B-17G Stick & Tissue Build

Choppa Nutta
I'm looking forward to follow this 🙂

Liale Sellers
Great, but I love building the balsa wood & tissue paper models and I have a tendency to stretch out the work.

Clifford Keesler
This one will be interesting.

Bart Goesaert
will be a large one. have the P-38 and the corsair still to do... If you want to build it static, I'd recommend to fill the the opening between the spars with balsa too, sand it flush and then cover it with tissue. Otherwise you will get strange dimples in the fabric, as with the P-51...

Duri Cherry
I'm wondering if it will be flying version. I want to make also one from Guillow's but I want make it as flying RC model.

Holger Kranich
1: What??? 1:28? That´ll become a cool Project!

Stefan Schacht
nice idea, count me in.

Miro Herold
One needs to place this Monster a garage. 😉

Aghis Barberopoulos
This is what I call a large project! 🙂

Mike K
I've got this one so I'll be watching veeerrrry closely.😉

Greco Otero
love this balsa and tissue kits, they are super fun to build and great to fly if thats what what you intent with them.

Choppa Nutta
shaping up great Liale !! 🙂

Hanno Kleinecke
Looking great so far, you obviously have a lot of experience building these kits ! I built a small Guillow Spitfire once and really enjoyed it.
These kits are great, well engineered with very clear and understandable instructions.

Rui S
That's something you don't see every day. Great build and work. 👍
I'm also looking forward to see more pictures 🙂

Stefan Fraundorfer
Very interesting. I'm looking forward to see your progress.

Clifford Keesler
Looking very good.

Jay Dubya
Following too !

Christian Ristits
This is a very interesting project, and also a very economy-friendly one! I am IN!

Germen V
come along just great, i always look up to people who can finish this, i tried a few in the past but it always ended up in disaster

Maarten Kruizenga
wow, never even knew these existed, has anyone ever not used tissue but thin sheet instead?

Bernhard Pethe
That's very interesting . If the model is really fly ? I'm curious.

Germen V
the P51 i had was with a rubber band attached to the propellor and it was in the instructions how to fly. But i think this is going to be too beautifull to fly

Maarten Kruizenga
balsa wood & tissue.............rubber band power.............no control =1 flight if you're lucky?

Clifford Keesler
I built their big Corsair, and covered it with 1/16" balsa and made it 3 channel R/C throttle ailerons and elevator. It flew very nice.

Maarten Kruizenga
ok, but rubber band power..............wind up................let go .................and cry

Choppa Nutta
I'd like to see some photos of that Corsair Cliff ! 🙂

Maarten, as for no controls and rubber power ie. Free Flight models, usually one test flies them over a corn field or long grass etc. to cushion landings. Initially we do unpowered hand launches to test the glide and adjust the trims and nose ballast until it is gliding sweetly, once properly trimmed and balanced powered flight is tested. Once it is all tested it can be flown over fields and you can reasonably expect it to make a decent landing on it's wheels if the grass is short enough and the wind is nominal etc. 🙂

I once built a balsa wood own design 2 channel (rudder/elevator) diesel engined model, engine was on full throttle until it ran out of fuel at which point you glided it to land, really simple model 🙂
I once forgot to switch the receiver on and it was only after it had done half a circuit did I realise the plane was not under my control and I just watched it climb out of view doing these smooth left hand circles taken gently by the wind...

I put an advert in the local paper saying "Lost red and yellow RC plane, Cash Reward", got a call a couple of days later, some kids had found and I got back all in one bit, not even the propeller was broken and that was after it had landed 9 miles away from where it took off, all on it's lonesome 🙂

Liale Sellers
Bernhard, this model is designed to fly if one decides to do that. Guillows includes separate plans for avionics controls, RC installations & gas engines adaptation. I would love to fly my "stick & Tissue" models but prefer to keep them on display intact. I go for realism of appearance over realism of flight. ( I have a cheap drone that I can fly ... somewhat.) Remember.. "a good landing is one you can walk away from ... an excellent landing is one in which the aircraft can be reused".

Liale Sellers
German V, Yes ... I hope so!

Maarten Kruizenga
@ choppa nutta................it does depend on the model

Choppa Nutta
for sure some models are more fragile than others but these sort of models are very slow flying though, plus balsa wood is more resilient than you might think 🙂

Personally though I prefer RC gear in my flying models now 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Choppa, I sold that Corsair years ago. Sorry.

Bernhard Pethe
Thanks for the answer. This is an exciting project that I will pursue .

Kerry COX
Liale, How will you eventually finish this amazing build. ?
As a static display or a flyer. ?
If a static, I envy the space you can offer it. 🙂

Liale Sellers
Kerry, Definitely not a flyer! Space to display?..... I have no idea where it can go (maybe hanging from ceiling in her doll room? .... NOT!!
Finish... will be flat OD with blue underbelly & highly weathered. (even though "G" model Fortresses were seldom painted as that late in war the camouflage was not needed.)

