How to make gun barrels for 50cal on a B-17F?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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I have a very old version of the Revell B-17F that I’m building up for my Dad’s birthday next month. It’s been on my shelf for a while, but I remembered that the person I bought it from had done some work. Unfortunately, there are a lot of broken pieces and the work that was done was slipshod at best.

My question is this: to replace the gun barrels, I wouldn’t mind doing something that shows the holes in the cooling sleeve around the barrel. Short of buying the Eduard kit (which has other details I don’t need) what do you guys/gals recommend?

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I have one on the shelf for a future build and in an earlier post of mine asking for advice, Swanny suggested the Aires 50 Cal waist guns.

On another note, please post pics and you go. I’d love to hear the issues you face as you build.

Which paint scheme/decals are you going with?

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I’ll have to look those guns up, thanks!

Would love to post progress pics, but I don’t have a digital camera (yet).

I’m building it as “Superman” 41-24380, standard OD over Neutral Gray; using Albatros Decals 48-017 set. My dad’s a Superman nut, and he loves the B-17, so I thought this would be a perfect birthday present for him. [:D]

Now if I could just find more info on the a/c, I’d be even happier.

4

actually the Eduard B-17 Weapon set actually would work for you all it has is PE bomb bay doors and PE barrels for the 50 caliber machine guns and PE ammo belts.

5

Take a look at Karaya if all you want are the .50 cal. barrels. You can order directly from them at http://www.karaya.ceti.pl/eng/eng2.html. Great Models also carries the Karaya products - www.greatmodels.com. They make excellent barrels. I highly recommend them. But, I would not use their gun bodies. The kit gun bodies are much better.

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That Albratros sheet, or rather, ten or more sheets in one B-17F set, is a masterpiece. I agree with Mikey. Go for the Eduard metal, especially if you are wrestling with that old Revell dog of a kit. You need all the help you can get.
I just got a bunch of fancy new tools for manipulating PE parts, up to and including making cooling jackets perfectly round for .30 and .50 cal guns. But this can be done with no more than a two-inch headless nail or similar cylinder for a roller, and a rubber pad. Be sure to aneal the brass first. Clamp it in some locking tweezers or similar and pass a lighter or match over it evenly until just as it turns red (some people recommend stopping before it turns red to avoid the possibility of the part distorting, so I leave that to you. However, this process is mandatory if you want a good cylindrical cooling jacket that’s perfectly round.)
After letting it air cool, no water on it, start rolling it with your nail or piece of aluminum or steel tubing or whatever you use for a roller. It will begin to form, and the more you roll back and forth, you will marvel at the shape it takes. Finally, it will become close enough to a cylinder that you can glue the two ends together.
Now, stand back, be proud, and do it 11 more times. You won’t be sorry at the end.
BTW, I have that decal set, but not the courage to first, hunt down the kit and second, try to make it go together in an acceptable manner. Revell, after Monogram did so well with their G model, really made a mess of the B-17F, which sort of baffles me why Albatros put all their brilliant minds to work coming up with a magnificent, $35 decal set for such a dog of a model. We definitely need a good 1/48 B-17E/F. I’m surprised Trumpeter, in their headlong mission to kit everything big they can identify, has not already done it, and then hung a hundred-dollar price tag on it.
TOM

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Tom, thanks for the great insight on how to work with those barrels. That’s what I’ll probably wind up doing, since I’ve used them before on a previous B-17G kit.

Gotta get started on this thing tonight…need to strip all the clear parts, sand & polish and then Future them. That’ll take 3 days alone. Oh well, it’s good for me. [:D]

Thanks for all the good advice!

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jridge…thanks for the info on karaya…I will give them a shot for my B-17F.

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actually Tom thanks for the idea since I only have one of the barrels done the old fasioned way now I have a better way to do it thanks to you. BTW if you want to have a gunmetal coloring without painting (well since the Eduard sets are metal I think aluminum instead of brass that when it tarnishes it actually looks like gunmetal.

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You’re right Mikey. Even skin oil left on Eduard’s coating over their brass part turns it a burnt-looking black.
TOM

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yeah I was really impessed with how it worked that I thought why paint when paint would gum up the little holes in the cooling jacket.

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The Aires guns are absolutely exquisite. I’ve got a kit for my 1/48th B-24 waist gun positions, and they’re a mini-kit all in themselves. 13 pieces if I remember correctly.

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These are some great tips on forming the PE kackets, especially anealling them. Thanks

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Ummmm… yeah - I think what he means is phot-etched cooling jackets for the .50s. Flightpath have some of these in their B-24 update, and you have to anneal them (pass a lighter flame over the metal) to soften the metal, and them roll them round the former that is provided. You then slide the jacket over the barrel that’s provided, and CA it in place, hiding the join as you see fit.

I’ve not got to the stage where I need to do mine, so it’s all supposition, but it looks VERY tricky!