The beast has been tamed: B-52F Stratofortress
Kommentare
1 15 December 2017, 19:37
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Hi everyone, a few weeks ago I finally started on what to my standards is a monster project. I am going to tame the big Monogram 1/72 B-52 beast. Bought this kit years ago and decided I wanted to build it as one of those cool looking metal-and-black Vietnam War B-52F's. How hard can that be? Well... it took a several years and patience to collect all the now out-of-production bits and pieces I needed but I finally succeeded. Finding the crucial resin engine conversion set took forever.
15 December 2017, 19:49
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Ha yes, shelf space is a bit of an issue (did I mention this thing is huge?) so I decided to model it in flight, coming in for landing, so that I can put it on a stand on top of my display cabinet. Hope I eyeballed that correctly but we'll find out as we progress. To preserve my sanity I am breaking up the build in small steps. So far I have completed the first two, next up: wheel wells.
15 December 2017, 19:50
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If you mean re-scribe, yes, I intend to. Not yet looking forward to that part, however most of the lines are long and straight. Still a lot of them though, do hope I don't lose my nerve 🙂
15 December 2017, 20:20
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Yes, I meant to say re-write. Sorry for my bad english. I have to restore mine ("Big, Bad & Beautiful" box). It has 25 years old and paint by brush. It's suspended from the ceiling (very big for shelf).
15 December 2017, 20:45
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Looks great, Hans! Very nice scratchbuilding in the cockpit and rear pit!
16 December 2017, 11:31
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Happy new year to everyone 🙂! A short update on my progress with this one. Due to all the talk of re-scribing I realized it would be a good idea to get re-scribing of the fuselage out of the way before continuing with detailing the interior. A slow and bit of a boring job but quite doable, with only the curved nose and tail areas tricky. Still managed to mess up quite a few times 🙁. Installing the bomb bay doors on the other hand was not so boring, took a lot of work to get a decent fit here.
6 January 2018, 11:34
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And completed another (small) step: tackled the nose area glazing preparations. Working with vacform canopies is not something I am very good at but looks like this time I pulled it of 🙂. We'll see for sure when the time comes to install the canopy.
8 January 2018, 19:17
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Hi there, completed another step in this long journey. Things are progressing well so far, just got the main gears ready for installation. Started on the wheel wells, which will require quite a bit of scratch building.
21 January 2018, 20:03
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I think I'm happy I didn't buy this kit. She's huge.
You're doing marvellous work on her.
21 January 2018, 20:30
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Progressing slowly but surely. Completed the basic structure of the wheel wells. Fwd well was a lot more work than the aft one as the fwd well looks totally different than what RM provides. Had to study a lot of pictures an Youtube movies to figure everything out. Now gathering courage to start filling them up with pipes, wiring and all the other stuff that's crammed in there.
9 February 2018, 20:31
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amazing job you are doing in this big bird. i love all the scratch building you are adding. excellent!
10 February 2018, 10:17
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Fantastic work there Hans. Your scratch and scribing work really pays off.
10 February 2018, 19:30
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Thx everyone. Starting to like this scratchbuilding and my skills are improving. Does take a lot of time though, it is modeling at snails pace.. 🙂 Will keep you posted.
11 February 2018, 10:14
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I'm in, great scratchbuilding so far 👍
And this kit is a true giant!
11 February 2018, 19:14
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Hello again, time for another update. Spent the past weeks plodding along with the wheel wells of this beast. Today made a Modelers Decision: enough is enough. I am done with straining my eyes and CA-ing my fingers and bits and pieces of metal and plastic together 🙂. Because the F didn't have all these bleed air driven generators etc. inside the fuselage I leaned towards the wheel well interior of the later B-52 models, as far as I could identify this from the dozens of pictures I looked up on the net (thx to everyone out there who posted useful pictures!). Still I am pretty sure I have created an irresponsible mix of B-52B through H features but hey, there it is. What counts is that I have achieved enough of the busy look inside the wheel wells that I was looking for. Now it is time to move on to the next challenge...
12 March 2018, 19:34
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very nice interior. busy indeed! no idea if it is B or H ... but it looks good to me!
12 March 2018, 19:44
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Try lead wire for wiring/hydraulics and stuff! Soft like butter, great to handle. Incredible amount of work btw, great detail!
14 March 2018, 21:23
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Another short update on my progress. After all the tiny bits and pieces in the wheel wells the next step involved some heavy engineering to create a socket for the stand and to strengthen the wing root. During dry-fitting I noticed the high stresses on the fuselage and wing root seams and since my model will not have the support of the wing tip wheels I decided a little extra work was needed. I had already planned spars to prevent wing sagging but I decided to use these to create a carry-through structure as well. Was not half as difficult as I expected it to be. Now it is on to the spray booth for interior painting.
