BoeConsol B-33 Bomber Escort

[Wardukw]

Well yeah ,,its a bomber escort and yep we know of how much a failure the birds like the YB-40s were and escort fighters were the way to go for certain ,,real world proof is out there for all to see and plenty of it ,,,so i guess i'm gonna have to go a wee bit out of bounds and head for another reality ..same as ours of sorts but with different designs of weapons and such .,,its wiffy world after all so why the hell not eh ? 
I could say that in this other reality the aircraft fly much higher ,,much faster than our aircraft of the same time line and of course much further ,,hence the idea now for tip tanks on this thing .
This could be at a time when the fighter plane of the time couldn't do what the bombers could do much like our problems we had in this time period but this was more successful in the mission it was built to do ...or something like that .
The 20mm cannon idea has also now got me thinking cause of course bigger guns are always better   
Now i've gotta see if or how much work is gonna be needed to rearm this with 20mm cannons .,,,i'll bet finding 48th scale 20mm cannon barrels aint gonna be easy by any means ,,or getting em for that matter   

[perttime]

Having some idea of "what's it for" should help with a back story.

Is there something that could be used for making gun barrels, instead of trying to buy them?

[Wardukw]

Having some idea of "what's it for" should help with a back story.

Is there something that could be used for making gun barrels, instead of trying to buy them?

Ummmm ...long range,,high speed,, high altitude bomber escort   

I've been already thinking of that matey ,,i measured the 48th gun barrels and came back with .99mm ,,1.0mm in diameter-ish ,,,these old as the hills Monogram barrels aint exactly round 
So now i've gotta do math    to sort out how big 20mm will be in 48th  and then see what i'll have to do to make em in 48 and i'm already thinking of styrene rod and brass tube getting used .

[Rick Lowe]

That's probably the easiest way - you can reuse the .50 receivers, maybe alter them a bit - or not, as they'll be inside the turrets.
I have used the flexible tubing you get for engine wiring/hoses on car models as the slightly larger diameter barrel muzzles. If it doesn't split, it's an easy way to get the effect.

[Wardukw]

That's probably the easiest way - you can reuse the .50 receivers, maybe alter them a bit - or not, as they'll be inside the turrets.
I have used the flexible tubing you get for engine wiring/hoses on car models as the slightly larger diameter barrel muzzles. If it doesn't split, it's an easy way to get the effect.

I agree matey ..the turrets are already glued together so i could test fit them to the model ,,so yep i'm gonna have to leave the receivers right where they is for ,,well ever 
I'm loving the vinyl tubing idea alot bud ,,i've got a heap of that stuff for model cars so thats great ,,once i can find out what the fecking diameter of the 20mm barrel in 48th scale ...i did a hunt online and that proved to be utterly useless but i am slowly making head way here ,,i'm going with Hispano Mk. V 20 mm autocannon  which the Avro Shackleton used as a base weapon to work from ..once i can find the dia of that barrel ,,then convert that to 48th   

[Old Wombat]

BNA search - 20mm 1/48: https://www.bnamodelworld.com/index.php?route=product%2Fsearch&category_id=&search=20mm

[Wardukw]

This is going to sound very strange but sometimes head wounds can be quite helpful for being very surprised when you find something you didn't even remember having and then finding it   
I have a stash of brass bits ,,gun barrels ..antennas and mounts and the like and guess what i found in there which i thought was 35th scale,,,1/48th 20mm Oerlikon Crusader AA MKll gun barrels 
The annoying thing is i looked online at how much it would cost to buy five more sets as they only have two barrels in the set ,,,$14.00 AUS a set ,,so nope ,,,,so now i've gotta try to copy these as close as i can times 12 as the ones i'll make wont look like the RB ones thats for sure .

[Wardukw]

BNA search - 20mm 1/48: https://www.bnamodelworld.com/index.php?route=product%2Fsearch&category_id=&search=20mm

Great page Guy ,,then again BNA is always like that ,,the barrel i found came from BNA many a moon ago 
I did find something which would work and its these ...https://www.bnamodelworld.com/model-planes-gun-barrels-aber-ab-a48014
I'll have to save some coins to get em as i'll need three sets but still cheaper than $70 AUS plus postage 

[Old Wombat]

BNA search - 20mm 1/48: https://www.bnamodelworld.com/index.php?route=product%2Fsearch&category_id=&search=20mm

Great page Guy ,,then again BNA is always like that ,,the barrel i found came from BNA many a moon ago 
I did find something which would work and its these ...https://www.bnamodelworld.com/model-planes-gun-barrels-aber-ab-a48014
I'll have to save some coins to get em as i'll need three sets but still cheaper than $70 AUS plus postage 

Good thing is that it looks like Aber are still making them. 

