a D out of a G.... HK's B-17 conversion

[Wingco57]

Any updates Craig?

Cees

[brahman104]

Thank you Gentlemen!

 

My apologies for the lack of updates of late..... Let me say that this project is far from dead in case you were wondering, unfortunately work is massively interfering with my bench time at the moment and for the next few months I will potentially be away a lot but progress will be happening when I get the chance. I am still very much into this build, so do not fear that I have burned out.

 

I have also been having some issues with my computer, which is also the one I do my 3D work on, as well as the documented issues with the printer. My laptop is currently in the shop for repairs and I have a brand new (and much larger 3D printer on its way to me.... very exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

http://3dprintersuperstore.com.au/products/up-box

 

Hopefully I'll return soon with some progress to report!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[Wingco57]

Hi Craig,
Good to hear from you again. That printer sure looks nice. But with the current development it will probably be obsolete within
a year. Saw a program on Dutch TV about a guy scanning his crown jewels and then having them 3D printed

Cees

[brahman104]

Hi Guys,

 

It's been a long while since I've had a chance to get to the bench, but finally I have a small amount of progress to show you.

 

So first of all the new printer. I'll let the photos do the talking...

 

 

 

 

So after some initial trials that had varying degrees of success (I have leaned over time that each printer is lightly different in its operation and takes some time and more than a few failures to get the hang of it) I decided that seeing as I was going to rebuild the cockpit entirely, I'd have a go at printing the basic floor/cockpit tub in one piece. Since I had the drawings for the new nose I'd made, I used these and measurements from the old floor to produce a new one.

 

 

In the meantime, I also started work on a new instrument panel, using Airscale's etched bezel and decal sets. Very fiddly, but definitely worth the effort. I weighed up the pros and cons of doing this in brass again, and felt for what it was worth, plastic would do just fine

 

 

 

And here's a comparison between the old, built up tub and the new printed piece. I deliberately didn't put in a great deal of detail as it was a basic test piece, but it does give me a nice start point to build the new one from.

 

 

 

 

And after a few hours of fiddling with very tiny decals, the new IP is done  

 

 

While it does seem like a lot of work to go back and re-do the whole front end (and it is) I think it's definitely been worth it. I'm much happier with every step now, rather than it just being a compromise between what I started with and what I was trying to do. This was the old one:

 

 

While I don't think it was terrible, the new one is a vast improvement I feel.

 

So now it's on to the fun task of detailing the cockpit tub, especially underneath. I'm planning on trying to use aluminium as much as I can this time for the details, so we shall see how that goes. Think Peter's (Airscale's) epic Spitfire build, but just no-where near as good

 

See you soon

 

Craig

[Wingco57]

Hi Craig,

You certainly are not taking the easy route with this project, but you learn a lot along the way, and so do we.

Thanks,

Cees

[JeroenPeters]

Thats one pretty big 3d printer!

When people say 3d printing is kinda taking the easy route I can tell them wrong.

In many cases it's easier to make something form plastic card!

 

Love what you're doing here.

[brahman104]

Back for a little more!

 

I haven't had a great deal of time lately, but I've managed a little progress on the cockpit section. This time around I've been experimenting with lining everything in aluminium sheet, as opposed to painting like I did last time. 

 

This a a few advantages; firstly, I don't have to paint a metallic colour (which as we all know can be fraught with danger), secondly I can emboss surface details like rivets into it and thirdly, I don't have to worry about trying to clean up in the corners of the print, which is pretty much next to impossible.

 

Anyway here's the pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you get into it, working with metal is actually quite fun and not overly difficult, but if you take you time and work neatly, it can produce some pretty good results. Compared with my first effort, I think I'm on the right track

 

I'm also trying my hand at painting the wooden panels, so hopefully they come out okay. We will find out soon enough!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[Beychevelle]

Dzjeezus! 

[GusMac]

Wow Craig, that looks amazing! How thick is the Al sheet?

[brahman104]

Thanks guys!

