Without a doubt, one
of the most famous and successful and well known warplanes in history is the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. It brought Boeing out of being in verge of
bankruptcy in the Depression years and dealt a crippling blow to the German
industry in World War II, eventually leading to victory in Europe. I won't
go into details of the history of this famous plane, as multitudes of books and
websites have been dedicated to this subject.
Most modelers are
familiar with the well known Monogram 1/48 B-17G. When it was issued in
the 1970s, it was hailed for its awesome detail and even now, it's not terribly
bad. Besides, it's the only option if you want a G-model Fortress in 1/48
scale. Ever since I first bought this kit, it has been my favorite
model, probably because of its size and my having fallen in love with the look
of the Fort. I decided that I wanted to build one with as much detail as
possible. When I picked up the 2003 issue of Warbird Modeling by Fine
Scale Modeler, the B-17 on the cover caught my eye. I knew I had to build
a B-17 up to those standards, with the Bare Metal Foiled finish and all.
Since I would be
building an unpainted B-17, I would be restricted to modeling late model B-17Gs,
most of which had staggered waist gun windows and Cheyenne turrets. After
much searching of decals, I decided on the Mike Grant B-17 decals for "Hikin'
for Home". This particular B-17G had staggered waist guns, but a
standard tail gun. This was good because I found that the Cheyenne turrets
available for this kit are too great.
Of course, the first
step of the project was setting about to do the interior work. Parts of
Verlinden's detail set and all three B-17 Eduard detail sets were used in the
interior. Since I planned to open the bomb bay, I bought Paragon's B-17
bomb bay set, and added more detail to the set. The roof and bulkheads of
the bomb bay were scratchbuilt from sheet and strip styrene. Brass strips
were glued along the width of the outside of the roof to force the sheet plastic
to keep its shape (curvature of the fuselage). The inside of the fuselage
walls between the cockpit and radio room had to be thinned nearly paper thin to
make the bomb bay fit. Even after doing this, the bomb bay fits very
tightly fit inside the fuselage. Finally, wiring and plumbing were added
to the bay and the catwalk and bomb racks were spruced up with a bit of styrene.
Next up was the radio room.
Some modifications were done with styrene, as seen in the photos. A more
accurate seat was fashioned from styrene. According to the B-17G
maintenance manual, two extra seats were added to the radio room for extra
crewmembers. Some B-17s also had a bench instead of extra seats, or had no
extra seating at all. Since I had no idea whether the particular B-17 I
was modeling had extra seating or not, I decided to save time by not bothering
with extra seats. All bulkhead doors were cut out and replaced with sheet
styrene replacements attached in the open position. Since Monogram's
design caused the wing root joint to affect the lower portions of the sidewalls
of the radio room and cockpit, I made my own sidewalls by grinding away kit
sidewall detail with a Dremel tool and building new walls with strip and sheet
styrene.
The cockpit required
a fair bit of work. Since I planned to open the cockpit windows and not
permanently attach the top turret, I wanted this area well-detailed. The
seats and their complicated support structure were scratchbuilt from sheet and
strip styrene. The oxygen tanks behind the pilot and co-pilot were
fashioned from 1/4 inch diameter styrene rod. The rear bulkhead was
scrapped, and a new one was built from scratch. The hydraulic equipment
and fuse box were also scratchbuilt. The sidewall detail in the
cockpit area was redone. As far as I could tell, all B-17s had insulation
over the fuselage walls in the cockpit, which was replicated from sheet styrene.
The top turret was detailed with ammo boxes and a more accurate computing
gunsight made from styrene.
The bombardier's and
navigator's compartment was the next area to tackle. The back bulkhead,
just in front of the instrument panel was redone. The hatch at this
bulkhead was cut open. The area under the bombardier's seat, in which
parts of the chin turret could be seen, was replicated by cutting a hole in the
area under the seat. This hole was filled with bits of styrene, simulating
the mechanisms of the chin turret. Since I wanted to open the front
entry hatch of the plane, I added detail to this area. The hatch itself is
provided in both the Verlinden and Eduard detail sets, but neither was
satisfactory. Instead, I built my own from sheet styrene.
I then began work in
the waist gun area. I moved the right waist gun window up a couple of
inches, since Hikin' for Home had staggered waist guns. The old waist gun
position was closed up with sheet styrene and faired in with Mr. Surfacer.
