Chad
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1/72 ProModeller B-17G "2nd Patches"
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Chad
- Thread starter
- #3
This build has officially started now. 
First item to address is the Norden bombsight.
Here is what it should look like.
And this what you get in the kit.
The various knobs on the right hand side are represented decently, but the top assembly is too small. The round part is the eye cup, but notice that to the left where another window should be is absent and not enough room to add it. Time to make some modifications.
I added a ball of milliput to the end and began shaping it. I made the area for the window and used the end of a drill bit to make a round indentation. To give it a crisp edge, I formed wire around the bit to make a ring and added it to the edge of the indentation. I also sculpted the box shape cast on the end and added the knobs and electrical connectors from putty as well. I shaped the putty with my fingers and a toothpick and further smoothed it with a water dampened brush.
I filled out the back of the sight behind the window with more putty. Below the window I added a punched aluminum disc and various mechanical details from copper wire and styrene. I added dimension to the eye cup with another copper ring and added a thin aluminum strip to the right of that. I added a tiny bit of putty in the cavity of the left window to represent some of the mechanical bits seen inside there. It is easier to see in the previous picture.
That's all so far. I still have to add the instruction manual in its bracket to the back of the assembly. Should I make the pages readable?
More to come soon. As always, comments and critiques welcome.
Chad
First item to address is the Norden bombsight.
Here is what it should look like.
And this what you get in the kit.
The various knobs on the right hand side are represented decently, but the top assembly is too small. The round part is the eye cup, but notice that to the left where another window should be is absent and not enough room to add it. Time to make some modifications.
I added a ball of milliput to the end and began shaping it. I made the area for the window and used the end of a drill bit to make a round indentation. To give it a crisp edge, I formed wire around the bit to make a ring and added it to the edge of the indentation. I also sculpted the box shape cast on the end and added the knobs and electrical connectors from putty as well. I shaped the putty with my fingers and a toothpick and further smoothed it with a water dampened brush.
I filled out the back of the sight behind the window with more putty. Below the window I added a punched aluminum disc and various mechanical details from copper wire and styrene. I added dimension to the eye cup with another copper ring and added a thin aluminum strip to the right of that. I added a tiny bit of putty in the cavity of the left window to represent some of the mechanical bits seen inside there. It is easier to see in the previous picture.
That's all so far. I still have to add the instruction manual in its bracket to the back of the assembly. Should I make the pages readable?
More to come soon. As always, comments and critiques welcome.
Chad
fubar57
General
Great start
- Thread starter
- #5
T Bolt
Colonel
Very nice work on that bombsight
- Thread starter
- #8
Thanks guys! Glad you like it so far. Here is the bombsight finished and painted.
Front as will be seen through the nose.
Now that the bombsight is done I am working out the floor and bombardiers station. Here I have cut out a 1/4 inch disc and punched out the center to fit around the chin turret retaining bushing. I was debating sanding down the bushing, but doing some research realized that it is about the right size for the turret gearbox drive assembly that is located under the bombardiers chair so will leave it. Will add a couple details to it to make it look the part.
More updates soon. Happy modelling!
Chad
Front as will be seen through the nose.
Now that the bombsight is done I am working out the floor and bombardiers station. Here I have cut out a 1/4 inch disc and punched out the center to fit around the chin turret retaining bushing. I was debating sanding down the bushing, but doing some research realized that it is about the right size for the turret gearbox drive assembly that is located under the bombardiers chair so will leave it. Will add a couple details to it to make it look the part.
More updates soon. Happy modelling!
Chad
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Good work so far!
SANCER
Senior Master Sergeant
How good Chad! =D>
Impressive work in that bombsight ... which makes me think that it will be a very interesting thread to follow closely.
I have a B-17 in 1/48 on hold (no start date). But for reasons of space, I'm thinking of going back to 1/72 in case of big bombers.
I will be pending with paper and pencil.