 

Gusmac, the sheet is 0.1mm thick aluminium. I got a packet of about 150 sheets off eBay (took a while to fins and think it was a one off) so I probably have a lifetime's supply, even when it comes time to skin the big girl

 

So I've been playing around with painting techniques, which is something I've never been very good at. My aim for this part is to replicate the wood grain floor inserts. Once the acrylic base was dry, I went over it with oil paint and then took most of it off, to leave a streaky finish. For my first effort, not too bad. I did have the Uschi decals as a back up, but for where this area is, I think I'll live with it

 

 

 

 

 

I also started to run the control cables as any additions from now would make these very difficult to do later, as much as it's like modelling inside a bird's nest until I can finish all the runs.

 

 

I also started folding up some brackets for more pulleys to sit on.

 

 

 

 

The above was a heap of fun to do, twice

 

 

 

A lot more work but she's starting to get there.

 

 

I will say that working with this aluminium is really easy and produces an excellent result, providing you work methodically and for the most part, carefully. If you haven't tired it yet do yourself a favour, go get some and have a crack.... you'll be glad you did!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

 

[kkarlsen]

Agreed! It's really nice to work with and you get so much in return, by using the real deal...

[brahman104]

My, my, June last year? I have been slack haven't I?

 

With apologies to those who frequent here, I've only just recently been able to work back on the project, and have been continuing to post on another forum.

 

For those of you that reside here, I'll do my best to bring you up to speed....

 

First up, as I'd been away for about 5 months, a desk clean up was in order.

 

 

I'd been looking at how to do the gun tunnel above the radio room for a while, but the only way around was through. It took quite a while to get the right contour of this part, considering the radio room was already installed in the fuselage.....

 

 

 

 

This is a rough set up for the gun mount, but you get the idea....

 

I also wanted to get the cockpit installed so I didn't break it accidentally, and did some of the soundproofing work.

 

 

And some of the control cable installation. This is really fun

 

 

Oh and those lights work the way

 

 

 

I then turned my attention to the bomb bay. I still had to "plate" all the brass pieces in litho plate and add the little gusset plates that make up the trusses. 

 

 

I decided to make the main catwalk truss out of a single piece of aluminium, due to it being seen from all sides. This piece took me five days to make.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was on to fabricating all the little details throughout the bay, of which there are many.

 

 

It doesn't look pretty, but this was running the control cables through the top of the bay. 

 

 

 

Apologies for the crappy photos, I'm certainly not the world's best photographer, but at least you hopefully get the idea and are now pretty much up to date

 

As always, feel free to comment or question.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[crazypoet]

I am in awe. Your attention to detail gives me both a challenge and inspiration when I get to my own B-17 build

[Wingco57]

Craig,

Once this masterpiece is finished not a lot of that wonderful bombbay can be seen. How are you going to display it?

[brahman104]

I am in awe. Your attention to detail gives me both a challenge and inspiration when I get to my own B-17 build

 

Thanks very much mate Just remember that I'm kind of going a bit overboard here, the kit on its own will build into a very nice looking model. Having said that, at the end of the day don't let me stop you, but this build so far is now into its third year! Good luck with yours when you do it, and make sure you post it on here

 

Craig,

Once this masterpiece is finished not a lot of that wonderful bombbay can be seen. How are you going to display it?

 

Hi Cees,

 

Not entirely sure yet, but I think I'll have one side of the bay without any load, and maybe some bombs on a cart near by. I don't think it'll be a diorama, but I will probably put a mirror underneath so you can see into the bay. In any case, that's years away the rate I'm building!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

[brahman104]

Wow! Apparently the last time I posted here January 2017!

Been still chipping away at the big fort, just gonna try posting a pic here and see if it works....

I've still been posting on LSP, but I realize there's some people that aren't members on here so I'd better get my act into gear and do an update!

Craig

[brahman104]

Well the post seemed to come up fine, so here's a few of sort of where she's at. I realize there's a whole couple of years to fill you in on, but I'll do my best. 

