CONTINUATION OF MY 1:20 SCALE SCRATCH BUILT B17G (RADIO ROOM)

Modeling Subjects Scratchbuilding
1

Good afternoon to you all…I hope all is well in the scratch build world!

I haven’t done a WIP of this long term project as yet…so I thought I would start with this phase of the build.

After a break from this build I now think its time I got back to the task in hand …and that is to continue with this beast!;)

It was good to put this B17G down for a bit and have a go at something else but there is so much to do with this project that I am now ready and sort of focused to continue!!:hmmm:

For those of you that have seen the photos of this build… and as a recap…you know that I started with…

Phase 1…Nose section back to the top turret

Phase 2…Bomb bay

So now we have nearly half the Fuselage complete…

…and so its on with phase 3…the radio room/ball turret station.

As usual its going to take weeks to finish this phase and I will be using the same building method and materials as before…IE scraps of this and that!. Onto the first photo then…

Here we have the scaled up 1:20 scale plans pinned to the building board and the red circle shows the area I will be constructing (Radio room) and the blue cross depicts the position of the ball turret…

At first ,my idea was just to build the radio room but for displaying purposes it will be better to tag the ball turret to the rear of the radio room bulk head. I will need to construct “an open top” of the radio room so you can see all the detail…as I did with the cockpit in phase 1…not sure how to do this but will work it out when I get to that point!!

So former’s were made for the bulk heads and marked out on a sheet of 5mm balsa wood…only 3 bulk heads for this phase!

Here they are all cut out ready…

I am going to build this section as I did in phase 1 and 2…in two halves.

Starting with the lower half here are the former’s and stringers in place…

So that is as far as I have got at the moment.

Until the next post…of many I fear!

Cheers

Fozzy

2

Just amazing work! I checked your site as well.

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Thanks Glenn!

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Hi there

Here is the next up date!

I have spent the last few days getting the fuselage structure built…I started with the lower half and then moved on to the upper half…almost symmetrical or but a few millimeters here and there!.

Here are the two halves…

Placing them on top of each other gives you the definite shape of the fuselage**…**

So to try and explain what the plan is for this phase of the B17 build I have tried to put a few arrows here and there…

The blue arrow at the rear shows you where I am intending to detail the radio room…including the camera bay that is under the floor of the radio room. There will be doors on each bulk head as in the real B17. The Red arrow indicates the Ball turret position and I have done a rather naff diagram of the turret in red using a computer mouse!!:rolleyes: The bulk head just after the turret will be as it is…open …and as it is in the real B17…which is handy as you will be able to view the turret easily.

Ball turret!..aaaggghhh:shrug:!..not looking forward to trying to replicate that…I have some ideas but I’m sure I will change my mind when it comes to doing it!

I will be starting with the bottom half first which means it’s time to get out the yogurt pot supplies!!..some of you know what I mean…will explain in my next post!;)

Thanks for dropping by

Fozzy

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Hi…its me again!

Got to keep at this else I might run out of life! :pipe:…

The last two days were taken up by constructing with Balsa wood the area for the camera hatch and the ball turret.

I mapped out where each hole had to cut and then made a frame in said area!..for want of a better description!..here is the hole for the ball turret.

…and you can just see the frame work for the camera hatch on this next photo…

After it was all sanded down and checked this is what we have…

Here is a view from the underneath of the radio room and turret location…the red arrow denotes the camera hatch aperture and the blue arrow the turret aperture…

I have started to look round for a sphere shape that is the same size as the ball turret which I can use for a kind of template for the turret…I thought it would be a tall order …but this morning I went into a Lev shop (pound/dollar shop…depending where you come from!!) and found this kids rubber ball…and it is just shy of 3mm in circumference…which I am going to live with!

I checked for fit even though the ball wasn’t up for it judging the expression on its face!!!:giggle:

Ok so that’s it…should have the initial skin on the inside and outside of the fuselage in preparation for some detailing this week end…

Until then

Thanks for looking in

Fozzy

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Hi chaps

Here is a quick up date on the problem that shall be named…“The bl#@$y Sperry Ball Turret” :angry:

I wasn’t going to start this part yet because I knew that I would have problems with it!..just kept putting it on the back burner!..I thought that if I cant manage to scratch build the ball turret then the whole B17G project would come to a grinding halt!..so I started trying to think of ways how I can replicate it with the least amount of fuss and specialized tools…that I don’t own!!

That little yellow kids ball kept staring at me!..taunting me!..because it knew that it would be useless if I tried to use it for a mold for vac forming…not solid you see…rubbery little thing…but I just had to give it a go!

I made a do it your self vac forming kit a few years back and I dusted it down ready for a trial run on the yellow ball.

The Henry hoover was got out of storage…(I hate hoovering!!;))…and was put to good use for once!!..all connected up and ready for the off…

I started on the first attempt to use some plastic food packaging…it was pinned to the frame and popped into the oven for a few seconds…hoover on for suction and…failure!..the little ball stood up to having very hot plastic wrapped around it but I reckon the plastic was too thick. So next attempt I used a sheet of plastic card…no…too thin!..so in the end I tried a sheet of 0.5mm and hey presto a result!..

Then I thought that the plastic would get stuck to the soft ball ,but I didn’t have any problems extracting the ball!..so I re loaded another 0.5 mm sheet of plastic on the frame and popped it in the oven (making me feel hungry all this talk of ovens!:rolleyes:)…

So now I had the two halves ready for a trim up…but I decided that I needed to cut the ball horizontally as it would be easier for me to do all the detail inside the ball…

The next 2 photos show the two halves together…roughly!!