Kerry COX
That will look something special Liale, and I should have realised it was to be a static display after I saw the engine mouldings you were going to use. But wow, what a sight she will be for sure. 🙂 👍

Liale Sellers
Kerry, Yes and those engine nacelles have been quite a challenge to get properly aligned and to fit the coverings to fit snuggly along the wing. I have spent a lot of time just on the one wing figuring out the best way to accomplish it. Also I am building on exhaust and intake details that the kit doesn't provide but fortunately there are many detailed engine photos on line that show that detail. Hoping the time spent on this right wing will make the same procedures go easier on the left wing.
In addition, because the engine nacelle coverings mount over a portion of the wing the tissue skin must be applied first and it is stressful having to work on the nacelles construction and not damage the skinned portion in the process. So far, so good.

Jay Dubya
Wow - that is a big undertaking ! Well done on a fantastic result Mr Sellers.

Joe Savlan
Bravo! And a perfect display as well 🙂

Maarten Kruizenga
Impressive! Super looking Fortress.

Dave Flitton
Wow!!! Really nice build

gorby
Excellent model Liale. I've seen these Gillows kits before but have never seen the build process. Absolutely fascinating, so thanks for taking the time to document it.

Arash Zakeri
Very nice woooooow its great work

Bernhard Pethe
Very beautiful. An eyecatcher for every model room. 👍

Kerry COX
Liale, I am imagining a "Stick" of bombs suspended under her on 'invisible thread'. 🙂 Well done and I admire your skills and patience. 🙂 👍

Clifford Keesler
Very nice job.

Spanjaard
really impress by this type of build, thanks for documenting. congratulations on end result.

M.Julian Marles
Wow that's some mad modelling skills there!

Stephan Ryll
Very nice build !

Duri Cherry
Very nice job!!! It looks really great. Could you please provide us info how much it weights? I would like to build it as a flying model and this info would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Eugen P.
Really well done.

Liale Sellers
Duri, I dont have a digital scale to accurately weigh it but i will try it on an old postage scale. It will vary from the weight of a flying build but i have never done one. I'll post the results here. Thanks for the complement.

Es-haq Khosravi
What a giant! Great!

scalemates
cool

Duri Cherry
Liale, approximate weight would be nice. Anyway if I'm looking to the pictures again it looks much better than I expected. Of course it is your own improvements which makes it looking so good.

Liale Sellers
Ok Duri, Using a cheap fish scale (the type from which you hang a freshly caught fish) it show very close to 16 oz. Of course I did not build it with moveable control surfaces (those add a little weight) but did include additional item for display realism (metal gun barrels, more paint, real rear crew door, etc that did add weight. The kit does include plans for controlled flight with gas engines.

TOM FAGEN
Beautiful work! Thank you for sharing!

Liale Sellers
Deviations from the plans:
Overall the plans were pretty accurate for the B17G model ... but not completely.
My build included the following changes based on research on G model features:
Staggered waist gun positions; starboard offset forward
Staggered cheek gun positons; starboard offset rearward
Included plastic "football" DF loop antenna was not to scale so I made a smaller one from balsa.
I used thinner clear plastic fuselage windows for a flush contour.
I made the tail gun moveable up/down
Added wind deflectors to waist gun positions
Used the optional Cheyanne tail gun "cabin" and turret.
Added a self designed & fabricated Norden Mk. XV bomb site visible in clear nose.
Designed a propeller mount to allow them to turn & be easily removed.
That is all that comes to mind but probably not all the changes I made. These stick & tissue kits allow a lot more customizing and screw up corrections than the plastic kits as you are working with wood and modular covering.

Kerry COX
Admirable work in anybody's language Liale. 👍
Will this be a competition winner some time. ? As it sure has that 'pedigree' to it. 🙂

Liale Sellers
Thanks Kerry....it was a labor of lonve!????

Kerry COX
I can believe it mate. I do have a soft spot for the 'Fort'. many done, and many screwed up, but it keeps coming back. all plastics. (I did the "Gullows' P-38 many years ago). That's when I first heard the word 'dope' used in a completely different context. LOL 🙂

Liale Sellers
Yep Kerry, that dope is the key to a successful stick & tissue build. Its importance is overlooked by many beginners (I learned the hard way). Did the P-38 build turn out good? I have considered it before & may tackle it someday. I have about run out of display space as there are 5 aircraft now (incl B17) hanging from my "playroom" ceiling and 3 large submarines on the wall.
Have a nice new year Kerry.

Kerry COX
Liale. All the very best for your 2017 too mate. 👍
My P-38 was back in the early 80's, and wanted it purely as a glider at that stage, as the motors available then were not as easy to work on as today's and they were twice as expensive to obtain here then.
But the build was a lot of fun as I had no children then and more than enough time and space to indulge. 🙂
The wing span was massive, tip to tip almost 6ft. !
As a glider, awesome, launching it off my rear deck to gain a distance of a decent 100 mtrs. 🙂

Duri Cherry
Liale thx for weight info. 16 oz is quite enough but I think it is still possible to make it flyable without any issues. I want to make it with 4 little engines 🙂 Will see in the future.

Liale Sellers
Great Duri, I have seen this model flown on Utube ... quite impressive. Let me know how it turns out. Have a good and peaceful 2017 ...