25 March 2018, 19:28
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very interesting way of making the structure a lot stronger. i think i would have used a rounded tube and bend it into shape, but your idea of cutting it and solder it is probably much better. if this does not hold it in place, nothing will 🙂
25 March 2018, 20:17
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Hello, more in-progress pics of my B-52F. I have progressed quite a bit, with the fuselage now closed up, seam cleaned up, most re-re-scribing done and canopies installed. Further detailing of the fuselage exterior is up next.
15 April 2018, 11:32
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This is quite a progress, following with great interest! Would you give a hint where you got these round rescribing templates? (pic79)
12 August 2018, 15:11
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Hi there and thx. Picked up those circular scribing templates up long ago in my favorite webshop. Just checked, they are from HQT tools and still available.
12 August 2018, 17:37
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Thx! Wouldn't be surprised if I need another six months 🙂. Right now I'm a bit distracted by my ESCI F-111A build but still making progress step by step. Engine pods are almost done, wings are up next. Kind of putting of to get going on the rescribing... 😳
29 August 2018, 19:48
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Hi everyone, back again. In case anyone wondered if this one was banished to the shelf of doom, rest assured it wasn't. Despite delays due to my in-between F-111A build, I'm still making slow but steady progress. To my own surprise I passed the 1-year build time marker last week but completion is nearing with the painting phase now on the horizon.
Over the past few months I have tackled the wings, a job I somewhat underestimated. Rescribing was a big enough job but the decision to rip out all flap well "detail" and start from scratch kinda added to the build time as well 😄. Worth the effort though, really improves this area that will remain quite visible. Modelling flaps up was an option as well of course though I can assure you that would have posed a whole different set of challenges.
With the wings almost done I am now trying to get my head around how to get this baby painted. Already decided most of it will have to be done before final assembly and I have even resorted to writing down the paint & mask sequence of all assemblies 🤔.
Stay tuned, will be back in few weeks or more likely months 🙂
1 December 2018, 15:45
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And another happy new year to everyone! My B-52F has by now progressed well into the painting phase. I am about one-third in and things are going well so far. I am almost ready for these huge areas of aluminium and black. Fingers crossed...
6 January 2019, 12:11
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Great work I have just noticed. For sure I will follow this build- marvelous and gorgeous work!
6 January 2019, 19:39
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Hey there, another update on my B-52F. Still in the middle of the painting phase and recovering from a nasty setback with the gloss black coat. Damage control is now done and I am ready for a second try on the black. Is that the finish line I see on the horizon? 🙂
23 January 2019, 20:28
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Wow! Somehow this attracted my attention... Glad I looked in: amazing scratch building on all the interior parts!!! Ik ga voor je duimen voor het volgende spuitwerk! 👍 👍
23 January 2019, 21:47
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Pity that the sprayjob did not work out. I had never issues with Using Tamiya and Vallejo colours at the same tome
24 January 2019, 16:54
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Hmmm, that made me think. I just assumed the stuff in the Tamiya spray cans was the same as the stuff in the glass bottles. Stupid... 🙁 A few seconds of Googling taught me the spray cans are lacquer based. Lacquer over acrylics is just as bad an idea as lacquer over enamels (guess how I learned that one...). Duh... Should have isolated the acrylics with floor polish.
24 January 2019, 20:14
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Well, the good thing is that you might be able to clean it up using Isopropyl alcohol. It will eat away the lacquer paint without harming the plastic. Well, at least for Mr. Paint and Mr. Color paints, that is. I would test it on a painted piece of scrap plastic first though!
24 January 2019, 20:39
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VAQ-209 Prowler | Album by Hagel (1:72)
This is where I put my painted parts straight into the alcohol.
24 January 2019, 20:43
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Hello, I have finally done it and tamed this beast! Sort of. Recovery from the "black disaster" went smoothly, hardly any harm done there. The remainder of the painting phase was also smooth sailing but I got bitten once more just before the finish line.
The decision to install the wings at the very end was not a happy one. Not that I have any idea how I would have managed spraying and decaling this monster with wings attached. I opted out of another full blown seam filling-and-sanding-and-respray session with lots of potential harm. Despite this I had another lapse in higher brain functions and still did something stupid when finishing of the wing-to-fuselage joints. The result: parts of the US AIR FORCE lettering on the nose destroyed... More cussing and pulling out hair... After briefly considering buying another set of decals or printing my own I took the very much faster shortcut of restoring them with pieces of decal from the spares box. With (of course) a slightly different color. Duh.. Might fix it better somewhere in the future, or not...
Nevertheless it is done and I now have one impressive piece of plastic hovering over my display cabinet! I am (for now) done with huge models and have three positively tiny cessna's on the the bench 🙂. Thank you all for watching and your patience. Until the next build!
4 February 2019, 21:04
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Fantastic work, Hans. Followed the whole build with interest. Great patience and dealing with those mishaps! The beast has been tamed quite literally! 👍👍👍
5 February 2019, 10:12
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Impressive build! Very well done - all the extra work paid out well 👍 👍 👍
6 February 2019, 07:50
Album info
Conversion of the Revell-Monogram B-52D to a Vietnam War B-52F