Ians Spotted CowPat - the towel is thrown in......

[Ian]

Third GB of the year and it's still only mid-January.
What with all the snow today, I might not be able to get to work tomorrow so could make a start!
It's the old Revell B-17F kit but I am going to make it more 'interesting' to Mrs. Ian by painting it as Spotted Cow, one of only a handful of B-17 formation aircraft.

[aeroplanegripper]

Excellent choice, looking forward to seeing this one Ian.

[Dirkpitt289]

Looking forward to it also.Do you need any reference material for this one? I have some if you need it

[Ian]

Thanks Dirk, I will happily take any reference material you have. Can you post in the chat thread or should I PM you my email address?

And for those that don't know Spotted Cow - here she is.

[Dirkpitt289]

I will look and see what I have and post it if you'd like later on tonight. You've got away to go before you're ready for the spots

Here is a link to where I am with my 1/144 Spotted Cow

http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=19&t ... ary#p80902

[Gregers]

Excellent choice of subject. I'm looking forward to seeing this one built.

All the best.

Greg

[Narayan]

Now there's something you don't see everyday!

_________________
Narayan

Knock-out Dropper!

A:B
2012 20:05 2009 19:16
2011 11:10 2008 16:03
2010 44:12

Overall 193:51

[Ian]

The box.


The sprues.


The rivets!


I have a quandry and am not sure how to approach it.

There are only a few contemporary pics of Spotted Cow on the net. As in the shot above, Cow is clearly shown armed as it has both the dorsal and belly turrets in place.


However, another shows the same aircraft but without those turrets in place.


So I'm torn between the turreted and un-turreted versions.

The Revell boxing would make the un-turreted version reasonably straightforward as both turrets are simply 1/2 turrets kept in place by the fuselage (as opposed to the Airfix G which had full motion of the belly gun.



It would be easy enough to sand off and smooth out the lumps where the turrets are supposed to be fitted but on the other hand, should a B-17 be unarmed?
Decisions......

[JohnRatzenberger]

I have the Key Publications "Assembly Ships of the Mighty Eighth". It has the same unarmed photo, and another photo from the left front quarter showing it armed. The text on the profile says it was partially disarmed, only the top & belly turrets being retained. The turrets were not overpainted, the top being natural metal and the bottom Neutral Gray. The overall aircraft was white and the blue spots were applied everywhere except the underside of the flying surfaces - wing & tail. The cowlings were also blue, back to the first section after the fins.

Most assembly ships were unarmed, they weren't supposed to wander very far from the form-up areas over England. Most had the turrets removed; some retained unarmed turrets for observers/controllers to monitor progress.

The cited book has a 4-view color profile, important if you wish each dot to have its proper place ... I can scan it if you wish ...

[Dirkpitt289]

Spotted Cow was one of the few that had some armament still in place but. THe shot of her without could have been later on as the remaining guns may have been needed for aircraft going into combat. Either would work but for the sake of a timed vuild I would leave the turrets in position as blocking them takes up some time

[Ian]

... I can scan it if you wish ...

That would be most helpful, John.
No rush, I have a lot to do before I'm at that stage.

[Ratch]

I had planned to do this some time ago as it was Grafton Underwood's formation plane, but someone had beaten me to it at Cosford

[Ian]

I've just spent a very happy 6 hours sanding all the rivets off the fuselage and wings.
Lucky me!
I've also taken my razor saw to the engines to open up all the flappy bits (technical stuff here folks!) on the back of the engine cowls.
I've added the bomb bay doors and painted the interior.
Just waiting for the Klear to cure so I can add all the windows.

I decided to go with the unarmed version, so I have filed down the protrusions where the turrets are supposed to be fitted.

No pics as I'm at work. :(

[JamesPerrin]

I'm sure I saw someone do a magazine article on this. I think they used a standard hole punch to make all the circular masks.

[T-21]

Lampie,(Nigel Julian) built this and takes it to shows . He runs the 56th Fighter Group website and builds wonderful P-47 Thunderbolt kits of the 56FG. There was a magazine article probably SAMI or Scale Models ? Will try too find this week.