Since the waist guns would have frameless widows, unlike earlier B-17s, I added
more detail to the interior of the waist gun positions. I also added a
basic representation of the structure supporting the ball turret made from
styrene. Although there was supposedly a chemical toilet and auxiliary
power unit located in the rear fuselage just at the rear entry hatch, I've read
from an account of one crewmember that they could not recall a toilet.
I have also read that the power unit was placed in different areas of the plane,
such as the radio room, and that some B-17s did not have one. To save
myself time in a project that has already taken ALOT of time, I left both items
out. The rear crew door was opened and replaced with the one from the
Eduard set. The tail wheel landing gear and wheel from the kit was
completely replaced. The rear landing gear was scratchbuilt from styrene
and the canvas boot over the gear was replicated with wet tissue. I
decided to not detail the interior of the tail gun position, as it's really not
visible, at least with the old-style tail gun.
I bought the Aires'
Browning .50 caliber waist gun set, but upon opening the package, I realized
that the photoetched gun cradle was of the style used on early model B-17s.
Instead of trying to use any part of this set, I used the kit provided machine
guns. Gunsights were added from a CMK gunsight set and charging handles
were added from thin styrene rod.
The main landing
gear wells of the Monogram B-17 are virtually nonexistent. Since this area
would be rather visible when the model is turned over, I decided to scratchbuild
the gear wells. Basically the entire structure of the well was made from
styrene, with the plumbing and wiring in the well made from wire. This was
a particularly difficult area to detail, especially when trying to make the
bulkheads of the well fit inside of the engine nacelle.
Painting the
interior took much longer than I'm used to. First, everything was primed
with auto primer. Then, all parts that were to be in unpainted aluminum
were painted with Tamiya gloss aluminum acrylic lacquer. This paint is
only available in a spray can, but I decanted it and airbrushed it. Notice
that much of the interior is unpainted aluminum, not interior green. I've done
alot of research of the interiors of B-17s and have come to the conclusion that
most of the G models did not have the interior insulation that most F models had
(except for the flight deck compartment). Even the interior nose section
was left in natural metal, as I have seen photos showing the silver skin in the
bombardier's nose compartment. If you're interested in good wartime interior
pictures of B-17s, check out the January 2000 issue of Airpower Magazine.
Since there are differences between the interiors of wartime and restored B-17s,
this type of B-17 reference is quite valuable. For some of the areas of
the interior, I had to guess what color to paint it, but from what I read, there
really is no hard and fast methodology of what colors were used. I figured
that as the war went on, less and less of the interior was sprayed with primer.
I have read that interior green was used on many Douglas-built G models. Since
I'm modeling Hikin' for Home, which was Douglas built, I stuck with interior
green for most primed interior metal surfaces. The wood appearance on doors and
floors were made by first painting them light brown, then applying a wood grain
decal made for car models over the paint. After painting, everything was
given a coat of future floor polish, then a acrylic wash, then a coat of Polly
Scale clear flat. Finally, I finished the interior off with a drybrushing
of light gray.
By the way, I
apologize for the rather low-quality pictures of the model taken before the
painting of the interior. A couple of weeks ago I finally replaced my old
1 megapixel camera for a 5 megapixel one with a macro function. That's why
the pictures taken after painting are of a much better quality.
I realize that much
of this detail will be invisible or nearly so after construction. However,
I was determined to do this kit justice and I did not want to take the chance of
areas of the interior to be visible and without correct detail when the project
is finished. I plan to use the two vacuum-formed sets Squadron makes for
this model, which are much clearer than the kit provided transparencies.
Other windows not included in this set, such as the side windows along the nose
compartments, I plan to make from thin acetate, which will allow the maximum
detail to be seen.
Right now, I'm
working on exterior construction. I'm in the middle of adding rivets to
the whole exterior of the model. I'll go into more details on this in part
2, which will cover exterior construction. Just up to this point in the
build, I've increased my scratchbuilding skills tenfold. Before tackling
this project, I had never really scratchbuilt much of anything, so I was a bit
hesitant to begin this build. However, I dived in and had a ball.
Before beginning this model, I have always relied on detail sets to give my
models extra detail. Now, I feel much more confident about adding whatever
detail I want by scratchbuilding it. I'll still use detail sets when I
can, since they speed up a project, but I won't let the lack of one stop me from
getting the detail I want. Hope you all have enjoyed seeing my progress
and please let me know what you think!
Drew
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