My father was a tail gunner on a B-29 during WWII, stationed in Guam at that time, flying on a bird called the “Grym Gryphon”. Prior to Guam, he also spent time in the European theater, also as a tail gunner on a B-17F. I had since built him a Revelle 1/48 B-17G to hang in his room at the home, which he loves, and thought to match the other side of the room with the B-29 he’s always loved. I’ve always loved doing the detail work, and found plenty on this model. The pieces came apart from the trees and fit together nicely. I chose to follow the paint diagrams from Revelle, sprayed all the pieces for the flight deck either Testors flat black (intrument panels) or Testors flat dark green (most everything else). Rather than use the water-slide decals for the instruments (decals never sit well on raised surfaces) I chose a fine paint brush, using Testors bottled gloss white, silver & flat red, and painted by hand my own intrumentation following the models own raised example. The different boxes under or on the tables, tanks and various other items, I used my own creativity and steady hands. I think the results speak well.
Also here you have the waist gun/crew rest area to be located on the opposite side of the bomb bay.
Also pictured are photos of my dad’s bird, the “Grym Gryphon”
And finally mounting completed components inside the fuselage halves
My strength has always been on the detail, not the bigger picture as you will at times note over cementing (tunnel glued to bulkheads in a hurry) and the worst part is, what I’ve spent the most amount of time on will be forever hidden from view. But again, that’s why we model!
The “Grym Gryphon” had no armement aside from the tail gun, so the turret holes will be filled in with the flat blanks the kit offers, not the contured ones that also come with the kit, which take a considerable amount of time. (My father is waiting patiently for his new bird, and he’s not getting any younger)
I hope you have enjoyed this posting, I have since painted the fuselage and painted the insignia on the tail which I’ll be posting later. Thanx for looking.
Wayne