NigelR32

Thank you very much for posting this pic Matt. It is exactly what I've been looking for..it does raise a question though?? Where has all the slack in the tracks gone?? I can see some droop under the front idler, but nowhere else?? If you look closely at the front idler you can see the swinging arm is nearly vertical, so they haven't taken out the slack there?????? Very confusing!!

Thanks for straightening that out Kev. I've now been able to confidently push forward with my build as a result. Here's the partially finished hull. Note the great interior detail given by Trumpeter. If you look closely, you'll see the extent of the pin marks again.. Here's the top half, notice all the Mr Surfacer on all the seams.. lots and lots of work has gone into the assembly of the side panels onto the top section... I thought I'd go ahead and fit the massive side structures tonight, but guess what.. there's ejector pin marks to fill in, the same as the ones on the transport x sections. They are rectangular undercuts in the edges of the parts. I've added plastic strip in the cut outs and will now have to wait again before I can continue... more sanding on the way.. I may sound like I'm not enjoying this build.. wrong!! I'm loving it, after all, shake and bake can get boring!! Thanks for looking in.. more tomorrow I hope..

Or two?? I would lioke a peep please...

Now for some work on the nose.. There's a lot to be done here if you want an accurate B-17G, however, if you leave it alone, no-one will probably ever notice.. except me... In this next picture, I am attempting to show the errors by sticking masking tape over the starboard nose half and drawing on the approximate location and size of the glazing and thick panelling for the cheek gun. Yes, the windows really are that much out... Note also the cheek gun fairing is pointing down whereas it should point slightly upwards. Check some online photo's.. Here we can see the windows corrected and the flat part of the cheek gun panelling added in the correct position. remember also this part is 4mm too long. Now then, to get the correct shape on the cheek gun we must do some serious surgery... The cheek gun extension needs to be sectioned and reshaped as shown here. In my opinion this is well worth doing, especially the windows.. I have reshaped the kit clear part for the cheek gun and made it fit with the angled up extension. Moving on to the port side we have the same issues with the oversized and mis-positioned windows and also a couple of issues with the cheek gun fairing. Here we can see the windows corrected and the flat panel of the fairing corrected. I have seriously chopped up the fairing to correct it. In my opinion the fairing is not tall enough and the strakes top and bottom don't go back far enough.. This is the port nose finished as far as the windows and cheek gun fairing are concerned. Note there are two different designs of the cheek gun fairings on the real aircraft, also there are three different windscreen designs. Check your references for the aircraft you're building... if you really are that fussy!!

OK Guys, here's a simple little mod for a Monday evening.... The chin turret in the kit has some issues and can easily be corrected with some plastic scrap and a sharp knife. The kit slots at the back end of the guns are too long, so they need to be filled with some plastic pieces... Once dry, the plastic can be sanded down to conform with the outer diameter of the turret and the slots can be rounded off with a round file. Note I have also cut the small slots for the shell ejectors. These are easy to keep square as they line up perfectly with the box moulded inside the turret. Next we cut the square openings out in the back of the turret, then stick in some edging for the clear Panels to fix to. Note the plastic has been thinned out around all slots. There you go, a simple little mod that will add realism to your chin turret...

Very impressive indeed.. I also have the train and all the Eduard stuff, so will keep away from it until you have done yours... I have a Leopold and a Dora to build.... once I've finished the Karl of course.. Oh, and a little B-17 project going on in the background.

