B-17G Progress

1
January 5, 2020
Front, cockpit and middle interior PE finished and the scratch build for the bomb bay. Also added the ribbing that will be seen through the front crew hatch and opened the crew doors into the cockpit between the chairs.
2
January 5, 2020
Rear compartment and rear gunner PE finished. Also added some ribbing that will be seen through the rear crew hatch.
3
January 5, 2020
I really like the detail of the Eduard PE for the crew door and hatches. I also cut out the internal doors as I will have them displayed open.
4
January 5, 2020
Rear crew door and hatch opened in the fuselage.
5
January 5, 2020
Front crew hatch and bomb bay opened in the fuselage.
6
January 11, 2020
3D printed Barrels painted with Mr.Metallic Color 214 and buffed with a cotton bud. The barrels were modeled in Autodesk Fusion 360.
7
January 23, 2020
All of the interior is now finished and painted. The desk lamp is a resin 3D print of my own design. Also in Fusion 360.
8
January 23, 2020
The maps are just printed on paper and glued to the table using pva glue. The fire extinguisher is a resin 3D print.
9
January 23, 2020
The Eduard PE for the front chair enables it to swivel with the front gun turret located beneath it.
10
January 23, 2020
All the extra detail is Eduard PE from the BigEd set.
11
January 23, 2020
I opted to open the crew entry doors between the seats.
12
January 23, 2020
13
January 23, 2020
I also opted to open the door to the rear of the cockpit. It is half closed as otherwise there would be no room to have the rotating top turret.
14
January 23, 2020
The map bags are also Eduard PE.
15
January 23, 2020
16
January 23, 2020
17
January 23, 2020
18
January 23, 2020
I messed up when putting the radio together, so the front panel is too large... 🙁. The code sheets are actually decal application instructions. ;D
19
January 23, 2020
Here I also opted to have the door to the bomb bay open.
20
January 23, 2020
21
January 23, 2020
22
January 23, 2020
Eduard PE ammunition boxes for the ball turret.
23
January 23, 2020
24
January 23, 2020
The whole assembly finished and ready to marry to the fuselage.
25
January 23, 2020
26
January 23, 2020
A little extra detail with Eduard PE and resin 3D printed oxygene tanks.
27
January 23, 2020
28
January 23, 2020
29
January 23, 2020
30
January 23, 2020
31
January 23, 2020
I still have not put in the rear gunners seat. I will do that when assembling the fuselage halves.
32
January 23, 2020
33
January 23, 2020
34
January 23, 2020
Here you can see the top turret and the reason why the door to the bomb bay is half closed. I want to have the clearance to be able to turn the turret 360 degrees.
35
January 23, 2020
36
January 23, 2020
Top turret finished. I still have to add the sights on the gun barrels.
37
January 23, 2020
38
January 23, 2020
the only PE on the turret is the seat belt.
39
January 23, 2020
Ball turret is also finished.
40
January 23, 2020
41
January 23, 2020
42
January 23, 2020
43
January 25, 2020
Engines and propellers are finished. There is some Eduard PE on the engines.
44
March 3, 2020
Only a little PE detail in the wheel wells.
45
March 3, 2020
46
March 3, 2020
Eduard PE for the wing where the flaps will be mounted.
47
March 3, 2020
Flaps finished.
48
March 3, 2020
I've added the ammo rails for the machine guns. Also part of the Eduard PE set.
49
March 3, 2020
50
March 3, 2020
51
March 3, 2020
52
March 3, 2020
53
March 3, 2020
54
March 3, 2020
I had to add some extra styrene to mount the machine guns so they can be rotated.
55
March 3, 2020
Interior glued to the right fuselage part and the ammo rail glued to the machine gun. Styrene was added to make this machine gun rotate too.
56
March 3, 2020
I had to add some styrene to build the lamp in the landing light.
57
March 3, 2020
Black paint sprayed and Molotow liquid chrome to make a reflector.
58
March 3, 2020
I added UV curable clear glue to make the lamp glass.
59
March 3, 2020
My handy helper tools 😉.
60
March 3, 2020
Result after gluing the clear part to the wing.
61
March 3, 2020
I removed the molded details from the tail and added styrene rods instead as the molded parts did not line up.
62
March 3, 2020
The fuselage is glued together and the ammo rails are glued to the machine guns. I had to remove the bomb sight to be able to glue the top round window in place. I will add it again after painting the plane.
63
March 3, 2020
Pre shading the wings with Tamiya XF-2 on top of a black base Tamiya XF-1.
64
March 17, 2020
