B-17F and B-17G - because one Fortress simply isn't enough! (Pt. 2)

Following on from my intial post on my double B-17 build, I now bring you construction of the cockpits and more of the interior. Now the Revell kit has a large amount of detail straight from the box, and although it is a little simplified it is more than adequate for the majority of modellers. Having already built one of these kits before, I can tell you that is it suprisingly difficult to see much detail inside once the fuselage is closed up. Here is a comparision shot of the two interiors, Academy on the left, Revell to the right.

As you can see the Revell kit bomb bay has spars for the wing alignment/attachment which does help and is an area that the Academy kit falls down on (more on this later). However this shot isn't totally fair, as both kits interior's aren't at the same stage and the picture also includes my scratchbuild radioroom for the academy kit.  Having said that, what can be seen is the greater detail of the Revell bomb bay, cockpit and radioroom. The pic below illustrates this better.



Fuselage interiors, Revell on top and Academy below.



The interiors have been given a coat of Model Master Interior Green and the other basic colours are painted as well. A note on this, I realise that the interior of B-17's did vary and in particular the B-17G usually had most of it's interior unpainted bare metal. Well this B-17G is being built as a modern day warbird and as such it has its interior painted to protect it (back in wartime, they didn't worry about the long term prospects of B-17s). The warbid I am building is Sally B, the only airworthy B-17 in Europe.  

Now back to the kits. In the Academy kit you can see the interior detail that has been added. The waist gunners have a crude duckboard to stand on and the wooden .50 ammunition box is a spare one taken from the revell kit. I've convinced myself it was worth it as the waist gun windows and radio room will be open and exposed to the world on my B-17F.  The B-17F bombardier has 'borrowed' a spare seat from the Revell kit as well, as it is much better than the basic seats supplied by Academy.

Thats all for now. I will post bigger and longer updates when I have more time :)