1/48 B-17F Build - 303rd BGs Luscious Lady {Continued)

[Redhand]

Repairs

No flowery intro here, just a photo update on things that needed to be fixed, and now are.

I’ll start with the damaged national insignia decal under the stbd. wing. Here’s a glimpse of it back in Edmonton.

being sanded off and rescribed in Brooklyn,

repainted,

and now reapplied.

I will always love the contrast between the grey star and the white bars.

Here’s the broken top to the #3 engine turbosupercharger.

Here are the replacement parts I mailed over.

And here is the repair, with a nice look into the interior of the wheel well and the bomb bay too

Here’s the model with the severed stbd. horizontal stabilizer

And here’s the part re-attached and puttied

then sanded and repainted

Finally, the scratch-built aft crew door has progressed from this

to this, with the primed #4 engine cowling off to the side.

Thanks to Marks, these are satisifying images to see. We are making progress.

I am leaving the sequence of work up to Marks, but inevitably we will have to return to the nose

the nose guns there, and what improvements he can make to the long-since ripped out bungie cords for the guns I tried to make (wait for it folks) back in December of 2016!

This is what, in a perfect world, should be replicated!

But this isn’t a perfect world, not with a closed fuselage! I view the task like building a ship in a bottle,

impossible for me, and I have no idea how it could be done. I’ve only asked Marks to give it a shot, and he’s considering it, and for that alone he has my thanks, regardless of the outcome.

[barnslayer]

Masterful and awesome!

[Dioramartin]

Wow, great update & brilliant interior view, bravo Marks & I swear I can hear HG’s applause too - clearly the Lady’s in very safe hands.

Coincidentally I saw an ep of Antique Roadshow (UK) last night, one item was a glass bottle painted by a well-known contemporary Chinese artist. Guess how it was painted…

Oh yeah, with ultra-fine multi-angled brushes onto the inside surface. They didn’t say if the artist’s in a padded cell, but if he was me I’d be so ticked off it’s apparently only worth about £500, about a quid for each hour of work.

Anyhoo please nobody infer I’m making comparisons, it just boggled my mind & maybe yours too. As somebody said about Politics, Model-making is the Art of the Possible.

[TopSmith]

The lit up shot of the forward nose gives me pause for a painting.

I can see the bomber on a flight and it is dawn or dusk when the sky is still dark. You would see the crewman looking forward, at the coming mission much like you would look out a window at the coming storm.

[Johnnych01]

Great update and the works being carried out/completed look exceptional and Marks is certainly the chap to take up the torch on this one … … I also love the shot through the open nose and the inside view … Super detailing …

[Redhand]

@TopSmith

You would see the crewman looking forward, at the coming mission much like you would look out a window at the coming storm.

Exactly. This particular B-17 flew on both Schweinfurt missions, 17 Aug 1943 and 14 Oct 1943. Here’s a wonderful painting of Vicious Virgin and Luscious Lady during the Second Schweinfurt mission.

The artist absolutely nailed the correct color schemes for the aircraft, which is the plan for this build.

[Redhand]

The analogy is correct. We are dealing with works of art with builds like this.

[Redhand]

The Nose

Way back when, this was how I had nearly finished the forward floor of the B-17F nose.

I scratch-built the green ammo box. I know I must have seen things like it in the hundreds of B-17 pics I studied, though I believe it was largely inspired by this shot of LL’s nose

where you can see that gunbelt from the nose gun disappearing into a triangular shape behind the plexiglass.

Here’s another shot showing the interior more complete with “stuff.”

The yellow squares are supposed to be “fool the eye” seat cushions where the bombadier would kneel to deal with either the nose gun or the Norden Bombsight. And a 303rd BG vet told me there was no navigator seat in the F aircraft, and instead the navigator placed a cushion on top of an extra ammo box and used that as a seat.

It makes sense. You can see the claustrophia of the space from these two photos…

This shows off the ammo boxes and the cushions, and there are no chairs visible.

When LL arrived in Brooklyn, the wood floor was gone, as were the objects on it. So I asked Marks to replicate my work, after sending him some floor pieces my late friend, Art B. made years ago.

He certainly did, and then some.

Here is his version of my lost green ammo box.

And here’s another view, showing some weathering.

Of course, looking at my prior work, you see a wooden ammo box behind the green tub. I had used up all my resin ammo boxes so couldn’t provide one.

No problem for an expert!

Can you believe?!

I lack both the imagination and skill to pull that off.

Here they are together, prior to weathering.

And here they are with a test placement on the reinstalled floor.

The careful viewer will note that Marks has added at least one small detail on the stbd, bulkhead that wasn’t present in my work.

I’m not complaining.

