#15 Mylightweight’s 1/48 B-17g “Chowhound”

[Mylightweight]

HI Guys,

Captain #15 Mylightweight reporting for flight briefing.

I have been looking forward to this SIG for ages now (well it seems like ages)! I originally suggested a 1/48 Lancaster SIG last year but unfortunately there wasn’t enough interest to make it a viable proposition, but thankfully this Phoenix seems to have risen out of the ashes and here we are.

This is the kit I am going to build, Monogram/Revell’s 1/48 B-17g



I will be building it as “Chowhound”, mainly because I am a big scaredy cat and am frightened to even attempt a bare metal finish (never done one, and didn’t want to lose my BMF virginity on something so big)

I was originally going to build it out of the box but have decided, after seeing some of the after market you guys have bought for your builds that I may as well get involved in the A/M world too. I have bought the following to add the “bling”

DEF models wheels



Quickboost engines and gun barrels



Squadron vac formed canopies set 1 & 2



Eduard mask set



I have bought the Eduard bombaimer’s upgrade p/e set just waiting for that arrive, I may also get the cockpit set but we’ll have see.

I am still throwing some ideas around about how I am going to display the finished aircraft, a 1/48 B-17 is going to be a big girl when completed so my normal display shelf for 1/35 armour and 1/48 fighters is going to be a bit small. I have though about mounting it onto a picture frame or wall mirror and then I could hang it like a 3D piece of wall art, but that bit comes at the end of the build so I’m not worried about that yet.

Any way, here are the obligatory spruce shots and stuff.









Decals



Included in the kit is a copy of the Shep Paine’s diorama booklet



So that is the starter, let the building commence, have fun and thanks for reading
Chris

[Twokidsnosleep]

Awesome
You were a big reason to push for a Bomber sig after it got voted out in GB’s and I am so happy that it is come to reality
Very much looking forward to your build with extra goodies
Most jealous of the Shep Payne dio booklet...I have one of his dio books and it is great. You may need to send me a few photos of that booklet
I welcome your build to the sig and thank you for participating
Wishing you good luck as well
Scott

[sheppsea]

I have a version of this in the stash so will follow with interest

[Les0012]

Ah so the obligatory B-17 Flying Fortress, a great choice and that dio book looks good too.

Good Luck and hope all goes well mate.

Les

[Mylightweight]

So, I have a book for reference I’ve not had chance to read it all yet but there is some great info and a nice walk around of a B-17g.



and a couple of photos of Chow





I’ve not had chance to get to the bench today due to work commitments but have a whole day off tomorrow so may achieve something.

Stay tuned

[Twokidsnosleep]

That looks to be an awesome book.
Love that first pic from above of the silvery beast

[Mylightweight]

Here’s a bit more information about “Chowhound” taken from www.chow-hound.org

"Chow-hound" History
​The B-17 "Chow-hound" was ferried to the United Kingdom in December 1943. It was initially assigned to the 9th Air Force in Belfast, Ireland before being transferred to 8th Air Force in Bassingbourn, England.

The Newquist Crew was the first crew assigned to this B-17. They christened it "Chow-hound" in May 1944 because “…we fight to eat and eat to fight”. Tony Starcer painted the nose art - a Pluto-like cartoon hound riding a bomb.
The final crew of the "Chow-hound" was the Thompson Crew. The Thompson Crew was assembled in Salt Lake City, Utah. The crew drew an assignment of delivering a new B-17 to Ireland. After completing the delivery, the Thompson Crew continued to their new duty station, Bassingbourn, England on June 4, 1944.
The Thompson Crew completed 13 missions in the "Chow-hound". Their 14th mission, on August 8, 1944, ended in the loss of the nine-member crew. It is believed the ‘Chow-hound’ was the oldest operating B-17 when it went down.