The fuselage is also black based and marbled. This was a whole lot of work. Hope it is worth it..
65
March 17, 2020
Base camo finished and the pre-shading can be seen through the coat 🙂.
66
March 17, 2020
YOu can also see the pre-shading in the red parts, but the color is so vibrant in photos that it is hard to see.
67
March 17, 2020
As you can see I managed to break off one of the gun barrels while handlng the model during masking/painting. Just another thing to fix later on..
68
March 17, 2020
I still have the masking of the turbo chargers left on my todo list.
69
March 17, 2020
Masking for the first layer of the insignias.
70
March 17, 2020
71
March 17, 2020
72
March 17, 2020
Masking the second layer.
73
March 17, 2020
74
March 17, 2020
75
March 17, 2020
76
March 17, 2020
Second layer is finished. I like the result 🙂.
77
March 17, 2020
The yellow lettering also has a white base layer.
78
March 17, 2020
79
March 17, 2020
80
March 17, 2020
Time for thes second set of masks for the tail plane.
81
March 17, 2020
82
March 17, 2020
And the final set of masks for the tail plane.
83
March 17, 2020
All the insignia is finished.
84
March 20, 2020
The turbo chargers are masked and painted with Mr.Color Burnt Iron.
85
March 20, 2020
86
March 20, 2020
The Eduard PE cowl flaps are super glued to the engine cowls.
87
March 20, 2020
Cowls and flaps masked painted and clear coated.
88
March 20, 2020
The rest of the plane is also clear coated. Next is decaling.
89
March 28, 2020
I made the bomb bay door openers from styrene plastic.
90
March 28, 2020
Bomb bay doors mounted.
91
March 28, 2020
Styrene rods used to replace the antennas that I broke off during handling.
92
March 28, 2020
First step in building up the positioning lights. Molotow liquid chrome.
93
March 28, 2020
94
March 28, 2020
95
March 28, 2020
96
March 28, 2020
Second step was the clear colors, and third is the UV cured clear glue.
97
March 28, 2020
98
March 28, 2020
Only clear paint over the Molotow liquid chrome on the wing lights.
99
March 28, 2020
100
March 28, 2020
101
March 28, 2020
I added some khaki paint to the canvas covering the gun mounts.
102
March 28, 2020
The machine guns were glued to the ammunition rails with super glue before mounting the windows.
103
March 28, 2020
104
March 28, 2020
105
March 28, 2020
Windows painted, and gun mounts in place.
106
March 28, 2020
Flaps in place.
107
March 28, 2020
108
March 28, 2020
The Eduard PE crew doors in place.
109
March 28, 2020
I love the detail on this door. The window is a piece of clear plastic from packaging that I found. The clear part from the kit did not fit.
110
March 28, 2020
111
March 28, 2020
112
March 28, 2020
113
March 28, 2020
114
March 29, 2020
I didn't have EZ-line that was thick enough, so I used 0.2 mm styrene rod for the antenna wires. It is a bit too thick, but at least you can see it. 😉
115
March 29, 2020
116
March 29, 2020
117
March 29, 2020
118
March 29, 2020
I found two different drawings for the antenna wires, so I just chose to do this one as it looks nice. 😉
119
March 29, 2020
120
March 29, 2020
It is a big plane, so taking photos outside with a 100 mm lens helps remove the lens abberations I get on the mobile camera. And the sunshine is so nice today. 🙂
121
March 29, 2020
122
March 29, 2020
123
March 29, 2020
124
March 29, 2020
125
March 29, 2020
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March 29, 2020
127
March 29, 2020
128
March 29, 2020
129
March 29, 2020
130
March 29, 2020
131
March 29, 2020
Of course I forgot the last little PE antenna before I took the pictures outside, so here is a closeup of that too. 😉
132
March 29, 2020
Finally sitting in its place along the Catalina and the Lancaster. Next plane will have to be something small! 😉
133
July 25, 2020
Really nice detail of the figures that came with the kit, and no assembly required.
134
July 25, 2020
Result after base painting all the colors.
135
July 25, 2020
The finished figures after dry brushing highlights and washes for shadows and grime effect.
136
July 25, 2020
My little helpers taking a break and working on the B-17.
137
July 25, 2020
The bomb loading cart that came with the kit was very basic. The only modification I did was scoring the flat top of the cart so it looks like planks of wood. The rest is paintwork and weathering.
138
July 25, 2020
139
July 25, 2020
I'm thinking of building some bombs to put on the cart. Right now, the story is that the bomb bay is fully loaded and the cart is waiting for transport back to the bomb storage facility. 😉

