B-17 Flying Fortress

[elliott]

Looking good John, don't stop now! (I know you won't ;<))

[John Dell]

Sorry it has been a while since an update. The holidays kind of got in the way.

Here are photos of some of the final bomb bay art.

These are the fore and aft bomb bay bulkheads showing some of the extra detail parts I’ll be including. There are pulleys on the forward bulkhead and the stowed bomb winching equipment on the aft.



A couple of shots of the bomb bay before the cat walk and racks are installed. You will probably need some tweezers to add some of the extra detail parts.






Here is the completed bomb bay. I guess I’ll have to build some bombs to see how they look inside.

I’ll next be posting some photos of the complete shark fin test build, a B-17C.

[Rubenandres77]

This is looking very nice indeed!

[DWest]

This was worth waiting for, fantastic job!

[Don Boose]

Beautiful work, John. I like the effect of the full color bays against the white model.

Don

[Darwin]

This is looking good. Next you need to revisit the B-24 bomb bay and give it the same treatment. Seriously, I would love to see such an 'upgrade' released for your B-24 series...it would almost be enough to convince me I needed to build another of them. I can't wait for the B-17 kit to hit the shelves.

[nikischutt]

Brilliant work on the bomb bay, it's looking very nice!

[John Dell]

As always, thanks for the encouragement everyone.

Darwin, You’re right, that old B-24 bomb bay is looking really sparse when compared to the new B-17 bomb bay. At the time I was doing the B-24s I only had one book that had any decent color photos of the bomb bay. Unfortunately, the B-24 does not have the same level of documentation that the B-17 has. I literally have over a hundred books on the B-17. But there are probably less than half that number available on the B-24. An excellent B-24 book titled “Consolidated Mess” recently came out that I really wish I had at the time I was working on the old B-24s. This book has such a wealth of useful information and photos I had not seen before. Since getting this book I have been giving some serious thought to adding addendums to several of my previous B-24 kits. If I do though it will be after I get the B-17s rolling along.

Actually, if anyone has access to the Collins Foundation’s B-24J I’d appreciate whatever photos they have or can take of the bomb bay. That would be a great help and incentive.

As I mentioned in the previous post, here are photos of the B-17C test build. I was also able to take better photos of the B-17F test build that I’ll post later. I’m still refining the engine nacelle details and I have to design a decent looking top turret for the B-17G. I’m looking forward to getting all this preliminary design work done so I can get to the fun part, the color, shading and textures.

[gomidefilho]

Wow! Amazing! For me is the kit of year!

[legion]

It looks stunning in that white 'livery'. Great work on it!