Atlantic/Revell B-29 Rebuild

This photo is of the completed re-build. There were a lot of new techniques to learn that I tried with this re-build, such as:

• Layering paint to get different shading effects.
  
  
• Scratch building parts that were missing.
  
  
• Because I had a prop missing, I decided to show that an engine was hit, so I learned how to show damage along with burns, oil, cooling fluid, etc.
  
  
• And much more as you'll see while viewing the photos and descriptions.
  
  

This was a Revell kit that is now offered by Atlantis Models. It was cast in silver gray plastic so that painting was optional. When I initially built it, I was probably about 10-years old and didn't paint it, naturally making the rebuild easier because I didn't have to use the purple pond. to strip paint.

I disassembled all parts from the original build. I left the engines assembled because they were heavily glued and I'm sure would have broken if I tried to pry them apart. While prying the pilot, co-pilot and bombardier out of the cockpit, I lost the bombardier in the Bermuda Triangle under my bench. Serves him right for not wearing his parachute. 👨

The part count in this kit is quite small. These are the small parts. There is one propeller missing and one of the observation windows would not come off the fuselage. Also missing are two gun turrets and the tail gun or cannon. These items will need to be scratch built. I'm not sure what to do with the missing propeller? I'm thinking of making a mold and casting another one, or maybe trying to 3D print one? I haven't decided.

I started thinking about how to make the missing gun turrets. I started by taking some 5/8"(15.875mm) styrene tube and cut a piece that is 1/4"(6.35mm) high. I than over filled it with body putty with the thought that I could than file and sand the shape I wanted. Spoiler alert: it didn't work very well. 😟

While the putty was hardening, I was thinking of other ways to make the turrets. When I looked up at my peg board I noticed several packs of wooden buttons that are used to cover countersunk screw heads in furniture. I said out loud, hey, they look just like a gun turret. So...I pulled one out of the package and found that the diameter was a bit larger then I needed. I chucked the button into my Dremel tool, which acted like a lathe, and filed and sanded the wooden button to the correct size and shape.

I then researched the barrel diameter of a 20mm machine gun barrel (3.00" to 3.25"(76.2mm to 82.55mm)). I calculated 1/120th scale of the actual gun barrel diameter. The scaled size worked out to be the same size as 22AWG (American Wire Gauge) wire (0.026"(0.6604mm)). I used some soft drawn solid 22AWG bus wire for the barrels.

It looks like the wooden buttons and 22AWG bus wire might work, especially after returning to the turrets made with the putty. After filing and sanding the putty turrets there where a lot of pockets and divots, which I expected, because I didn't have a vacuum chamber to pull the air out of the putty. I tried filling the voids and reshaping, but they looked horrible. Therefore, the styrene rings and putty was not going to be the method. The wooden buttons seem to be the best option; however, they were currently too dome shaped, but that can be easily fixed.

After gluing the fuselage halves together, the seams were pretty bad. I think they were bad from the disassembly process, even though I had sanded the edges before reassembly. They will definitely need filler.

I only had a tube of very old Testors body filler, but I used it anyway. That was a mistake. The putty seemed to be drying while it was exiting the tube. This project was started during the peak of Covid-19 and materials were hard to get, at least in the state where I live. I did order some new Tamiya putty, but it would be several weeks before I would receive it. I did some research on how to thin the putty and found a few methods. I was able to use some water and windshield washer fluid to at least slow the drying of the old putty, but I had to glob it on because it did not spread well. The next several photo's will show how much globing there was. It was Ok, and simply required a lot of filing and sanding. Some area's did not have to be filled because they won't been seen.

While the filler on the fuselage was drying I decided to glue the wings in place. I had not disassembled the wing halves because there was no doubt in my mind they would have broken. I know I used Testors tube glue that bonds the plastic. That's all I had at age 10 when I first built the kit. The wings were slightly warped and did not sit well against the fuselage. To fix this, I put a coating of Tamiya liquid glue on all services and than used clamps to hold them in place. I left the clamps on for over 24-hours (maybe an over-kill). You can see that I initially tried using a rubber band to hold them in place; however, that did not work.

With the wings attached to the fuselage, I still needed a large amount of filler, and because I still hadn't received the new putty, I used the very old Testors, which will jut make more filing and sanding necessary.

I than attached the tail wings and filled the seam between the wings and fuselage. They also required a large amount of putty.

I gave the putty on the seams two full days to cure. I then started filing and sanding it smooth.