Kommentarer

20 5 January 2020, 13:18

Björn Svedberg
First progress pictures of this build. I've made most of the modifications to the fuselage including opening up all the crew doors, the bomb bay and most of the interior doors. I've also finished most of the PE for the interior and added some more ribbing that will be visible through the openings on the finished model.

5 January 2020, 13:22

Nathan Dempsey
Wow, great start! I'm following🙂

5 January 2020, 14:10

Daniel
Amazing!!! Bit of a pity you had to close this ...😉

5 January 2020, 14:36

Konrad -
Great absolutely great the kit and your current progress 😉!

5 January 2020, 14:55

Stefan Schacht
very nice so far 👍. Count me in

5 January 2020, 15:11

Thomas Bischoff
I'm in! Like your work on the interior 👍

5 January 2020, 18:28

Hans-Jürgen Haag
Great Job Björn, i like it. The top over the Bomb Bay has the same round inner Profile as the Frame of the Wireless room. The bulg with the Cockpit wes set up on the round fuselage.

5 January 2020, 19:34

Mathieu
Great detail work ! keep it up 👍

5 January 2020, 21:52

coporado
Interesting project and very nice start, I´m in

6 January 2020, 05:56

Björn Svedberg
Thanks Mates, You are all very welcome!
Yes, the plane will be closed up and the clear parts are not very good so the interior will be hard to see, but working on it is so much fun and I will take lots of photos before closing it up so there will be more detailing😉.
My plan for the bomb bay is only to give it some sort of structure as the kit didn't come with any details except for the center bomb racks and the walkway. Most of the view will be obstructed by the bombs anyway.
This is a large project so it will probably take a few months to finish. I'm taking my time and enjoying the build 🙂.

6 January 2020, 16:49

Stephan Ryll
Very nice progress Björn 👍

6 January 2020, 18:22

Mike Day
Great job so far. I have the Monogram 148 B-24 and will be doing all the Eduard upgrades too. Will you be keeping the panel lines?

7 January 2020, 18:44

Björn Svedberg
Thanks Stephan and Mike!
Mike, I wish I had a 1:48-scale B-24! Its another favorite of mine, and I'm looking forward to see your build 👍. But to answer your question, I'm sticking with the panel lines. It is too much work to remove and re-scribe them and I don't really mind them. They look good on this model, but I'm thinking about adding some riveting. I just have to find some good reference first.
Cheers! 🙂

11 January 2020, 21:37

Björn Svedberg
Another update. 🙂
I wasn't happy with the gun barrels in the kit. Too much flash and poor quality molding made them look awful, so I designed my own in Fusion 360 and 3D printed them instead. I painted them with my favorite Mr.Metallic Color 214 Dark Iron and buffed them with a cotton bud. I really like the effect. 🙂

11 January 2020, 21:41

coporado
Fantastic work on those barrels

12 January 2020, 07:08

Nathan Dempsey
I agree, those barrels look great!

12 January 2020, 16:53

Björn Svedberg
Thanks coporado and Nathan! 🙂
I am almost finished with the interior now, so I felt it was time to show a few more progress photos. I added a few extra 3D printed details like the lamp, the oxygen tubes and the fire extinguishers. I also added the maps and the code sheets for the radio operator.
Cheers!

