As usual John, beautiful work.. Thanks for posting...
 
    Bob D...

--- On Sun, 5/30/10, John and/or Marzlie Freeman <[email protected]> wrote:


From: John and/or Marzlie Freeman <[email protected]>
Subject: [Papermodels II 42237] John Freeman's Photos--WWII Diorama
To: "papermodels" <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, May 30, 2010, 11:12 AM


I have succumbed again to the charms of Olli. Well, his design work, actually. 
This little diorama is a scene from WWII. A Boeing B-17 Super Fortress under 
way accompanied by an escort P-51. 

Olli's long suit is in designing very simple models, sometimes not terribly 
accurate, but still very recognizable as what they are. Some of his ships are 
very nice, but I must admit that his airplanes are mostly not to my liking. His 
striving for simplicity with planes leads to square fuselages. I just can't do 
square fuselages except, of course, for those craft that actually have them. 

So I did what anyone would do--I made the fuselage round. Of course it 
presented problems, and there are some not-so-good spots, though I'm not going 
to point them out to you. I also rounded the square nacelles. Also the top 
turret, and the Sperry Ball hanging under the belly. All in all--good fun. 

Until I got around to adding the appropriate machine guns it hadn't really sunk 
in on me how many there were. No wonder it was called the Super Fortress. The 
guns sticking out all over this plane would make a porcupine proud. 

I had a friend who was crew chief on an A-26 in the Pacific War. We discussed 
the Sperry Ball. Always manned by the smallest guy in the unit, it was a tight 
fit even then with the poor guy sitting for hours on end with his knees up by 
his ears. He told me they lost several of these guys in gunnery school while he 
was there at the air base in Washington State. The guy manning the ball climbed 
into it while it was still up inside the belly of the beast. Once under way, 
with the ball lowered into operating position, if any damage happened to its 
suspension system the operator was a dead man. There was no way to retract the 
Ball into the fuselage mechanically, and it would not clear the ground if the 
plane landed with the Ball in the down position. What a lousey decision to have 
to make!

Go to Olli's site at   http://olli.maquettes-papier.net/  and check out his fun 
stuff. This is my fourth Olli model--all were fun!  Thanks Olli!

-- 
John and/or Marzlie Freeman
Check us out at--
http://2oldkiters.smugmug.com/



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