Big milestone just recently was getting both wings finally glued together and everything set up to see how she looks:

The keen eyed among you will notice that the nose is now grey. That's because I wasn't happy with the shape, so I redrew the entire thing and printed out a new version in resin. 

The keener-eyed among you will notice the the two outboard nacelles look different. That's because on the kit they sit waaaay too high so I removed the entire assembly from each wing, created new ones to fit within the existing wing section and spliced them back in. Huge amount of work but definitely worth it!

The super-keen eyed will see that I have begun the process of covering the whole thing in aluminium with raised rivet detail. Again a huge amount of work but totally worth it!  

There's been so much more happening on this since I last posted, but I'll have to make sure I keep this forum up to date with the progress from now on!

Cheers guys,

Craig    

 

[GazzaS]

Craig,

    it's been a long time since I saw this build.  I'm glad to see it progressing so well and looking like a B-17D.  Definitely looking forward to the metal skinning.

[KevinM]

NUTS!! You Sir are an Artist!

[Kaireckstadt]

Wow that’s awesome work! 

Didn‘t know that HK made such big mistakes on their B-17! 

Great corrections you did! 

[Bomber_County]

Cool project, even better scratch building, congrats……

[HubertB]

Good to see you sharing your outstanding work over here, Craig.

A real inspiration to see you striving, again and again, for perfection  !

One of my darkest fantasies is to do a 307 Stratoliner in 1/32, using whatever could be used from the HK kit (I bought some mixed sprues from an F and a G for that, and even a partially completed ID model vac. Unfortunately, it seems that the amount of rework for any of these is just too hard a pill to swallow )

Keep it coming

Hubert

[GusMac]

Wow, stunning work Craig. It is gonna look amazing when it's done. 

[brahman104]

19 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Craig,

    it's been a long time since I saw this build.  I'm glad to see it progressing so well and looking like a B-17D.  Definitely looking forward to the metal skinning.

Thanks Gaz, yep she's still moving along. I get bursts of free time here and there to work on her. Still got a fair amount of work to do before I close up the fuselage permanently, then the skinning can begin in earnest!

14 hours ago, KevinM said:

NUTS!! You Sir are an Artist!

Thanks Kevin, I'm just one artist among many. It's sure lucky that art is not specific  

11 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Wow that’s awesome work! 

Didn‘t know that HK made such big mistakes on their B-17! 

Great corrections you did! 

Thanks mate! Don't get me wrong, the kits builds very nicely and this thread is not about HK bashing, but yes there are quite a few glaring flaws that those quite familiar with the B-17 will find hard not to see. I'm lucky (in a way  ) that I have come across some excellent references and had some very personalized help learning about the aircraft and where to make those corrections. Mind you though, I quite often don't get it right the first time and have rebuilt certain parts more than once. But this is my holy grail build, so I'm okay with it taking 7 years so far..... 

10 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Cool project, even better scratch building, congrats……

Thanks mate, plenty more to do!

8 hours ago, HubertB said:

Good to see you sharing your outstanding work over here, Craig.

A real inspiration to see you striving, again and again, for perfection  !

One of my darkest fantasies is to do a 307 Stratoliner in 1/32, using whatever could be used from the HK kit (I bought some mixed sprues from an F and a G for that, and even a partially completed ID model vac. Unfortunately, it seems that the amount of rework for any of these is just too hard a pill to swallow )

Keep it coming

Hubert

Thanks Hubert! Yes I do remember you mentioning your penchant for the 307. I've thought about it as well, but yes, that's a rabbit hole I'm best off not jumping down at the moment!

6 hours ago, GusMac said:

Wow, stunning work Craig. It is gonna look amazing when it's done. 

Thanks mate! Still a loooong way to go yet, but seeing it up on its feet for the first time is really something special!

Thanks for (re) joining me on the journey lads, here's to more posts

Craig

[Peterpools]

Craig

So glad you will be posting your B-17 build here as well - simply amazing work and there are countless tutorials surely coming our way. Looking forward to sitting front row centered as before.
Just a treat catching up with a few PM’s - a good reminder how times does fly.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter