Boeing B-17F by Lt. Biggles - FINISHED - Revell - 1/72 - PLASTIC

[Lt. Biggles]

Did the cockpit walls, I probably should have continued through to the front and completed the nose interior PE set at the same time. That way I could have primed once and then painted the whole lot. Oh well we learn and it doesn’t matter too much.

 

my first oil panel wash was a light colour so it can brighten it up inside. Once closed up it’s pretty dark. Will see on dry fitting if it needs to have a darker wash.

 

but the set does add some nice details especially for 1/72 scale.

 

Next I’ll add the glass sides of the nose, paint and then do the nose interior set of brass PE, paint again and do an oil wash before applying the instrument and colour printed Detail PE set.

I’ve been using Tamiya gloss clear paint to put the colour parts on. It doesn’t dry as quick as CA glue so I don’t have to panic place and hope I can get it into position within 0.2 of a second! I can then add CA to the edges. Once dry I paint with Tamiya Matt clear to lock everything in place.

[Lt. Biggles]

The internals are finally complete and I’ve done 2 dry fits.

 

 

There turned out to be quite a lot going on inside this model! Although the parts weren’t very complex, they just needed research and slowly used a lot of time until all the little attachments and sub sections were complete. Then took time to let the oils dry, doing details and dry brushing. Repairing and repainting parts that caught a stray finger or got destroyed by something smashing into it while fitting another part! The usual

 

 

During the dry fit I found out that the ball turret ammo belts were hitting the door! So filed down the ammo belt and rounded off the corner to so it turns as advertised! Most of the parts aren’t even visible so modifying them isn’t a big issue. Just glad I found them before the fuselage was nicely glued together.

 

I’ll let all the parts sit in the hot water cupboard for one last night of drying. Tomorrow all going to plan will have it all closed up and glued.

[Lt. Biggles]

Everything is complete. Time to put it all together!

 

Many dry fits, so was pretty smooth! It’s amazing how often everything either shrinks or grows 5% when you apply the glue! But that didn’t happen this time and it all went together quite well!

The wings are all ready to go so they also went on and the seam to fill is minimal so I was happy!

 

I did some seam work with putty and sandpaper, rescribed the panel lines, attempted to put the rivets back on but the amount of force needed with the wheel meant I was breaking the glue seal and having to glue again and re fill and sand so I will think about that later.

 

[Lt. Biggles]

Primed with Tamiya surface primer in a can, re sanded and filled where needed and primed again.

Will let it dry well for a few days.

 

[tmj]

Nice job so far! 

If it's not too late... you might be interested in finding this book. It's the "Bee's Knee's" when it comes to B17's...

 

 

[CDW]

What a great looking B-17 you’re building. All the work you put into detailing the interior looks amazing. Considering it’s in 1:72 scale even more impressive. Very nice work Biggles. Looking forward to the remainder of your build!

[king derelict]

The interior work is spectacular. I thought it was 1/32 scale; you have it detailed so well

Alan

[Lt. Biggles]

On 8/25/2024 at 4:48 PM, tmj said:

Nice job so far! 

If it's not too late... you might be interested in finding this book. It's the "Bee's Knee's" when it comes to B17's...

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation! It’s abit late now that it’s all glued together. But it’s good to know about it just in case one day!

[Lt. Biggles]

On 8/26/2024 at 2:46 AM, CDW said:

What a great looking B-17 you’re building. All the work you put into detailing the interior looks amazing. Considering it’s in 1:72 scale even more impressive. Very nice work Biggles. Looking forward to the remainder of your build!

Thanks for the kind words. I’m interested to see how the paint job goes myself! Trying to make it interesting without going too over board with effects is tricky I find

[Lt. Biggles]

On 8/26/2024 at 10:49 AM, king derelict said:

The interior work is spectacular. I thought it was 1/32 scale; you have it detailed so well

Alan

Thanks! I can imagine a 1/32 scale b17 once complete would take up a fair bit of room! This scale it’s still a good size!!

[Lt. Biggles]

Started on the underside, Tamiya neutral grey was the base colour over the primer and preshading. 

used a lightened NATO black to pre shade.

A light base coat. The paint splashed out of my airbrush next to No 1 engine, so had to minimise that and try fix it. 

I’ll do a dark grey with a bit of brown oil wash to help blend it in better. I did learn if the shades underneath aren’t defined enough and visible then the washes will show nothing. So balancing how much coverage is tricky! 
Hopefully I’ve got it right! The pics are taken under light that really shows the layers through, under sunlight I like how it looks and it is alot more subtle!