23 January 2020, 09:31

Hans-Jürgen Haag
Hej Björn, Great Navigators room!

23 January 2020, 10:54

Tim Heimer
Looking good!

23 January 2020, 16:34

bughunter
Björn, you accidentally shrunk your desk lamp!😎 You know, I like details a lot, and here we have a lot of them 👍

23 January 2020, 17:11

Nathan Dempsey
Inspiring work Björn. I'll admit I've ordered many items recently for my 1:48 B-24D after seeing this build.

23 January 2020, 19:12

coporado
Beautiful interior work, 3D print items look great

24 January 2020, 09:07

Spanjaard
excellent job you are doing in this "little" airplane. i love the details. the desk lamp i really fantastic.

24 January 2020, 21:17

Björn Svedberg
Thank you Mates! I'm really appreciative of your comments, and hope I can live up to the expectations. 🙂 This build has really grown since I started it, so we will see where it ends..
Another update, the engines and propellers are finished.

25 January 2020, 15:47

Roland Sachsenhofer
Wow, just saw this! Wonderful work and what a plenty of well reproduced details! Beautiful work; i am keen to follow this!

25 January 2020, 16:15

Björn Svedberg
Thank you Roland, and you are welcome! 🙂
Another update, I have finished all of the interior work and glued the fuselage together. I also added a bit of extra detail to the landing lights and started the pre shading of the wings. Next will be pre shading the rest of the plane. It is alot of repetetive work and it's a big plane, so it will take some time..

3 March 2020, 18:57

coporado
Nice to follow that progress. The work on those landing lights was absolutely worth it, looks great! I really like all the interior detail, superb mate.

4 March 2020, 05:51

Björn Svedberg
Thank you coporado for your nice words! 🙂
A bit of masking and painting later..😉 The base color scheme is now finished and most of the insignias are also in place. Next will be masking and painting the turbo chargers, and then for some clear coat and decals.

17 March 2020, 15:26

Tim Heimer
You are doing some awesome work here! Hope you're enjoying the build as much as we are!

17 March 2020, 15:36

Björn Svedberg
Thank you Tim! 🙂
Alot of the time it is a bit frustrating, but the painting is always fun!

17 March 2020, 15:40

bughunter
A cutting plotter is a useful tool, the pic76 looks fantastic! The yellow letters on 77 looks are special, but I have not checked original pictures. I'm sure you are doing it right 👍

17 March 2020, 16:20

Björn Svedberg
Hello bughunter, always nice to get your input! 👍 Yes the vinyl cutter is useful😉. The design for the lettering is the same as the decal sheet, so I haven't really looked at references. I think the picture 77 is a little skewed from lens abberation in the mobile camera so it makes the letters look a little strange, especially the "R".

17 March 2020, 17:51

bughunter
My cutter is still very new. I use it with Oramask masking foil and creating the graphic with "Inkscape". For the "Sopwith" letters on my Schneider I rectified the images and loaded them into a background layer as base. But also for easy layouts it is a great tool, cutted some minutes ago circles to mask a fly wheel - much easier and precise compared to a manual circular cutter.

17 March 2020, 18:38

Slavo Hazucha
Cheers Björn - I haven´t seen this somehow - was a big fan of your Jug already but this breaks the boundaries both in size & ambition of detail 🙂

The interior looks great, the lamp - 👍. All the masking is paying off greatly - pic 76 looking awesome. All the shading is also really cool & steady. Will follow the grand finale, seems to be a really nice kit (love the material detail on the cloth surfaces...) & you are making it´s best sides really shine!

17 March 2020, 19:21

Spanjaard
those masks did work really nicely... i think i am going to get one of those silhouette cutters....

17 March 2020, 21:00

Björn Svedberg
Cheers bughunter! I also use inkscape. I usually set about 50% opacity on the background layer to make it easier to trace the detail. The build I had the most use of the cutter was the DC-3 Daisy that I built a few years ago. I usually use the Tamiya masking sheets for the masking. I also bought some FrisketFilm material that I was recommended a while back, but I haven't tried it yet. It is supposed to be really good for intricate detail.

