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

[Dioramartin]

Ouch that’s a nasty surprise – only one destination for the nose decals, they’re beyond salvage. Query the bomb colour, wasn’t the standard for the real thing a dull green? Looking at the two b&w photos it must have been a tad darker than the real thing to contrast against the OD fuselage, but it doesn’t look black to my eyes.

I used a guy in Queensland (Geoff at Custom Hobby Decals) to produce some custom decals for my Anthropoid trams & they turned out OK, he did the very best from my so-so artwork done on the most basic graphics program. You’d need someone more proficient than I to get that nose-art looking and fitting right though

[Redhand]

I’m actually in touch with Geoff now. I have a couple of other possible sources too. Contact me offline please re this subject.

Thanks.

Brian

[Dioramartin]

I did so do. Meanwhile I’ve just caught up with The Cold Blue (HBO doco 2019) which used restored footage plus samples of 15 hours of outtakes from Wyler’s original Memphis Belle wartime doco – mesmerising…

The Cold Blue (2019) | Official Trailer | HBO

A couple of things caught my eye – firstly this camo scheme I’d never seen before…

…and in the same image the aileron really does seem to be a different colour (perhaps a replacement?) which can occasionally be seen on other planes too. I don’t think either quirk applies to Luscious Lady, I was just wondering if they’re accurate or over-zealous restoration/re-colourisation?

[HGBARNES]

Thank you for the consideration Brother. The fabric look (in this replica example) took only a single flight to start fading. We’re looking for several flights, including those when the de-icers were removed. Great input and please keep adding comments. The interesting part is I have to make the metal look original, first before weathering it to look age correct. When it comes to the fabric I have to lighten it to match up. On all modern B-17s the fabric is washed and repainted often.

[Redhand]

Tim, this scheme is characteristic of early B-17Fs in the Eighth Air Force, usually original contingents, which were delivered from the Boeing Factory in OD 41 top surfaces with Medium Green 42 blotches, especially on the wing and tail leading and trailing surfaces. This aileron looks like a replacement to me since it’s in solid, but faded OD. However, if it were original, its two colors would be faded and look different from those on the metal surfaces. Many sources say that the OD faded far more than the Medium Green. HG would know better than me the environmental factors that would cause this.

Replacement aircraft such as Luscious Lady dispensed with the Medium Green blotches altogether.

[Redhand]

Right Wing Details

So begins another year. I am working on sourcing custom decals for the nose art, and may have a surprise or two up my sleeve. Stay tuned on this.

For now, HG is back at the worktable. He sent me these photos of various details for the starboard wing, which are self-explanatory.

First, note the weathering on the main wheels.

Remember that the wheel hub covers will have their own special decals, the history of which I’ll go into later.

Next, take a quick look at the masking of the starboard wing engine nacelle interiors,

where the masked parts on the cowl flaps are a darker color aluminum.

And here are the nacelles fitted to the wing, top

and bottom.

Happy New Year, and I think this is the year.

[RDT1953]

And yet the faithful wait at heel , conditioned like the loving pets we are … at least we are thrown a bone now and again . LOL

[Redhand]

@RDT1953

And yet the faithful wait at heel

A haiku here?

And yet the faithful wait at heel
Conditioned like the loving pets we are
At least we are thrown a bone now and again. LOL

Rest easy while I run wild in a cyber world in search of the perfect “Luscious Lady” decal, frenzied like the love-sick soul in Poem No. 26 of the Fragments in The Satyricon

At my age, I suppose it’s a good thing my passions lie in plastic and paper transfers.

[Redhand]

The Pace Quickens

HG is pressing on with painting the top of the right wing, beginning with masking of the underside.

And topside, you see the off-color fabric elements of the aileron.

followed by the basic OD coat for the metal wing.

Somehow, in all my years of studying the B-17, I hadn’t noticed that the forward part of the aileron is metal, and therefore the base OD color.

A nice detail!!

