1/48th Scale B-17C/D Conversion

[Second Air Force]

I messed up on the forward entry door inside reinforcement--the first photo I used for a reference was of a damaged door. I ran across a much better photo yesterday while re-scanning photos and found that the piece should go corner to corner in a cruciform shape. Here's the corrected part:


Here's a photo of the aft crew door with the scratchbuilt framing. I used the vacuform window and frame and made the rest of the pieces as I did with the forward door:


S

[Steve Nelson]

Looking good! I didn't realize you needed a photo of the forward hatch..I took this one of The Swoose a couple years ago. I noticed your first effort looked different, but I assumed it was just because it was a different variant.

SN

[Second Air Force]

I'll repost the empennage update with less talk and the same pictures. I cut the elevators and rudder free of the stabilizers and then removed the trim tabs. The next step was to thin the trailing edges to a scale thickness. In the case of the rudder I also reshaped it to the YB configuration. I ended up scratchbuilding the tabs from styrene sheet:








And a shot of the left elevator more-or-less how it will appear on the finished model:

[the330thbg]

eeek.., part of this thread vaporized!

[Second Air Force]

Not much, really. That stuff about the empennage was about all that went AWOL.

I've been working on the various gun position blisters and such. A page ago I showed a couple of photos of two nose pieces cut and glued together. I can now report that my idea is working. I filled it with resin in order to make it more stable and then started shaping it in the lathe:


Once the basic shape looked about right I did a practice vacuform piece and attached it to the fuselage:


The shape wasn't quite right with this first piece so it was back to the lathe for more forming. I've got the nosecone master shaped correctly now but I'm still scrounging around to find a sphere that is the right diameter for the gunner's ball.

S

[the330thbg]

You need some beads from a necklace or a pearl.

What is the diameter of the smaller sphere?

[B-17 guy]

Just wanted to say I'm new to this forum, i came across this thread and forum while researching for the coversion I'm doing at the moment. I'm building a revell B-17F converted to B-17D using the same conversion kit you are. I've never worked with a vac form kit before and am having problems with it. I'll be following this thread with great interest, I'm hoping I can get a few pointers from your work. Keep up the excellent work, I'll be watching with great interest, probably gonna be asking questions too.

[Second Air Force]

I'm going to search the craft store for a glass bead/pearl this weekend, Smis. I scrounged around the house and hangar for some steel balls I saved from old bearings but they were all the wrong diameter. I actually thought I could use a 1/48 Superfort astrodome but the dimensions just don't quite work out.

B-17 guy,
Welcome to WIX, and fire away with questions. There are several of us who have worked with vacuform kits and we'd be glad to offer assistance. You picked a nice kit to learn vacuform modeling on.

Scott

[B-17 guy]

Thank you scott, appreciate it.

[B-17 guy]

Ok, here's a question. As it stands right now, I'm planning to use the monogram G kit engines and cowls for my B-17D. I know the cowls on the D are differant from the E, F and G. Can you tell me what I would need to change?
I was thinking of getting 4 of the quickboost resin engines for the SBD-3 dauntless figuring they might go better on a early model fortress, thoughts?

[the330thbg]

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/b?a ... ection=fsa

Scott.., have you seen these images?

Some of them are old hat.., but others I have never seen before.

Try going forward and backward in the 'Image Group' for more YB-17 shots.

Quick Question:

A: When then they get rid of the 'ring' antenna and replace it with this 'flagpole'?
B. When did they get rid of the HUGE spinners?

Last edited by the330thbg on Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Second Air Force]

Ok, here's a question. As it stands right now, I'm planning to use the monogram G kit engines and cowls for my B-17D. I know the cowls on the D are differant from the E, F and G. Can you tell me what I would need to change?
I was thinking of getting 4 of the quickboost resin engines for the SBD-3 dauntless figuring they might go better on a early model fortress, thoughts?

The Monogram engines are pretty much identical visually to those on the D. The SBD engines won't have the correct lower sump or prop governor location and the entire nose case is shaped differently. The cowlings and cowl flaps aren't all that different between the D and later versions with the exception of a little different profile at the front of the ring cowl. When the paddle-blade propellers came along the nose of the cowling was shaped just a little differently to clear a feathered propeller. Don't forget to add the Koster oil cooler scoops on the sides/bottoms of the nacelles. I'd suggest using a set of Koster narrow chord propellers as they are quite nice.

Scott

[Second Air Force]

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/b?ammem/fsaall:LC-USE6-D-004872:collection=fsa

Scott.., have you seen these images?

Some of them are old hat.., but others I have never seen before.

Try going forward and backward in the 'Image Group' for more YB-17 shots.

Quick Question:

A: When then they get rid of the 'ring' antenna?
B. When did they get rid of the HUGE spinners?

Yep, got that photo collection as a favorite.

The antenna fitment on the YBs changed a good amount. The open ADF loop was used early as was the tall mast antenna. Notice in your photo that the antenna wires to the wings show up pretty well in that shot. Not every ship had the same antenna configuration either, here's an early formation shot:


The spinners were only used on the external counterweight propellers and are the same as the ones used on early SBDs. Again, not every airplane has the spinners in every photo and it seems they were deleted just before the conversion to Hydromatics. I've got video of a formation with Hydromatics, counterweight with spinner and counterweight without the spinners all flying together.

S

[Second Air Force]

A transparency update:

We made a trip to the craft store today and found some glass beads that match the scale diameter of the nose gunner's ball. I also reshaped the main nose cone master and vacuformed some practice parts so I could see how things line up:


The next step will be to mold the clear parts and build the gun swivel mechanism that goes into the ball.

The waist blisters are coming along, too. Here's a practice blister taped to the fuselage:


Here's the same blister with the moving portion removed. I glued it to the scrap aft fuselage from the G kit to see how it will fair into the surrounding skin. Again, a little tweaking of the master and I can mold the clear pieces:


As a change-of-pace I'm working on the oil cooler outlet louvers.....

[The Inspector]

Don't forget to drill a series of teeny (like # 80) holes around the base of the gun blister on the nose piece master so the air trapped there has some place to evacuate when you vac it, nice tip that I discovered to make bulged sliders on a Lancaster contour properly.