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Little Miss Mischief Diorama


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I do apologize for the lack of pictures - after not building much for a month, I found myself in a great "zone" and next thing I knew I went for a smoke... coming back, I took these pictures. The wood is still drying, and will be for a little... after a first attempt at working with wood a couple months ago and messing up the painting of it, my second attempt tonight really worked better I think. Some staining still needs to be added to the cloth and the wood, but here's the stand with both (Eduard PE) ammo chutes and a couple extra parts:

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And what I did with the tail turret:

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The Squadron tail gunners Vac Formed piece was used for the 'glass', everything else is scratch built with a few PE parts from Eduards (the elctrical plug and oxygen display, and seat belts).

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The port side at the edge is a little out of shape, but there will be a tool bag placed there to cover up my slip up. The outside end was made with aluminium sheet to replicate the thin piece of fuselage, the rest is all evergreen, and string with super glue to replicate electical wires. There still will be the cooling jackets for the twin .50's added after it's all done in NMF.

That's it for tonight!

Cheers all!

Mark.

Edited by Kostucha
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Thanks guys! I'm going to work on getting the tail turret finished off around the canopy and then paint the rear portion (the 'bag'). Once that's done I'll blow out the sanding dust that's inside, and put it aside - I wont be putting on the BMF (foiling it) until the rest of the forward fuselage and wings are done. Learning from the past, I don't want to get random dents and scratches all over the place. The "wires" hanging out the end will be finished later on as well, they wont just be hanging out like that, but I left myself enough excess string to make it easy for me later on to work with, hence the length.

Right now I've put the build on hold for last night, and tonight as my wife will be leaving to Alberta for a couple months... and we know that she'll never forgive me if I decide to stay in the basement working on this these last two days.

BUT! Once she's outta the house - don't I sound like a nice guy eh? - I'll do what I said with the stinger, and then continue on in the fuselage. There is going to be quite a bit of scratch building going into the area under the cockpit floor. Given that I want to put "hazard lights" inside, and that the clear nose piece will be removed with the open access between the nose and the cockpit, a lot will be seen. Rigging... joy. But, it'll be a slow and steady movement from front to back starting up in the nose. I think the easiest way will be to mount everything to one half of the fuselage, and just keep adding on as things carry on.

What I do forsee happening though is skipping over the bomb bay and doing the radio compartment. Once both bulkheads are in, then build in the bomb bay as it would have been. The Paragon set is great, BUT, leaves little on the top end, so there's also going to be some scratch building there. After that, it's the No. 1 engine, MLG wheel wells, vents, wings as a whole, mount those on, then start the BM foiling on the whole dang thing. Once that's done by August of 2014, I think I'll start on the waist section of the fuselage, that'll be pretty much an empty section with most parts from inside being removed waiting to be mounted in after the fuselage and tail have been joined.

The smaller parts (like doors, MG's, Ball Turret, etc) will be done near the end. That's the plan at least. Now, lets watch this plan go to h*ll in a hand basket, hahahaha.

Cheers!

Mark.

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he now, 2014 is WAY past the end date... :P

You don't remember? I mentioned (somewhere) that the only part of this B-17 I'm entering for the build is the tail turret. I'm almost finished my entry already, and only half a week in! I'm saving the rest for the "Flying Fortress II GB" :whistle:

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Wow, that's a hell of a lot of AM parts, wow......

How much were the metal gun barrels and cooling jacket form master? I've seen those but am aprehensive due to the cost, especially for a B-17.

Love the detail in the tail turret, cant wait to see more.

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You don't remember? I mentioned (somewhere) that the only part of this B-17 I'm entering for the build is the tail turret. I'm almost finished my entry already, and only half a week in! I'm saving the rest for the "Flying Fortress II GB" :sunrevolves:

hahaha :monkeydance:

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Wow, that's a hell of a lot of AM parts, wow......

How much were the metal gun barrels and cooling jacket form master? I've seen those but am aprehensive due to the cost, especially for a B-17.

Love the detail in the tail turret, cant wait to see more.

Thanks! Ya, I've been collecting the AM detail stuff for some time now, but there certainly is still a lot that's going to be scratch built. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to avoided so much AM, but there would have been no way to get it all done and this GB entry finished in time for the end of the GB. As for the barrels and cooling jackets from Masters... a pretty penny. With tax and everything for 14 barrels (need 13, but they come in packs of two), it would come to about $80 CDN. But as I said before, I was fortunate enough to get a good deal on them. Either way, they are certainly worth it. Amazing quality. The reason I went with these was the superb detail on the barrel itself, as all the .50's will have their 'guts' pulled out of them. Masters barrels are the only ones that offer you a superb cooling jacket AND a great barrel (not just a thin pipe).

