Global Scale Modeller

First Update:

Ok Guys, this is my first GB and i'm hoping it will be a good one. As the title says i'm entering the popular revell 1:72 b-17g flying fortress. It can be bought in the UK for about £20. I have done an inbox review of this on my youtube channel. Here's the vid. Only a short one but it gives you a brief idea of the kit.
[youtube]hPv5iG2SECw[/youtube]

I'll upload a still of the box art anyway:

I have this kit at home, except mine is the promodeller version, i will start tonight.

Second Update:

Firstly some sprue shots:


















Finally decals:


Time for some history of the B-17:
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances.

The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself, and to return home despite extensive battle damage. It quickly took on mythic proportions, and widely circulated stories and photos of notable numbers and examples of B-17s surviving battle damage increased its iconic status. With a service ceiling greater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as an effective weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million metric tons of bombs dropped on Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 tons were dropped from B-17s.

As of September 2011, 13 aircraft remain airworthy, with dozens more in storage or on static display.



Now time for the history of the plane i'm going to build: Nine-O-Nine

Nine-O-Nine was a Boeing B-17G-30-BO Flying Fortress heavy bomber, of the 323rd Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group, that completed 140 combat missions during World War II, believed to be the Eighth Air Force record for most missions, without loss to the crews that flew it.

The original aircraft, a block 30 B-17G manufactured by Boeing, was nicknamed after the last three digits of her serial number: 42-31909. Nine-0-Nine was added to the USAAF inventory on December 15, 1943, and flown overseas on February 5, 1944. After depot modifications, she was delivered to the 91st BG at RAF Bassingbourn, England, on February 24, 1944, as a replacement aircraft, one of the last B-17s received in factory-applied camouflage paint.

A former navigator of the 91st BG, Marion Havelaar, reported in his history of the group that Nine-O-Nine completed either 126 or 132 consecutive missions without aborting for mechanical reasons, also believed to be a record. M/Sgt. Rollin L. Davis, maintenance line chief of the bomber, received the Bronze Star for his role in achieving the record.

Her first bombing raid was on Augsburg, Germany, on February 25, 1944. She made 18 bombing raids on Berlin. In all she flew 1,129 hours and dropped 562,000 pounds of bombs. She had 21 engine changes, four wing panel changes, 15 main gas tank changes, and 18 changes of Tokyo tanks (long-range fuel tanks).

After the hostilities ceased in Europe, Nine-O-Nine was returned to the United States on June 8, 1945, and was consigned to the RFC facility at Kingman, Arizona on December 7, 1945, and eventually scrapped.

But there was still hope...

B-17G-85-DL, 44-83575, civil registration N93012, owned and flown by The Collings Foundation, Stow, Massachusetts, currently appears at airshows marked as the historic Nine-O-Nine.

Another B-17G (Serial # 44-83575) has been returned to her wartime configuration under the auspices of the nonprofit Collings Foundation of Stow, MA and given the name "Nine-O-Nine".

The Collings Flying Fortress was built at Long Beach, CA by the Douglas Aircraft Company and accepted on April 7, 1945. Although she was too late for combat, #44-83575 did serve air-sea rescue duties as part of the Air/Sea 1st Rescue Squadron and later in the Military Air Transport Service.

In April 1952, #44-83575 was instrumented and subjected to the effects of three different nuclear explosions. After a thirteen-year "cool down" period, #44-83575 was sold as part of an 800-ton scrap pile and Aircraft Specialties Company began the restoration of the aircraft.

Damaged skin was fabricated and replaced on site; engines and props were stripped, cleaned, repaired, and tested; four thousand feet of new control cable was installed; all electrical wiring and instrumentation was replaced.

For twenty years, without a major problem or incident, #44-83575 served as a fire bomber dropping water and borate on forest fires. She was sold in January 1986 to the Collings Foundation. Restored back to her original wartime configuration by Tom Reilly Vintage Aircraft, she represented one of the finest B-17 restorations and won several awards.

Here are some pics of Nini-O-Nine:









This was a pretty large post so apologies if you got bored. So there you go guys: my entry to this GB.
I'm certainly going to enjoy this build and i hope you enjoy it too. I'll be starting this as soon as i finish my Skyhawk.
Cheers,

great choice of a kit

Bored!?! The background info is what makes this so interesting and the hobby the best...thanks!
Nice kit!

The reference in the vid is paint callouts and decals for the different bulheads.

Looks like a nice kit.. have to follow the build think I would like to build this kit myself

Third Update:

I've made a small amount of progress this weekend. No problems so far. The level of detail on this kit is really impressive but i'm not sure if i'll bother with much fine detailing of the interior as none of it ill be seen on the finished model. You only realise how small the bomb bay is on the b-17 when you build it.

