Scratch built Oxygen bottles?

[B-17engineer]

Hi guys,

I am looking at my Revell B-17 G right now and it was lacking something on the interior, oxygen bottles.

I was curious how you could go about doing it?

When I finish the Do-217 and the Ju-87 I'm building 2x51 D's and a B-17 to be hung from ceiling all 1/48.... it's gonna take a while and I'm going to try to be a perfectionist on these one :

Thanks so much!

 

[Wurger]

Harry, it depends on of what shape these bottles are..

 

[B-17engineer]

http://www.mrprophead.com/b24b17/B24_Balltur.jpg

The yellow one that circular shape.

 

[Wurger]

THis one on left or that one on the top? I'm not sure but the top one can be of the same shape like the one on left.

 

[B-17engineer]

They're the same but you can see the one on the left better

 

[vikingBerserker]

Kinda look like yellow Tic-Tacs. If the size fits, why not.

 

[B-17engineer]

Ooooo True. That'd be a good idea

 

[Wurger]

So OK. First of all you have to estimate or know about the dimensions of the bottle. You know its length and diameter.. Then find a part of the sprue frame of the same diameter. Cut off a piece of the bottle length in scale of course and make its endings spheric.Use for that sandpaper.It is quite easy. Then you can add valve or valves etc.. For that you can drill thin holes and put into them a piece of stretched sprue ( do you remember like you did that for the Ju-87 light) and cut them in the way to leave some of these thin sticks.Paint these bottles yellow.Then take some aluminium foil and cut a few thin ( narrow) strips. Wrap them on the bottles without painting .Stick them with a very small drop of the thin CA glue. Also you can stick them firstly and later paint yellow these areas between them .THat's all.

 

[B-17engineer]

Sweet Wojtek!!! Thanks so much! When the time comes (VERY VERY soon) I will use that technique

 

[Wurger]

Good luck...

 

[Airframes]

That's the way i did it for some of the bottles in my B17G Harrison. I also made some out of 'sausages' of Milliput, when I didn't have any suitable sprue or other scrap. Note that the bottles shown in the picture you posted are modern reproductions or subsitutes - the bottles on the B17 had ribbed 'flanges' around the body.

 

[B-17engineer]

Ohh interesting. I am gonna go on a rant of B-17 and other allied bombers after the German planes.

 

[Airframes]

Sounds good H. BTW, the only bottles which can be seen clearly on the 1/48th B17 are the racks either side of the rear cockpit, adjacent to the top turret. Even then, it's more a case of them being noticed by their abscence if not added. The bottles near the waist gun positions can only just be seen - if you really strain to look!
Like most modellers, when I got this kit (jeez, over 20 years ago!), I wanted to, and did, go to town on the interior, even the nose hatch area, only to find that little can be seen. Even through the nose glazing, most things are shadows and shapes, and a little distorted at that. I converted mine to 'staggered' waist windows, with single piece, thin, very clear glazing, and even then not much is visible. Think I'll have to build a ginormous model,1/32nd scale or bigger, so that all the insides can be seen!

 

[B-17engineer]

Yea I know but, the interior is the fun part

I have planned B-17G, B-26, B-25 all in 1/48

 

[Wurger]

But don't exaggerate with interiors.You are the beginner and must follow step by step with all things.

 

[Maximowitz]

But don't exaggerate with interiors.You are the beginner and must follow step by step with all things.

Until he gets to the Fw 189.

 

[Wurger]

Right....right....

 

[B-17engineer]

Until I get my MonogramB-26.... Wojtek it's only a matter of time before I have 120 plastic kits like you!

 

[Airframes]

Now there's another one I went to town on, the Monogram (now Revell) B26 Marauder. I spent literally weeks studying every internal picture and drawings from manuals I could find, and detailed the nose, cockpit, part of the radio room, the forward bomb bay, the waist lower gun hatch areas and tail gun position. What can be seen? About 50% of the cockpit!
BTW, when you get around to doing the B26, you'll need a lot of weight! In the radio room, and the front of the engines, and anywhere else you can fit it forward of the CG. And I mean a lot - enough that the landing gear legs/axles need reinforcing with wire!!

 

[B-17engineer]

Oh boy! I am gonna bid on it later tonight or tomorrow since it still has 6 days left... there's another going for 19 dollars but I don't know how much money I want to spend on a 21 years old kit...