Downed Aircraft
On August 8, 1944, the nine-member Thompson crew was flying over occupied France (Normandy) and was 10 minutes from its target when it was hit by anti-aircraft flak. The bomber broke apart in the sky and the fuselage landed in a farmer’s field in Lonlay l’Abbaye (approximately 100 km southwest of Caen). One of the wings landed in an adjacent farm field belonging to Mr. Pierre Lehec and remained there until 2011.

Two eyewitnesses, who were 16 years old at the time, watched the plane descend to the ground. Residents of Lonlay l’Abbaye came to the crash site, but were soon rousted by the Germans. The bodies of four crewmembers were found at the site by French villagers and temporarily buried. They were later transferred to U.S. cemeteries in France. Advancing U.S. troops recovered the bodies of two additional crewmembers. The remaining three crewmembers were not found and were listed as missing in action until 2004.
​The landowner, believing the search for the missing was over, collected the debris from the crash and buried it in the largest crater caused by the crash. The hole was filled and covered with fresh soil. The land continued to be used as a cattle farm for six decades.

I’m off to the cave to start building

[Mylightweight]

So I started gluing spruce today, having a proper look at all the spruces I’ve noticed there is a lot of flash that I will need to contend with, and there are some huge injection pin marks to sort , bit this kit has been around a while now so it is to be expected.

I saw an article in a magazine or online somewhere about re-creating flak damage so I thought it’d give it a go as the B-17’s had a really hard time during their daylight bombing raids, most would come back with some kind of damage.

So I got out my mini drill and started reaming away the plastic on the inside of both the top and bottom rear stabiliser, making sure to keep checking the thickness.





Once I was happy with the thickness of the bottom, I poked a hole through and marked the inside of the top of the stabiliser and started reaming again. That way I knew the hole would line up.



I wanted it to look like the projectile had come from below the aircraft and travelled upwards through the metal work, I tried to make it look like the metal had been torn but the round both on its way in and out again, obviously poking from the inside of the upper surface before joining the two halves.

Here’s the resulting damaged stabiliser









I probably could/should have done another couple of holes, I might do a couple on the tail fin or maybe the fuselage, we’ll see how brave I feel. The other side was left just standard, undamaged.

Whilst they dried I had a look at the undercarriage, pretty basic in terms of parts count, with some flash to deal with on the struts and some IPM’s to deal with on the wheel bays, I offered the bays into the engine nacelles to see how bad they looked and thankfully, you can’t see them so I didn’t have to deal with them, good news all around.





I’m just waiting now for my bombardier’s eduard set to arrive so I can start on the interior. I just need to figure the interior base colour, the instructions claim it should be zinc chromate but I’ve not seen that from pictures, mainly some kind of olive drab green or bare metal silver

Anyway, I’m back to work tomorrow for 6 days so progress will be halted,

Have fun and enjoy

[Kevthemodeller]

Another B-17 and a whooper

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful old kit and that diorama pullout is to die for.

Really like the battle damage too. And the extras for pimping it up

[Mylightweight]

If anyone is interested in the Shep Paine diorama booklet I now have it as a .pdf so can email it if required

[Mylightweight]

Captain #15 with a sit rep on “Chow”

My Eduard bomb aimer’s set arrived,



only 2 frets of p/e for £16 is outrageous, and only one of them is pre-painted, I certainly won’t be getting anymore for this build.

After I had finished the horizontal stabilisers I looked through the sheet of words to find something easy to do for half an hour the other evening. I thought, the tail wheel is easy and quick, unfortunately the stock tail wheel and strut is all moulder together and looked rubbish. I couldn’t find an after market one on its own so I decided to modify the kit part by hacking away some of the moulded plastic away to emphasise the strut and separate wheel.

I got caught up in my brainwave so forgot to take a before picture but here are the after pictures, not a groundbreaking change but definitely improves the tailwheel 100% in my opinion







Then I did some work on the main wheels, the DEF resin wheels are a masterpiece, stunning levels of detail, one cut from the pouring plug (nicely positioned on the flat spot) the centres were cut and ready for assembly later





I couldn’t help myself but cut the fuselage from the sprue to see how big this is going to be, oh wow it’s massive, that’s an A3 cutting mat by the way.