First pictures are of the primed bomb bay components. I built the bomb bay in 4 or 5 sub assemblies, primed them separately and then painted them separately. Revell could maybe have included more than four bombs but you won't see them unless you turn the kit upside down anyway so it's not that big of a deal. The only other potential problem is some injector pin marks. I don't really car about them unless they'll be seen but i doubt they will be seen. You can see them easier in the primed photos.
I primed the parts with vallejo grey polyurethane primer. I used the ratio 9:1 of primer:Ultimate thinner. You can spray it straght out of the bottle but i like it quite thin.







After the primer had dried i set to painting the bomb bay. I used vallejo model air 71.006 camouflage light green mixed with 71.016 US dark green in the ratio 2:1. The bombs were sprayed with us dark green.












Tomorrow, depending on how much homework i have, i'll assemble the bomb bay, add some light chipping and drybrushing and perhaps a wash. Then i'll try to paint small details and decal the doors into the bomb bay.
Thanks for following my build so far. I'll try to keep you posted frequently. All comments whether they're positive feedback or constructive criticism are welcome on all my posts.
Cheers,

Great start dude.

Looking sharp

Fourth Update:

Again so far i've had no problems at all. This has been a great kit and hopefully it should go together fine. As you can see, I've assembled the bomb bay and done some paint chipping with a sponge and citadel boltgun metal. All that's left to do in the bomb bay is to put some decals on the doors. In the meantime, today i started on the cockpit. I've cut the chairs and a few other parts out. I've had a pretty hectic weekend so haven't done much modelling unfortunately. In the next couple of days hopefully i will get the cockpit primed, fully assembled and painted by Saturday. I'm making pretty slow progress as a combination of life and school (but mainly school!) is taking up my time. It's half term at the end of the week so hopefully i'll get a reasonable amount done then. Here are the pics:

Here is the bomb bay with the bombs and bomb rack attached to the main sub-assembly:





Here the other side of the bomb rack is attached. Annoyingly i glued the rack onto the wrong side of the rails
I've touched it up now though. I think the bomb bay is looking pretty good so far.



Thanks for following my build so far,

Looking Mighty Eighth! No, fine I mean!

Great start, I've got this kit myself and it does look like a great kit

Fifth Update:

Hi guys, got a bit done today. It's half term now so i'm hoping to get quite a bit of modelling done. I've cut all the cockpit parts off the sprues and ive started painting them. Here's some of the parts assembled. I'm having a bit of a dilemma with the instrument panel. I'm not sure whether to paint the dials or use the decals. My concern is that there are lots of raised details and i'm not certain if microset and sol will work. My other dilemma is whether i should use johnsons klear or micro kristal klear to create glass looking dials. Any help will be much appreciated. I'll try and post another update of painted cockpit parts tomorrow.





Thanks for the support,

Looking good.

Sixth Update:

Hi guys, this is gonna be a pretty big update as i have got a large amount done today.
I'm really loving this kit and i can't recommend it enough if you don't already have it. The cockpit are is now complete; the green areas are a 50:50 mix of vallejo model air 71.006 cam. light green and 71.016 us dark green. The instrument panel is painted that same mix with the dials being painted revell 9 anthracite grey. Some of the buttons were painted either 71.002 medium yellow, 71.003 scarlet red or 71.004 blue (all again vallejo ma). The top of the instrument panel is painted vallejo ma 71.057 black. Here are some pics:



By the way there is a decal for the instrument panel but i decided not to put it in for a few reasons: As it is a large piece for 1:72 i wanted to practice using a paintbrush for picking out the dials. As it won't be visible anyway i thought it would be a good idea.





Then we have the seats. I googled what they actually looked like and apparently they had both of the cushions yellow unlike revell's instructions. I sprayed the cushions vallejo 71.002 medium yellow and hand brushed the seat 71.013 yellow olive. The seatbelts have decent detail for the scale and a Ultimate dark dirt wash accentuated them well. They were painted with vallejo 71.027 light brown and the buckles with citadel runefang steel. I left the wash to dry for 30 mins before coming back with a moist cotton bud and wiping off the excess. I felt this was particularly necessary as the vallejo yellow came out quite bright and i wanted a slightly darker, dirtier and more weathered seats:






I'm not sure what this next room is on the b-17 but it has the chin turret below and is very bland apart from two chairs and some sort of metal device which i'm assuming is to do with comms or the bomb aiming. Please let me know if you do know what it is. Again all the green is the same 50:50 mix and the metal on the chairs was also sprayed the same colour. The seat cushions were painted vallejo 71.050 light grey and the buckles again were light brown with runefang steel. The wooden desk or whatever it is was painted a 50:50 of vallejo 71.033 yellow ocre and 71.036 mahogany. Hand painted as i wanted a 'grain' on the wood. I didn't want to spend much time on this as it won't be visible so it's a pretty simple alternative and i'm pretty happy with the look. I use the same mixture again a couple of stages later as you will soon see.