There's still a fair bit of detail to add to the tail turret (mounting bolts, the aiming 'gun' just infront of the tail gunners face, frame for the canopy, cover on the aft end over the two lights, electrical wire ends, MG cooling jackets, tool bag inside at the edge, future on the canopy windows to clear them up a little, BMF on it, plus the weathering on the exterior). But the interior work was fun and quick. I forgot how much fun it was.

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The resin cockpit/nose pieces (the floors) were glued together to gain a bit of "work area" as it were. They at first seemed to be thick to me (and they are, about 3-4 mm). That normally wouldn't be a problem, but as the hatch is open and you'll be able to see up into the cockpit from below, and from in front (through the nose), I thought it would be. Thanks to Karl though posting up that picture of what's under the cockpit floor looking aft from the nose (reference information, post #9) you can clearly see that not only is 3-4 mm a decent thickness going, but near the front underneath the instrument panel it get's thicket!

There was a lot of hack & slashing going on, in order to remove the "posts" that are molded to make the joint stronger between the upper section (cockpit), the drop (below the instrument panel) and the floor in the nose. As well, the resin instrument panel was shaved off and glued on. I'm just taking a break right now - I sprayed a little OD green lightly to check for any gaps in the glue (yellowish resin cracks will show nicely through the OD paint).

Once it's dry, it'll be a quick check to see if it all fits nicely, and shave off any resin from the side walls that needs to be in order to fit it all, and then the fun begins... building up the nose/cockpit, and all the fun below the cockpit.

Pictures to follow later tonight!

Cheers,

Mark.

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As mentioned, the pieces for the floors and IP were put together. These are parts of the True Details cockpit and nose section detail sets. They were then chopped accordingly (again, as mentioned) and lightly sprayed with OD. Why? Contrast to see anywhere the glue missed. A LOT of the stuff was put on to give it strength in "unseen" areas. Why you might ask? The nose floor was REALLY warped. So when I go and install it all and bend it back, I don't want it all breaking on me:

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Here is the piece of the instrument panel face that was shaved off. The Eduards IP will be used in place. I must say though, I absolutely LOVE the detail that is put on this piece both top and back (errrr... rather, forward):

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As you can see, A LOT was done to shave the bottom to match the curvature of the fuselage to get this piece to fit right:

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So, great... only one problem. There's a huge opening from the cockpit to the nose and under the cockpit floor with absolutely no detail there! And with the nose hatch open, leaves a lot to be built:

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So... the scratch building started...

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I first dry fitted the floor piece in and mapped out where the bottom of it is:

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The next step was to fill in the oddly shaped gap at the mounting point at the leading edge of the wing. There is no need to fill in the entire section of the wing joint as the Paragon set has a part that covers it up in the bomb bay, so, using some putty (playdoh), I tossed a chunk in:

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I then pressed the floor back in, and started to get an idea of what needed to be trimmed. This also doubles as a way to ensure a complete seal between the fuselage half and the cockpit floor:

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The excess was then trimmed off, the remainder being given it's shape, then covered in super glue, and sanded smooth:

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After that, a ROUGH outline of where the framing would be was jotted down. The important points were the ends of where the evergreen was going, not so much the center:

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Once it was in place, I started with the thinner parts, the runners:

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From there the ribs were put in. I tried to replicate as best as possible the same setup as I've seen in the reference shots:

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And all in all, I'm happy with how the shape turned out, and how near the back the putty did do it's job of giving a round shape to the interior of the fuselage:

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Looking in through the crew entry hatch, nose, and with the cockpit in place, giving an idea of how much will be seen:

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From here, the frame sections that support equipment (such as the oxygen bottles, and autopilot, etc) will be built up, and put in, along with anything else, such as pipes, wires, etc, that is silver/metal in colour. Once in, I'll continue on with fixing up the nose framing and making sure it all lines up, and the gaps between the resin halves is filled in. The details underneath the cockpit floor, such as control cables, wiring, and other parts in that area will also be scratched and put in, but it'll be later - the last things before the cockpit floor is ready to be mounted to the starboard fuselage half.

Thanks for looking!

Mark.

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Thanks Stephen,

Just a quick little update. While the little guy is down for a nap, I tossed in some oxygen bottle 'holders' and the shelving unit for the autopilot system:

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More to come later tonight.

Cheers,

Mark.

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Hi Mark:

Perhaps this will help, although I would say you have it well in hand!

The first picture is yours with my "color codes" :salute: Where red is are the autopilot components, yellow is the autopilot junction box (actually, that should be a little further forward), blue is the radio compass receiver, and green is of course the oxygen bottles.

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And then the various items and where they are located:

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Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the servo and inverter in place, but the Parts Book drawing should suffice. The radio compass receiver dimensions are: 6.5" x 12" x 19". The Autopilot junction box (apprx) 2.5" x 16.25" x 10.25" HTH, Karl

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Dont think I have commented on this before, but I started watching your progress back in the Props forum. All I can say is WOW! Going to be a shame to close up the fuselage halves.

