Academy 1/72 Memphis Belle

[robtmelvin]

Looks great, Steve, that's definitely the effect I'm shooting for. I've got the Quickboost resin engines for both kits. Like you, I'll probably do minimal detailing on the 1/72 kit and save my efforts for the 1/48 engines where it will be more evident.

Got a little bit of work done last night on the 1/72 bird. Started working on the cockpit and nose compartment. Opened up the hatch area behind the pilots' seats, but I think I'll leave the hatch in the bulkhead at the back of the nose compartment solid since I don't plan on doing any detailing in area behind that. If anybody knows, on the Belle in particular, or the F model in general, was that hatch the same color as the bulkhead? I'm assuming it was, but I don't know for sure. True to form, I couldn't resist the temptation to do some detailing in the cockpit and nose section. Pulled out the Eduard colored PE set and went to work. The kit Academy cockpit/nose section is just too bare. Not enough progress to warrant pictures, but after a weekend hiatus to take SWMBO for a belated Valentine's Day weekend I'll be back at the bench Monday night and should have some progress pictures Tuesday or Wednesday. Should have most of the rest of my after market in next week, so I should be able to get some real work done in the next couple of weeks.

Bob

[100th BG]

To answer your question about the anti-skid, they used a black rubber matting, so your best bet would be to paint the areas so covered a very dark gray. Straight black is too harsh I think. Kind of like tires. Here is a note from the engineering drawings about the mat:

And on this photo of the sidewall of the Belle, you can see that the pilots seat is missing. And sitting on the frame is.. a piece of floor with the rubber matting! The matting was attached to the plywood flooring around the top turret, the small catwalk just inside the lower crew enty door, the radio room, and all the floor sections in the waist and tail. I am not sure about the area immediately surrounding the tail wheel. It was aluminum and they did't usually apply it to metal floors. And for some reason, it was not applied to the bombardiers floor. With the slope of the thing, you would think it would be needed there!

You are on the right track with the painting of the engines. A gloss gray was the standard crankcase color for US radial engines. Most of the WWII pictures where you can actully make out the engines tend to indicate they were unpainted. I know there are a couple of good shots in the Memphis Belle documentary where the airplanes are taxiing and as they turn, the sunlight shines on the engines. As I recall, they had unpainted cylinders. I like to use Testors "Steel" on mine. The plug leads were covered with a bronze mesh. Here is an engine I have been working on for "Mason and Dixon". The bronze paint I used on the leads isn't sticking, going to need to do something different. This was weathered a wash of Burnt Umber oil paint.

As for the hatch at the back of the navigators compartment, there actually wan't one. There was a canvas cover that snapped in to place, but that was pretty much eliminated in combat birds. But just paint it the same color you are using for the fabric covering and it will be fine.

[Kostucha]

Walking reference book. Love the information.

[robtmelvin]

Great gift from the post man! My order of after market from Squadron finally came in this morning. The True Details cockpit, nose and waist resin sections and the white metal landing gear. Now I can get some work done. I think I'm going to sick with resin as opposed to PE, since, frankly, I'm not that good with PE. Need to work on my skills in that area for sure. Looking at the resin nose compartment details, I think I can modify that to look more like an F rather than a G model fairly easily. Famous last words, perhaps. On a down side, I also got an envelope from White Ensign this morning. Should have been my Master's 1/48 M2 barrels, but darn it, backordered! Just some off stuff I'd ordered while I was poking around on their site. Oh, well, maybe it wont' be too long.

Karl, that is exactly the look I'm going for on the engines. The pictures of the Belle I have studied do look like the cylinders were unpainted. I think Model Master's steel with a black oil/turp wash should do the job nicely.

A quick forum question. Is there any way for me to edit the title of this thread to more accurately reflect what I'm building. I'm still holding the Academy kit in reserve if I have time to work on it after I finish up the 1/48 build, but I don't often build more than one kit at a time. Unfortunately, real world stuff so limits my bench time that I've found that trying to do multiple kits at one time just results in me getting nothing done as I try to switch back and forth between them.

Hopefully I'll get some real progress made tonight (SWMBO is visiting her daughter and won't be home until late) and I'll post pictures of the results as soon as I can.

Thanks, Karl, for all your help and to everybody else that has contributed and answered questions or made suggestions. I'll take all the help I can get guys!

Bob

[Kostucha]

A quick forum question. Is there any way for me to edit the title of this thread to more accurately reflect what I'm building. I'm still holding the Academy kit in reserve if I have time to work on it after I finish up the 1/48 build, but I don't often build more than one kit at a time. Unfortunately, real world stuff so limits my bench time that I've found that trying to do multiple kits at one time just results in me getting nothing done as I try to switch back and forth between them.

Bob,

If you go to the very first post you put up in this thread, and click on Edit, then select Full Edit, you will be able to change the titles there to anything you want.

Cheers,

Mark.

[HOLMES]

Bob,

How is this coming along....I keep coming to see what you have done and I finally had to ask you..I hope you do not mind..

HOLMES..