[Johnnych01]

Great update and really nice to see all this forward movement in getting LL on track again … Marks is putting in the overtime for sure…
Regarding your internal image of the nose gunner/ bomb aimer…that must of been a hell of a view looking out that nose cone for hours on end …

[Redhand]

@Johnnych01

Regarding your internal image of the nose gunner/ bomb aimer…that must of been a hell of a view looking out that nose cone for hours on end …

I think so. I’ve actually been in the nose of a B-17 in flight, and had that view, Quite extraordinary. And the view out the side windows from the navigator’s position is, in some ways, even more awe inspiring. The inboard propellers spin literally a couple of inches away from the side of the fuselage, and the propeller hub is so close it feels like it is just beyond arm’s reach. That was quite sobering. Even being in that location, I could not imagine what it was like facing head on attacks.

One also needs to realize that these attacks took place during winter in temperatures that could reach -60 degrees C. More than one veteran told me that the best way to manage fear was to develop a rage at the enemy while trying to fight back, “because it was kind of hard to feel two extreme emotions at the same time.” I also interviewed a bombadier who was firing the nose gun at fighters shooting from head on when their fire destroyed the plexiglas nose, severely injuring his face and eyes, and instantly killing the navigator. He attributed his own survival to a miracle.

So, I want the nose of the model to be right!

[Redhand]

The Nose II

Here is an update on Marks’ work in the nose.

Machine guns, Norden bombsight, flanges for the outer edges of the wooden bombardier floor, and at the top left, preliminary work on the nose cone “grommet” that will ultimately look like this:

Here are the nose guns sans barrels with the paint drying.

and a nice surprise for the floor: hand sculpted cushions under construction.

Here you can see the coamings for the outer bombardier floor halves, and a scratch built base for the bombsight.

Finally, here you see test fittings for the floor installation.

Clear progress!

[Johnnych01]

Very very nice progress

[Redhand]

The Nose III

Seat cushions and bombadier floor.

Check out these wonderful, finished seat cushions for the nose that Marks made.

Gotta love that hand painted (?) lettering. Note also bare metal paint on the gun holders.

The bombardier floor is now solidly in place. My original “sandwich” cushion remains in the back, because it was impossible to extract without risk of damaging the model. I can live with it because it will be next to impossible to see the details of its execution through the vacuform windows. But, maybe the top of the cushion will be visible through the top windows with a penlight once the nose is closed up. That would be cool.

Besides, a fellow modeler once told me, “No model is perfect,” and there is some value to a “warts and all” presentation. Cf., Cromwell’s Warts.

More later.

[golikell]

Talking about attention to details! This is greatness in miniature!

[Redhand]

@golikell

This is greatness in miniature!

Thank you. It is the product of many talented people.

[Armor_Buff]

Happy to see this bird getting its feathers preened.

[Jean_Stravinsky]

Great progress, that it is nice to see is in good hands. I could not find any indications why the tail plane was broken off, or why was there the belly area damage? Just curious.

[Redhand]

@Jean_Stravinsky

I could not find any indications why the tail plane was broken off, or why was there the belly area damage? Just curious.

Good morning.

Re the damage, I have no idea. It might have been in transit, or an odd slip while being packaged, but I have no complaints about the shipper, who did a magnificent job.

As for the belly damage, that preceded shipping, The model is quite heavy, and has so much extra stuff jammed into it that it was probably a stress crack at the seam. But Marks did excellent work on the repair.

Thanks for following. Barring exceptional circumstances, this bird should finally be done in 2024, after a mere 10 years! I still can’t believe that myself.

[Redhand]

“Let There be Light” Genesis 1:3-25

Years ago I did work on the bombardier panel and bomb release controls in LL

Since she’s an F model, they are mechanical (and hydraulic IIRR from a conversation with Karl Hauffe) vs. the electrical system in the G model. You can see my attempt to replicate the illustration years ago, below

And if you look closely at the photo you will see the lamp up at the top right that I made with a non-standard bulb shield I used from plastic bits at the time.

The light was a casualty of H.G.'s ripout, which he never had an opportunity to restore before his death.

I asked Marks to confirm that the lamp was missing (he did) and to replace it. Not only did he do that, but he also added the second light (I think that’s what it is) that extends out from the botton left of the panel on its own stand. See above diagram.

Now check this out, with a corrected bulb shade. That’s gonna be visible through the side window in addition to from the front.

It’s remarkable how the interior looks so worn relative to the above construction photo of mine. Then again, the model has seen hard service and handling, just like the original aircraft! I love the view of the aluminum items below the navigator’s table, the light stalk there you can also make out, and the leg for the navigator’s table.

Marks is already moving to the next part of the nose upgrade and reinstallation, so stay tuned.

[Johnnych01]

That looks amazing… Great update on LL…