B-17 F cut-away

[Peter Gillson]

Inspired by Ken's blog of his B-17 I thought a photo of my version may be of interest.

The kit is basiscally out of the box with Legend figures added. My idea to display it was a little radical to say the least - but does not take up a lot of space!

Peter

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Great to see this Peter. An unusual treatment and superbly done.

I kick myself for not accepting a personal tour of the Sally B at Duxford when I was there on a work trip. I thought my boss would disapprove....

 

[Fernando N]

Great idea and execution Peter.
Pretty neat to have a look inside.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Peter. - glad you like it. i was tempted to use a photo of a squadron of B17's in flight as the background, but in the end opted for the easy option of pale blue.
In 1998 she visited Guernsey but had some engine problems and ended up stranded in the Island for 9 months - There were problems getting a replacment engine but I also think that they didn't want to cross the Channel during the winter. I remember they had to apply some sort of special wax to protect it from the salt air. I also kick myself for missing a chance to see her when she was here.

B-17 Preservation Ltd - The Sally B Website - History

The official website of Sally B, the UK's last airworthy B-17 flying fortress

www.sallyb.org.uk

 

[minitnkr]

Well done Peter. We see B17 flyovers a couple times a year & have a couple in the US Air Force museum here in Dayton. Sometimes they offer rides at the airshow. PaulE

 

[Deleted member 4539]

Very nice way to display this great cutout.

 

[Gern]

Looks really good Peter. Got any more pics?

 

[scottie3158]

Peter,
That is a great idea.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Guy

Thanks for the compliments.

I'll try to take some more photos - it is a little difficult to get the inside lit.

With hindsight I wish I had made the effort to show all of the internal bracing etc of the wing (even in a simplified form) rather than just blocking it off. I took the easy option of blocking it off which make it look as though the wing was solid.

Peter

 

[JR]

A great idea Peter and you've pulled it off well.
Reminds me of those flat models that Mike Durnford from Holland. ( M Modeller ) started to do be fore he left .
Would be interesting to see how you did it .
John .

 

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
That is very unusual and well done. How deep is it - hard to figure from the photo.
Jim

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi guys

Thank for all of the interest and compliments.

I have dug around on the PC and found some photos I took at the time which show the process:

Firstly the kits and references I used:



The cutting away was the usual method of drilling a load of holes then join the cuts and smoothing off the rough edges:


The inside of the kit had no details of the conversion kit was used - a number of sub-assemblies. the inside of the fuselage had no details so I added some thin plastic card to create the impression of the main metal ribs and some spars.



All of the sub-assemblies had to be finished, and crewed (the pilot has yet to be added in the photo, as well as the navigator's maps.), before being fixed to the shell of the plane:





to simplify the masking, the side with the cut-outs was painted before fixing to the other side:



and the final product ...








with 20/20 hindsight I think I could have been a bit neater cutting out the holes, and as I mentioned earlier - hollowing the end of the wing and scratch building some fo the internal struts etc would have been better.

thanks for looking
Peter

 

[JR]

Thanks for that Peter.
Quite an achievement

John.

 

[Peter Gillson]

John - it was a learning curve. the main thing I learned was : not to try this again!!!

Peter