And now we come to something I have dreamed about for years – that grand, oversized Triangle-C on the upper right wing.

It’s really happening, folks!

And here is a careful cutting of the “C”, step by step.

Figuring out the dimensions of (1) the triangle and (2) the “C” are challenges in themselves, especially since the photo we have shows various styles of the C on different aircraft.

Compare this “Skinny” C on a B-17 of the Group’s 360th (PU) Squadron

with the one above from “S for Sugar” belonging to Luscious Lady’s 427th (GN) Squadron.

We’re going with the 427th style, using “S for Sugar” as a template, but even here there’s a dimension question to decide.

We’ve settled on the top one,

HG advises he’ll be painting the white and black letter on tonight!

THAT will be a milestone.

I’m reminded of a lyric from Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues,” about a wannabe musician (“Learn to work the saxophone”) dreaming of an alternate life.

I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I’ll be what I want to be

To be fair to myself, I did put five of my own years into this baby, but I could not have passed the torch to a better man and modeler.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, where we’ll talk about the national insignia on the lower wing, as well as this syomphon-C. (Yes, it’s a terrible pun).

[Dioramartin]

Bonus points for any Steely Dan ref, I’ll see your Deacon Blues & raise you “HG don’t lose that number”…or rather letter. I don’t think there’s much difference between the “C”s, the first image is very foreshortened – the base of the triangle’s nowhere near as wide as the aileron, which is kinda the same in the second image

[Redhand]

Voilà!

This series of photos shows how it was done.

Incroyable!

It looks “painted on” because it is!

HG says there are some tiny touch-ups to complete, and I’ll take him at his word. But it is the “more than meets the eye” part of this step that I find so remarkable.

I refer to the fact that this pristine white was sprayed over a solid OD color, just like on the real thing. In my modeling experience, one always puts down the lighter color first, masks that, and then paints the darker color around it. I’ve never seen it done this way before.

HG’s response when I asked was that “It’s all in the pigment.” He used a Mr. Color white, which he said has a heavy pigment. Still, I imagine there were many light coats applied to achieve this marvelous outcome.

I’m just looking at and admiring this now. I’ve never seen the like of this on any B-17 model. Never.

[Redhand]

Bottom Right Wing - National Insignia - Decisions, decisions

Ok, so the question before us is whether the bottom right-wing will have a grey star like the top left one or a white star.

There are no pictures of this part of Luscious Lady, but there is other, conflicting evidence. Sorry if you’ve seen them before (save one new one!!) but let me lay them out now.

First up is the 303rd’s “Baltimore Bounce”

in a photo taken on 20 December 1943 with an obviously out-of-date ball and star insignia on the bottom right wing. Just as obvious, to me, the star is white, not grey.

Next is Vicious Virgin, photographed I believe in September 1943.

Although the border looks white, trust me when I tell you that it’s red. But otherwise, it’s strange as can be. The fuselage national insignia clearly has white bars and a grey star, but the underwing one? It looks to me for all the world like grey bars and a grey star! Also, there’s that weird, super light outer panel. A quick paint job following major battle damage repair to the wing on a mission? Really hard to say.

So, what to do? There’s a final picture that provides my answer, taken sometime after October 1943, when the national insignia red border was replaced with a dark blue.

The aircraft is the Mizpah #42-5052, B-17F 358BS (VK-E), Assigned: 25 Sep 1943, MIA 22 Feb 1944, Missions:19.

I looked the name up and “Mizpah” is Hebrew, for “Watchtower,” from a biblical story, which has since come to signify

an emotional bond between people who are separated (either physically or by death). Mizpah jewelry is often made in the form of a coin-shaped pendant cut in two with a zig-zag line bearing the words “The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another”.[3] This is worn to signify the bond.

Ironic that the A/C was lost, no?

Anyway, the in-flight photo confirms that we will use white bars and a grey star for the bottom right national insignia, just like the top one. Here you can see it in a teaser shot from HG, not yet dried and fully snuggled down.