17 March 2020, 21:37

Björn Svedberg
Thanks Slavo! 🙂
My builds tend to grow as time goes on and looking at builds, such as yours, on this forum really inspires me to go for more detail. 👍 I just hope I can up my game when it comes to the more tedious stuff like sanding and polishing also.. I need to work on my patience and my skills when it comes to tackling seam-lines, sink marks etc.

17 March 2020, 21:43

Björn Svedberg
Thanks Spanjaard! 🙂 The Silhouette is a fine machine. They are a bit expensive though, and you have to pay extra for the design edition of the software to be able to cut your own designs, which is really irritating. The licensing is also alot of hassle with activation/deactivation etc.. Other than that, I like it. 🙂

17 March 2020, 21:51

bughunter
With Linux and Inkscape it runs without license hassle😉

17 March 2020, 22:02

Spanjaard
When I read in other build that you were using inkscape, the silhouette got quite some extra points!!!

17 March 2020, 22:44

Björn Svedberg
Good information bughunter! 👍 Now I have to install it on a raspberry Pi to test it out😉.

18 March 2020, 07:10

Erik Leijdens
Great work as usual Björn! Impressive work on the interior and the riveting was worth the trouble too!

18 March 2020, 09:08

Wim van der Luijt
Just browsed the entire album, very impressive work Björn! The added details really bring it to life.....

Question on the masks: what do you feed into the machine? are there sheets with kabuki tape on the market? Reading that it works in Linux is big plus, I've been running that for years on all my machines 😄

18 March 2020, 10:12

Spanjaard
tamiya makes some sheets, but there are others. are those the ones you are using Björn?
Masking Sticker Sheet (1mm Grid Type) (Tamiya 87129, No)
Masking Sticker Sheet (Plain Type) (Tamiya 87130, No)

you can find several ones at
SCM Search: masking sheet

18 March 2020, 10:43

Björn Svedberg
Thanks Erik and Wim! 🙂

@Wim and Spanjaard, yes, I use the ones without the grid.

18 March 2020, 10:49

Gordon Sørensen
Fantastic interior detailing, Björn! The masking for the markings worked great, they all look excellent!

18 March 2020, 12:40

bughunter
@Björn and Wim: the plugin for Inkscape can be found here:
github.com/fablabnbg/inkscape-silhouette
Only Bluetooth is not working yet. The pairing with Linux works, but the plugin looks only on USB at the moment. Follow the readme (select the objects to be cut, Path->Object-to-path, Extensions->Export->Send to Silhouette)
I think the best results can be reached with "Oramask 810", cheap and allows very fine structures.

18 March 2020, 21:31

Spanjaard
thanks a lot, i certainly will take note of that!!!

18 March 2020, 22:47

Björn Svedberg
Very good information bughunter! 👍 I will certainly try it.

19 March 2020, 08:12

Wim van der Luijt
Thanks for the update Bughunter

19 March 2020, 08:21

Björn Svedberg
Another update, I have assembled the and painted the Eduard PE cowl flaps and the cowls. I've also clear coated the whole airplane. Next is decals.

20 March 2020, 18:35

bughunter
Looks like you need to start to search for a huge free space between your other models soon 👍

20 March 2020, 19:46

Slavo Hazucha
Lovely progress 👍 The semi-gloss finish on the propellers makes them look as right out of the factory!

20 March 2020, 20:36

Brian Eberle
Absolutely awesome build. Fantastic modeling skills. I built this kit as a young teenager and it was my first love. I fondly recall the Paine Shepherd diorama brochure that came in the kit.

20 March 2020, 21:42

Nathan Dempsey
Such a grand build. Each new set of photos is a feast for the eyes. I must say I did get a laugh from the background octopuses giving the devil horns hand signal 😄

20 March 2020, 23:33

Björn Svedberg
Thank you Nathan! 🙂
Yet anothe update. I have finished the decaling and started working on the exterior detailing, such as the bomb bay doors, crew doors, machine gun fitting, position lamps and flaps.

28 March 2020, 12:38

coporado
Just wow, amazing work mate!

28 March 2020, 13:55

bughunter
You are so right - that door is a lovely one 👍 Great progress!