Next step was to attach the three sub- assemblies i have aleady built to the first fuselage half. Just to remind you those sub-assemblies are the bomb bay, cockpit and the mysterious room which i don't know the name of. I started with the bomb bay. I like revell's design of this as the two protuding pieces of plastic you can see ( the long parts on the bomb bay) are attachment points for the wings. Should hopefully keep it pretty sturdy.




I then glued in the cockpit. The fit was great with the cockpit and there was a tiny tiny gap between the bomb bay and the fuselage. As i have had nothing wrong with this kit yet i'm being quite picky.



Then the other room which was also a very good fit. Be careful not to glue the chin turret to the fuselage as then it will not be able to rotate as it does currently. It does make it pretty clear in the instructions not to glue it but i thought i'd say anyway just incase.



Now onto the radio operators room i think. Some nice details on these parts. Painted revell 9 anthracite grey and drybrushed citadel bolt gun metal. They fit very easily into the parts with the doors on into grooves. Can't go wrong here.







Here is another piece of wood with the same techniques as mentioned earlier in this update. I have to say that the detail on the interior parts is exceptional for 1:72 and even though virtually none of it will be seen, it's still a very nice touch from revell. Also for less than £20 you can't really complain.



And here is the radio equipment assembled.






Thanks again for following my build. Sorry if this update was quite long. Will try and really get going on this build and i will post an update video if i remember.
Cheers,

That is looking great so far!! Can't wait to see the finished build!! The Nine O'Nine is a cool old bird, I see her occasionally on tour! I will be following your build with great interest!

Cheers for the comment. I couldn't resist building nine-o-nine for two reasons. 1. I saw it on the tele by coincidence and 2. it has a great back story. Loving this build.
Cheers,

Oh, watch out! Yesterday, I put the other fuselage half on just to check the overall fit. about a half centimeter gap over the bomb bay. I glued and glued. In my rage, I tore out 2 bombs and a rack off the model to make room, that helped but not much . I am gonna probably pull out the bomb bay, which will not be visible and just glue the walls on so it can fit well. I hope this is only my kit because I dont want you to run into a snag. Good luck

Cheers for the heads up mate. Hopefully mine won't be the same.

I wouldnt worry.I think it was the accumulation of humbrol canopy glue that wouldnt let it fit. PS the interior on yours is great. Im scrambling to attempt to catch up

Trainboy153 wrote:I wouldnt worry.I think it was the accumulation of humbrol canopy glue that wouldnt let it fit. PS the interior on yours is great. Im scrambling to attempt to catch up

Cheers bud. Hope you sort out your problems. Your build is looking really good too.

ScaleModelling1105 wrote:

Trainboy153 wrote:I wouldnt worry.I think it was the accumulation of humbrol canopy glue that wouldnt let it fit. PS the interior on yours is great. Im scrambling to attempt to catch up

Cheers bud. Hope you sort out your problems. Your build is looking really good too.

How long have you been into modelling? And after tearing out the bomb bay, it fits good. Phew

Trainboy153 wrote:

ScaleModelling1105 wrote:

Trainboy153 wrote:I wouldnt worry.I think it was the accumulation of humbrol canopy glue that wouldnt let it fit. PS the interior on yours is great. Im scrambling to attempt to catch up

Cheers bud. Hope you sort out your problems. Your build is looking really good too.

How long have you been into modelling? And after tearing out the bomb bay, it fits good. Phew

I've been modelling seriously for probably 11 months. I do spend a lot of time modelling though so it equates to probably more than an average 11 months in terms of hours. Glad to hear the fuselage fits.

Your doing a very nice job, I just started mine lastnight and its a fantastic kit to work with. I think the Fortress is gonna dominate this GB

eoinfinnegan wrote:Your doing a very nice job, I just started mine lastnight and its a fantastic kit to work with. I think the Fortress is gonna dominate this GB

Cheers. I've got to agree with you on that one. It's a popular machine, but it has a reason to be! It's definitely a great kit and you've gotta love the b-17. What a monster!

