Gunner Section Walls

Well, the majority of the work done for all the gunner position walls used pretty much the same techniques as I have shown you up to this point on the rest of the interior. So, I'm gonna fly through all the walls for the gunner/radio position all on one page. There were a few new or different techniques, which I'll call out as I come across them.

Note that the very first step I had to do before even starting the walls was to work out my mounting scenario for the gun turret ring. I knew the ring would have to mount to the sides of the fuselage, just under the canopy rails, so I put hardwood mounting blocks in place while the fuselage was still accessible. Once I put the new walls up, I wouldn't be able to get back in there to glue the hardwood blocks in place, so this step had to get taken care of pronto!

Port & Starboard Side Walls

The side walls for the gunner position used the same basic technique and materials that I showed you back in the pilot cockpit fabriacation, with a slight tweak. I made the walls from posterboard again, but this time I was able to do each wall in one piece. This was because I didn't have as many obstacles in the way stopping me from sliding a single large piece in place. Also, just the basic layout of the walls was different enough that it warranted this approach.

The first step, is to line the fuselage where each wall panel goes with a balsa "ledge" that is used as a backstop of sorts to push and glue the wall panels up against. Now you can go ahead and cut and fit your posterboard panels. Satisfied with the fit, I went to the next step, which I again did a little different than in the pilot section. With the pilot section, I surfaced the entire posterboard panels with Flitemetal first, then added framework and details. This time, I built the balsa framework and glued it onto the posterboard first, then added the FliteMetal to the areas between the scale framework, stringers, formers, etc.

I did this because it allowed me to work out the curvature of the sidewalls and match the framework to it before applying the FliteMetal. I also did it because I felt I got a better glue bond when gluing the balsa strips directly to the posterboard than gluing it to the FliteMetal. Next I surfaced all the balsa with 10 mil styrene, and added all the appropriate scale details. These details were all fabricated from balsa and styrene stock.

When both the side walls were completely detailed, I shot them each with Metal Etching Primer, then began painting.

Painting was done the same as the rest of the interior, beginning with a coat of Model Masters waterbased acrylic "Zinc Chromate Green". After that, the airbrush gets fired up and I begin applying shading to bring out 3D relief, as well as coloring areas to start the weathering process.

After the airbrushing is done, I then go in with a fine brush and start accenting and weathering to a much finer detail by hand. When all the green is done, I move on to the components that are not green and hand paint and weather them with acrylics as well.
Rear Wall & Ammo Station

The majority of the rear wall and ammo station was already built and surfaced with styrene a long time ago. I did this while building the fuse, since I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get back in there to the gun storage trough after the fuse was sheeted. I really kind of wish now that I had not done this, since it's very difficult to paint this area with the walls already installed. It's much easier to paint them first, then install them.

At any rate, I still had some detailing to add, which began with this interesting little component. The SBD had four explosive float lights stored just below the gun storage trough. Looking like tiny little bombs, they added a really nice little touch to the gunner rear wall. I fabricated them out of styrene tubing, with a small piece of balsa dowel rod glued into each end.

The balsa ends got sanded to shape and feathered into the styrene tubes. Stabilizer fins were made from 10 mil styrene sheeting. I cut an "X" into the tail end so that I could slide and glue the little styrene fins into place. The "box-like" outer fins were made by wrapping a strip of FliteMetal around the fins a couple times to complete the shape. A little rack for the float lights was made from styrene sheeting, L-stock and U-channel.






Now on to the large ammunition box which carried all the ammo for both of the twin 30 caliber machine guns in this section. This large box had two slots on the top with wooden rollers on each side of the slots. This is where the ammo belts fed out of the box and up into each of the guns

I wanted this large component to be as light as possible, so I made it out of a block of styrofoam. I then surfaced the styrofoam block with 10 mil styrene sheeting. Additional details were made from 20 mil styrene, styrene tubing, and FliteMetal. The photo at left shows the ammo box after painting and weathering.

I thought some of you might be wondering just how heavy my interiors are, and just how much weight I'm adding to the plane to get this level of detail. Well take a look at this pic at right...

I weighed all walls and details for the entire gunner section, not counting the floor (already glued in) and the gun turret to follow. All walls and details for both sides and the rear wall add up to only 2.1 ounces. I'm trying to stay under 8 ounces for this section with the gun turret, so I should be in good shape!

Installation

With everything detailed and painted, I was ready to install. The side walls were slid into place and glued to the balsa rails with Titebond glue. The float rack was glued into place with Medium CA, and the ammo box was glued in place with Epoxy. That's it, the interior is all done except for the most interesting and characteristic component... the twin 30 machine gun turret ring. I start that tomorrow!

All finished and ready for the gun turret ring...




"Gun Turret Ring"