Drew T.

I'm building the Monogram B-17 right now. If I was to build another one, though, I would definitely get an older version of the kit that has crisper moldings. The ProModeler details (engine wiring, ammo belts, and cheyenne turret) can be had though Eduard and Paragon. Throw away the kit decals too because they're pretty thick. I think the ProModeler decals may be better, though. Check Swanny's article on the 1/48 B-17 kits here: http://www.swannysmodels.com/B17G.html

A pretty good, and cheap, source of period interior photos of B-17s is the January 2000 issue of Airpower magazine. Its got an article with interior photos of the gun emplacements of B-17s. The photos were taken during WWII, so its a bit more accurate than the restored B-17s. Check ebay, I think you can pick it up for about 5-6 bucks. Drew

I've heard that the cheyenne turret that comes with the ProModeler and Visible B-17 kit is not that good. The Verlinden set also has this turret, but the best turret of this type is made by Paragon. I'm not sure where you can get it in the US, but Hannants should have it. Staggering the waist guns is not difficult. The right waist gun has to be moved up just far enough that the national insignia fits between the waist door and the window for the waist gun. You'll have to make new frameless windows from clear sheet plastic that has the same curvature as the fuselage. I used plastic from a 0.5 liter Coke bottle for my windows. I patched the original window with sheet styrene.

Here's a link to some details on Milk Wagon: http://www.447bg.com/index.html Since it is a block 70-BO, it would have the Cheyenne tail turret and the staggered waist guns and no radio room gun. The ProModeler B-17 kit and the new Visible B-17 kit both have the Cheyenne turret and original turret. For Little Patches, it would have the standard waist guns and standard tail gun. Also, I think it had the older style radio room gun where the top glass hatch had to be removed to operate the gun (check pictures of B-17Fs to see what I mean). So any 1/48 B-17G kit could be used to build it. Also, to get an idea of exactly how a particular B-17 was configured and you know its production number, visit this site: http://www.b17database.de/ The production numbers are organized by production blocks, so you can see how B-17s looked according to their production block (The details of the B-17s of a particular block group should be the same). Hope this helps. Drew

Most B-17G's were bare metal except for the cockpit. For example, here is a shot of the navigator's area, with bare aluminum fuselage sides and dark green bulkheads: And here's a picture of the waist gun area: However, for early B-17's the interior was apparently yellow zinc chromate! From what I can tell, however, the pilot's compartment was always covered in a dark (olive?) green soundproofing material. This also included the radio room and nose compartment on B-17F's but was done away with except for the pilot's compartment on B-17G's. Check out http://www.ipmselpaso.us/newsletter/2004Glue/1104Glue.pdf for info on B-17 interior colors. Here's the site where I got the color B-17 photos from: http://historylink101.com/ww2_color/index.html Hope this helps! Drew

Superscale did make decals for this plane a long time ago. The item number is 48021. Don't know where you can find it, but it might be worth a look. Drew

Keith, Wow, didn't realize that, but we might very well have seen each other on campus! Little Bird, Thanks! Drew

Thanks Raptor Supporter, I appreciate your compliments! Chris, thanks for the kind words. I'd be a bit scared to foil a Hustler myself. Lots of complex curves around the engines, but foiling is not that difficult after you develop a good methology though trial and error. The nice thing is that if you screw up, just peel off the foil and wipe off the glue! Kieth, thanks for the compliments on my models. I'm at Clemson right now, graduating in December in mechanical engineering, but I am from Rock Hill.

Col, thanks for the compliments, I never really quit working on the model, I've just been doing a little bit at a time. I did have to redo about half of the foiling because I wasn't satisfied with the result. Damo, I've had this kit for a number of years myself and started detailing it. But my skills weren't as good as they are now, so I started over a couple of years ago. I appreciate your kind words! Drew

The chin turret was heavily modified from the kit version, as I found that the kit's turret does not maintain a constant diameter from top to bottom like the real one. To fix it, I Wrapped a thin layer of sheet styrene around the turret and blended it in with epoxy putty. The covers over the gun slits were also fashioned from epoxy putty. I also reworked the bottom of the turret to make it match the real one. Thanks for looking and I hope you like it! Drew

Hello, guys, I've finally got another update on my Monogram 1/48 B-17G. Sorry it took so long! After a few "do-overs", I've spent the last few months foiling most of the exterior. This is my first ever experience with foiling, and I think it's turned out fairly well. After I assemble the wings to the fuselage and the fuselage halves, I'll foil the rest. Most of the foil is thin kitchen foil glued down with microscale foil adhesive. I did use Bare Metal Foil Matte Aluminum around the engine nacelles, but I actually found the kitchen foil to give a better finish. I only used the matte side since the finish on B-17s quickly dulled from oxidation. Although it's not very evident in the photos, I alternated the grain of the foil to give different tones to the panels. The areas on the rudder and engine nacelles not foiled are going to be painted. Unfortunately, I'm also going to have to paint the engine cowls and cheek gun blisters, as I can't get the foil to conform to the shapes well enough to suit me. I had quite a tough time photographing the foil, as under household lamps, the glare was difficult to get rid of. I eventually found that photographing in the shade with the sun out worked best. Still, I think the foil looks a bit more "chromish" in the photos than it does in person. I plan to overcoat the model with a semigloss clear finish (Future and Tamiya flat base mixed) when finished. Oh, and please excuse the blue tape on the trailing edge of the wings. I had problems with the foil tearing at this location, so I'm keeping it covered until assembly is complete.

Steve, I'm building that model right now. Here's a link to it on ARC: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal5...son/gal4028.htm I've done alot of research into B-17's and if you can get the copy of Airpower Magazine, January 2000, it has an article on the B-17's armament with interior photos of a B-17G in wartime. The pictures are B&W but you can tell that the walls are aluminum. Also, I've seen color wartime photos of the navigator and also radio operator comartments with bare aluminum walls. As you can see, I've painted my model this way. From what I can tell, the later B-17Gs only had insulation left on the cockpit walls, while earlier B-17's, especially B-17F's had green insulation in the radio room and nose compartment as well. I've heard that the insulation caused problems when the plane suffered damage and was a fire hazard, which is why it was probably removed. The rear of the fuselage appears to be left unpainted in most all B-17 versions. As for tips on the model, I went pretty in depth with adding scratchbuilt details, but its probably going to be lost when everything is assembled. I wouldn't get too concerned with interior detail unless you're going for a show winner. And, I would stay away from the True Detail interior sets, they seem like more hassle than they're worth. The model really suffers from a lack of landing gear bay detail and the trailing edges of the wings and stabilizers are way too thick. I've corrected these problems myself and it really improves the appearance of the model. Opening the vents around the engine nacelles and wings improves the appearance as well. Hope this helps!! Drew

Thanks guys, I appreciate it! Drew

Thanks, I did it on a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Most shading was done with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil, but I had to resort to a 0.3 pencil for the crew :lol: .

Hi guys, Here's a sketch I've been working on of the B-17 I'm modeling. I'm definitely not an artist but I have done some sketching in the past. I traced the basic shapes from a photograph and shaded everything in. Hope you like it! The faces of the crew were really hard to do considering the size. Drew