Author Topic: This build is to shut Scooterman up! A patrol bomber Spruce Goose. Sort of.....  (Read 26288 times)

Sentinel Chicken

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About 2 years ago at Scalefest Tony Morgan (RotorheadTX) had taken the 1/200 Spruce Goose kit and did it up in RAF Coastal Command colors but out of box as a prototype and unarmed. It was beautifully executed and this past weekend at Scalefest I was kicking around ideas for my take on a patrol bomber Spruce Goose. Scoot then hands me an old 1/200 Spruce Goose kit from the orphan kit table and says "Take it. Do it." Free of charge. So who am I to turn down a challenge when he throws down the gauntlet with a free kit?



It's one of the many boxings of the Entex kit, I think. I was going to build it as a 1/200 armed Spruce Goose but a look over the kit the engines looked like they'd need work and I wasn't up to reworking eight engines. Not to mention the atrocious fit of the fuselage halves. But I had two ideas rattling around in my head- a US Navy patrol bomber in the WW2 Atlantic scheme of gray over white or a USN bird in the three-color Pacific scheme of two blues and white undersides. Then it donned on me as a examined the sprues.

SCALE-O-RAMA!

Cut off the engines and build it as a 1/144 aircraft that would go with the rest of my builds. My original plan was to use the Minicraft B-29 Superfortress kit for the engines and turrets. But even scale-o-rama'd to 1/144, the Spruce Goose is still a big ass bird. It had eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major engines. Well what else has Wasp Majors? The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser/KC-97. Some quick calculations ensued- a 1/200 Spruce Goose built as a 1/144 means that if it were done in real life, what I had planned would be about 70% the size of the real Hughes HK-1. So I'd need roughly three-quarters the engine power that the real HK-1 one had and that comes out to about six engines.

So the four-engined idea is out the door, I still may make use of the B-29 kit for other parts. Like the tail gunner's position. I have a Boeing 377 Strat in the stash along with a KC-97, so the plan now is to take the engines from those two kits and build this as a 1/144 six-engined patrol bomber. It's not too out the realm of possible. After all, the Luftwaffe flew the six engined Blohm und Voss BV 222 flying boat- 13 were built during the Second World War.

With Dremel rotary tool I made short work of the kit nacelles and then did some putty slinging with Squadron White into the gaps. I put a bit of scrap sprue into the openings first to give the putty something to hold to and give it some strength during the sanding as the wings do flex a bit with modest pressure during sanding:



Each wing has an upper and lower half and they fit about as well as a porcupine in a jock strap. Holy smokes. I can't imagine how they fit together if the nacelles were left on as they were molded into the wings' upper and lower halves. The left and right wings then fit together to form the upper part of the mid-fuselage. This is a big assembly. Probably the biggest I've even undertaken in 1/144. I feel like I'm building the wings to a 1/32 fighter or something:



This was where things stood yesterday. I used some Testors Armor Sand on the leading halves of the wings to help visualize where more putty-foo is needed.

So now I'm thinking of what the wartime designation would be. The idea is that a 70% scaled-down Spruce Goose is built in very small numbers as a very long range patrol bomber for anti-shipping/ASW/minelaying in the war. Maybe the war in the Atlantic or Pacific drags out a bit more before the Axis surrenders and this is the sort of thing the Navy could use to close the air gap in the Atlantic against the U-boat wolfpacks or prosecute the maritime blockage of Japan in the Pacific. A review of Navy manufacturer codes shows that Kaiser did have the letter "K" assigned and Kaiser was an original partner in the Spruce Goose development. That would make my what-if a "PBK". Hughes never had a Navy manufacturer code assigned it seems. So I thought I could get away with a code that fell into disuse and came across "Z". It was assigned to Wilford-Pennsylvania Aircraft in the 1930s and they only built one aircraft for the Navy, an experimental observation autogyro called the XOZ which was based on a Consolidated biplane design. So PBK or PBZ. Guess I got time to mull that one over while I sling some putty.......

Offline elmayerle

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Damn, I missed some of the good stuff at Scalefest.  I'm looking forward to seeing the build-up of this PBK.

Sentinel Chicken

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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.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Wow what a fantastic project, Mr Chicken!

It seems we sort of think alike. I've got one of these in my stash (Minicraft?) and have plans to cross-kit it with a DC-8. Scale-o-rama, of course.

