B-29 Doc

[Cardboardzach]

April is here which means I can finally start on a build that I have been looking forward to for literally months! But first a bit of backstory. Doc is a B-29 that is currently being restored to flying condition in Wichita Kansas. Right now he's undergoing certification by the FAA so that he can begin flight testing and join Fifi as one of only two flying b-29s in the world. Luckily for me, every day when I go to work I get to see him(granted it's from about 200 yards away and through a chain link fence but I'll take anything I can get.) If you want to know more about Doc and people who helped restore him you can go to http://www.b-29doc.com/

I have an unhealthy obsession with this plane. So when I saw Monograms old 1/48 scale b-29 for sale for 15 bucks at my local IPMS show I had to get it.


It's so big I had to take all of the photos on the floor. You may have noticed in the bottom right corner of the box, When this thing is done it will have almost a three foot wingspan. I have no idea where I'm going to put this when I'm done, but that's a problem for future Zach.


For as old of a kit as this is there's a decent amount of detail, and I'll be adding as much more as my meager modeling skills will allow.







I'll have to order some Hamilton props since the kit ones are the Curtis Electric type, and I have to figure out how to get decals for the nose art but those are minor issues(or so I've been telling myself) I can't wait to get started on this kit!

[Lysus]

And I can't wait, either. I had this when I was young and was just thinking about tracking it down again, like, yesterday. Crazy.

Watching this one for sure!

[Avgas]

Looking forward to this! I remember building the Airfix B29 when I was a nipper and that was a big beast in 1/72.

[mannloon]

I've been in Fifi at EAA, awesome experience. I donated money towards Doc's restoration 2 or 3 years ago.

[keithinflorida]

Good luck with that monster. Can't wait to see Doc & Fifi together in the air. What an amazing sight and sound that will be.

[Cymru]

That thing is HUGE I'm keeping an eye on this one

[martin57]

thats nice, i hope you have loads of paint .
good luck with it

[rodrant]

Now ...that is huge !

Love the B-29 ...actually when I think of WW2 Planes in metallic finish it is this one or the P-51 that comes to my head ! I love this plane!
Good luck with your build , one to follow

[Kevthemodeller]

I made a B29 back in the 70's it was Airfix 1/72 it was a really good kit didn't have the nuke though, I just couldn't do it justice back then!

[patrickroos]

Nice! That will be a lot of shininess!!

[Cardboardzach]

Thanks everyone for all of the encouragement! As ambitious as this build is I'm definitely going to need it. I'm going to try to post an update roughly every week. This past week has mostly been planning out what I'm going to do and, assuming I can do everything I want to, it's going to be awesome!

The first thing I did was grab a new composition notebook to write in notes and draw rough diagrams of what I've got.


Most of what I've done this week has actually been on the computer. The instrument panel that comes with the kit is pretty good for a kit from 1977 but apart from the raised bezels it looks pretty plain.


I have a plan to improve it though. First I made a new instrument panel in paint.net. Next I'm going to print it out to scale and use it as a guide to drill out the instruments on the kit panel as well as a piece of .01 styrene sheet. Then I'll sandwich the paper between the two pieces of styrene. I'll add bezels and put a drop of future in each instrument to give them a glassy look.


I've also started working on adding the various levers and trim wheels to the cockpit. They're made of the wire from a twist tie. I drilled a hole through the spot where the lever goes to go and scribed out the channel. Then I glued the wire in from the bottom. once I cut the wire to the proper length I add a small drop of superglue to simulate a handle



That's all I have for now. Hopefully by next week I'll have some pretty new instrument panels and a nice detailed cockpit.

[Les]

This is going to be a big project when completed! Any progress to report? I have been thinking of getting one of these to add to my "to do" list, so I hope to see what you do with this one. We have less than 18 days, so I wish you luck with this one!

[Cardboardzach]

It's been an incredibly hectic couple of months for me between classes, work, and rowing, so I haven't had time to post an update. I have made some progress(though not nearly as much as I would like) and I'm hoping to post an update soon.

[Cardboardzach]

So, as you all can probably tell from the lack of a finished model and it being the day after the end of the group build I didn't finish. But all is not lost. I am still going to finish Doc and I am going to keep posting updated as I make progress. Hopefully I'll be able to do more of that over the next few weeks. If the mods want to move this thread to the wip section I have no problem with that.

While I have made some progress since my last post things are still moving pretty slow. I've been working on the instrument panels and flight engineers station on my computer so there isn't a whole lot to show there. I've also done a bit of work on the cockpit.


I removed most of the detail from the rear of the cockpit so I can replace it with some more accurate pieces, mainly the chairs for the navigator and radio operator, as well as flattening the rear floor. I'm going to add some papers to the navigators table and wire some fibre optic cable into the lamps in the rear of the cockpit so it will be visible. I've also been looking tooling around with trying to scratch the pilots seats but I haven't been able to find good photos of them for reference.

I also removed the rudder, horizontal stabilizers, and ailerons since they were really obviously molded on and so I can re position them. I forgot to take pictures of them though so those will have to wait till the next update


That's a 1/72 scale P-40. I have no idea where I'm going to put this thing when I'm done with it.

[Cardboardzach]

Got some goodies in the mail recently


I broke down and bought the Eduard interior detail set for the cockpit.

Was it four times as much money as I spent on the model itself?
Yes.

Was it worth it?
Definitely.

The detail in this set is way better than anything I could do on my own and it'll be way faster than trying to build new seats and controls from scratch. I'm still going to make my own instrument panels to match the ones in Doc but other than that I plan on using pretty much everything else. I'll post some more pictures of it after I've made some progress. I've never used photo etch before so this should be interesting.