So…so far I think so good…the test will be later when I try to marry up the two halves…but first its down to a load of detailing…starting with the lower half of the ball…blue ink marks the spot!

I am going to start trying to cut out all the glazing first…then on with all the detail…so I will be back when I have managed to do that!

Cheers for looking in

Fozzy

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Lest you think with 300 views you are posting in vain, I am following along.

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Me too! This is true scratchbuilding craftsmanship!

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Thanks for all your support guys!

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That is some simply amazing work. Can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s finished. You sir, have some beyond impressive scratch building skillls.

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Hi guys

Time for an up date on this Ball turret!

So after a lot of cursing the designers of this turret…namely Mr Sperry!:wtf:…I finally managed to complete the outer parts of the bottom half of the turret… leaving me to start next on the dreaded interior!

The hardest part was trying to replicate where the 50 cals go into the turret…I tried all sorts of ideas but in the end decided to use wire insulation. Very fiddly I have to say and a few attempts had to be made before I was kind of satisfied that it looked the part.

Here’s a photo of me in the process of making them…

I have done this method many times before but this time it seemed harder due to the circular shape they had to be attached to!..Each piece of insulation was 1 cm in length and had to be opened up and cut to shape…and a small piece of plastic with a hole drilled out that will take the barrels later on…

Here you have it…

Next up was also pretty dam difficult and that was cutting out all the glazing positions…but finally the bottom half of the turret was ready for glazing…

After the glazing was done using cut pieces of an old food clear packaging plastic…I then placed all the framing around the glass.

Here it is then ready to start the detailing of the interior…

…and with the top on to give some sort of reference that it is… in fact… supposed to be a ball turret!!!;)

I have to say I am glad that that hurdle is over with…although the top half will be awkward at least it wont have all that glazing!

When I started this project back in the dark ages I really wasn’t going to do the entire B17G…it was just supposed to be the nose section…one of the reasons why I shied away from it is the fact that I would have to do this turret…but I guess that’s what scratch building is all about…pushing your self to the limit…and this ball turret has pushed me right to the edge!! ha ha!:mental:

so…I am now going to have a go at the bottom half of the interior…so I better start looking at the 1652 photos I have as reference!!

I shall be back…and thanks for looking in!

Fozzy

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Simply Amazing! Dear lord I have enough trouble putting together plastic kits. Can’t hardy wrap my brain around this one

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l love watching this amazeing work.

thank you for sharing

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Thanks guys![:)]

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Hi guys

I have managed to finish detailing the lower half of the Ball turret.

I really had to think carefully how to approach doing this…because A. …there is a hell of a lot going on in there!! and **B…**what I scratch build in the lower half will eventually have to marry up with the top half!.

Luckily I have of photos of “said subject” but of course no dimensions!..and so this was all done by eye balling the photos and trying to scale it in my head down to 1:20…how ever I am used to this and this is the part of the build I love doing.

I started by building the two 50 cal Browning’s.

So it was time to get out my favorite box and tin of the only materials I seem to ever use when doing this…

Scrap plastic and bits of wire!..and I think I used a Christmas card some where in bottom half of this turret!

So here we have the two Browning’s ready for a bit of paint…

The guns were placed into the turret …(that was a nightmare!..took ages!)…and then on with a few more parts to be scratched.

Here for example is the air regulator and heated suit unit that are tucked away in front of the armored plate that protects the gunners under cart!:o…

and here are the Air pressure gauges on their panel…

…and with a little colour attached…

There was times I built a part and then had to start all over again…mainly a scale issue…but got there in the end!

Tomorrow I will take photos of the completed bottom half and post again…its late here in Bulgaria…my bed is calling!!;)

Until tomorrow then…

Fozzy

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Afternoon all!

OK then… I took photos of the bottom half of this turret this morning so that I could show you the progress that I have made so far. I have to say that I found researching the Sperry Ball Turret fascinating and it was …and still is…pretty difficult to put it all together!..If I thought the lower section was hard it will be nothing compared to the upper half!.,…as I said in my last post it was difficult at times to know which part to scratch build first…wires and cables were hidden behind parts so I really had to think it all through!..this is my excuse in case you see any flaws…and believe me there are a few!..

But I am happy with the way it turned out…so far!

So here are the photos then…I think that the whole thing will look better when the top half is joined…

…and just so you can get an idea of the scale…

The next few photos show all the bits and bobs that go into the lower half of the ball…

So …thinking ahead of the upper half I think I am going to have to think outside the box on this one as so far with this project I have put the emphasis on being able to see the internal workings of the B17G…EG…the nose section was only skinned up to the cockpit plexiglass…so you could see into the cockpit…same as the last section I built…the bomb bay…although I think I might have to re visit the bomb bay as I don’t think you can see into the bay very well…and so to this radio room…and to that end this Ball turret…I think I will design it so that the top of the ball is open enabling you to see down into the ball…its a load of balls really…:giggle:…but I think you know where I’m going with this!

Unfortunately My Wife has fallen ill and I have to return to the UK for a few weeks to look after her and so I don’t think I will be able to post any more up dates for a while …might be able to slip a small one in before I go!..this post is full of double entendre’s!!;)

Cheers for looking in chaps

Fozzy

17

It looks excellent. Beautiful work sir.

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cheers![:)]

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This is friggin’ crazy off the charts!!! I think I’ll be subscribing to this thread. This is definitely different and definetely cool!!! [Y][Y][Y][Y]

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Cheers mate!..glad your coming along for the ride![:)]