I'll be watching with great interest! Going with six engines is a stroke of genius!

Brian da Basher

Offline ChrisF

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Always enough your builds fella and this one looks like a great one !

Offline finsrin

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Spruce Goose vibes must be in cosmos.
I have similar Spruce Goose in work right now.
Bill

Offline GTX_Admin

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I would love to see the real bird one day...
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline kitnut617

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I would love to see the real bird one day...

It's only a couple of hours south of Seattle Greg, at McMinville.  I'm going there to see it when we do our trip to Seattle this summer.

Offline kitnut617

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You need to do it in 1/72 scale SC  -----  :-*

Sentinel Chicken

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You need to do it in 1/72 scale SC  -----  :-*
Heheheh, I need a new scale to start working in like I need another hole in the head. I've seen the glorious aftermarket things you can add to a stock 1/72 kit and I'd suffer from the world's worst case of mission creep. Thankfully for my wallet the scope of aftermarket 1/144 things is much more limited.

Not to mention the size of a 1/72 Spruce Goose. I'd feel like I was building a homebuilt in my garage.

Sentinel Chicken

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Spruce Goose vibes must be in cosmos.
I have similar Spruce Goose in work right now.
Bill
Any ideas on what you have planned for yours?

Offline finsrin

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Spruce Goose vibes must be in cosmos.
I have similar Spruce Goose in work right now.
Bill
Any ideas on what you have planned for yours?

Building as 1/72 (all my builds are).  Have B-17 upper fuselage cockpit, turret, thru upper back window worked into-onto Spruce Goose.  Making it 1/72.  Still playing with engine ideas.

Offline GTX_Admin

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You need to do it in 1/72 scale SC  -----  :-*

Stop thinking small...1/24!!!
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline GTX_Admin

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I would love to see the real bird one day...

It's only a couple of hours south of Seattle Greg, at McMinville.  I'm going there to see it when we do our trip to Seattle this summer.

Hmmm...maybe...
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline kitnut617

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You need to do it in 1/72 scale SC  -----  :-*

Stop thinking small...1/24!!!

In 1/72 scale the wingspan is 54" [1372mm], in 1/24 it would be 162" [4115mm]  -- yah! I don't think 1/72 is big enough LOL!

Sentinel Chicken

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Spruce Goose vibes must be in cosmos.
I have similar Spruce Goose in work right now.
Bill
Any ideas on what you have planned for yours?

Building as 1/72 (all my builds are).  Have B-17 upper fuselage cockpit, turret, thru upper back window worked into-onto Spruce Goose.  Making it 1/72.  Still playing with engine ideas.

Ah! You're doing the Scale-O-Rama thing as well. I look forward to seeing it!

Offline finsrin

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As of now have two likely 1/72 engine schemes.
1 > six B-24 engines
2 > four B-24 engines and two jets

Being Spring am spending more time on cars and yard.  Less on models.  Though like to finish P-38 and Spruce Goose based kit-bashes.
P-38 about 80% done.  Spruce Goose about 40% done.
Bill

Sentinel Chicken

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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.

Offline finsrin

  • The Dr Frankenstein of the modelling world...when not hiding from SBA
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Idea - the inner engine landing gear doors could be open with a couple bombs or depth charges in each.

Think you have the power right with six 4360 engines when building as 1/144.

Offline taiidantomcat

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Wow!! That is some nice work  :)
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Offline Brian da Basher

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Mr Chicken, may the Putty-Foo be with you.

Actually, it looks like it already is!

Brian da Basher

Offline Daryl J.

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kwyxdxLg5T

Sentinel Chicken

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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.

Offline Brian da Basher

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"I'll have an easier time fitting a pair of sea urchins into a Speedo."

I nominate this for the line of the week!

I know what you mean about noticing things aren't lined up, Mr Chicken. This seems to happen without fail to me. Still, you managed to camoflage it nicely, I totally understand having one's fill of PSR.

Regardless of any flaws, this project is way impressive!

Go Mr Chicken, go!

Brian da Basher

Online Jeffry Fontaine

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"I'll have an easier time fitting a pair of sea urchins into a Speedo."

I nominate this for the line of the week!

I have to second that motion. 

Never imagined that I would see the day where describing a difficult task would involve sea urchins or speedos. 


As for the model, well you seem to have that under control or at least under clamps :)
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