[PvG Aussie]

Your build is coming along very nicely but I know working with greys is a real pain. I learnt a great deal from my PBY Catalina build. Go here for a quick look at my experience.

Cheers,

Peter     😊

[Lt. Biggles]

On 8/29/2024 at 10:21 PM, PvG Aussie said:

Your build is coming along very nicely but I know working with greys is a real pain. I learnt a great deal from my PBY Catalina build. Go here for a quick look at my experience.

Cheers,

Peter     😊

Hey, thanks. I actually looked at your build log not that long ago as the Catalina is so unique looking! It came up well! Seems your main points about greys were that the lighter pre shading didn’t really work for contrast? They are a tricky colour

[Lt. Biggles]

Begun on the Olive Drab. It’s my first time painting with this colour and quite a large area of the same colour I think needs some modulation but looking at pictures of the real plane there really isn’t that much.

If it’s well used and faded then it’s mainly just lighter but I’ll do some panel lines as just one solid colour doesn’t look right. And straight xf62 olive drab looked to dark for what I was after so used a 3 to 1 ratio of xf62 to xf4 yellow green and that seemed to give a nicer faded hint of brown that I was after.

Added a few drops of NATO black to the olive drab to darken the panel lines. Then misted lightly over the top with buff mixed with a little olive drab to blend the two together and lighten it even further.

Remembering the washes should blend the colours in further and under this light the contrast is maximum so didn’t want to make the colours blend into one and disappear I decided that it was enough.

Let it dry and put a gloss coat over it.

i think my gloss coats are too thin as I like to just make the surface look wet but pooling it like the tutorials say to get a shinny gloss I can’t bring myself to try! As pooling paint just scares me alittle 😅

So my gloss coats are more like a satin coat.

A good dry time is in order now!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks really good - nice job!

[Lt. Biggles]

19 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looks really good - nice job!

Thanks mate

[Lt. Biggles]

Over the last few days I’ve managed to do the decals.

there were a heap of tiny ones and against the dark paint were practically invisible but we’re leaving that slightly super gloss effect from the clear part, so don’t hate me but I didn’t put them all on!

These pictures were taken under direct sunlight

It’s almost ready for its oil washes.

I’m really not sure what colour to do the oil wash? I don’t want it too dark otherwise it might loose it’s faded out look. But also can’t really imagine doing a light wash as all the panel lines wouldn’t look right. 
Any suggestions as to what might work? Brown mixed with dark grey with a touch of black is my thinking, as long as it’s abit darker than the dark shade of olive drab are my thoughts.

[Lt. Biggles]

The underside was straight forward.

dark grey with some brown for the wash and a bit of griming.

The top however was not so easy. I wanted a dark wash to get in the panel lines but didn’t really want to darken the paint, probably should have just done a dark pin wash looking back, as I wanted to do a wash to lighten and make abit faded and blend the paint together, which would have meant lighter.

So I did the same wash on the top as underneath (dark grey with brown) and surprisingly it darkened the paint haha! So after a few days I mixed up some lighter olive drab and did another wash to lighten it. So my panel lines are actually lighter. I don’t mind the effect, but the panel lines should be at least a shade darker than the paint and I hope I haven’t washed out too much of the contrasting greens.
After that I did a very light misting of very light olive drab to help fade it abit more as it was abit dark. Will see how I go but might just leave it how it is.

While I’m deciding I’ll do abit more of the weathering and grime. After looking at a lot of actual photos added abit of the oil stains. 

 

The difference in the two photos are mainly due to the lighting. Middle one is on an overcast day and bottom one under direct sunlight

[Egilman]

I've always said, daylight tells the tale... The sun never lies...

 

I think you've nailed the faded OD finish, gonna look the part that's for sure... US OD Green is the chameleon paint, it can be any number of shades depending on light and angle...

 

Well done, I wouldn't change a thing....

[davec]

Beautiful work - I agree that the OD looks great.  I'm following carefully - I have the new Eduard Bloody 100th 1/48 kit, and hope to start when I finish some of my current projects.

[Lt. Biggles]

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

I've always said, daylight tells the tale... The sun never lies...

 

I think you've nailed the faded OD finish, gonna look the part that's for sure... US OD Green is the chameleon paint, it can be any number of shades depending on light and angle...

 

Well done, I wouldn't change a thing....

Thanks. I’ll leave it as it is. A bit of making it abit grubby from use and hopefully that gives it abit more character. I’d like to do alittle bit of chipping effect with aluminium but it makes me abit nervous as the chipping patterns to make it look natural isn’t my strong point!

