SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

[Sall]

Great!!
Can't wait to see more of this great scratchbuild!!

[Second Air Force]

More cockpit elements are coming together. An interesting feature of the B 17 is that the seat sits in a cutout of the wing spar carry-through box. In essence, the pilot's seat was recessed into the wing box in order to give enough headroom. So...... more plastic sheet and measuring to replicate this part. This is one of the trickiest dimensions in the whole project--the spar must go through the cockpit at exactly the right place so that canopy, rollover bar, instrument panel, seat, etc. all line up properly when the whole model is assembled. Now that the spar is located the rest of the two cockpits will fall into place much more easily. The flat segment with two lightening holes in it will later be the mounting place for the rollover support bar.

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

Also in this session the two lower windows in the gunner/radio compartment were located and rough-cut into the fuselage halves:

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

[No.1]

Very interesting to watch mate

[draken35]

+1 with Srecko!

[Sall]

 

[Second Air Force]

Today was called "Filler Sunday". With the basic structure of the cockpit and bomb bay constructed it is time to remove the Corsair panel lines and smooth out the many modifications to the halves. Usually I'd wait until the parts were joined to do this, but there is so much to do on the interior that I decided it's best to get most of the bodywork done now.

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

[No.1]

Hope you will start shape assembly soon

[Second Air Force]

As long as I don't divert my attention to new projects!

[draken35]

[Second Air Force]

A bit more work has been done on the fuselage, this time adding stringers and frames. After fitting these to both the bomb bay and cockpits I started adding some of the electrical panels and mounting brackets to the left side. Since the "rear seater" was both tail gunner and radio operator there is a quite a lot of equipment in his domain.

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

Incidentally, this will probably be shunted off to the side again as I have been commissioned to build another F-106.

[No.1]

Wonderful mate

[draken35]

[Sall]

Gooooooood joooob!!!

[Second Air Force]

Very little time could be devoted to the B 17 this weekend--too much maintenance on our car! Once that was successfully completed I did have a couple of hours for some more SAAB interior work.

I've been saving back some unused PE frets for this project. There is part of a Verlinden 1/72 SBD fret, some extra parts from my Eduard I-16, a few bits of Eduard MiG 21, and most of an Eduard Brewster Buffalo set. I'd purposely kept these safely tucked away in anticipation of using some pieces here:

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

Not to be outdone, the spares box offered up some bits as well, including various small control quadrants from a variety of long-gone kits. There are pieces used from Monogram C-47 and B-25 as well as others. So.......after some thinking and planning, the pilot's left side panel is coming along fairly well. The rudder pedals are from the Buffalo set and there is a lot more on that fret that will find a way into this project. Also an armor plate seat back was fabricated from sheet styrene and attached to the spares-bin seat.

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

SAAB B 17A In 1/48 Scale

[No.1]

Hope your car will run fast very soon and this work on kit is extra good!!!