Seventh Update:

Hi guys, a smaller update today. This work was done at the weekend but i've been unable to upload until now.
I've also started the turrets which will come in the next update.

So for this update i get the other half of the radio operators section done. Really like the finished look of the interior now and all the rooms are done. I'm learning loads from this build as i've never built a kit with this level of interior detail before.

On with the pics. Here the same 50:50 green mix i've done throughout on the floor and chairs. The chair is painted the same wood effect i've used so far (mahogany and yellow ocre) with light brown belt and runefang steel buckles. I'm not sure why there are marks where the other chair goes as they are not glue marks:




Here we have one of the chairs i made earlier added to the floor:




More radio equipment. Painted vallejo ma 71.057 black and drybrushed citadel boltgun metal:







First part with flash on was the chair you've just seen:




Doors painted citadel runefang steel and radio gear glued on:








The half of the room was then glued in to the fuselage:






First clear part in with a 50.cal machine gun. Used microscale micro kristal klear for the clears. In the bottom right corner is the wheel well for the rear wheel.




Ammo box on: i should really paint the bullets copper but on the prototype photos on the box i saw they'd done this and i thought it looked pretty cool so i gave it a go.





A start on one o the turrets. It's a 360 degree fully rotating ball turret:




Turret sealed:





That's it for now. I'll post another update soon. Thanks for following the build.

Eighth Update:

Thought i'd do a short video update:
[youtube]R1v9pJucoPg[/youtube]

Great progress. Cant wait for more updates.

fantastic work mate looks stunning

Nige201980 wrote:fantastic work mate looks stunning

Cheers Nige

Your a lot futher than i am lol. Looking like a cracking build mate

Oh, I found a good pic of Nine-0-Nine here http://lockthewelderdotcom.files.wordpr ... /p47-4.jpg

Trainboy153 wrote:Oh, I found a good pic of Nine-0-Nine here http://lockthewelderdotcom.files.wordpr ... /p47-4.jpg

Cheers mate. Nice pic indeed.

Nice update! Great progress!

were you able to sort out your Olive Drab choices?

HistoryRider wrote:Nice update! Great progress!

were you able to sort out your Olive Drab choices?

Cheers. Yes I have chosen. I'm going to use Vallejo model air 71.016 US dark green. If you look back to where I made the bomb bay it's the same colour as the bombs were painted. It's quite brown which is exactly what I want. Vallejo claim it's the colour you should use for dark green or raf scheme but it's not even close! I'll post another update in the next few days. All the turrets are assembled and soon the fuselage halves will go together.

ScaleModelling1105 wrote:

Trainboy153 wrote:Oh, I found a good pic of Nine-0-Nine here http://lockthewelderdotcom.files.wordpr ... /p47-4.jpg

Cheers mate. Nice pic indeed.

Glad to be of help.

Fantastic work on this so far. I agree completely with your YouTube video, it's such a shame all that detail in the office / cockpit will not be completely on show.

Look forward to seeing this come together.

Ninth Update:

Hi everyone. Before i talk about the b-17 i need to apologize for not posting any updates in a long time. I've been very busy at school as i have exams as soon as Easter hols are over so have been revising for them. I have made quite a bit of progress though since the last update. This includes: joining of the fuselage halves, gluing the wings and painting the engines. So here goes my rather lengthy update to my build.





Here's the ball turret on the underside of the fuselage. I masked it using tamiya tape and then sprayed it citadel runefang steel, followed by a coat of varnish, followed by vallejo model air 71.050 light grey. I then used my swann-morton no.11 scalpel blade to pick very small amounts of paint, creating a chipping effect as it revealed the aluminium beneath the light grey.


Another .50cal machine gun:


Dry fitting the fuselage: Not a good fit at all:


Started on the engines:




Both halves glued together. A good fit. Much better than the fuselage halves:




Flaps on, a bit stiff but oh well:



Dry fit of the wings and the fuselage:


A good fit:


Dry fit of the horizontal stabilizers:



Engine parts sprayed citadel runefang steel:


These parts for the engines sprayed vallejo model air 71.050 light grey:


A photo of all the engine parts: Top two rows airbrushed citadel runefang steel, the rest vallejo light grey:


First step of gluing:


Grey parts glued on:


Ultimate dark dirt wash applied:


Engines glued to the wings:



Sorry about the large size. I will try to make more, smaller updates in future. Thanks for following my build. Been filling the fuselage gaps and wing gaps today. Will spray the inside of the engine cowling interior green tomorrow hopefully and then will sand the filler.
Video update to follow. I'm feeling closer to finishing this build which has taken me a long time. I think i'll make it in time for the deadline (finger crossed). Loving this build, i've learnt a lot and it has significantly helped my modelling skills.