The olive drab does change a lot depending on the angle you view it. Some angles it’s all just one shade and another angle all the fading and colours are nicely visible.

[Lt. Biggles]

1 hour ago, davec said:

Beautiful work - I agree that the OD looks great.  I'm following carefully - I have the new Eduard Bloody 100th 1/48 kit, and hope to start when I finish some of my current projects.

Thanks! I’m also following someone else’s build which I’ll be doing next. Happens to be an Eduard kit also, a P51d.

Eduard do some amazingly detailed kits! And a 1/48 b17 will be a beast! This 1/72 one is still big so can only imagine!

At the very least I hope I can help you learn what not to do with yours 😂

[Lt. Biggles]

Underside exhaust and oil effects had started. Using this pic as a reference.

I don’t want to do a super heavy exhaust effect but from a lot of the pictures they are really filthy! This is more of a first coat but also roughly as heavy as I’ll go but as it dries I’ll give it little tweak and add bits to it.

also while it’s been on its back I installed the undercarriage.

[Egilman]

There is something going on in that real life photo that is making the grey underside of the wing virtually glow with light causing the turbosuperchargers exhaust to be a lot darker than it usually is, On your model you can take it a bit darker but not much, looks pretty good from where I sit....

[Lt. Biggles]

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

There is something going on in that real life photo that is making the grey underside of the wing virtually glow with light causing the turbosuperchargers exhaust to be a lot darker than it usually is, On your model you can take it a bit darker but not much, looks pretty good from where I sit....

It is quite a contrasted picture. I won’t go darker but just move the oils about just to try give it a more smooth look. I like having an actual picture to work off as it means I don’t have to guess. The inboard engines have a unique pattern which I’d not have done if I’d not seen it! 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking really good Biggles!  The decals, washes and weathering really bring it to life.

 

I'm still low on the learning curve when it comes to painting/washes/etc.  It's true artistry when the pros use pre- and post-shading, weathering, washes, filters, etc., along with using oils and other types of paints, to bring everything together in the end.  I tend to try to go shade lighter on some colors knowing that washes will darken things a bit, and have started coming back with a very diluted filter if I need to lighten things back up a bit.  A lot more complicated than the old days of when I was a kid and painted a coat of Testor's enamels and called it a day!

Edited September 11 by Landlubber Mike

[king derelict]

I really enjoy the weathering but there is so much to learn and so many products to play around with. You did a great job here and avoided it looking excessive.

alan

[Lt. Biggles]

20 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looking really good Biggles!  The decals, washes and weathering really bring it to life.

 

I'm still low on the learning curve when it comes to painting/washes/etc.  It's true artistry when the pros use pre- and post-shading, weathering, washes, filters, etc., along with using oils and other types of paints, to bring everything together in the end.  I tend to try to go shade lighter on some colors knowing that washes will darken things a bit, and have started coming back with a very diluted filter if I need to lighten things back up a bit.  A lot more complicated than the old days of when I was a kid and painted a coat of Testor's enamels and called it a day!

Haha back when one shade of green would have to do for everything!

I also struggle with the weathering part! I feel I more give it a go and if it works it’s more of a fluke!

I’ve mainly gotten better at knowing how to remove it with as little damage as possible to try again with a different technique until I’m happy!

let’s see if I can fluke some very light chipping when I get around to it!

[Lt. Biggles]

11 hours ago, king derelict said:

I really enjoy the weathering but there is so much to learn and so many products to play around with. You did a great job here and avoided it looking excessive.

alan

Thanks, I find it can be easy to weather so much that it becomes the main thing and looks nothing like any reference pics! So I try have some restraint even though it is fun, and keep the weathering to complement the paint job!

I'm in the final stages now!!

[Lt. Biggles]

Decided to start on the superchargers, it’s the final subsection left! 

I did a lot of reading and looking at pics of the real ones and other modelled ones to see if there is a good and easy way to paint them so they don’t stick out but also look the part!

saw a lot of people following the real ones and drilling out the pipes. So I decided to also while thinking about how to paint them. 

 

Here it shows one straight from the kit with the other 3 drilled.

 

I think they do look quite good drilled out!

They are all set for painting now! Still unsure so will leave it and think!

at this stage I’m thinking the paint them aluminium, dry brush oils of black, grey and brown randomly and then do a wash with my AK rust wash. From there see how it looks and go from there! Any tips would be appreciated or links to other kits with a good technique. Otherwise I’ll just give it a go