I’m new here, so this may be an old topic.
Does any one make interior detail for the B-17G Ball Turret?
Not that I’ve found. There are some belts in the Eduard Seat Belt set for the B-17 but I ended up scratch building ammo boxes and a new mount for mine. Eduard also makes a masking set for it as well.
I believe you can also find that in the Eduard Big Ed set for the B-17. As for the ball turret you can’t really see much inside the turret so just focus on the guns and the ammo boxes. Master Models makes some good looking barrels for the .50 Calibers guns.
Yuri,
Seriously…it would be SO HARD to see into a Sperry Ball Turret…I’d suggest replacing the .50 cal barrels with some Master Model replacement barrels - you gotta see these things, man - turned barrels and machined cooling jackets - they are the real deal, mate. Simply incredible detail - and they’re so inexpensive!!
There’s many, many different sets…I’ve bought about 6 different sets - and they’re all spectacular…and VERY reasonably priced.
Here is a dumb question… was it possible to open the hatch from outside the airplane when it was parked on the ground?
Yes, if the turret was in the lowered postion and the guns were horizontal.
Mark
B-17 ball turret was not retractable as was B-24. BTG entered turret in air with guns pointed down. Hatch could be opened on the ground for maintenance and ammo. It folded down behind the mg butts.
I’ve always wanted to scratch build a basketball size sperry turrent, just never have had that kind of desire to torture myself yet.
Can the Master Model .50 caliber barrels replace all outside guns, such as the nose turret, or are they different sizes? I have a B-24J and was wondering if MM would work on its machine guns…
I’ve inspected a real one up close and personal, on the late “Liberty Bell.” I can’t imagine getting into that thing. I have the highest admiration and respect for those who did ride in those things in combat.
A .50 cal is a .50 cal, doesnt really mater what plane it’s on. That being said, the tail and chin guns on a B-17 had a flash supressor on the end of the barrels. But the master barrels should work on a B-24 no problem.
Gonna be expenive to replace all the guns on a liberator though.
I do seem to remember some of the early B-17F’s and B-17G’s had the .50 Cals in the waist position that didin’t have the perforated cooling jackets but used the .50 Cals that were off of fighters that had the solid cooling jackets. Now that would be interesting to model on a B-17 model.
I am in the process of building a B17G right now. I bought the Eduard PE seat belts and external PE set for the model. The seat belts were not to bad. The PE for the external is a PITA. I have spent mre time then I care to admit trying to get the PE around the cockpit glass to fit.
Will
www.arcair.com/…/B-17G_Ball_turret_Out.JPG
http://www.arcair.com/awa01/101-200/awa164-B-17/images%20Hawk/Image036t.jpg
http://www.parhamairfieldmuseum.co.uk/images/390th_Pics/ball_turret_gunner.gif
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_owMNqKsebrg/Sj71k0HMM2I/AAAAAAAAAhM/RI3nsR-yzXg/s400/Pictures+092a.jpg
For a cheaper alternative, go with Quickboost 50 cals. I use them all the time for pretty much all my gun barrel needs and they look great. The only drawback is the iis somewhat fragile and they snap easy if your not careful. You think they would rectify this. You can get them at Sprue Brothers or Ebay for around 6 bones.
I’ve seen some builds with truly amazing scratchbuilding in the ball and top turret areas. Working on a build now where I plan to open the ball turret hatch and show some detail, but it will be limited. Still trying to find a set of the Paragon crew hatches which has the ball turret door included. The Flightpath PE set has a lot of the framing for the ball turret, I’m interested to know if anyone has tried to build that? Looks complicated but would probably be awesome if done well.
If you really, really want to make the ball turret interior, I have some close-in shots of the one at the Evergreen Museum in Oregon. I wasn’t planning on super detailing a model, but was just curious about the layout of the controls, routing of the ammo belts, etc. They didn’t let me crawl in, but it is apparent that the gunner would be looking between his knees with his arms raised above him to grip the contollers, all the while lying on his back. Not the most comfortable postion to be in while bad guys are trying to put machine gun bullets into you!
Anyway, let me know and I’ll post them for you. (I don’t have them at hand at the moment.)
Actually what color was the ball turret interior Aluminum or Zinc Chromate? That would affect the interior a bit make things a little more visible from the outside as there were actually quite a few windows in that little turret. And BTW whoever said the nose turret and tail gun had flash supressors those devices were pourpose built counter weights attached to the barrel to keep them from moving around freely.
“I’ve inspected a real one up close and personal, on the late “Liberty Bell.” I can’t imagine getting into that thing. I have the highest admiration and respect for those who did ride in those things in combat.”
Which is why the ball turret gunner was almost ALWAYS the shortest guy on the crew - he had to be. I had the pleasure of knowing one ball turret gunner who was about 5-foot 3-inches and he said that was pushing it, with all the bulking flying gear you had to wear to keep from freezing to death up there.
On the other hand, statistically (as if that means anything in combat), the ball turret was in fact one of the safest positions on a B-17. The hunched-over posture and armored door/back plate served to protect a larger area of that crewman’s body than other positions. Waist gunners, as might be expected, usually suffered among the highest injury rates, standing upright in what amounted to an open window. The down side was he couldn’t wear his parachute in there and had to depend on his crewmates to get him out in a hurry if things went FUBAR.
I shot these while at the Museum of the US Air Force in 2011. It is from the restoration of the “Memphis Belle”. Rick
The “Memphis Belle” is back on her feet. In another year this is going to be one beautiful aircraft.