After the filing and sanding, some of that old putty came out of the seams. I had to apply more putty. I still hadn't received the fresh putty.

Applying more putty.

The top of the aircraft has been sanded and the seams are filled.

The bottom of the aircraft has been sanded and the seams are filled.

Doing more sanding and smoothing.

Doing more sanding and smoothing.

Making the gun turrets. I decided to make the four 20mm machine gun turrets so that they all matched. I used my Dremel tool, held in a PC board vice, and had it function like a small lathe. I know Dremel makes a lathe for their Dremel tools; however, all I needed to do was hold the wood furniture buttons and use a file and sand paper to shape them. I then spotted and drilled holes to insert the 22 AWG solid bus wire for the guns. The guns have not been trimmed to length in this picture.

It was time to put some primer on the plane. Since I had to paint and mount the cockpit figures before the fuselage halves were glued together, I masked the cockpit area and than primed the plane.

The entire plane, except the roof antenna, has one coat of Testors Model Master gray primer. I had forgot to mount the antenna before applying the primer. I'm still not sure what the final surface color will be. The B-29's were either gray aluminum, silver aluminum or olive. Some also had a flat black underside. The olive version was rare. I'm leaning toward gray aluminum.

After the primer had been applied, as usually occurs, flaws in the filler and plastic show up and stand out.

After the primer had been applied, as usually occurs, flaws in the filler and plastic show up and stand out.

I started mounting the wooden gun turrets. After trimming the length of the guns, the turrets were glued in place using Loctite Super Glue and clamped in place until dry. I'm still not sold on using super glue on models; however, with two dissimilar materials, wood and styrene, I thought it would be the best choice.

The tail guns and/or cannon was missing. Some of the early versions of the B-29 had a 20mm cannon in the tail instead of the 20mm machine guns. I decided to make a tail cannon.

I made a tail cannon from a piece of wooden dow, shaping it with my Dremel held in a PC board vice and a file. I then drilled a hole in the center of the new wooden tail piece to mount a tail cannon. After researching the diameter of the tail cannon, I found a piece of sprue that was the perfect diameter. I cut a piece of the sprue and glued it into the tail piece to form the cannon barrel.

Another view of the scratch built cannon.

When the glue on the turrets was fully set I used filler putty to create the interface between the gun turret and the fuselage.

When the glue on the turrets was fully set I used filler putty to create the interface between the gun turret and the fuselage.

When the glue on the turrets was fully set I used filler putty to create the interface between the gun turret and the fuselage.

I decided that, since a prop is missing, I'd make it look like that particular engine had been hit. I pried off the front of an engine on the port side and found a flat surface under the engine cowling. I have to determine if that flat surface will be seen after I damage the engine cowling?

I used my Dremel with a cutting wheel making random cuts and grooves to give the engine and the wing surface the look of being hit, mostly by shrapnel and machine gun fire. Later in the build I added more damage.

Using the Dremel cutting wheel I then randomly cut a piece out of the front of the engine cowling. When the damaged engine cover is held onto the engine it was obvious that I had to do something with the inside of the engine. The size of the hole I cut in the cowling will show too much of that flat surface.

I roughed out what is to be the cylinders of the engine. I cut a piece of thin styrene in somewhat of a circular flat disk. The sloppier the better, after all, it's been hit. I then did some research on the B-29 engine to find the size of the cylinders. Using some Evergreen solid round rod of the correct diameter to match the cylinders, I mounted twelve of them to the styrene disk. Again, I purposely did not want to make them too perfect. I then painted it a variety of colors and clear colors to make it look hot and full of oil and coolant.

I started filing and sanding the putty around the scratch built gun turrets.

I started filing and sanding the putty around the scratch built gun turrets.

I started filing and sanding the putty around the scratch built gun turrets.

I glued and clamped the front engine shroud.

I painted the prop's using:

• Tamiya XF-1 Flat black for the blades
  
  
• Tamiy XF-11 Chrome Silver for the center hub
  
  
• Testors Model Master FS13538 Chrome Yellow for the tips of the prop

After all the new filler, the filing, and the sanding was complete, I airbrushed another coat of Model Master 4680 Gray Primer over the entire plane.

After all the new filler, the filing, and the sanding was complete, I airbrushed another coat of Model Master 4680 Gray Primer over the entire plane.

