Author Topic: B-29 Assembly Line  (Read 28630 times)

Offline GregM

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 105
    • View Profile
    • Aviation At War:  Military Aviation Photography of Yesterday and Today
B-29 Assembly Line
« on: June 21, 2019, 04:51:20 AM »
 I wasn't sure if my account would still be active but it looks like I'm still here!

I guess I've started most of my posts here with excuses and apologies, and this one will be no different.  When I signed up here I had great intentions of contributing regularly, but outside of the couple things I've posted here I haven't built any models in that time.  In 2014 I had to knock out a B-29 quickly (the same as I'll be building here), along with three 1/48 Navy planes that went to the USS Hornet Museum.  With all of these projects going on at once, their deadlines and other pressures I had going on at the same time, I got burnt out on modeling enough that I haven't really picked it back up since.  Around the same time my passion for making music resurfaced and that has taken up most of my free time since. 

In 2014 I lost a good friend, Master Sergeant George L Voltz. George had an extensive Air Force career flying in many aircraft including B-50, KB-50, KB-29, KC-97, KC-135, B-36, and most importantly with regards to this thread, he completed a tour in the B-29 Haulin Ass over Korea.  He flew 35 missions there if memory serves.  He was later a boom operator, but he flew the radar/electronic countermeasures position in the B-29.  When I learned he wouldn't be around for long I built him a 1/72 scale B-29 in the markings of Haulin Ass.  When he passed away it went to one of his sons and at the time I promised his other son that I'd build him one also; and I had always intended to do one for myself too.  I found out this week that the other son is retiring soon (he's been my employer for almost 20 years) so I now need to stop procrastinating and make good on my promise from five years ago. As I've started  to immerse myself in this again I've discovered maybe part of not having done this already is because I'm still not over losing my friend.

So I've picked up a couple Academy kits...the first one of these I built I used a kit that I already had in the stash which had raised rivets and I've always regretted building it that way.  (and I don't know how a B-29 kit with raised rivets would be designed and approved for production either). 

I had Josh from bedlamcreations.com do the custom nose art decals for me, along with the 98th Bomb Group insignia that goes on the port side of the nose.  Josh does great work and I've used him several times for custom decals.  As you can see I have a huge sheet of these. I may put some on eBay just to spread them around and allow some others to build this plane. 

I also have a couple sets of 98th Bomb Group decals to steal the Square H and US Air Force fuselage decals from, and I have the letters for the wings.  I have some fluorescent orange on the way for the nose gear doors and top of the vertical stabilizer, I realized tonight I may need to order some national insignias.  I bought several different shades of Alclad back when I decided to do this project and hopefully they are still ok - I'm concerned about how much solvent is in some of the bottles.  They haven't been opened but I think some evaporation may have happened over the years.

I ran out of time tonight because of some other commitments and hope to start cockpit assembly tomorrow night. 




Offline No.1

  • Administrator and Owner
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23091
  • Owner: www.letletlet-warplanes.com
    • View Profile
    • LetLetLet - Warplanes
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2019, 06:21:42 AM »
Good to see you are alive and so many things happen in a meantime (not all pleasant)... enjoy build, hope this one will be completed ;)

Offline Second Air Force

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5775
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2019, 12:04:30 PM »
Yes, welcome back to our group. Sorry for your loss of such a good friend.

Keep us posted on progress, we're still here!

Your Alclad should be just fine. You may have to add some thinning agent, but that should be easy to come up with. Your pigments are all in place.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2019, 12:06:28 PM by Second Air Force »

Offline draken35

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8724
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2019, 04:16:43 PM »
Welcome back Greg!

Offline GregM

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 105
    • View Profile
    • Aviation At War:  Military Aviation Photography of Yesterday and Today
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2019, 04:20:43 AM »
Thanks, guys!

I got most of the cockpit work done tonight.  The seats will go in once the armrests are dry.  I then have a few pieces that go inside the fuselage before I start painting the interior.


Offline draken35

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8724
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2019, 05:51:57 AM »
:-ok

Offline modellius

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2520
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2019, 07:38:41 PM »
Welcome back mate ! Nice work so far !

Offline GregM

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 105
    • View Profile
    • Aviation At War:  Military Aviation Photography of Yesterday and Today
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2019, 06:05:54 PM »
Progress!


Offline draken35

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8724
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2019, 07:22:38 PM »
Good!

Offline GregM

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 105
    • View Profile
    • Aviation At War:  Military Aviation Photography of Yesterday and Today
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2019, 06:03:58 PM »
Stabilizers are on and wings are together.  I will hopefully have the flaps assembled and installed tonight.


Offline draken35

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8724
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2019, 08:06:32 PM »
:-ok

Offline GregM

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 105
    • View Profile
    • Aviation At War:  Military Aviation Photography of Yesterday and Today
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2019, 03:36:18 AM »
Nacelles and flaps coming together.


Offline GregM

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 105
    • View Profile
    • Aviation At War:  Military Aviation Photography of Yesterday and Today
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2019, 03:31:47 AM »
Quite a few hours this week were spent installing the landing gear doors. They intend for the model to be displayed on it's gear, but I'm building both of these to hang  with the gear up depicting flight, so I have to close everything up.  The gear doors DO NOT FIT in the closed position and it took quite a bit of careful sanding and carving to get each of them in place.  They aren't perfect, but the rough edges will be cleaned up when I'm dealing with seams just before primer goes on.



The bomb bay doors are also meant to be displayed open.  I found some old sprue that was flat on one side and made some short tabs to help hold the doors in place while installing them. I'll also have to do the same for the nose gear doors and come up with a plan for the tail skids.




All nacelles are now in place!

Offline No.1

  • Administrator and Owner
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23091
  • Owner: www.letletlet-warplanes.com
    • View Profile
    • LetLetLet - Warplanes
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2019, 06:12:02 AM »
Huge work!!!

Offline Second Air Force

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5775
    • View Profile
Re: B-29 Assembly Line
« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2019, 12:54:21 AM »
Yes, good work on these--too bad about the gear doors, but I reckon they never intended for these big kits to be built "in flight". You are giving me the urge to work on my Superfort again someday!!