Brian your Wellington came up really well. Good work mate !!




I had a similar problem on a 1/48 P-47, I think it must have been some solvent fumes inside the fuselage from gluing other areas

Cheers, D

Ok...I finally got my bomber underway. Decided on something that wasn't going to take the remainder of the year to make look nice. Decided on Hasegawa's venerable B-47E. I built one several years ago for a client and recall it went together quickly. As the cockpit consists of only 2 seats, control yokes, and the floor, it will build quickly. Tonight I managed to get the cockpit assembled, dry fit, canopy dipped in future (this is always the first thing I do with aircraft) and the load of 24 bombs cleaned up and assemebled. Will dress the resulting weld/glue seams tomorrow. More to follow. "Q"

Haven't seen to many B-47's built "Q", so will be following closely.
Well here is my entry, its the Academy 1/72 offering, Memphis Belle. Decals were a bit thick on this kit but several layers solution got them to settle pretty well. Anyway, enjoy.





Come on the BLUES!!

I'm waiting on decals to dry on my 109 so I moved over to my B-47. As much as I was going to build this thing OOB, I just couldn't. I added some do-dads to the cockpit to liven it up a bit along with some belts for the seats. Once sealed into the fuselage, it is pretty much hidden from view Oh well, it gave me an excuse to practice my scratch building gizmology. It looks good regardless. Will install and seal it up after this. Wings and elevators were assembled this morning. While the fuselage is drying, will work on the other sub assemblies. More to follow. Thanks, "Q"

Since finishing my Bf-109 for that campaign, I am making steady progress on my B-47. I was very happy with how the fuselage and wings came together. I only lost minimal panel lines across the spine and was able to stretch some dark blue sprue to aid in replacing them. Everything polished out very well. Only a minor bit of Mr. Surfacer needed on a couple of sink marks and sprue attachment points. Otherwise, its all good. Drop tanks are assembled and ready for priming. Will begin focusing on the landing gear next. Canopy is still continuing to dry, but is about ready for masking. I like to give them a full 36 hours for the Future to fully cure/harden. I also found a unique paint scheme for mine to wear... Will be eye catching if nothing else more to follow. "Q"
Cockpit surround painted...needs to be flat black though so I will fix that...

Minor sink marks at wing shoulders, and replaced panel lines..

Overall parts layout...

My paint scheme...
:)

Matt, thanks for the photo of the stretched sprue on the fuselage which will give me some help. WOW! what an ambitious paint job you have planned.

Bob

Nick, very good job on the Academy B-17. I was wondering how did you mask the windows, with tape? I used Micro Mask on my Revell B-17 and it didn't keep quite all the paint off the windows! Yikes! Oh well, thought I would include a photo for comparison. Again, you did well on your kit. Russell






P.S. My nose art I stole from a 1/72 scale B-26 from Revell!

Nice looking fortress Russell, stolen nose art and all.

No problem Bob, hope it helps. The pictures shows the plane as it sat @DM in storage. All the white stuff, Spraylat, won't be on my build. Will still be pretty involved. Having looked over the pic closer I've id'd white, silver, hi-viz red/orange, black and ADC gray for the colors I'll need to shoot. Needless to say, but there will be lots of masking invovled. I found a review on this same kit that was not kind in any way shape or form. I'm thinking it was builder error as I haven't had any problems with this thing that I couldn't handle or for that matter, that anybody else couldn't handle. I've built this same kit once before and again don't recall any major problems. The wheel wells are lacking in any real detail, but there is ample room for some creative gizmology to busy them up. I've installed mine at this ppoint and they are drying. I plan to add some goodies to them for a little addtional eye appeal. They will be far from correct, but far better looking than what they are now. Pics to follow soon. Thanks, "Q"

Thanks Matt, it is the old Revell kit I built as a kid in the 70's! I wanted to see what I could do with it today. It isn't as good as the Academy kits but it was fun to build.

This isn't my entry into the campaign, still haven't decided what I am going to build for it. Have to think about it. Russell

I said I was going to build this thing as much out of the box as possible...well, I lied. lol. after looking at those wheel wells, I just couldn't help myself. I initially decided to add just some strips to cover the ejector marks inside as removing them wasn't going to happen. A little creative gizmology would cover them up nicely. That morphed into.."Look at all that room for scratch building!" and away I went. This is nowhere near as busy as the real thing or accurate for that matter, but once under paint and weathered it will look the part. Will still add some more "stuff" in here. Still have the front wheel well to do as well. Thanks, "Q"
Inital strips inserted to cover ejector pin marks...

It's all down hill from here...

Additional brake lines and such added to the main strut..more to come here as well...

A small progress update:
Cockpit is sealed finally. Also all defensive armaments have been complete. Just discovered a new tool too - Squadron Green Putty. That stuff is awesome. Managed to fill in some nasty seam lines too thanks to that. Only downside is that my hands look like some Martian's with all that sanding

Will post some pics ASAP

Cheers

Matt, you have a disease and it is catching nice work on the wheel well.

Bob

But it is a good disease I got the wheel wells finished and I think they will look the part once painted. If nothing else it sure does busy things up. Trying to add the wings and elevators tonight, but don't hold me to it. "Q"

All the brake lines tuck up nice and neat into the wheels.
Copper wire, solder, various bits and pieces of styrene strip and stock make up the wells. Will probably add some securing straps to things now that I think about, but that is pretty simple now that all of the hard stuff is complete.

Great work again there "Q"! Russell, thanks for the praise. Still wasnt too happy with the outcome, but I am getting there, always learning new techniques on here. The cockpit windows were masked with tape as were the rear gunners. The rest were either masked using liquid mask (hence you dont see close up of the ball and top turrets - not pretty!) or left off and added once painted.

Cheers,
Nick.

I managed to get the kit primed and ready for paint.


Forward fuselage. I painted the cockpit area RLM 66 before i overspray it with the camouflage.



End result of 3 hrs of putty-ing and sanding. I am happy with the result but i hope with practice i can do better.


This is the scheme she will eventually wear. Top side is RLM 02 with RLM 73 patterns. Underside is RLM 65

Raj, nice job so far, the camo thatyou picked out will look great.

Bob

@ Matt: I tried your technique for replacing raised detail and it works. Thanks!

Bob

Glad to hear it Bob. How about some pics? Wasn't able to get the wings on my B-47 last night. I hit a wall and about fell asleep at the bench so I cleaned up the bench, turned out the lights and went to bed. Did some shooting this morning and now will focus on the 47's other fiddly bits along with the wings and elevators. I re-did the plumbing on the landing gear legs as I forgot to add the torque links before hand. The kit ones were about 4' thick so I scratch built new ones. They look 110% better as does the re-done plumbing. Pics to follow soon. "Q"

Matt: I will post the pics over on the 109 campaign today or tomorrow. Again thanks for the tip.

Bob

Top camouflage - RLM02 base coat done. While it is not as dark as the picture suggests, it IS a bit darker than normal [i suppose]. Got the ratio a wee bit wrong

Ah well - i'll chalk it up to the learning experience

Raj, looks good. Keep it up. Can't wait to see it done. Russell

Raj, it is looking good cant wait to see the it finished.


Bob

I thought I said that already!? RTA

Thanks guys

Well i had some spare time, and had nothing else to do. So THIS happened :



While i know the "scheme" would give people at RLM nightmares for years, i am happy with my efforts. And one thing i will say - Airbrushing IS the way to go

Needs a bit of touch up in certain areas. Waiting for the paints to fully dry before i tackle the decals.

@ Russell, I only looked at the pretty pictures I must learn how to read faster. Lol

Bob