I let the primer dry for almost two days, only because I had other things to do. I decided to paint the plane with Tamiya XF-11 Chrome Silver, in an attempt making it look like Doc, one of only two B-29's that are still flight worthy; (FIFI and DOC).

I didn't have any gloss aluminum (remember, I was building this during the peak of Covid-19) I think the Flat Aluminum I used looks too fake and I'm not sure what I'm going to do from here.

I let the primer dry for almost two days, only because I had other things to do. I decided to paint the plane with Tamiya XF-11 Chrome Silver, in an attempt making it look like Doc, one of only two B-29's that are still flight worthy; (FIFI and DOC).

I didn't have any gloss aluminum (remember, I was building this during the peak of Covid-19) I think the Flat Aluminum I used looks too fake and I'm not sure what I'm going to do from here.

I REALLY DO NOT LIKE THE COLOR!!!

As I mentioned in the beginning, this rebuild wasn't just a rebuild for the sake of rebuilding, but to also practice some techniques that I had never tried before.

Since I hate the color, I thought maybe I would try to make the finish coat show different panel affects by using different under coats, so...I taped off some panels and airbrushed some panels with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black as an undercoat.

As I mentioned in the beginning, this rebuild wasn't just a rebuild for the sake of rebuilding, but to also practice some techniques that I had never tried before.

Since I hate the color, I thought maybe I would try to make the finish coat show different panel affects by using different under coats, so...I taped off some panels and airbrushed some panels with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black as an undercoat.

I let the duo colored patch work dry for 24- hours and then airbrushed a light coat of Tamiya XF-66 Light Gray over the entire plane. The Tamiya XF-66 Light Gray looks very close to the color of FIFI and other B-29's that flew in the Pacific Theatre. However; I could not see any difference in color between the areas with Chrome Silver as a base and the Flat Black base, so...I gave the entire plane two coats of Tamiya XF-66 Light Gray.

After a 24-hour drying period, I started weathering and showing wear using Tamiya Black Panel Liner Accent and a Q-Tip. I also thought I'd try dry brushing for the very first time to show oil and coolant from the hit engine. Using Tamiya:

• X-1 Black
  
  
• X-6 Orange
  
  
• X-7 Red
  
  
• x-19 Smoke
  
  
• X-24 Clear Yellow
  
  

I'm not really happy with the look, I think I went over board and it's too much, but I learned how to dry brush.

After a 24-hour drying period, I started weathering and showing wear using Tamiya Black Panel Liner Accent and a Q-Tip. I also thought I'd try dry brushing for the very first time to show oil and coolant from the hit engine. Using Tamiya:

• X-1 Black
  
  
• X-6 Orange
  
  
• X-7 Red
  
  
• x-19 Smoke
  
  
• X-24 Clear Yellow
  
  

I'm not really happy with the look, I think I went over board and it's too much, but I learned how to dry brush.

When all the paint was dry, I glued the cockpit canopy and port windows in place. I also painted the gun barrels flat black.

When all the paint was dry, I glued the cockpit canopy and port windows in place. I also painted the gun barrels flat black.

This photo is a closeup of the hit engine, top gun turret and cockpit canopy.

This photo is a closeup of the hit engine showing the cylinders in place.

This is the decal sheet that comes with the Atlantis B-29, 1:120th scale kit. I do not want to use this sheet; therefore, I scanned the sheet and printed it on a sheet of clear water slide laser jet paper.

When I scanned the decal sheet I didn't think about the background being light blue, which I'm sure is the color of the backing paper on the original decals. Therefore, using Gimp GNU Image Manipulation Software I removed the blue background and reprinted them on my clear water slide paper. That did the trick.

I installed the prop's and placed some of the decals on the plane.

I installed the prop's and placed some of the decals on the plane. I decided not to display any nose art because I'm not too keen about putting "FIFI" on it nor do I want it to be the Auntless Dotty that came on the decal sheet. I'm still looking for nose art that I'm happy with.

This photo is the Bomber at about 99% complete. I still want to include some nose art and I want to find a desktop stand that I like. I don't like the one that comes with the kit.

The image you see was done using Gimp GNU Image Manipulation Software. Gimp is an open source free photo editor similar to Adobe Photoshop.

To create this image I took a photo of the model in the position I wanted it. I then loaded the photo into Gimp and removed the background leaving only the plane on a transparent background. I then found a photo of a sky, opened it in Gimp and pasted the plane photo as a new layer. A few tweeks to color, size and position and done.