Next up came the radio room, again the kit parts lacked detail somewhat compared to how it should/did look





My solution was a bit of scratch building/conversion. I cut the table and radio combo off the floor plate, put a skimmer piece underneath the floor and then filled the hole with some plasticard





The using the photo as a guide I cut a new table







It’s a shame most of this will be hidden when I button it up, but at least I’ll know it’s there

Thanks for looking guys

[Willem]

Lovely details going in. This is going to be essential reading.

[pourquoi61]

Looking good.
I do like B-17's but I too walk away from silver.

[gaz45]

Nice start there mate

[Twokidsnosleep]

Really like your interior extras...that is my style as well, little bit of detail here and there
It will look fantastic in paint
Keep up the good work
Door prize draw coming up this weekend

[Mylightweight]

Howdy fellas

Things have been a bit slow on the build of late, SWMBO and I have decided to sell our house and move, so it has been all hands on deck to tidy the house up ready for the estate agent coming to take the photos.

Any way, on the back of me cutting the old navigators desk out of the floor pan I noticed it had weakened it a lot and the floor bent, so I strengthened it using some old 00 gauge model rail that I had laying around



This assembled floor and bulkhead



Then it was on to the task of working my little fingers to the bone on the 1/48 p/e. First bit was the front of the bomb aimer’s floor



The legs on the photo below are for the chin turret to locate into



Bomb aimer’s station coming along





Having to stack a load of things (Ultimate things) to get the levels right for the Norden bombsight.



Still got more to do but it’s coming along slowly, stealing an hour here or there when I haven’t got house jobs to do.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Sweet
I seem to like pinging PE parts away in tweezers lately

[demarcation]

Nice work so far!!

[pourquoi61]

Nice PE work bringing the old girl into the future.

[Les0012]

Another very patient PE modeller and very good at it to. Looking forward to seeing this come together


Les

[Mylightweight]

Sorry I have been a bit slack recently, I have been away on holiday and then had a mad rush to get a load of domestic jobs completed before my house goes on the market.

Need to keep the other half happy so I can include a decent sized man cave in the next house!

So I have finished all the interior sections of “Chow”, all I need to do now is prime and paint everything.







Interior of the fuselage, with the separate sections dry fitted just to see what it looks like and make sure when both halves meet nothing sticks out.





The finished bomb aimer’s station and cockpit, hopefully I can get some paint on it over the next few days, although I am in court for a 4 day trial starting tomorrow so maybe not (hopefully it’ll get cancelled)

Not a massive update I know but there has been a lot of work going into it to get to this stage.

Thanks for watching/reading

Chris

[Tomcat64]

Great work on the interior and another fantastic looking cockpit!

And good luck on the house move too - hope it all goes well

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking good mate, lovely cockpit detail

[Stokesy44]

Lovely PE in the bombardier's position

[Twokidsnosleep]

Standing ovation for the cockpit and interior details and paint
Some great work

[digger303]

The finished bomb aimer’s station and cockpit, hopefully I can get some paint on it over the next few days, although I am in court for a 4 day trial starting tomorrow so maybe not (hopefully it’ll get cancelled)

Thanks for watching/reading

Chris

lOVELY WORK ! If it doesn't get cancelled perhaps we will see you again in 6-10 months ? depending on good behavior

[Mylightweight]

Alas, it got cancelled yesterday for the rest of the week, then today it was back again for tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, then last off today they cancelled tomorrow and re-scheduled for Thursday and Friday!

I have no idea what’s going on, somebody pass me the straight jacket

[Willem]

Amazing detailing.

I'd doff my cap to you, Sir........

if I was wearing one.

Beautiful stuff.

[alextheblue]

Stunning interior! Your scratch building and that PE really bring it to life.

[Twokidsnosleep]

One month left in the sig
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