1/48 Monogram B-29

[ALF18]

This is a build for a friend. He had this kit lying around for years, and hasn't built anything in a long time. Might have something to do with the toddler and newborn baby girls who have monopolized his time. He asked me if I would build it for him, so here goes.

This thing is really, really, big. It will be bigger than Phantom's CC-130J. I've seen one in person about a year ago. I will probably spray it with some rattle can silver metallic paint from Canadian Tire. Given that it's being built free for my buddy, I'm not going to mortgage my house to buy enough Alclad to cover this surface area.

Stand by for grumbling as I open the box and figure out how tedious it will be. Four of everything, probably, with all those engines. And don't even get me started thinking of the glass surfaces to mask off.

Life is rough. Happily, I have 2 more weeks of vacation before I'm back for the fall session at my aviation college. This should keep me busy during that time.

ALF

[Bigasshammm]

Two words

Eduard Mask.

[ALF18]

Two words

Eduard Mask.

Normally the perfect solution, but in this case he's not paying me anything, and any expenses (including paint and glue) come from my pocket. He'll understand when the masking is not perfect.

ALF

[Bigasshammm]

Idk I think it's still be worth the 15$ or whatever it costs. At what price piece of mind!

[ALF18]

Idk I think it's still be worth the 15$ or whatever it costs. At what price piece of mind!

Maybe

I'll talk to the dude and see if he would foot the bill. You're right about the peace of mind.

ALF

[AX 365]

This should keep me busy during that time.

Yes! Yes it will.

You're right about the peace of mind.

I'm going out in a couple of hours. Will swing by the LHS to see if they have the E-Z Masks for this kit in stock. Will let you know this afternoon.

[ALF18]

I'm going out in a couple of hours. Will swing by the LHS to see if they have the E-Z Masks for this kit in stock. Will let you know this afternoon.

You da man!

Thanks, buddy.

ALF

[AX 365]

Anything to help a friend!

Got them. Will put them in the mail this afternoon or tomorrow morning on my way to work.

Good luck with the build.

Mike

[Bigasshammm]

I won't do a 1/72 or 1/48 B-17 anymore without them.

Look forward to it. Saw two at Nationals and while try had significant flaws they were still stunning.

[ALF18]

Wow, those B-29s look great! From the photo distance, they look really nice. I hope mine turns out half as nice as those.

ALF

[nspreitler]

I started one of those over 10 years ago, had it about 70% complete but life happened. I moved several times, deployed twice and by the last move it wasn't fixable and I was missing parts. I have another in the stash now, and since Kits World has Kee Bird decals I can finally do the aircraft I wanted to do. I probably won't get to it in this group build since I am deployed again now, but hope to have it built in the next year.

[ALF18]

Finally, I have some pictures and progress to show. I have started back at work, and also went to Montreal to see the men's pro tennis tournament. After the dust has settled, here's what's going on with this huge kit.

First, the obligatory box picture. Notice in the background there is an old CF-18 in 1/48 scale, showing just how huge the box is. I will be happy when this build is done because it takes up a huge amount of desk space.

My boss at work builds mainly multi-engine aircraft, and his is the first B-29 in this scale that I'd in person. He told me that the detail inside is often quite invisible, for example everything aft of the armour plating is almost impossible to see without shining a pen light into the tiny side window. I'm happy about that; I will spend minimal time on the interior painting. Here it is with the odd mix of black and silver coloured plastic, prior to painting.

Some of the bits of sprue that adhered to this after it came off the sprues are so big, I might need a chainsaw to chop them off. It is easy (as I found out) to end up with little divots taken out of the plastic after these babies have been chopped.

Here's the one on the vertical tail plane. With a complex curve like this, it's hard to get it perfectly trimmed.

I almost needed a step ladder to get back far enough to take in the whole fuselage.

ALF

[ALF18]

As my very good friend AX_365 (Mike) has told me, this kit would need a huge amount of nose weight to avoid tail-sitting. I was worried about that for two reasons:

1. where to put the weight?

2. how might the gear sag over time with all that weight anyway?

I finally decided to use the tail stand on it, with the agreement of the guy who asked me to build it for him. Here you can see some views of forward interior dry-fitting; imagine putting huge fishing weights or something else in here? On the positive side, the landing gear struts do look rather robust.

Here is where the instructions say to add the tail support. I looked quickly and didn't find a pre-cut piece of clear plastic that seemed right - do they expect you to just cut the proper length from the clear sprue, or have I lost it somewhere? There is no part number shown on the instructions for the part, and I don't see it anywhere other than in this painting/decaling diagram.

Partway through painting the interior green. Will add black highlights and some silver dry-brushing later. I used Tamiya XF-71 for the green.

More green slathered on here and there where appropriate.

ALF

[ALF18]

Interior of the fuselage painted green. I used a brush for this; my set-up with garage airbrush makes it far more convenient for me to brush paint anything other than the main camo colours.

Here's the interior of the flight deck glued in place. For its age, this model has plenty of nice detail. I have zero desire to go nuts on it though; most will not show, and it's not my cup of tea to add detail where it is invisible. Besides, this is a bomber, and therefore (in my narrow ALF-view of the universe) not as interesting as a fighter.

Here are some more bits glued in place. I will leave the majority of the bomb bays silver, with the green on these parts. Again, largely invisible on display. I will not fix the huge sink marks either, although I can understand how they would drive some modelers nuts. The "catwalk" part (not the tube, the lower thing) was quite warped, so I had to glue the rear in place, wait for it to set, then clamp the front part.

