"B-17 interior in 28mm" Topic

I want to make the interior of a B-17, to fit 28mm figures. I am pretty sure this will have to be a scratch build, and I am a lousy modeller so I want a lot of time to work on this project. Can anyone suggest how to do this? It will be open topped.

Monogram make a 1/48 B-17 model . I took a walk through I had a very hard time moving my lard in that tight ship . It was like being in a beer can . The guys who flew in those had large brass ones for sure .

Expensive, but maybe a 1-48 scale cutaway model?

Revell VISIBLE 1:48 B-17

I'd start with a 1:48th model as well. And ditto what Ming31 said – I was amazed at how claustrophobic it was inside a B17. B24 was only marginally better.

Doug

I'll be the lone voice for scratchbuilding. If you scratchbuild you will have a creation that is entirely yours – very satisfying but difficult and time consuming. You can also build in a scale closer to that of 28mm (I like 1/56th scale). I would suggest buying the squadron/signal book on B17s and then google as many photos of the interior that you can find.

Here is a good scratchbuilding website:

link

Unfortunately no-one makes USAAF air crew figs in 28mm – so you'll probably have to scratch those as well.

A recent attempt of mine at a bit of interior scratch modelling:

If you're a lousy modeller, I wouldn't even attempt a scratchbuild with the Revell 1:48 B-17 available for $30 USD:

link

It has a fully detailed interior, and if you're going to move figures around inside it, you'll want the extra room upsizing to 1:48 will give you.

BTW, I'd love to hear how you plan to game with it!

I took the 4 year old grandson down to see the Collings Foundation B-17 earlier this week, and I have to completely agree with everyone else here about how cramped they are. It's like they were built for my height (5'8") and his girth (40 lbs.). If your 28mm figures have any sort of base under them, they may not fit in the aircraft.
BWW

I'd go with what Flintloque said. I think 1/56 is way to small to start with. But to each their own.

Thanks every one. I will scope out my Squadron shop catalog post haste, then go to amazon and shop around.

@flintlock I have a copy of B-17 Queen of the Skies link . I am just going to track the damage and casualties the way I would in an SF RPG space battle. Litko smoke and flame markers are my friend.

I have wanted to do this ever since I started D&D. Our party would take casualties and everybody else was imagining Elves or Conan, for me it was bomber crewmen taking hits from flak and Focke Wulfs. Wool gathering in a D&D game? I'm a WW2 buff.

I already have Larger then Life, a pulp RPG, if I have to walk home. link and Stalag Luft III link if we get caught.

Thanks again for the help, see you over Hamburg?

@Ming31 This very good looking woman journalist had to cover a re-union of B-29 crew members. Every reporter gets assignments where you just have to suck it in and do it. So she goes into this room full of paunchy balding old men and listens to them telling war stories for the umpteenth time.

There is a scene early in the film 12 O'clock High when an older civilian Dean Jagger is in the abandoned ready room of the old abandoned airfield. He puts the Toby mug back on the spot it held by unit tradition and the sound of ghostly radials turning over gets louder and the main story begins.

The ghost engines revved up again for that woman journalist
and she suddenly realized that she "was in a room full of hunks". They all had big ones.

>@flintlock I have a copy of B-17 Queen of the Skies link . >I am just going to track the damage and casualties the way >I would in an SF RPG space battle. Litko smoke and flame >markers are my friend.

This sounds really fun. Like the 28mm sailing ship models for boarding actions and such. but in the skies with fighters.

"Dungeon crawls?" Bizarre cross-posting there. But good luck with your RPG modeling project. I like the sound of it….

Yes, odd crosspost just visiting, but I didn't want to miss the off chance of some fantasy gamer using something like Space Hulk after watching the B-17 sequence in the Heavy Metal movie. Thanks for the good wishes.

@Flooglestreet: got a link (or even a scan) to the story she wrote? Every once in a while you get a reporter that had a story 'click' for them, and those are their best work.

I don't know who wrote it. I was homeless when I read itand it gave me a definite boost when I needed, it.

This is probably too late to do any good, but Lindberg makes a 1/64-scale model of a B-17G. I had one about 50 years ago and seem to recall that it had an interior. The model is still readily available and pretty cheap. By my calculations, 1/64 scale should be very close to 28mm.

I already have the 1:48 model, but thanks for the heads up fred.