Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

[samuraj77]

Everything looks great even at this moment...
I can allready see that this is going to be impresive once it is finished...
 

[Second Air Force]

Here is the first of four intake ducts that go into the nacelle scoop. The little divider in the center of the duct was a door that could close off the ram air duct if selected by the flight crew.

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

And here it is roughly mounted in the #2 position--still a bit of work to do but you get the idea:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

I also managed to construct the #4 exhaust fairing and am working on the #3 fairing right now. We had some snow (quite unusual for Oklahoma this late in the season) so I may have more time to model tomorrow.

Scott

[samuraj77]

Great work on the duct...Was it a brass square profile that you used?

[Second Air Force]

Yes, Samuraj, it is K&S Products brass tubing. The outer walls are too thick and will need to be filed down to thin them to a more "in-scale" profile before I'm finished. I would have preferred using aluminum tubing but the brass was all I had.

Scott

[Second Air Force]

I got a bit more accomplished on Sunday. Again, I find that the more I study the photos and drawings the more I learn about the YBs. While working on the nacelles I noticed that the landing light wells in the wings are quite different than later models. Here is one wing modified with the unmodified one on the right, with a photo of the YB landing light between them:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

I got the right exhaust fairings roughed in also. These will be removed until the wings are nearly finished so I don't knock them off or bend them while I'm doing the rest of the wing bodywork. They'll be permanently installed and faired in with putty much, much later......

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

Here is one engine/cowl/prop set after the cowl mountings were fabricated. The engine will support the cowling as on the real airplane so that the cowl and nacelle opening will have the proper gaps:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

I also finally sprayed a bit of primer on several pieces so I could check the fit of various window plugs and modifications. Notice the darker grey spot shows a low area that must be corrected. This area will need to be filled, sanded, contoured, reprimed, and re-block sanded until the shape is consistent. It did feel good to finally put some primer on this project!

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

Scott

[No.1]

As I could note this is perfectly shaped

[Letipapa]

Scott! You are incredible!

This marvelous work made my day wonderful. I was not on LLL more days, I visited my mother in the other city, other country. This is fantastic and pleasant surprise. Thank you man , suprime work.

[Second Air Force]

It's been a while since I last updated this thread. I've been able to do just a little bit to the B-17, so here goes:
I finally applied the first couple of coats of primer to the wings, finding a LOT of touch-ups needed. There were the usual high and low spots and some other challenges to contend with. This photo is after the third prime/sand/fill session and I've marked flaws with a marker for the next round.

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

I posted a few photos of the nose section on the Natural Metal Finish thread so I won't add them here.

Scott

[No.1]

This look very smooth and fine! I see something metal on nacelle top side- exhaust?

[Second Air Force]

Yes, those are the exhaust stacks, No.1. I glued them into the wing surface when I was making the fairings. I decided to permanently attach them since it was a bit difficult to get the angles just right.

I've built a number of the Monogram B-17G kits over the years but never had the guts to try opening the bomb bay doors. It isn't all that much fun!

First, the real bomb bay is circular so you have to build an upper panel to cover the turtledeck opening. Then the internal structure has to be built to replicate the former rings and stringers in the bay. Here is a rough idea of how that looked during the process. The white panel is the filler for the turtledeck area.

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

The forward and aft bulkheads also have to be built from scratch in order to completely plug the fuselage forward and aft. Flat covers were made to cover the wing root-to-wing junction on the inside of the fuselage, and the ears on the wings have to be trimmed so they don't impinge too far into the bomb bay. More on that area later.

Next I started fabricating the center keel truss assembly. I dug out a visible B-17 kit so I could use the keel and bomb racks for a guide, but that wasn't really of much use. Fortunately I'd taken lots of photos of TR last year and have some good YB-17 references, so the truss is starting to take shape. Here is the aft wing carry-through getting started:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

And this is the forward carry-through mostly complete. The lower beam of the centerline truss can be seen in the middle of the bay. The racks will fasten to this and the top of the fuselage later.

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

Scott

[No.1]

Marvelous work!! I have only once work this and that was in 1/72 scale and more narrow fuselage of Dornier Do 17. As well this will be open, there will nice nice option to make diorama.

[Letipapa]

Mmmm! As I understood, both pipes (signed with a red arrows on photo 1) are, in fact, still there but under the plaster (areas rounded with red ellipses on photo 2), so nacelles changed their section profile actually. Right?

[Second Air Force]

I've actually removed the fairings in the second photo. The exhaust pipes on the real airplane sat in a groove in the nacelle and the scoop fairing was screwed on top of the groove. For the sake of laziness I just drilled an angled hole in the nacelle and stuck the exhaust pipe tubing in the correct location. One of my earlier photos of the interior of the wheelwell shows a plastic rod that represents the trough or groove that is visible in the wheelwells. After I've glued the wing halves together I will install the fairings--they actually sit on top of the nacelle as in the first photo you highlighted. I didn't want to damage the fairings while working on the individual wing pieces.

Scott

[Letipapa]

Oh, I see! All clear to me now, thanks!

[Second Air Force]

Here are a few photos of the bomb racks that I built several months ago:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

The kit racks depict (rather generally) the later style rack with a solid web between the two uprights. The YBs and earlier production variants used the type with separate intercostals as I've built:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

Here are all four racks, still needing most of the release mechanism and other details installed:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

And one of the racks test-fit into the bay:

Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

Scott