Here is the forward part prior to clamping. Looks much nicer after it has set. I am starting to get anxious about the fit of the fuselage halves, what with the huge amount of parts glued inside to one half, and the overall length and age of the kit. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by.

ALF

[VMFA314Knights]

This is a REALLY big kit....(started one but not yet complete) I like to keep my 1/48 kits on shelves behind glass... but this one needs a monster shelf!

Coming along nicely ALF

:cheers:/>

David

[AX 365]

Coming along nicely there bub. There should a a clear support rod on the clear sprue, unless it has been mysteriously absconded with or taken by aliens. Using a piece of clear sprue is also an option. When I built this beast, the fuselage seams line up quite well. I glued about 2" at a time and made sure that little bit lined up while the glues was setting before moving onto the next 2" bit. Time consuming but worth the effort.

Unless your friend is coming to pick it up, lay down the back seat of the car or rent a moving truck. Make sure you come to a full and complete stop at all construction egress points. <_<

Keep it up buddy. I look forward to more progress shots.

Mike

[ALF18]

Make sure you come to a full and complete stop at all construction egress points. <_</>

Learned my lesson there, my friend!

LMFAO

ALF

[Trojan Thunder]

Interior is looking good Dan!

Edited September 10, 2015 by Trojan Thunder

[CorsairMan]

I'd like to try this one eventually but the raised lines (and their subsequent sanding) scare me off. Mike's solution of gradual cementing is a good option to minimize destructive fillers and sanding.

[ALF18]

It has been a long time since my last update. One reason is I'm busy with back to school. Two weeks of teaching done already, and today I gave my first test of the year in one subject already. Our aviation college starts earlier than other post-secondary institutions.

The other reason things have been slow is that I am quite daunted by the sheer size of this thing to glue together. There are many parts that need to be inserted (including the wing spars), and Mike's suggestion of doing it bit by bit is exactly what I did - except at first, I had forgotten the wing spars and I had to pry it apart. Luckily I used regular glue (not Tamiya extra-thin) for the back end, and it came apart easily.

But I get ahead of myself. Here is some dry fitting. Surprisingly, it goes together fairly well, especially considering the amount of interior structure there is. When I hold it together, it looks pretty good, except for two areas. One area was the aft portion of the bomb bay; I trimmed down the floor panel in the back which was the culprit. I probably glued it in place too low down, which meant that it would be too wide for the fuselage section at that point.

This is the area that was the worst fit. I trimmed down the sides of the cockpit floor and panels, and it came together acceptably well.

Starting the long gluing process from the back. I used regular Testors cement, because it fills gaps nicely. I was generous with it, ensuring I would have a bead to trim off afterward.

The interior detail (such as here in the aft gunner's position) is frankly invisible. I'm glad I spent very little time on it.

Starting to do some scraping to even out the seam. For such a huge kit, it's not as bad as I feared.

Now I have some exams to correct. Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for your encouraging comments so far. I am struggling with modelling mojo over this one; it's hard to confidently press ahead.

ALF

[Neo]

Wow this thing is huge!

good progress, if your going with a spay can i would suggest Krylon, they are great on plastic and you can easily decant them to use in an airbrush

[ALF18]

Wow this thing is huge!

good progress, if your going with a spay can i would suggest Krylon, they are great on plastic and you can easily decant them to use in an airbrush

Neo

Yup, I am going with Krylon, but will not be decanting for airbrush. My plan is to paint some white and grey and black patches (primer and other), then mist the Krylon from the can over top to see if I can get some metal variation that way. The ailerons, rudders, and elevators will be done with a non-metallic paint (probably Tamiya X-11 or similar). Fingers crossed for that.

In the meantime, the hard part is building and gluing. Did I mention (way too many times) this thing is huge?

Dry fitting of the big flight deck glass area is promising.

Now for the masking! Luckily, my friends convinced me to go with the pre-cut masks, and of course AX_365 came through without even being asked by buying and sending them to me!

WAY easier than doing it with Tamiya tape or paint-on gunk. Thanks Mike!!!!

Now, the bad news is that I forgot to install a bubble window before putting together the fuselage halves. I was so daunted by the size of the things, that I initially forgot the wing spars, then felt relief as I got them in place... then days later, I realized that I left off one of these puppies.

There was a small area I could get a tool inside to push with against the bubble, and with careful manipulation managed to glue the part by slipping it in then back out from the inside.

ALF

[ALF18]

Now for the wings. I first glued only the wing roots together like this, leaving the remainder of the wing to flap in the breeze unglued.

Using copious amounts of Testors cement, I glued both wings in place on the spars, and pushed tightly to eliminate any gaps at the wing roots. Fit was surprisingly good on both wings.

I then worked on sticking the wing halves together with Tamiya extra-thin, tape, and clamps.

Next step is to glue the wheel struts (main) in place, then start assembling the engines and bomb bay parts.

Thanks for stopping by! Tomorrow I have a busy day. We are celebrating the establishment of a new sea-plane base for our aviation college, and I'll be taking a bus there for hot dogs and other activities, with a helicopter ride (Bell 206) back to the school at the end of the activity. Pics to follow. They are calling for rain, but hopefully will be adequate weather for the flight back.

ALF

[Trojan Thunder]

Boy, those masking set are life savers on builds like this! Looking really good there Dan!

So where is this going when finished?

Edited September 10, 2015 by Trojan Thunder

[Rich in name only]

The first X-Wing!