Also, the additional info on B-17s both threads have generated has been rather fantastic.

Edited by Chuck1945
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Karl,

Dang! The lower shelf needs to go back a little further... it looked fairly short in the book drawing you sent me (and posted) - AutopilotInstallation1marked.jpg - where in the other picture it looks a heck of a lot longer - GyroandampInstmarked.jpg. That's alright though, I'll add an extendion piece to it, pushing it another couple of ribs, remove the center support bracket and push that one to the end of it. That should make it look just right.

So the Radio Compass Receiver is mounted just off the edge of the walk way, faces forward from what I can tell in the image, but the junction box, even though in one the box is covered, and looks like in the other it's open, I'm thinking I might just go with closed (it will barely be seen). These parts though are going to be installed later on. It'll be all the framing portions underneath - and there's not much left - then the bomb bay... joy... and afterwards it'll be the radio room. Once that's all done, I'll be moving onto the other fuselage half.

Chuck, thank you very much, greatly appreciated. I'm not overly concerned with losing what is seen under the cockpit, as it'll be seen from both the nose hatch, through the nose itself, and from the cockpit looking down, and a few areas will have light from a "hazard light" (lamp) behing held up by a mechanic or two.

As for the information that these threads have brought up... I'm really happy with that. The research is almost more fun than the building.

Cheers!

Mark.

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Hey Mark, your shelves are perfect! I made my red circle a little big, those are just for general reference. Don't move them! And you are right about the J-box, I am sure it would have the cover on it. That picture that shows it open is from the manintenance manual, who knows what was going on when it was taken. I am very jealous of your modeling skills, that is going to be amazing!!!! I can research, but I can't model worth a darn, oh well.... :coolio:

Edited by 100th BG
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Karl, thanks again for your help!

Work finished up tonight by completing the starboard fuselage sides mounting plates... tables... whatever one may want to call them. But, here's the main stuff:

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From there it was adding in the Paragon lower half of Bulkhead No. 4 (4 I do believe), and their starboard bombay side:

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This was one of those "my sons in bed, house is cleaned, everything ready for tomorrow, I've been working for 20 minutes, and maybe, just maybe I'll get the bomb bay done tonight..." NOPE!

I had two No. 4 Bulkheads to pick from... the kit piece, and True Details piece. Both had a problem... door was closed. Both had even more problems... one was a little too thick, can you guess which one:

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The other had a huge gap up top, though the fit with the Paragon piece was really impressive, but, so what, there's no detail what so ever on the back of the piece. *I'm going to build a kit... I'll give you a bomb bay, because it's a bomber, and a famous one, and I'll also give you the bombs, the walk way, and some other molded details... but, you'll have nothing else aside from that, and I'll mold the bomb bay doors shut to boot. But so that you're not mad, I'll include a bomb cart in the kit.*:

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So... hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work (with evergreen I go). I started to make a new No. 4 bulkhead, one that would incorperate some of the resin details of the TD kit (like fire extinguisher, and other nice details), with the thin shape of the kit piece, but also add on some things that were missed. Anywho, the first couple of shots are of the new piece and it's fit:

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Though it fit great from the front, it left a hole where the kit piece butts up with the Paragon piece:

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Edited by Kostucha
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From there it was cutting open the door, and starting to add the panels and details and all the other fun stuff. Once that was done I took some of that play-d'oh I used before, and started to lay down some "material" (the sound deadening stuff). Once it was on, and I used a variety of things (from toothpicks to my knife handle), I covered it with a thin layer of glue. This was done for two reasons - the thick glue when left will give more of a textured effect when it's done like this, and secondly, the hard glue will act as a "crust" to not only allow to paint it nicely, but as well as clear out the putty stuff from holes/openings on the reverse side of the bulkhead:

Half done:

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And here's what I meant about the texture - this was the best way I could snap a pic to show it:

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Once done, I glued all the parts into the fuselage half:

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As you can see, there's still a large gap in the corner of the bomb bay. Some evergreen will certainly help fix that problem. As for the plate that's sticking out on the port side, that's the armour plate protecting the relay box inside. I know it was on the 'F''s, thanks Karl for your pictures of the Belle, and could only assume that they were still there on the 'G's.:

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The hope is that tomorrow I might get to start on the bomb bay. It's going to be "Fun" as I'll need to get the next bulkhead up (No. 5), and I can already see me going through all this again. But, it is fun.

Thanks for looking,

Cheers!

Mark.

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Thanks Neo. I couldn't have done it without the help of a lot of good reference photo's and information. Karl's been a life saver, and his pictures of the Belle from '79 he posted as a walk around almost a decade ago are a huge help too - just need to know what changed from those pictures to block 15 of the G's made at the Boeing plant.

I'm just hoping that after one of these posts he or Stephen or anyone else don't come back and say "Man, you are SOOOooooo wrong with that" hahahaha.

Cheers!

Mark.

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