Saludos
Impressive work in that bombsight ... which makes me think that it will be a very interesting thread to follow closely.
I have a B-17 in 1/48 on hold (no start date). But for reasons of space, I'm thinking of going back to 1/72 in case of big bombers.
I will be pending with paper and pencil.
Saludos
fubar57
General
Wow and double wow for 1:72. I wish I had thought about dropping to 1:72 for multi-engines as well Luis before I bought every 1:48 multi-engine
turbo
Staff Sergeant
Nice detail work on the bombsight Chad 
Crimea_River
Marshal
Fantastic work Chad.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
I agree with all - I'd missed the fact that it's 1/72nd scale, thinking it was the 1/48th scale kit !
- Thread starter
- #16
Gnomey
. Thank you!
SANCER
Thanks Luis! I built the 1/48 monogram kit 20 years ago when I was a kid, battle damage and all thanks to the inspiration of the included Shep Paine pamphlet. Not my finest work at all but definitely a memorable experience. With the demise of Revell-Monogram in the US, I'm tempted to snap up the heavies before RoG starts reboxing them and doubles the price, such as the case with the P-61. I would like to get the B-17G, both B-24s, and the B-25. Luckily I already have the B-17F as well the aforementioned P-61. When I have the required space I will build them one day, but not anytime soon.
fubar57
turbo
.
Crimea_River
.
Airframes
Thanks guys! It is indeed 1/72. Mistaking it for 1/48 is a big compliment, thank you! I intend to detail the nose and cockpit as well as a bit of the radio room. Everything else will be mostly OOB. I am going to use vac form glazing for this build as the kit ones are very thick, and the nose one is especially horrible. I have both squadron sets for the 1/72 Hasegawa kit and I think I can make most of them work, especially the nose. I would really like to have the set made by Pavla which is specific to the RoG moulding of which I am building but I can't find them for a decent price here in the states. Most retailers with it in stock are in Europe and shipping is almost equal to the price of the parts. I may just bite the bullet and get them anyways if the Squadron parts can't be made to fit. I also want to find replacements for all the .50s, but more on that later.
Stay tuned, small update inbound.
Chad
- Thread starter
- #17
So my decals for my B-17 were in the mail yesterday. I bought them from a wonderful gentleman at a very good price on eBay. He had notified me that he was mailing along some extras, at no charge, in a separate envelope. I couldn't have been more thrilled upon opening the two envelopes!
First the decals.
These are by Print Scale. The "Y" in black diamond markings are missing, but I knew that when I bought them and planned to mask these anyways. He also included 3 different profiles, one of them from the decal sheet of course. Very nice.
Now for the big surprise. Remember in my earlier post how I said I could find next to no information on this aircraft? Well, just how lucky could I get?
He sent me an original article from a 1973 R/C model magazine about second patches. The article was written by the pilot of the aircraft and has pictures from his personal collection of 2nd Patches and his crew! Wow! There is even a picture of the all OD tail with the sustained damage that necessitated replacemate with the all metal one. Also of note in his description of the plane is that in addition to the tail, rear fuselage door and right outer wing panel replaced with all unpainted parts, the flaps were replaced as well, something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else. One final thing that was solved and was previously a mystery to me is why the name "2nd Patches". Was there ever a first Patches? Well, the answer is yes. When the 426th BS initially deployed to Africa, they were equipped with B-17Fs. One of these F models was named "Patches". She was a workhorse of the squadron and after a hard life was eventually retired, even though it was probably only a year or two at the most of her existence. Such is the toll on wartime aircraft.
After having flown a few missions in aircraft 42-38201, which was gaining a reputation of receiving at least some damage on each sortie, she was shot up badly on a mission to Wiener Neustdt, Austria. Upon returning to Italy, the yet unnamed aircraft was unanimously decided by pilot Lt. Walter Moody and his crew to have the name "2nd Patches" bestowed upon her. While undergoing repairs, the name was painted on both sides of the nose and a menacing red and white shark's mouth painted on the chin turret and fairing. Later Lt. Moody and his crew were assigned to a newer B-17 equipped with the "Mickey" radome upon returning to Torterella, Italy from the first codenamed Frantic shuttle mission to Poltava, Ukraine in June 1944. A new crew took over flying "2nd Patches" on more missions until the aircraft was finally written off in a crash on take off in August 1944.
