Stunning! Thanks a million! I'm Thinking now how I'll sort that out... It could be I have some clear red sprue from my auto builds... That will be awesome!

Whoa! I'll have to include that in Luscious Lady! Thanks for the tip. You are a gold mine man!

Karl is right about the engines and the propellers. I used to work for Curtiss-Wright Corporation, and my dad flew KB-29s that had R-3350s in them. So the Wright Cyclone engine line has always been of great interest to me, none more so than the R-1820.

These were, frankly, reliable but cantankerous and dirty engines. They threw a lot of oil, and were a mess to maintain. Also, as Karl pointed out, one had to manually move the props before engine start in order to circulate the engine oil out from the bottom cylinders and more evenly distribute it throughout the bank of 9 cylinders. Otherwise, when the engine would start you would over-compress and blow a cylinder out and lose the power plant.

For all its faults, I consider the R-1820 to be one of the 2 most significant products that Curtiss-Wright Corporation contributed to the war effort in WWII. The other? The P-40, of course. The R-3350 that powered the B-29 is another story. As I'm sure you would read elsewhere, it was rushed into production long before it was ready, and its tendency to catch fire caused many many deaths. If I'm not mistaken, the engine had an actual working life of about 100 hours before it had to be removed and overhauled, and during the war it was cheaper and more efficient for the Air Force simply to install new ones. Imagine an engine of such complexity effectively being a throwaway item!

Anyway back to your build. The one thing I would suggest as an addition to the engines, and you should talk to the customer about this, is a modest investment in the Eduard upgrade set for the kit engines.



The engines themselves are pretty good, but the absence of ignition harness and wires is telling.

Gabriel,
You're making excellent progress on a most intricate build. Since you mentioned cleaning up the leading edges of the wings, it looks as there is still a small but visible melted plastic bead that needs to be dealt with. Air brushing some primer will quickly let you know what remains or that all is ready for the next step.

Karl, as Brian said, you're expertise on all things B-17 is absolutely amazing.

Joel

Hello, Gents.

@Brian: very useful info, Brian. Thank you.

@Joel: Thanks for support. I think the "beads" are actually remnants from the Tamyia surface primer I used to seal the gap. You're absolutely right: the first primer will show up any imperfection - the silver plastic Revell used for molds is very tricky because the pigment is not uniformly settled.

Small update:

Based on excellent Karl's intervention, I modified the landing lights.

That is what the kit has to offer:


And this is what I've got after seeing Karl's reference:


I used a spare headlight from a 1/35 Tamyia (Simca 5 or Austin Tilly - I cannot be sure). For the left wing, I have the second headlight and I am scratch-building a red light for "passing light." Hopefully, the red light will be installed tonight.

Thanks alot, guys, for your constructive comments.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Look closely at the pics and you may well see that the main landing light is off center, but please verify by photos rather than take my word for it.

I've seen that, Brian. But the picture posted by Karl shows the left wing only, which carries two lights. I assumed the right wing will have the only light centrally installed. Maybe it's wrong assumption - ?

Cheers,
Gabriel

I'll lave to look myself for the Luscious Lady build.

@Brian: I tried to find something on Google - no luck. Maybe Karl can help again.

Meanwhile, I did the left wing lights (I attached the clear part too - no picture yet).



Besides, I did some small other things, like painting the inside of the cowlings, sealing a gap between the right wing socket and landing light "glass" etc. Nothing worthy to be posted.

Thank you for your constructive comments.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Gabriel,
Impressive mod with both lights, especially the red one.
Joel

@Joel: Thank you so much. Not entirely sure about the right wing, though.

Small update:
I was fiddling yesterday with all the MG's - just to sort them out. I drilled all muzzles and aiming rings; all are now in various stages of painting (not shown in my photos)

I am thinking to an alternative already expressed in this blog: I guess I will paint the stinger muzzles insignia red. It makes good harmony with the plane general chromatic (red stabilizers, red tail).