F4U-1 Wheels Eduard Catalogue # 632 019 Available from Eduard for 7,10€ Bunny Fighter Club price: 6,04€ Eduard have made many after market sets for the beautiful Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair, which will all be reviewed over the next couple of days here on LSM. My first review covers the resin wheels designed to directly replace the wheels and rubber tyres supplied with the kit. The wheels of the kit are very detailed, but the rubber tyres are more difficult to weather than these resin replacements, then of course we must consider the difficulty of obtaining a realistic bulge on the flat spot on rubber tyres. The set comes in Eduard's normal split bubble packaging, with the foam insets to keep everything in place. (The foam is great for replicating paint chipping, don't throw it away). The set contains six resin parts, a set of paint masks and instructions, painting colours are called up from the Gunze range. The outer hubs are beautifully cast. It is left to the modeller to open up the holes between the spokes, but these sections are wafer thin and will come out easily. There is an alignment peg to ensure correct radial alignment of the spokes. On my sample each outer hub part has a tiny air bubble in the centre cap, nothing a drop of Mr Surfacer won't sort out.. The inner hubs are a direct replacement for the kit parts and will fit directly onto the Tamiya undercarriage leg with no modification whatsoever, a very nice touch from Eduard. The tyres are also beautifully cast with a bulge and tyre lettering, both absent on the rubber kit parts. Tread detail is superb. The instructions are colour printed on both sides of one A5 sheet of paper. This little resin set is beautifully cast and is worth every penny when you consider you get rid of those love 'em or hate 'em rubber tyres AND get tyre lettering and bulges. Recommended!! Thanks to Eduard for supplying this great set of wheels and tyres. I will be using these and all the other Eduard sets on my online build, starting here on Large scale modeller soon.......

B-17 Placards Eduard Catalogue # 32 790 Available from Eduard for 15,47€ Bunny Fighter Club price: 13,15€ Eduard have really gone to town with Aftermarket accessories for the HK models 1/32 B-17G and one of their latest sets is this one, B-17 Placards. The set is packaged in the normal clear envelope with card stiffener, containing one fret of plated and pre painted etched brass. The plated and painted fret measuring 93mm x 59mm contains no fewer than 115 parts. The painting on my sample is perfectly in register and very sharply printed. The set contains information labels, radio equipment faces and even a fist aid box, all of which are dotted all over the fuselage, from nose to tail. Many of the parts go into the cockpit, including sidewall and overhead console detail. There are also details for the bomb aiming equipment and electronic equipment in the nose section. The bomb bay is covered with all the bright red bomb loading instructions at each station included. There are even parts for the tail gun area!! Here are some close up pics, displaying the quality of printing on this lovely little set.. By now you may have noticed that all these parts are included in the various other sets, dedicated to each section such as Bomb bay or Front Interior sets, but this is where Eduard have helped if you want to add a little fine detail to your model, but don't want to go to the expense of all the other sets. This set contains enough to add "that little extra" to your model for a very reasonable cost and with little effort. The instructions in the set come as 4 sides of Black and white printed on A5 paper. I have downloaded the instructions from Eduard's site and printed them out in colour on A4 paper. Sheet 1... Sheet 2... Sheet 3... Sheet 4... To summarise, this set is of no use if you have all the other Eduard sets, but it will be greatly received by those who don't want to spend the time or money on all the other fantastic Eduard sets for their HK models B-17G. Thanks very much to Eduard for supplying this review sample.

B-17 Seatbelts FABRIC Eduard Catalogue # 32 796 Available from Eduard for 18.02€ Bunny Fighter Club price: 15.32€ Here we have Eduard's lovely set of fabric seatbelts for the HK models B-17G. Eduard also make a set of etched seatbelts, so if you prefer that medium, you are catered for with that set. The set is packaged in the normal Eduard fashion, in a clear sleeve containing a card stiffener. The set consists of one sheet of fabric belts measuring 51mm x 83mm with 52 separate parts, and one sheet of plated etched brass measuring 40mm x 35mm with 39 pieces. The set includes enough straps to make 5 full size lap belts as fitted to the cockpit seats, covering the cockpit, nose section leaving two spare, perhaps for the belly turret? There are also two simple lap belts, which the instructions tell you to fit to the navigator and rsdio operators seats. Check your references for the correct placement... The buckles are beautifully etched and plated, so will not require any further finishing, just assemble and apply... Here we can see the great stitching detail on the belts themselves. The instructions are supplied as two A5 black and white sheets. For this review I have printed the instructions out on A4 paper in full colour. All Eduard's instruction sheets can be printed out from their website. Sheet 1... Sheet 2... There is no mention made of screwing the belts up between ones fingers, but it may make the belts look more realistic?? All in all, this set will greatly enhance the very visible cockpit and nose section of the HK models B-17G and are a great improvement over the standard kit parts. Thank you very much to Eduard for the review sample.