A little history lesson there, hope you guys find it as interesting as I did. Any questions about the aircraft, I will try my best to answer them if you want to know more. Still researching, but this article is a huge leap forward in gained knowledge for me.
Chad
First the decals.
These are by Print Scale. The "Y" in black diamond markings are missing, but I knew that when I bought them and planned to mask these anyways. He also included 3 different profiles, one of them from the decal sheet of course. Very nice.
Now for the big surprise. Remember in my earlier post how I said I could find next to no information on this aircraft? Well, just how lucky could I get?
He sent me an original article from a 1973 R/C model magazine about second patches. The article was written by the pilot of the aircraft and has pictures from his personal collection of 2nd Patches and his crew! Wow! There is even a picture of the all OD tail with the sustained damage that necessitated replacemate with the all metal one. Also of note in his description of the plane is that in addition to the tail, rear fuselage door and right outer wing panel replaced with all unpainted parts, the flaps were replaced as well, something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else. One final thing that was solved and was previously a mystery to me is why the name "2nd Patches". Was there ever a first Patches? Well, the answer is yes. When the 426th BS initially deployed to Africa, they were equipped with B-17Fs. One of these F models was named "Patches". She was a workhorse of the squadron and after a hard life was eventually retired, even though it was probably only a year or two at the most of her existence. Such is the toll on wartime aircraft.
After having flown a few missions in aircraft 42-38201, which was gaining a reputation of receiving at least some damage on each sortie, she was shot up badly on a mission to Wiener Neustdt, Austria. Upon returning to Italy, the yet unnamed aircraft was unanimously decided by pilot Lt. Walter Moody and his crew to have the name "2nd Patches" bestowed upon her. While undergoing repairs, the name was painted on both sides of the nose and a menacing red and white shark's mouth painted on the chin turret and fairing. Later Lt. Moody and his crew were assigned to a newer B-17 equipped with the "Mickey" radome upon returning to Torterella, Italy from the first codenamed Frantic shuttle mission to Poltava, Ukraine in June 1944. A new crew took over flying "2nd Patches" on more missions until the aircraft was finally written off in a crash on take off in August 1944.
A little history lesson there, hope you guys find it as interesting as I did. Any questions about the aircraft, I will try my best to answer them if you want to know more. Still researching, but this article is a huge leap forward in gained knowledge for me.
Chad
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #19
Made some more progress.
Scratch built the bombardier's panel from plasticard. The length is only 7.5mm. I then brush painted the whole panel with Floquil grimy black, a very dark grey with a very subtle brown hue, the same color I used on the bombsight. I find this color to look better in scale rather than straight flat black. It also allows for contrast, as will be seen further down, when used in conjunction with flat black to add variation and depth.
Before continuing, I have a mini tutorial on a technique I used. I needed to make very tiny circles to represent some gauges on the bombardier's panel. This is what I came up with.
Using the blunt end of a hypodermic needle...
Press the end into a thin smear of oil paint, white in this case.
It should coat just the ring of the end, no paint should be inside the needle or this will not work properly.
Use this as a stamp to make a near perfect circle, demonstrated here on an old splotch of gun metal paint on some sheet styrene. Be care to only press straight down and not to drag the needle as oil paint smears very easily.
The picture I used for reference.
Here is what I achieved.
The panel on the upper right is a 3mm x 3mm piece of aluminum painted flat black. I tried adding sectioning lines to the panel according to references by pressing my xacto blade on the panel and dragging slightly the length of th blade to have the aluminum show through as lines. I had mediocre success, and they don't show up much in the picture. The other details were added with a fine brush and white oil paint. The red safety cover is gloss red acrylic.
