Fozzy

Sorry I missed this build so far Joel!.....I just love the "Shooting Star"...and you are making a grand job of building it!

Thanks Pete!....I do in fact post to other forums and recently this build was featured in a the 447th BG news letter. Also I agree Pete...building without the aid of 3D cad drawings etc gives me great pleasure and have always modeled this way since I was a lad back in the 60s!.....cheers!

Thanks Joel!....still haven't finished....more to come!

Cheers Captain!

Hi everyone Just when you thought that it was impossible to cram any more equipment into the turret Mr Sperry thought it was best to install the K4 gun sight!....and it isn't a small piece of equipment either!...it sat just above the gunners rib cage!😲 I made the gun sight by shaping a small piece of balsa wood and then covering it with some plastic card....then all the bits and bobs were simply glued on! Here it is before being painted......  ....and here are some different angles of the K 4 gun sight before being placed into the tu

Hi there chaps Been a while since I last posted due to the fact that Spring is here and every year I have to fix house problems tend to the garden etc etc also add to the mix that this turret build is pretty complicated!😕 I have a method in scratch building this turret now and that is to build it in layers!...from the top of the ammo cans to the next piece of equipment and then the next layer would be another part of the system to the next part and so forth. ....because of the amount of stuff that's packed into the ball its the only way I seem to be able to do it!

Afternoon guys! I have just returned from UK and I am now back in my office and can get to my bench!....the last time I posted was 15 March and of course not being able to do any modelling this post is going to be a small update. So its the continuation of the Ball turret that seems to get more and more complicated the more I look at the photos. I have many photos of different angles of the interior of the turret that I have collected over the months and its a real slow process of interpreting what I see!....not to mention that some of the equipment I have scratch built

Well done Joel!....a great looking Hurricane showed off by some good photography!... congratulations!

Lovely looking Hurricane!!

Hi there Lads and Lasses! I am off to the UK tomorrow but was able to do a quick update before I set off. I haven't done much but its a start to complete the ball turret part of this build. Looking at photos convinced me that the next best thing to scratch build should be the ammo cans that are inside the ball!....they sit just above (and I mean just above) the gunners thighs!....I can see why the ball turret gunners had to be small...there is just no room to move an inch!...no wonder they got cramp!.....lying there in that draughty enclosed space ...dangling

Cheers Joel Yes I have been looking at my 10,000 photos I have!!....to see how and where I can open the turret up for viewing! I'm planning to come back mid April if all is ok..which I'm sure it will be!.....

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 i

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

Good job Joel!...looking forward to the weathering on this bird!

Maybe I should forget about the turret and just use the ball....would be a lot easier Bryan!!

Thanks Pete!

Time and patients Joel!

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!...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

Hi Joel.......just love the Hurricane and you're doing her justice....great work!

Hi chaps Here is a quick up date on the problem that shall be named......."The bl#@$y Sperry Ball Turret" 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!

Your right Joel....I have decided to start the turret now rather than later as its the hardest part for me and I want to get it out of the way!!

Hi....its me again! Got to keep at this else I might run out of life! .... 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....

Cheers Joel!..yes the ball turret will be very challenging I think!!

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 us the definite shape of the fuselage area.... 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.......

How interesting!...yes please send the link to the president of 477th BG...I'm sure he would be interested and no doubt he will spot many a mistake!!