The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Well, I suppose it's about time I joined the merry throng here in Workbench-land, and bore regale you all with blow by blow accounts of my builds
Currently on the table is the New Tool Airfix B-17G, which so far is proving to be up to their usual new standards of being excellently moulded, but engineered with very tight tolerances
So far the interior is being assembled, starting with the cockpit, and then working rear-wards before then finishing with the nose interior.
Colour call outs call for a very dark green for some of the interior for which in places I have used Malachite Green; elsewhere I have used standard interior green (Humbrol 78) or gone with plywood. My reasoning for this is based on online images of B17 interiors which seem to show a wide variance in internal finishes and colours, so a degree of lattitude seems appropriate even if not totally prototypical. The ply areas have been painted with Revell Natural wood, with some Uschi van der Rosten ply decal laid over; I have to say that it looks the mutt's whatsits to me!
So, on to the piccies; the story so far:
The cockpit sub-assembly with plywood!






And the fuselage interior partially fitted








That's all for now folks!

You got one! You lucky guy. Watching closely but don't get nervous.

Very nice start Iggie. I have one of these in the stash so I'll be watching this with interest. The level of detail on the kit is very impressive.

_________________
Narayan

I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round Perdition's flames before I give him up!

A:B 2017 0:0 2016 27:10 2015 53:07 2014 21:04 2013 39:12 2012 20:05 2011 11:10 2010 44:12 2009 19:16 2008 16:03 Overall 332:84

Very nice. No pressure, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people excited to see this one going together!

Keep up the good work, and keep the updates coming.

That's a nice start. Welcome to the world of workbench wonders

jssel wrote:You got one! You lucky guy. Watching closely but don't get nervous.

Ummm, I got two actually (the second one was a present so not my fault )

Narayan wrote:Very nice start Iggie. I have one of these in the stash so I'll be watching this with interest. The level of detail on the kit is very impressive.

The detail is excellent; enough certainly to not have to even consider PE or resin after-market stuff unless you really want to

mjatx wrote:Very nice. No pressure, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people excited to see this one going together!
Keep up the good work, and keep the updates coming.

No worries about the updates....and I hope my build will help others when they get to build the kit

TobyC wrote:That's a nice start. Welcome to the world of workbench wonders

Cheers Toby; I fought it for long enough though

Looking rather spiffing so far Iggie, this is one to keep an eye on.

That's coming along really good Iggie - Nice work on that interior!

This is the bomb-aimer's area, it shows the ply effect off nicely. Each of the two seats in this area, and the two others in the Navigator/wireless operator's stations comprise three parts each

Wow Iggie that plywood decal is brilliant!

That plywood thing is soo cool!

It was Toby what told me about it Gov', 'onest it was!

Good to see the build in action.
So much detail out of the box!
Airfix should offer a clear fuselage half as an option, don't you think?

David

A clear fuselage side would be an interesting option certainly!

A couple of heads-up notices for those tackling this in the future:
The wing root spars each side of the bomb bay are tricky; I'm fairly certain I used the correct part on the correct side but I had to shave a lot off the bottom on both sides to get the fuselage to close fully, worth checking carefully!
Also, don't be tempted to try being clever by leaving the ball turret out when closing up the fuselage.......it won't fit afterwards! I had to trim about half a millimetre from the hole to get it in afterwards. No great problem and the fit is still snug but I'll follow the instructions next time in this area!
Pictures to follow later

Further progress on the B-17: Fuselage is now buttoned up
view through waist gunner's window of ball turret in place. I defy anyone to build it so it rotates/swivels!

the only gap encountered; a splodge of filler should sort it without any further issues hopefully

Ball turret in place after opening the hole up

Wing root spars as mentioned in previous post: bottom edge sits too low and fouls the fuselage, preventing it from closing fully either side of the bomb-bay. As stated, a good bit was shaved off to make it fit