B-17 G 1:48 scale, 351st Bomb Group, 510th Squadron, AC# 43-37862, Fearless Fosdick

[Night Fighter Nut]

Now its time for the goodies...
Taking a minor break from scratch building to start on the photo etch stuff.

More to follow later.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Well its been a few weeks. Sorry for the delay, I had some house painting and remodeling to do. Now that it's completed, I can get back to the plane.

Today I wanted to work on the operator's chair. What the kit provided was not acceptable. First I plugged the hole where the kit seat was suppose to be.

Then I took a couple of solid 22 awg or 24 awg wire and soldered them into a cross. Soldered wire is relatively soft.

A long nosed set of flat pliers squeezes the two wires together to form even spokes. I wanted the legs to be metal.

Then I took the kit seat and cut the back off. I liked the cushion on it and wanted to use it. Using knife and files, I reformed the bottom of the chair to resemble what I had in mind.

The wires were then bent and cut to the shape I wanted. The central shaft was made from stretched sprue that was drilled out and had a wire inserted through the middle. These I glued together in preparation for the seat.

Once the seat was carved to what I wanted, I attached the back rest then carefully attached the seat to the legs.

This is what I came up with... and an idea of how big this chair is...

Thanks for following along.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Impressive

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

More work accomplished today. First, I spray painted the radio boxes and other equipment slated to be installed in this part of the aircraft. No photos for this part I'm afraid. Then I started building the camera bay underneath and added an oxygen tank.

Major structures are now in place and initial paint added. At some point I'll make the camera. For now I'll just wait until the paint dries. I can start assembling the radio equipment during the week,.

Thanks for following.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Alright... spent the day building and painting radios in preparation for mounting.

Not finished yet but I did some fitting and pasting. There are still several more items to build and add along with wiring.

Thanks for following. Appreciate the support.

 

[fubar57]

Radio operator was a busy man

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Over the weekend, I was able to get more completed on the plane with the addition of the feed belt, ammo box, and 50 cal. I'm still sketchy with photo etched parts but hopefully you will like the results.

Started with the ammunition shute. Kind of tricky with the double fold on each side of the track. I also folded a basic ammo box. This I will add wooden sides.

It was interesting seeing two dimensional bullets. It came out rather well.

Then there was Ma duce... I got a decent start on it.

For those who are following who have never rolled photo etch before, here is how I figured it out.

I found it best to use a very small drill bit rolled back and forth over a soft surface such as a thick cloth type material. Then, once the sides have curled sufficiently, roll on a hard surface to close it up.

With the barrel cover made, I also added a PE sight for the gun. Also made another portable oxygen bottle. Thanks for following.

 

[fubar57]

Nice

 

[Airframes]

I like the look of the ammo flexifeed chutes, nice work.
I'd have no chance folding those, with my knackered hands, and I think I'd have to use resin, or turned brass barrel jackets, such a those from Master, cos if I tried rolling the PE, it would end up looking like a badly rolled cigar - probably rolled on the inside thigh of a a wrinkled Hippo !!
The completed guns and chutes are really going o look the biz once in place.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Thanks! Actually I did the folding very slowly starting with a very thin flat file and the edge of my desk. I folded the outsides first, then the insides. The long flat edge kept everything even.. Finally I had to use tweezers to carefully unfold everything that went a little to far.

 

[Airframes]

I'd even have problems with the tweezers !!!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Time for a little catch up now that other home improvement projects are done. I don't have pictures for everything I've done but those I miss will be posted later. For starters, I completed another portable oxygen tank and attached it below the table as well as adding support for the table itself.

There was also a similar support attached to the shelf aft but not shown. .. yet.
From there I started working on the other type of fire extinguisher made of brass.

I've since painted it but again a picture of this will come later.
Finally, I worked on improving the 50 cal. as you can see the one the kit provides doesn't look right and the photo etch doesn't really address this. I worked on the main part of the gun leaving the barrel off for attachment later.

It took me awhile to come up with a decent idea that looked right. For starters I cut off the goofy back end and filed it even with the receiver. Then I added the recoil buffer. For the firing handles and charging handle, I came up with a solution that might surprise you.
I took a piece of copper wire and bent it around the receiver in a horseshoe shape to get the correct shape I wanted.

This shape was then crushed flat using a hammer and trimmed. The now properly flattened wire was then attached and a very small styrene rod trimmed and attached in the appropriate places.

Finally paint was added and here is how it came out.

Thanks for following.