Hello everyone!
Quite some time ago I was invited here by a member, I've been lurking off and on and have finally been able to sign up. I thought I'd share my current project. I'm not a beginner but don't consider myself anything more than mediocre, hopefully I won't embarass myself too much!
I had been out of modeling for a handful of years and when I returned to the hobby it was because of of my newly sparked interest in World War II. One of the first models I built was an Airfix B-29 kit, the B-29 being a large part of my becoming interested in warbirds. As time went on and I got more builds under my belt the poor B-29 started to look worse and worse against the rest of my collection, so last year I decided it was time to do another one.
I had another Airfix kit stashed away, but as many of you know it has thousands of raised rivets and panel lines that would need to be sanded off and then the panel lines scribed. I went searching for a better kit that wouldn't require this, and I found an Academy kit with Bockscar decals. Perfect!
I started the project last spring, but lack of time and some motivational issues kept me away from modeling for the second half of 2012. I picked it up again a couple weeks ago and have been making good progress this time.
Here is the kit.
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
Naturally I started with the interior.
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
Since nothing aft of the pilot and copilot can be seen through the greenhouse glass and you can't see into the waist I decided to not go crazy with detailing the interior, and I left out everything aft of the bomb bays except for the tail gunner's section. It took quite a bit of work to get the fuselage halves together even with leaving the large section out of the rear.
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
Almost eight months after starting I finally got the fuselage halves together last week!
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
This same kit is reused for mutiple aircraft so it comes with cuffed and non cuffed propellers, provision for the cannon in the tail gun position, gun turrets, etc. Since my Silverplate B-29 doesn't have turrets I had to cut off the small fairings around the base of all turret locations.
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
I made some small tabs with sheet styrene and glued them inside the turret locations. This will give the turret covers something more to glue to and also prevent me from dropping them inside while trying to get them in place.
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
As of 1 AM this morning I have the fuselage seams all cleaned up and I'll be putting the turret covers in place tonight, then it will be on to the wings.
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
1/72 Boeing B-29 Bockscar
