HK Models B-17 E/F Flying Fortress Build Guide Pt VI - Those Brassin Engines & Props

Lukas is six parts into his Hong Kong Models 32nd scale B-17E/F build. This time Lukas checks out the Eduard Brassin & photo-etch additions. See how he adds AK Interactive washes, Mr Paint colours & a lot of Lukas' elbow grease to get the kit to the 3/4 finished phase...

B-17 E/F Flying Fortress Build Guide: Pt VI - Engines & Props

The kit is from Hong Kong Models
1/32nd scale
Model Number# HK01E05
The kit features 44 sprues
A resin casting ammo tracks
Photo-Etch parts on two sheets
Three markings on two decal sheets
Large format instructions included.
3.2kg weight - 989mm wide and 709mm long!
Price:$292 USD/ £217 GBP/ €249 EUR/ $367.93 AUD from Hobbylink Japan

Pt I: In-boxed: HK Models 32nd scale B-17E/F
Pt II: B-17E/F Build Guide: The Cockpit.
Pt III: B-17E/F Build Guide: Rear interior  
Pt IV: B-17 E/F Build Guide: Turrets of the Fortress. 
Pt V: B-17 E/F Build Guide - Landing Gear & Wheelwells

Today: B-17 E/F Flying Fortress Build Guide Pt VI - Those Brassin Engines & Props

Before I express my feeling about the final choice of either kit or resin replacement engines that I ended up using on this kit let me quickly show you how I painted the most important parts attached to them - the propellers. 

The props come in six pieces which make it ideal for my type of painting and only required a little bit of sanding paper to smooth the edges of any extra seams.

Here they are before airbrush session, only dry fitted and holding snugly with no glue.

To paint them, first I applied a coat of yellow to the tips of the propellers as I always find it easier to go straight on primer rather than later on spraying it over black due to the weaker yellow pigment.

After masking the tips I sprayed it with aluminium paint as a base for scratches(picture that I forgot to take). Moved on to applying worn effects from AK interactive and priced with a mix of black and dark grey in various sheens.

What I was trying to achieve was something like this...

I then painted the black of the propellers over AK Interactive's Worn effects, once dry I scratched the black finish of the propellers. I then proceeded to seal it with semi-gloss Tamiya varnish and applied the propeller decals 

The finished effect...

I applied a different sheen applied to the propeller hub to make a different appearance in texture that I think people will notice.

....And here they are (two of them anyway), ready to be installed when the build is finished to avoid any breakages. 

Engines, engines, engines and one more engine. When given the opportunity to take on B-17 I expressed interest in using the spectacularly detailed Eduard "Brassin" engines originally released for G version. 

I decided to also use one of the photo-etch frets that Eduard offers with additional details to the engines if you decide not to go full out with resin.

Let me show you how I painted this beautiful piece of resin. Opening the box itself reveals the sheer number of parts and hours of work lies ahead. 

 Great detail awaits, but there is a lot of work here...

Each engine is slightly different and each receives its own brass sheet which I mostly disregarded as I replaced cabling with lead wire. 

Comparing kit parts and resin next to each other shows the level of upgrade provided by Eduard. HK Models is good, Eduard is just better, and as it should be. Eduard's whole philosophy and the reason for making these kits are that they are designed to be an improvement, whereas the Hong Kong Models original is designed to be a good base to work from. 

Look at the details in this intricate Eduard engine set...

The resin also shows the back side of the engine with all the plumbing which is missing in the kit itself, you can then show the engine totally exposed from front and rear with these sets.

Parts for the engine bulkheads are also missing in the kit and are replicated here so engines can be left open.  

Possibly most impressive out of all of this are exhaust pipes. I know what you are thinking, my soft spot for things that will be barely visible. 

Lets hit the workbench. I started with preparing parts R06 which only needed to receive two parts and could be primed straight away.

Once primed I gave them a light coat of Neutral grey from MR. PAint shades and painted other details by a paint brush. 

This was followed by a rather sloppy application of engine grime from AK interactive.

...and then I quickly washed and softened the look of them with white spirit.

Once dry I sealed the surface with matt varnish

I then moved onto cylinders with black surfacer.

I then airbrushed all of the parts with dark aluminium from Alclad and then brush painting the black areas between each cylinder

Again I went rather sloppy here. The first reason is that I am not very good with hand painting and second is that it doesn’t really matter - weathering, later on, I will fix that for me - happy sloppy modelling :) 

Once this done I sealed this “artwork” with a light coat of Tamiya matt varnish and glued the engine into its final shape.

This was the easiest part of the engine build. Next level came when it comes to all the small parts and then into totally different level when making all the spark plugs cabling. After some hours you come up with something like this.

Note that little plaque which comes from a tiny PE fret, I found it too thick and managed to separate print from metal part. Then I used CA glue as I would with PE itself. 

After all of the cabling is done and all of the details are painted I followed my (here we go again) wash recipe found in earlier articles - Engine grime from AK interactive and various shades of oils mainly going darker to trying to match the grime and oils in used engines. (apologies as my pictures from progress disappeared somewhere in the black hole of my computer) 

Final engines before installing into the wing are here 

....and you can compare it to the real thing on this picture 

I will bring the third part of engine installation into the wing once I finished implementing landing flaps. Due to a huge size maneuvering, the wing itself around the house is a huge challenge and I simply don’t want to risk losing any of those parts attached to it.

I would like to say huge thanks to Eduard for sending me these engines as an addition to the B-17 and even bigger thanks to their customer service team. Some of the parts in my package where misshapen for some reason and the people at Eduard promptly sent me correct replacements. If you experience any issues don’t hesitate to contact them. 

Stay tuned for more as we start to hit the home stretch with "Knockout Dropper"… 

Lukas Kasuba

Thanks to HK Models for sending this kit to us to review and build.

Thanks to Eduard for sending the Brassin parts to complete this build

Mr Paint's shades can be found at their Website

Thanks to AK Interactive for sending Lukas the weathering equipment for his build...