28 March 2020, 18:34

Kerry COX
I did one of these with the Eduard detail set and I can see you have had just as much fun as I did with the brass too. 👍 A superb job I have spent quite some time looking at your work. 🙂 I love your result. 👍 The desk lamp was what won me over. hehehehehehehe 😉

28 March 2020, 18:54

Slavo Hazucha
On course to final victory!😉

29 March 2020, 08:24

Björn Svedberg
Thank you coporado, bughunter, Kerry and Slavo! 🙂
@Kerry, I shold have made a little model kit box of the Revell B-17 and put it on the navigators table, that would have been really fun😉.
I just finished the model, so I'm on course to final victory.., I hope😉. Next up is the bomb cart and the figures. I took some pictures outside in the wonderful spring sun that we have today. Hope you like it. 🙂

29 March 2020, 15:49

Björn Svedberg
@Brian Eberle, sorry, I missed your comment! Thank you! 🙂
I had forgotten about the diorama brochure, It is really nice! 👍

29 March 2020, 16:09

Tim Heimer
Wow! That looks great! Nice work mate, that's something to be proud of!

29 March 2020, 18:00

Nathan Dempsey
I agree, that's a wonderful build 🙂 Really makes me want to pull out that B-24 kit!

29 March 2020, 18:26

Guy Rump
Superb build, went all the way through your album, so, so good 🙂

29 March 2020, 18:38

Kerry COX
Björn, you have excelled yourself and earned every compliment you will get from all of us. 👍
The eduard kit is just what this kit needs, even though 80% of it is hidden from view. 🙁
But those main flaps were a gem and not that straight forward to do, so a big SALUTE from me on that effort.👍
I love it. 🙂 🙂 🙂

29 March 2020, 21:01

Brandon H
Absolutely stunning!

29 March 2020, 21:04

Slavo Hazucha
Looking truly great out there in the sunshine! 👍 I think the extra mile with the masking of major elements really pay's off in these pictures with the consistent appearance in light & shadow, and the finer stuff like open doors and flaps adds even more good scale appearance.

I can almost hear the coughs of the engines getting started... 🙂

PS: & we know it's all in there, lamp & stuff😉

29 March 2020, 22:27

coporado
A masterpiece, congrats! As slavo mentioned all that detail and the clean build is just amazing. Fortunately that bird has a lot of glas, making some parts of the loveley interior detail visible.🙂

30 March 2020, 04:14

Erik Leijdens
Very well done Björn! Looks spectacular

30 March 2020, 05:39

Roland Sachsenhofer
Congratulations! A inspiring beauty, very well done!!

30 March 2020, 06:25

Daniel
This came out great, so many details to look at! (And so many you cant really look at😉 ) Very very impressive! 👍

30 March 2020, 10:18

Wim van der Luijt
Amazing final result! This really is an inspiration to us all....

30 March 2020, 13:08

Thomas Bischoff
There is nothing to add. Congrats Björn!

30 March 2020, 16:22

Antoine Meylan
Magnifique travail et superbe peinture!

30 March 2020, 16:27

Neuling
Great build!

30 March 2020, 18:25

Spanjaard
top job!

30 March 2020, 23:02

Jim J
Fantastic! Well done. Superb detail.

31 March 2020, 04:07

Björn Svedberg
Thanks all of my model building buddies for the positive feedback, it means alot to me! 🙂
After a few monts of not building anything, I decided it was time to finally put an end to this project by paining the figures and the bomb loading cart that came with the kit.
Onto something different, finally!😉

25 July 2020, 12:51

Hans-Jürgen Haag
Super Job Björn! An amazing B 17 !

26 July 2020, 09:41

Spanjaard
Great finish!

27 July 2020, 22:19

Micky
Excellent work, again!!

7 October 2020, 13:22

Dave Flitton
I remember this back in the day. It did not survive my parents cleaning when I went to college

7 October 2020, 15:28

Björn Svedberg
Thank you Hans, Spanjaard, Micky and Dave! 🙂
It was alot of work to finish this, so it will probably take some time until I tackle such a project again.😉

12 October 2020, 14:45