The B-17 has an access tunnel that is located under the cockpit. A forward hatch leads to the interior. Once inside, going left will lead to the foreword compartment and right leads up to the cockpit. The access tunnel is also used for storage and allows access to cables running down from the cockpit. This room is only about three feet high making mobility difficult.
Building the model was interesting because there is a lot of stuff crammed into this space. Still, everything was pretty straightforward. Below are images of the finished access tunnel.
When I originally built this tunnel a few months ago I came to the conclusion that the interior space felt about six inches too high. Likewise, the vertical internal space of the cockpit above the tunnel felt short. I came to the conclusion that I had built the rear half of the cockpit floor (tunnel ceiling) too high. This was verified when I started work on the bomb bay and found that areas based on the door leading to the bomb bay from the cockpit was too high (obviously the base of the door is related to the location of the floor).
At first I figured I would just let it go since no one would notice. It was, after all, only six inches. Still, as the months went by I decided that I couldn’t let it go. I needed to put in the time to rebuild and get everything accurate. Fortunately, once I set to work it only took about three hours to get everything fixed. The floor was easy enough to drop but it means that a hundred or so pieces needed to be dropped as well to get them into place. Vertices manipulation on occasion was also required. Walls had to be reconfigured.
Little problems, if not found quickly, can compound into major errors. The best thing is to fix issues quickly. Fortunately, the B-17 is back on track and looking great so far.