The 1/144 Braille Scale World of Sentinel Chicken

[PR19_Kit]

What a cracking idea! 

I'm looking forward to further progress reports.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Just thinking ahead a bit, does the new Minicraft PB4Y-1 Privateer 1/144 kit have the big round nose turret or is it just the standard B-24J nose turret? The box art suggests a B-24J turret.

[PR19_Kit]

Just thinking ahead a bit, does the new Minicraft PB4Y-1 Privateer 1/144 kit have the big round nose turret or is it just the standard B-24J nose turret? The box art suggests a B-24J turret.

The piccie on their web site looks like the later Emerson 'ball-type' turret. See here :-

http://www.minicraftmodels.com/Military7.htm

2nd row in the middle.

[Mossie]

Gorgeous stuff!

Suggestion on the nacelles, could you make life easy on your self and have the eninges burried in the wings like the Saro Princess or Bristol Brabazon?  Use a missile head (Sparrow maybe) for the shaft, drill a couple of holes at the sides for intakes.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Suggestion on the nacelles, could you make life easy on your self and have the eninges burried in the wings like the Saro Princess or Bristol Brabazon?  Use a missile head (Sparrow maybe) for the shaft, drill a couple of holes at the sides for intakes.

Dammit, that is a BRILLIANT idea! Unfortunately I have already attached nacelles thanks to my OCD-like enthusiasm. That does give me an idea for another build I have rattling around in my head, though......

[Mossie]

Glad to be of service, looking forward to seeing what else you cook up!

[Sentinel Chicken]

Latest progress shots:



I now have four of the six engine nacelles attached to the wing. The inboard nacelles are the inboards from the Minicraft KC-97/Stratocruiser kit and the outboard nacelles will be the middle and outermost engines on this six-engined beast. The innermost nacelles will have a hump-backed appearance on the top surface of the wing while the outer pairs will fair into the wing more smoothly. Why? Because when I did the first nacelle I made a bit of a mistake in cutting up the nacelles from the wing they were molded in.[MasterThespian]IMPROVISATION![/MasterThespian]



Underside shot. I've never built the Minicraft Boeing Stratocruiser/KC-97 kits, but from these nacelles, I'm not terribly impressed and not too broken up that two of these kits are parts donors for this build. Third nacelle from the left is putty-fooed and sanded. The other three have been subject to putty slinging and just waiting for the Squadron White to dry. The last two engine nacelles will go directly between the inner and outermost nacelles.



Close up of one of the innermost nacelle. The bottom half behind the engine itself is molded in two halves, then the engine cowl along with the lower intake is a third piece. The top part of the nacelle I had to cut away from the upper wing part and then whittle away at until I got the shape I wanted. The landing gear doors fit like crap into the nacelle should you want to build the KC-97/377 kit out of the box with the wheels up.



Completed innermost nacelle on the other wing. It may need some touch up sanding, but I'll wait until I do some primer for that. I'll probably add some little extra greeblies like intakes on the nacelle to camouflage some of my ham-fisted sanding work.

Contemplating ditching using the armament from the Minicraft B-29 kit. I'm leaning towards doing this build in the USN three-color Pacific scheme and to use B-29 remote turrets in my mind would call for the all over dark blue scheme. I wish I knew where the hell my old Cobra Company PB4Y Privateer conversion set was, I could use the Erco bow turret on the nose and the those wacky teardrop waist blisters for side gun positions. I may take the waist positions from a Minicraft Catalina kit I have in the stash as an alternative.

[PR19_Kit]

I wish I knew where the hell my old Cobra Company PB4Y Privateer conversion set was, I could use the Erco bow turret on the nose and the those wacky teardrop waist blisters for side gun positions. I may take the waist positions from a Minicraft Catalina kit I have in the stash as an alternative.

Oh yes, pleeeeeeease find the Cobra Company conversion! They would look the BUSINESS on that monster.  

[Sentinel Chicken]

Latest progress shots on my What-If Hughes/Kaiser PBK-1 Tarpon:



Nacelles pretty much completed, this will probably be the most labor intensive part of this build. Lots of putty-sand-repeat-putty-sand-repeat. Never had to do this much PSR on a 1/144 build before. One of the outboard nacelles is out of alignment and I didn't notice it until I shot these pictures. Oh well. It'll look good enough at arm's length. I rattle-bombed it with some dark gray to make it easier on my Mark one eyeballs where some touch up putty-sand-repeat is needed.



Top side view of the wings. I toed out each nacelle slightly figuring this would help with any asymmetric engine conditions.



With the props in place it's looking better. The props came from the Minicraft Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser kit and the Minicraft KC-97 kit. The prop discs believe it or not don't overlap. It was a tight squeeze but the prop discs are also staggered slightly. Were I to do this over again, I'd have put the outermost engine nacelles a bit further out. It was "fun" sanding around the base of the nacelles and not ding the flap actuator fairings which are moulded into the lower wings. Hello, needle files.



Top side view with the props in place, you can better see which engine nacelle is out of alignment. I'm sorta sick of putty-sand-repeat so I'll live with it.



Started work now on the fuselage. Wow, this thing fits like hell. I'll have an easier time fitting a pair of sea urchins into a Speedo. The easiest way is to work from the tail forward in increments and sling Squadron White at any gaps. I may need to use some internal shims to get the forward fuselage to match up. I can assure you that when the time comes to put the wing assembly on, there's gonna be gaps fore and aft of the wings. Some dry fitting out of curiosity tells me I may also need to use some styrene shims to get the wing to sit right on the fuselage.

[Old Wombat]

Wow!

I like this! 

Though how you work in 1/144th I'll never know... I have difficulty in 1/72nd, am comfortable with 1/48th & prefer 1/35th.

[RussC]

I see your fuselage fitted as well as mine did! My kit was molded in silver, with lots of technicolor swirls in it. Was getting worried you were going to go with 4 motors at that wide spacing for a while.

  Picture all of us in the bleacher seats, with foam fingers and beer hats and bags of twiglets, cheering you onwards...

   On second thought - ignore us and carry on.

[Sentinel Chicken]

I could use a beer hat with this build....

[Scooterman]

I'll get the Twiglets.   

And I feel bad for giving you such a SUCK of a kit to build.................but then again, watching you make the most of it is great entertainment!

ROCK ON BROTHER CHICKEN! 

[NARSES2]

One of those pic's just screams "flying wing, flying wing" 

This is looking good, always had a fascination with this large flying boats

[RussC]

One of those pic's just screams "flying wing, flying wing" 

This is looking good, always had a fascination with this large flying boats

Too late. Used that exact part too along with the 8 fans.