior on Google.

futurshox.net B-17 forward gun turret

All basis interior is Interior Green, the plywood floors in the cockpit were mixed - either clear plywood or 'rough coat sand' plus painted black for non-skid surface.

I have seen both OD/Interior green Navigator plywood tables.. but the general slogan was 'if it doesn't move - paint it green'

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking good!

 

[mikewint]

Tony, Everything this is looking great. Really nice detail. Now you have the same question I asked myself when I did the B-29. How are you going to show that great interior once the fuselage halves are put together?

 

[tonyb]

Tony, Everything this is looking great. Really nice detail. Now you have the same question I asked myself when I did the B-29. How are you going to show that great interior once the fuselage halves are put together?

Well I just ordered a Squadron Vacuform canopy set which should be better than the kit stuff.
Cheers,
Tony.

 

[mikewint]

which is just over the pilots, correct? what about the rest of the model? All that detail and work and then it's almost totally hidden when the fuselage is put together

 

[tonyb]

No,the set includes nose cone and radio room canopy too.8)
Half of the radio room canopy will be open anyway to display the 0.50 gun.
I have now all the compartments assembled on one side of the fuselage.It went together really nicely which was very pleasing.
I will take a pic later.
Cheers,
Tony.

 

[mikewint]

Sounds good. The B-29 would have been almost totally closed up which is why I elected to cut open some of the roof to allow the inside to be seen

 

[tonyb]

All compartments joined to the fuselage really well -

Lots and lots of .50 guns to build and paint now.

Cheers,
Tony.

 

[Florence]

Looking good.

 

[mikewint]

Lookin good tony

 

[Airframes]

Sure is.

 

[Wayne Little]

Doin' good Tony!

 

[Peebs]

going along nicely there Tony!

 

[tonyb]

Fuselage is now together at last!

I replaced the godawful windows with clear plastic so I can actually see inside the aircraft.
Waist gunners ammo-belts are in position,just need to attch the guns after painting is complete.Bombadier/Navigators guns will be added (fiddly but very achievable)later.
Can anyone confirm if the Belle had 3 or 4 guns in the nose compartment?

Also built a work platform for the ground crew which is suitably well-worn -

I've now run out of chromate green paint (doh!) so I'll have to get some before I can start on the wing assemblies.

Cheers,
Tony.

 

[Wayne Little]