If time allows, I'll be soon moving to Sperry turret and interior fuselage detailing.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Nice looking mg's

Gabriel,
For what it's worth, I go with the red stingers that Brian posted about. They certainly would create a unusual look to the machine guns which would draw a lot more attention then they usually do.
Joel

Great progress. As for the right landing light, I will be in Palm Springs and Chino later this week so I will take a photo of the right side. I can't recall whether it is centered or not. And being on the road, I don't have access to my reference material.

Right wing Landing Light location. Definitely not centered. Taken at Chino yesterday.

@All: Sorry for late answers / update. My schedule is a death match right now - we are on the top of touristic season in Caribbean.

@Karl. Another decisive intervention. Thank you for fantastic dedication and generosity. I feel much obliged to re-align the light as per your photo.

@Joel: I decided for red (see photo below). Thank you for following.

@Gary: Thank you. It really makes the difference (see completed turrets below)

The updates:

I managed to finish three more sub-assemblies:

The top turret: I used masking on this one and I realized how dull my modeling life was without cutting masks (%$##&^*!). Also I realized that the detail have small raised lips and it is suitable for painting by hand - which I did with the Sperry turret.





The Sperry turret was painted with Testor's silver enamel for primer, followed by semi-gloss home brewed acrylic gray. I also applied a very fine pin wash (not too obvious, I'm afraid)




Finally, I finished painting the stingers


Hopefully I'll finish soon enough the other clear parts - I find brush painting so much easier than cutting masks!

Your hand painting is definitely better than mine. Both turrets look great!

Gary

Again, Gabriel, VERY attractive.

Gabriel,
Both turrets look great. I'm about ready to hand mask the top turret on the B-25B as the Eduard set I bought says to use a liquid mask.

Those MG stingers really look outstanding. Definitely, a eye grabber.

Joel

Update time, folks!

I know I'm late, but I did my best with the little time I have. Fortunately, my working schedule looks more promising. AT the other hand, my stash's future is just bright. And now to the business:

Fuselage interior detailed:

Right side:





Then the left side:






The next step to attach a few details, then to glue and mask the windows, together with the cheek guns. I think is a good idea to mask the windows at this step, to avoid eventual scratches and also I try to avoid pressing them after the fuselage halves are jointed. Dropping one window inside at that stage will be disaster.

Thank you for your patience, for posting and constructive criticism.

Cheers, Gabriel

Gabriel,
Nicely done paint detailing the interior. Should be more then adequate to fool the viewers eye.
Joel

Nice work, Gabriel. Your wash makes a nice visual effect.

Gaz

Really nice work Gabriel, I especially like your landing light mod, very convincing - so much so in fact that I at first mistook the photo you took of the actual aircraft for your build!

@ Joel & @ Gaz: Thank you for the positive input.

Just for confirmation: I highlighted the "ribs" with a derivative of the base color, then sprayed everything with semi-gloss clear. Finally, I applied a semi-gloss wash (home brewed). I wanted a subtle effect.

@ Ernest. Thank you for stopping by, Ernest, and taking the time to comment. This, sir, is the most valuable compliment a modeler can receive. Thank you.

*** UPDATE ***
The details I was talking last time (i.e. ammunition boxes and side control panels)






Further on, I moved to windows. I have read another review claiming the windows are too small. Honestly, I did not believe at the time. Now I do. It appears to me that couple of windows (especially the cheek gun window on the left fuselage) are more warped that should be, hence jointing gaps. I spent a good hour this morning building "gaskets" around the windows from white glue:



Fortunately, from outside the situation is a little better: I'm going to need filler only around the left cheek gun window and around the window on the access door from right side.

Thank you for posting and for positive criticism.

Cheers,
Gabriel

Hello everyone. I am new here and this topic caught my eye because I am in the middle of building the Chow Hound. I have not modeled since I was a teenager and this is my first so I am enjoying seeing someone build this plane and getting some good pointers reading all of your posts.

Hi David,
Welcome to the forum!

Gaz