The intervelometer panel at the bottom of the panel is a piece of plasticard cut to size and painted flat black. Details were made with the stamping technique and a fine brush. The details on the upper left of the panel are again made by stamping and a fine brush. The two lower instruments though were made using copper wire rings glued to the surface with dots of flat black paint. The bezels were then carefully drybrushed with white oil paint.
Also, I started reworking the floor for the navigator/bombardier stations.
I scribed a line down the center to represent the plywood floor panels in the navigator's station. For the forward nose area, notice I have removed the white plasticard ring I had in place earlier, as further research revealed what I was trying to achieve was actually very different. Instead, I removed the chin turret from below. It is held in place by a plastic pin that inserts into the grey bushing shown here. Before the aluminum and copper details were added to the bushing, it was a ring with a hole going all the way through. I inserted the turret upside down and used it as a template for the round plywood floor panel here. I carefully ran my xacto blade around its circumference until a perfect circle had been scribed into the floor. The turret was removed and the circle was further cleaned up with the xacto and tamiya extra thin cement to take care of any burrs. The bushing will represent the electric drive unit for the chin turret. More details and wiring will be added soon.
Hope you like it so far. One piece at a time, she is coming together, albeit slowly.
Chad
Scratch built the bombardier's panel from plasticard. The length is only 7.5mm. I then brush painted the whole panel with Floquil grimy black, a very dark grey with a very subtle brown hue, the same color I used on the bombsight. I find this color to look better in scale rather than straight flat black. It also allows for contrast, as will be seen further down, when used in conjunction with flat black to add variation and depth.
Before continuing, I have a mini tutorial on a technique I used. I needed to make very tiny circles to represent some gauges on the bombardier's panel. This is what I came up with.
Using the blunt end of a hypodermic needle...
Press the end into a thin smear of oil paint, white in this case.
It should coat just the ring of the end, no paint should be inside the needle or this will not work properly.
Use this as a stamp to make a near perfect circle, demonstrated here on an old splotch of gun metal paint on some sheet styrene. Be care to only press straight down and not to drag the needle as oil paint smears very easily.
The picture I used for reference.
Here is what I achieved.
The panel on the upper right is a 3mm x 3mm piece of aluminum painted flat black. I tried adding sectioning lines to the panel according to references by pressing my xacto blade on the panel and dragging slightly the length of th blade to have the aluminum show through as lines. I had mediocre success, and they don't show up much in the picture. The other details were added with a fine brush and white oil paint. The red safety cover is gloss red acrylic.
The intervelometer panel at the bottom of the panel is a piece of plasticard cut to size and painted flat black. Details were made with the stamping technique and a fine brush. The details on the upper left of the panel are again made by stamping and a fine brush. The two lower instruments though were made using copper wire rings glued to the surface with dots of flat black paint. The bezels were then carefully drybrushed with white oil paint.
Also, I started reworking the floor for the navigator/bombardier stations.
I scribed a line down the center to represent the plywood floor panels in the navigator's station. For the forward nose area, notice I have removed the white plasticard ring I had in place earlier, as further research revealed what I was trying to achieve was actually very different. Instead, I removed the chin turret from below. It is held in place by a plastic pin that inserts into the grey bushing shown here. Before the aluminum and copper details were added to the bushing, it was a ring with a hole going all the way through. I inserted the turret upside down and used it as a template for the round plywood floor panel here. I carefully ran my xacto blade around its circumference until a perfect circle had been scribed into the floor. The turret was removed and the circle was further cleaned up with the xacto and tamiya extra thin cement to take care of any burrs. The bushing will represent the electric drive unit for the chin turret. More details and wiring will be added soon.
Hope you like it so far. One piece at a time, she is coming together, albeit slowly.
Chad
fubar57
General
Very cool extra and nice work on the panel
