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

Night Fighter Nut · May 31, 2021

Got a bit more done this weekend. First I finished the channels for the oil coolers. Then I added some screening for something to see further toward the back.

Then added a cover to the channels.

I then went to work on the engines, finishing up the ignition wires and fuel lines. I didn't want to get too complicated with them.

Thanks for following.

Wurger · May 31, 2021

fubar57 · Jun 3, 2021

Gnomey · Jun 8, 2021

Nice work so far!

Night Fighter Nut · Jun 29, 2021

Time for some updates. Assembled the landing gear, minus the brake lines and hydraulic lines, then assembled the wing halves together and sanded the rough spots. I still need to fill some voids. Once all the voids are filled and all blemishes fixed, I'll go ahead and do initial spray painting.

I decided not to go into too much detail in the landing gear bays because they will not be seen. This will be sitting on its wheels and not picked up and played with.
This will save me from some unnecessary work.

And now for something completely different...
I was able to finally print off the first part for the ball turret. Here is the ammo can, I know its not perfect, for the inside of the ball turret. I had carefully measured and calculated all the dimensions, drew up the part in Freecad and saved it as an STL file. Sliced it then printed it. Here is the result.

Thanks for following.

herman1rg · Jun 30, 2021

I think the ball turret innards look pretty good in terms of 3D printing

Wurger · Jun 30, 2021

Gnomey · Jul 1, 2021

Good work so far!

Night Fighter Nut · Nov 21, 2021

I really wanted to finish this by Veteran's day but as usual I got hit with a honey do list... Oh and I got promoted in my job which called for more of my time to learn my new position. Fortunately I did get more done so my time wasn't totally shot. I am pushing to finish this, just won't be when I wanted.

So to start. Once I had finished printing the inside of the ball turret, I assembled what I had and found that the mechanism between the guns was too low. I needed to move it upward. I attached some styrene blocks on top of the guns before I cut off the mechanism between them. The blocks marked my attachment points for the remodeled mechanism.

Then I used styrene to build up the mechanism to look more like what I could recognize in photos.

I also added the brass shoots that guide the empty shells after firing. This you can see just below the gun and ammo drum. Actually fit really nice after it was made.

I didn't go overboard on the interior, just on only what was clearly visible. I left out the wiring. Painted the ball turret inside and out then fit it all together along with the ring I printed for it. So far so good.

Next... the ball turret mount. I wanted to get this finished at the very least. Here I ran into an interesting problem. How to get the turret mechanism to look right and work around what the kit designers did. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel so I compromised. I changed the supports to allow what I had printed, then use the old support with some slight modifications.

I made some cross support that I could attach the old top part too. I wanted to make sure the cross parts were even so I inverted to the ball to check that it looked level; then cut up the attaching snap-in part so it could still spin. I painted the side of the clear fuselage to cover some of this part. I kept checking measurements to make sure it sat right when it was mounted in. This took some time to get right.

When I was sure of the fit, I painted it up. Now the cross piece was a glaring problem so after checking the pictures I made the round piece square with some styrene to resemble the box that sits just above the ball turret. This was painted black and you can see it below. I filed part of the cross piece thinner and painted it a bit to disguise the error.

Finally I added the exterior ammo cans and oxygen tank. All together it came out ok. I still have some hoses and wiring to attach but it is enough for now.

I also spray painted the wings. Well I hope to get more done in the next coming weeks. Now I'm trying for the end of the year.

As always, thanks for following.

fubar57 · Nov 21, 2021

Well done

Wurger · Nov 22, 2021

Gnomey · Nov 22, 2021

Nice work so far!

N4521U · Nov 23, 2021

What an effort!

Night Fighter Nut · Dec 9, 2021

I've got a quick question for those who know this aircraft well. There appears to be several planes that only had one waist gunner as this one did. My question is did the aircraft mount guns on both sides if there was only one gunner or was there only one waist gun? Any help would be appreciated.

Airframes · Dec 10, 2021

Guns would be mounted both sides, AFAIK.
I hadn't heard of just one waist gunner, but, in theory, one gunner could manage both guns - separately, of course.

Night Fighter Nut · Jan 21, 2022

I've tried to keep busy with this model but I got clobbered with a honey do list and the passing of my brother-in-law. I also had a varnish failure when I tried to protect one of the wings. Not happy with that but hopefully I can keep moving now. So what have I done. First I wanted to get the wings done. Mostly just so that I can say I did something different.

The devices behind the engines look like turbochargers to me but I'm not sure. Anyway I got these painted along with the deicing boots on the main wings and horizontal stabilizers. The biggest problem I had was with the aluminum/chrome paint for the skin. I would get a decent paint job on it then something would screw it up in a couple places. I would get it repaired and something else would go wrong... aggravation in the extreme. Finally I got it set and thought I would spray a simple clear varnish to set it and the stuff I was using was too cold and you can imagine the rest. I sanded out the worst of it and am going to attempt it again once the weather warms up a bit.

I also made the wing landing lights.

These I made by punching out discs from the foil of wine bottles. My wife helped by emptying the bottles after I opened them. The discs I formed into shallow cones over the round end of a paint brush. To set Then, I drilled a small hole where I wanted to disc to sit, kind of like a center mark / place holder. A drop of CA glue in the hole and drop the disc in. Came out nice as you can see. I attached the outer covers and found that there was a large gap over the right light. I filled in the gaps by soaking a .020" x .020" bit of styrene rod in liquid cement which softened it enough to mold into the imperfect gaps and dry solidly. This came out well after a touch of the sanding sponge. As you can see, it came out ok. Not shown are all the vents around the engine for cooling air intakes. I drilled them all out and cleaned them up with a knife.
My next focus was on the ammo boxes, small air tanks, and fiddly stuff.

I also added wood to the navigators table top at the front of the aircraft.

The ammo belt runs were made easier by cutting a .010" sleeve to wrap the sides around and still leave room for the ammo. It also made it easier to straighten the legs out and paint.

Finally here are many of the fiddly bits I worked on. Some brass catchers, bottle holders, oxygen regulation systems, and various boxes of control items.

That can in the upper left is suppose to be a sky toilet, Bog can, or whatever funny name you might like to call it. I added wood to these as well, not just to flesh it out but seriously who would want to sit on a metal toilet cover at -30 degrees? I would think you backside would be frozen to it. Can you imagine, "Hi mom, I got a purple heart because my backside got stuck on the can during a mission and they had to pry me off." I also made and beefed up the tail gunner's seat, upper center above the ammo boxes.

Thanks for following.

Night Fighter Nut · Jan 21, 2022

I should also mention that I did a fit check to see if the ball turret hung in the right spot and not touch the ground. I attached the wings and wheels and let it sit. Happy to report that everything hung properly.

Wurger · Jan 22, 2022

Gnomey · Jan 22, 2022

Good work so far!

Night Fighter Nut · Mar 16, 2022

It's been very busy lately. My wife being Russian doesn't help with what is going on. She still has family and friends there. Anyway, here is what I've been able to accomplish since last I posted. I did a lot of work on the different machineguns. Just a couple of touchups with paint here and there but basically they are finished. I also chose the tail gunner's windows and finished the tail gunner's position for the most part. Almost finished the waist gunner area as well. Now for the pictures...