B-17 restoration - tail

[Zeus-cat]

Over the last few months the tail of the "Champaign Lady" has been prepped for painting. We polished it extensively last year, but the painting only took place recently.

First he put on the yellow.

Right side
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/01RightSideofTail.jpg

Left side
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/02LeftSideofTail.jpg

Then the tail was masked for the black and white. After it was finished someone pointed out some problems. Do you see the mistakes?

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/04Problems.jpg

Look closely!

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/06Problems.jpg

I marked up a photo to make it easy to see the problems.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/05Problems.jpg

The only way to fix it is lots of tape. It took us a few hours to tape everything up for the repainting. Here we see Adam taping up the L after the 4 and the 1 have already been taped. Frank is looking on and despite being really torqued off about the screw ups is actually at his most cheerful this evening, or any evening.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/03Problems.jpg

Here are a few more shots of the taping. Everything that doesn't get painted yellow has to taped or masked - on both sides of the tail. We also had to mask the front, back and bottom of the tail.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/07Taped.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/08Taped.jpg

The final product looks pretty good.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/09Finished.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/10Finished.jpg

[Zeus-cat]

Over the last few months the tail of the "Champaign Lady" has been prepped for painting. We polished it extensively last year, but the painting only took place recently.

First he put on the yellow.

Right side
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/01RightSideofTail.jpg

Left side
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/02LeftSideofTail.jpg

Then the tail was masked for the black and white. After it was finished someone pointed out some problems. Do you see the mistakes?

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/04Problems.jpg

Look closely!

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/06Problems.jpg

I marked up a photo to make it easy to see the problems.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/05Problems.jpg

The only way to fix it is lots of tape. It took us a few hours to tape everything up for the repainting. Here we see Adam taping up the L after the 4 and the 1 have already been taped. Frank is looking on and despite being really torqued off about the screw ups is actually at his most cheerful this evening, or any evening.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/03Problems.jpg

Here are a few more shots of the taping. Everything that doesn't get painted yellow has to taped or masked - on both sides of the tail. We also had to mask the front, back and bottom of the tail.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/07Taped.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/08Taped.jpg

The final product looks pretty good.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/09Finished.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c252/Zeus-cat/10Finished.jpg

[wheelsup_cavu]

That looks great Zeus-cat. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/25.gif
At least you were able to fix it without starting over.
Thanks for the pictures.


Wheels

[Ba5tard5word]

Looks like a regular labor of love.


Amazing how bombers were pumped out in a matter of days in WW2.

[Choctaw111]

Nice work, but is there going to be the rest of the plane to follow, or just this one section to go into a museum?

[Zeus-cat]

I have posted quite a few photos of the fuselage and wings, etc. Choctaw. Just do a search for B-17 restoration and you should find some of my other photos. The plan is to have the plane flyable eventually.

[FlatSpinMan]

You are so cool to be working on something like this, Zeus. Amazing to be able to touch a piece of history like this.

[jarink]

I...am...so...jealous! http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/25.gif

Good thing the mistakes were found right away. Might have been a bit harder to correct once the fin was mounted on the fuselage.

You should send some of this stuff to Aero Vintage to post on their B-17 News Page (http://www.aerovintage.com/b17news.htm).

[danjama]

Very cool!

[jensenpark]

Nice Carter...very nice.

Feel free to post more (hint, hint...)

[Zeus-cat]

I didn't work on the plane this week and I only have a few new photos. If I get a chance I'll post them tomorrow.

I'll try and get some more photos next Thursday of the seat we are building. After that I am on vacation and won't be able to work on the plane for 4 weeks.

[steiner562]

Nice update zeus,I remember your thread on the Rivets and the frustration you guys were havin,nice to see some progress.