As far as I can gather, the suspension was raised, lifting the wheels up, when in transport mode. Then the slack in the tracks was taken up with turnbuckles, to stop them sagging onto the rails. When firing the suspension was also raised to allow the "Tank" to sit on its belly. The instructions are wrong, the lowered suspension, (Wheels down), is only for moving the gun.

From what I gather, the suspension is raised when in transport mode to stop the tracks dragging on the rails. I also think the suspension was raised in firing mode to give the best reaction possible to the firing. Remember the theory of relativity.......

Moving on.. The massive clean up has started on the 44 wheels for the main rollers, most have no less than 4 sprue connection points, still I'm glad it's done.. Here are the parts for the Karl suspension and rollers. Unlike the Dragon kit, Trumpeter give the builder the option of having the suspension in the lowered, rolling position or the raised, firing and transport position. Notice the slots that a peg engages in, moulded onto the arm. As usual, here's the instruction sheet for you.. Oh, part count..150 so far, on the gun.

Thanks Nick, I guessed as much, the Germans were and still are very thorough engineers!! I think I might go for a good coat of red oxide, then an over spray of german grey, leaving the red oxide exposed in shadowed areas? What do you think?

Hi all, I need some advice please.. my 1/35 Morser Karl Gerat build is coming along on the WIP pages here... I have started on the chassis of the gun, which includes interior hull detail such as the torsion bars. I'm wondering if these internal parts would be German grey or red oxide? I also need to find some 1/35 turnbuckles to tie up the tracks on my model in transport mode.

Good luck with that Pardelhas, if it's the HB kit.. That thing is literally covered in pin marks!!lol I have been painting and filling all week so here is the result... Now that all the rail car parts are painted, I thought I'd get stuck into the gun itself.. here's some parts, basically stage one of the instructions.. This is step one of the instructions.. I just thought I'd post a picture of the main sprocket detail. Trumpeter have really gone to town with this one, just look at the planetary gear detail and even inner cover detail, brilliant for an in repair diorama. If you're wondering how big this thing is... here's a Tamiya Tiger 1 hull next to the Karl hull. Something I almost forgot to tell you all about was my AM for the Gun, I know I said I'd go OOB on this one, but I just can't stop myself!! Plus there's no way one could accurately replicate the track droop between each idler with the rubber band tracks. I'll go back to the bench and get building now then...

This is great. I actually did a review on another site of every piece of AM available for this kit. It is so nice to see that AM actually being used... I must ask, have you considered nose weight?

There is an AM gun barrel and Mantlet available, but they are very pricey. Also, the barrel is too long, by a lot!! My house is big enough to display this and I'm not Married, so I have no excuses for not building it I guess.... Would a kit review be appreciated on here?

Oh yes Jeroen, I'll do a quick build with no mods or AM, should all come together in about.......... a year!!

Hey all, I took a punt and bid £175 on a 1/35 Dora Gun complete with the massive AM Transfer sheet. I won it!! for £170!! It would cost £540 to buy new!! Bargain!!

Take a look at the Hannants site and see whats available there. I don't always buy from hannants, but it is a good catalogue to search for aftermarket by kit...

Thanks SD, that is quite possibly the best compliment I've ever received. Funny you should make reference to your dentist.. I make dental burs for a living!!

Hey Cruzz, this really is impressive stuff going on here!! I am a little confused, as you have added the colour PE before painting? I've never seen this done before and am wondering how you intend to paint the cockpit and leave the colour parts exposed? It's a technique I would like to try.

Thanks Daz, I hope you enjoy what you see? Please bear in mind, you don't need to do all the corrections I'm doing just the ones you think really make the difference.. I am going OTT on this one. As a little teaser, have a look at a real B-17 tailplane and elevator, then have a look at the HK models tailplane and elevator. Anyone spot the mistake??

Lovely!! Keep em coming!!

Hi Jack, Welcome aboard. I'm sure these guys over here would love to see your "in flight" figures. They are awesome. Yeah, lets hope the troublemakers don't find us.