[Redhand]

Insignia and elevators (and the hunt for a custom decal)

While HG is “on the second coat of Microsol” on the underwing national insignia, and “waiting for it to settle down,”

he has turned to the aircraft’s elevators, which are to be set in the down position of a B-17 at rest on the hardstand. Because the angle will expose some cracks at the forward mating surfaces of the top and bottom, some filling is required.

followed by paint, with lighter OD colors for the fabric vs the metal trim tabs on the upper surface

and comparable treatment on the lower surface.

Meanwhile, after going to two custom decal makers (one in Australia, and another in the UK) with no satisfactory responses, I found a U.S. domestic company that is quoting the job to me now, using the Kits-World sheet as a sample.

As previously noted, this would be limited to the Lady herself, in the hope of turning this

into a decal image that looks more like this.

I won’t name the vendor until I have an image I think I can use. But, I’m hopeful of getting a quote in the very near future.

[Redhand]

“Luscious Lady” Nose Art Decal On Order

Enter

a custom decal producer in Charlevoix, Michigan whose owner, Josh Muma, HG and I spoke with yesterday, and who strikes me as the right supplier for this important job. I placed an order with him yesterday and we should have a decal image to review and finalize with him in the next 10-14 days.

We’ll keep you posted as HG progresses with the build elsewhere.

[Redhand]

Elevators going up! (or should I say “down?”)

A short post to document the attachment of the elevators.

HG positioned the elevators as shown in the previously posted photos of parked B-17s. Gotta love that color contrast between the stabilizers and the elevators.

HG is next moving to the nose of the aircraft to reinstall the many components removed from the interior for clean-up and to facilitate the installation of the vacuformed windows. He will also install the teardrop-shaped RDF loop housing on the bottom.

Then it is on to the

These last two photos may be considered “historical.”

They show part of my work on the turret from June of 2014! (Heavens, has it really been that long?)

[Redhand]

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas a B-17.

Sorry for the sappy title but words fail me. See below.

After heaven knows how many years, the wings are finally attached to the fuselage! I’m told it was quite a task to ensure a snug fit at the wing roots. HG also tells me that this is one HEAVY model. Good thing we have his customized landing gear to support it.

More to follow, of course. It’s taking me a while to “process” this. Click on the photo twice to get two larger views.

[Redhand]

How It Was Done

I will let HG’s description of attaching the wings take center stage as a “teaching moment” (or two), starting with the right wing:

In the evening the blank styrene strips and black filler went in the right wing root.

Then the left got a dull coat and was test fitted.

Before cementing any wing I check for dihedral alignment. The left wing was WAY off.

You can see the blue tape is used for a straight line stop point. Then I checked again and again until it was good. The Mark 1 eyeball looking down the length from the tail. Over and over I check this.

And, once properly positioned with the wings epoxyed:

this is [HG] holding it while the epoxy sets.

Just look at the underwing insignia!

And here Luscious Lady is, in HG’a words,

literally hanging to dry.

Seeing these last two shots, one gets a sense of just how big this baby is going to be.

At this point, HG has decided to postpone work on the nose interior and top turret, because it’s

Time to pull out the landing gear parts.

When one considers that the landing gear is half reinforced kit parts, heavily modified, and half scratch-built metal subassemblies, the intricacies of installation and getting the model to “sit right” will be as much an exercise of self-taught engineering as it will be “model making.” For me, it’s a “don’t try this at home” endeavor, but I’m pretty sure HG will be “right at home with it.” And yes, the play on words is intentional.

[barleeni]

Hoping all is well with this build, it is one of the few (only) aircraft builds I follow, as the workmanship is top notch!

[Armor_Buff]

Likewise, this is the only airplane build I follow. Hope all is going well.

[Johnnych01]

Brilliant progress and always great to drop in and pick up with the hard toil that’s been lavishly given to this old war horse… Fantastic work