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4981

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: April 14, 2010, 04:06:56 PM »

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.

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:

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.

Scott

4982

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: April 12, 2010, 02:17:55 AM »

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.

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

Scott

4983

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 09, 2010, 04:10:01 AM »

Another edition, this time from the Y1B-17 project:

More filing, filling, sanding, and priming brought out some more low and high spots on what I thought was a smooth surface.

Another coat of primer and some block sanding, and this was the result, better but the flaws will still show up badly with NMF:

Finally got a smooth contour on both sides of the forward fuselage on the fourth attempt. After cleaning up the window openings, scribing all the panel lines, and working on the interior these two halves will be ready to attach to the center section:

I use a bit of "bad" foil to verify that all the flaws are no longer visible. This piece has been applied to several areas, accounting for the rough look of the surface. I use it as a guide to see that all my dimples and high spots are gone, or they'll show up on the finished product.

Scott

4984

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 09, 2010, 03:30:02 AM »

No.1, the windshield frame is part of the chrome tree on the Monogram convertible kit, so I can't take credit for that one!

Jicehem, that is beautiful. It's also exactly why I started this thread, so I could learn something!!! I thought that SNJ was originally a European invention and you confirmed my belief. That really seems to work great.

Scott

4985

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 07, 2010, 09:10:37 PM »

I actually built that B-24 for part of a group project for the IPMS Nationals in Dallas, Texas a number of years ago. Our group built models of aircraft in which crewmen earned the Medal Of Honor. I've shown some of my airplane models over the years, including the vacuform F-89. The funny thing about the F-89 was that I finished it just before Monogram/Revell released their 1/48th Scorpion kit!

I used to show superdetailed NASCAR stock car models on a national level back in the 1990s but I've retired from that side of the hobby and come back to aircraft modeling in the past seven or eight years.

Unfortunately I never get much modeling done!

Scott

4986

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 07, 2010, 07:37:47 PM »

Letipapa,

Here is a completed model (Horace Carswell's B-24J) that I used foil, Testors Metalizer, and Alclad on.

The largest portion of the model is BareMetal Foil. The variation in panel shading is done by applying the foil with the grain in different directions. The vertical fins and many of the other compound curves are done with the spray-on products, using different shades for the variation. For example, the cowlings are entirely Testors Aluminum Plate but the nacelles are a combination of foil and paint. The wing trailing edge panels are also primariy painted on.

Scott

4987

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 06, 2010, 11:20:35 PM »

I used Liqui-Plate on the vacuform F-89 I started this thread with. That was the product I couldn't remember the name of...... It worked pretty much the same as the other products as I recall all these years later. I still have the "How To" book that came with the Liqui-Plate and it is quite thorough. I don't think I used Rub N Buff but I do remember the name.

Scott

4988

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 06, 2010, 11:06:36 PM »

Auto lacquer should be a good sub-surface finish for the Testors products. I use lacquer auto body primers, both grey and red oxide, as the base for the Testors Metalizer Lacquer. If you spray the Metalizer directly onto bare plastic use a very light dusting coat first to "seal" the softer plastic from the Metalizer thinner. The Testors materials are all very "hot" and will etch plastic easily if you lay it on thickly. Don't ever spray Metalizer over enamel--it will lift the enamel just like an application of paint stripper. (I know from experience....... )

It's actually quite hard to spray a thick coat of this paint as it is extremely thin and covers well. The fact that the coats should go on thin makes it very important to handle finished models with cloth gloves--the Metalizer can be affected by the oils in our skin and frequent handling. One of the good things about these products is that it is relatively easy to fix little problems by overspraying worn areas with a new coat and burnishing/polishing it to match the surrounding surface.

Scott

4989

Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes

« on: April 06, 2010, 09:34:32 PM »

Letipapa,

I once used silver paint with a tiny touch of light grey in it to darken it. It did change shades a little bit but it seemed to lose the "metal" look in the process.

I have had good success with these Testors metal finishes. I don't know if you're able to buy any of these products in Europe, but they work really, really well. All of these products (except the "Silver" on the top left) are ready to airbrush right out of the bottle. You MUST use a perfectly clean airbrush and bottle with a screen on the pickup tube, and it will take several bottles of paint to do very large models. The sealer is recommended if you're going to mask over the paint, but I don't always use it as a final clear coat.

Here are two more products. The small bottle of Metalizer gives much the same results as the Testors products. The SNJ system is a bit different in that it consists of the spray on material and a bottle of actual aluminum powder that you apply and rub in to the surface to give the aluminum finish.

And my favorite, the BareMetal Foil.

Scott

4990

Warplane Art / Re: Italian P47 remake

« on: March 23, 2010, 07:16:57 PM »

I want you to know I'm going to the hobby shop soon to get a P-47 so I can build one of those RAF machines!  Great work on all of these!

Scott

4991

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: March 23, 2010, 06:14:54 PM »

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:

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......

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:

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!

Scott

4992

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: March 21, 2010, 04:14:41 PM »

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

4993

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: March 21, 2010, 05:20:57 AM »

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.

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

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

4994

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: March 19, 2010, 07:40:01 PM »

All of these details are pretty rough at this point. I still have much to do to blend everything together. Interestingly most of these details will be unseen after the airplane is built, but at least we'll know the parts are in there! 

Scott

4995

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale

« on: March 19, 2010, 07:22:42 PM »

Here is an early update on the forward fuselage interior. I first built up the cockpit floor and instrument panel front piece. This had to be finessed and shortened to adapt to the shorter forward fuselage and new bomb bay bulkhead. Then I started adding detail parts to the kit pieces, including the lower bulkhead enclosure and the floorboard that runs down the middle of the belly. The putty on the aft cockpit bulkhead will later be smoothed out and some details added:

Once that was all fitting as it should I moved on to the bombardier/gunner section. A floorboard was added for the gunner to stand on and the instrument panel/lower bulkhead were fitted to the fuselage halves:

Since it was decided a long time ago to open the forward entry door I had to add details to the lower fuselage area. I've spent enough time in this part of Chuckie to be able to build the floorbeams from memory. I hit my head on them enough last summer to leave a lasting impression. 

Here is a shot of the floor supports and right-side frames and stringers. I built the stringers this way so that I can slip them into the main fuselage in one piece. Once all the preliminary fitting and adjusting of the entire fuselage is complete I'll glue the three left and three right fuselage sections together at the joints. Then painting, detailing, and final assembly will go forward much like any kit, left and right halves.

Scott