[Wardukw]

BNA search - 20mm 1/48: https://www.bnamodelworld.com/index.php?route=product%2Fsearch&category_id=&search=20mm

Great page Guy ,,then again BNA is always like that ,,the barrel i found came from BNA many a moon ago 
I did find something which would work and its these ...https://www.bnamodelworld.com/model-planes-gun-barrels-aber-ab-a48014
I'll have to save some coins to get em as i'll need three sets but still cheaper than $70 AUS plus postage 

Good thing is that it looks like Aber are still making them. 

Bloody good thing but and yep always that bloody three letter word i've gone over the coins and i'm not waiting a month to be able to buy em so i took alook at my pile of brass and alloy tubing and rod ,,its turns out i've got a hell of a lot more than i thought i did and in many wonderful sizes ,,in that lost is .8mm tubing ,,1mm tubing and sizes all over the place ,,,i'm gonna try and make the smallest 20mm cannons i've ever made and try my darndest to make em look good ..these will be wiffy cannons but hopefully  good looking ones   

[Rick Lowe]

20mm + say 12 for the barrel, divided by 48 = .67mm, so I'd say the .8 would be the go.

I don't have the excuse of a head wound - or not that I remember, anyway...    but I can relate to finding stuff I'd forgotten I had.
Though my reason is that I put it away in a pile or box somewhere, intending to use it for a project that's near to going on the list, and completely forget about it in the press of events. 
Then I try to get more, or make do with something else, so the original stuff is still there when I come across it again... 

[Wardukw]

20mm + say 12 for the barrel, divided by 48 = .67mm, so I'd say the .8 would be the go.

I don't have the excuse of a head wound - or not that I remember, anyway...    but I can relate to finding stuff I'd forgotten I had.
Though my reason is that I put it away in a pile or box somewhere, intending to use it for a project that's near to going on the list, and completely forget about it in the press of events. 
Then I try to get more, or make do with something else, so the original stuff is still there when I come across it again... 

Thank you very much for that measurement matey ,,thats brilliant   
I've found the prefect tube for the barrels ,,its the steel tube from the Revell Professional glue bottle ..when i would finish them i would always keep the tube's ...cause ya never know when ya might need em for something ..you definitely know what that's like 
The thing is i remembered that i had those guns ,,but the brain was certain they were 35th not 48th ,,so you can imagine my surprise       

[Rick Lowe]

cause ya never know when ya might need em for something ..you definitely know what that's like 

Ooh, yes; I'm the Poster Boy for "Hang onto it, just in case"... 

[Wardukw]

cause ya never know when ya might need em for something ..you definitely know what that's like 

Ooh, yes; I'm the Poster Boy for "Hang onto it, just in case"... 

Ricky mate the horde of crap that we keep is the mainstay of our hobby ,,we just gotta have it and man it's a great excuse 

Right update time ... thing are going to change with the nose turret of this thing ... i hate it it looks like crap ..its the same as in the pics but with the front wings being so close now the lines aint smooth and looks blocky ...so i'm gonna change it ..yep hack it off .
What i'm thinking and probably going to do is make use of my spare ball turret ,,build a custom turret system for the nose and smooth it into the fuselage as much as possible ..weapons wise this is gonna be the use of the much thought department .
I dont think a 20mm cannon will fit into a ball turret so its wiffy time 
I;m going to use a cannon where the recoil system is outside the turret with a special short receiver where the rounds are fed from under the gun and not from the side which would narrow the entire weapon and give you a receiver as short or shorter than a 50cal one .
Yeah i think this will pretty cool . 

[kerick]

Sounds like a plan!

I'm guilty of saving all kinds of stuff. Today I had to lean a ladder on freshly painted walls. I didn't want to screw up the paint job by scrapping it up with the ladder so I got out the foam packaging material I had saved. A little duck tape and the ladder was nicely padded. Isn't that what they call up cycling?