Cheers,

Tenth Update:

[youtube]ChdEP-odgfw[/youtube]

Cheers,

Looking GREAT!! Keep it up! Cant wait to see it in all its splendor!

Your doing a cracking job, good luck with the rest of the build

Great video update Will!

She's coming on tremendously, can't wait to see her complete!

Cheers,

Martin

Sorry it's been a while since my last update, but revision is taking over my life currently. Exams start on Wednesday. I go back to school on Tuesday so not much time in lessons. As soon as they're over i will push to get this build done before the deadline. I've now basically finished the painting as you'll see in a minute. The only airbrushing i have left to do is the red on the wing tips and on the tail, and the black on the leading edge of the wings. So here's the update.

Eleventh Update

Here's all the clear parts, bomb bay and engines glued and masked. Just to say before i get any further, the filling on this kit has been really challenging. The wings had a really good fit but because of all the rooms in the fuselage, the two fuselage halves did not go together well. There ended up being about a 1/8 inch gap, mainly at the front that was a real task. As the front glass part on the top of the fuselage was about 50% too small there was a lot of filler required and as it was an awkward rounded off shape it was a pain to fill. That said it has improved my filling skills a lot and hopefully my next build won't be as bad. All the masking was done with various tamiya tapes and a fresh scalpel blade.









Now the entire aircraft primed and preshaded. This was my first proper go at preshading and i'm really happy with the result after paint. Primed with vallejo grey primer and preshaded with vallejo model air 71.057 black. This took about 1.5 hours. This thing is massive and has a lot of panels.





Onto painting the beast. The underside was airbrushed with vallejo model air 71.050 light grey and vallejo model air 71.001 white in the ratio 5:1. The olive drab was quite a random mix of paints but after looking at reference photos of the plane it looks like a pretty strange colour. It's much browner than olive drab but has a very slight yellowish tint as seen here:



I made my own mix using these vallejo model air paints:
71.016 US dark green
71.033 Yellow Ocre
71.037 Mud Brown
In the ration 10:1:1
The us dark green i used as the base olive drab (but slightly browner) the yellow ocre for a hint of yellow, and the brown to tone down the yellow and make the green darker. I'm pretty happy with it. Maybe could've been a bit browner but oh well. I think the preshading came out quite nicely.



I separately painted the cowlings along with loads of external parts that will go on soon. Attached them on. Such a good friction fit that i didnt need to glue. The props were painted vallejo 71.057 black and masked, then sprayed citadel runefang steel in the centre. I'm going to spray the yellow tips next but i stopped because i''d been spraying all afternoon and i needed a break.



So that's my latest update. Hope you like it. Next is spraying the tail and wing tips, and the leading edges. Thanks for following my build an for your kind comments.
Cheers

The Flying Fortress has always been my favorite bomber; one of the airworthy 13, "Sentimental Journey," is based at Falcon Field just 15 minutes from my house. Visitor are allowed to climb through the plane; for as big as it is, the inside is CRAMPED!

I built the Revell 1/48 B-17G a couple of years ago; I marked mine as "Chow Hound" which was shot down over France in 1943, if I remember correctly. One of Chow Hound's propellor blades is on display at the Commemorative Air Force museum.

Looking forward to seeing your plane all finished!

Looking good

Twelfth Update:

You may call this cutting it a bit close to the deadline but i'm just glad i've made it. Here's my final update. I've been thrilled with this kit. It's been a great build and i've learnt more from this build than any other before. Despite the fit issue with the fuselage and the decals (which i'll get onto in a bit) i've loved every minute of this.

Here's the red on the wing tips and tail plus the black on the leading edge of the wings. Sprayed mr hobby agueous flat red and the balck vallejo 71.057 black with a drop of grey. I'm a bit annoyed i did the preshading so dark because it took about half a bottle of red paint and a very long time to cover the preshading properly:



Finally that's all the painting over. Now onto the decals. The patches you can see on the wings is microsol whilst drying. The decals didnt want to conform into the panels at all. Even with multiple coats of microsol they were too stubborn.



Decals on the side:



And on the right:



The process of applying a Ultimate dark dirt as a sludge wash. You can see the wash being applied at the rear of the fuselage compared to the rest of the model with no wash on.



Now onto the BIG REVEAL!!!!!!! I will post the same photos on the reveal page too.









I didnt have enough time to weather the underside so i left it be until tomorrow. Thanks for following my build i've really appreciated your supportive comments.

I turned out very nice, well done