coronado Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Hello everybody ! I've just finished Italeri's Boeing B 17 C (Fortress 1), 1/72 nd scale . Actually, it's the Academy re boxed B 17 C, with a new decal sheet providing for 7 aircraft (3 for Coastal Command and 4 for USSAF). Here's a vew of the completed kit : The kit comes with very nice parts with recessed panel lines typical from Academy, cristal clear transparent parts except for the square windows, spoiled by sink holes, which will be replaced soon by clear plastic , the decal sheet is absolutely superb . Building this kit was not easy, above all the fitting of the interior gave me some trouble, and I asked many people if they had any pictures showing the interior of a B 17 C . Don't worry, nothing will be seen once you have detailed the cockpit ! I also opened the access doors and bomb bay doors and lowered the flaps : I also corrected the dihedral of the wings which is too exagerated (like the one of a FW 190 !) by adding plastic card and putty . The gunners windows were a pain in µµµµ to fit and I replaced the ugly square windows by clear plastic ones : In the early days of the Fortress 1, the camouflage pattern was wery interesting : Dark green, dark earth and PRU blue for the undersides . F for Freddie was finally scrapped in 1943 (B 17 EN ACTION, EPA) . The plane depicted here was from Poolebroke in the early 40's A great and warm november saturday to fly !!..above the garden ! Certainly not an easy kit to build but an unique opportunity to get an early version of this beautiful airplane . Critics and comments always welcome . Cheers, Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad 10 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Beautiful! Richard McC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksdad Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Nice to see the Fortress in a different scheme. Nice job. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Nice - I like it! Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike DeTorrice Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 You have done a great job on this wonderful Fortress replica ! It looks incredible and these earlier Flying Fotressess are among my favorite of WWII era aircraft. Very nice indeed ! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Very nice, that's a little different. You should consider doing a later Coastal Command "Fort" to keep her company, too; they look good in the grey/green camouflage over white undersides finish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Jephcott Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 (edited) She's beautiful. I really like that... A really great build of a wonderful aircraft. Now, at the risk of being called scrooge: I'm going to don my rivet counter hat here - but 90 Squadron, when they were based at Polebrook, were not, nor ever Coastal Command. They were actually a bomber squadron undertaking daylight raids in the Fortress Mk1! In fact, at no stage during their operation career were they a Coastal Command squadron as they ended up with the following aircraft: October 1941-February 1942: Bristol Blenheim IV December 1942-May 1943: Short Stirling I February 1943-June 1944: Short Stirling III May 1944-December 1947: Avro Lancaster I and III based at: 10 May-7 September 1939: West Raynham 7-19 September 1939: Weston-on-the-Green 19 September 1939-4 April 1940: Upwood 7-15 May 1941: Watton 15 May-28 June 1941: West Raynham 28 June 1941-14 February 1942: Polebrook 7 November-29 December 1942: Bottesford 29 December 1942-31 May 1943: Ridgewell 31 May-13 October 1943: Wratting Common 13 October 1943-11 November 1946: Tuddenham I've already dropped Italeri a line!!! There we go anyway... Hope you don't mind me dropping this in on here. Polebrook is the village that I grew up in and researched the history of the airfield extensively as it was always on my doorstep!! Cheers, Chris - Proud Resident of Polebrook! Edited November 12, 2011 by Chris Jephcott 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Very nice indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 As Chris has said, 90 squadron was never a Coastal Command squadron but after 90 was disbanded in early 1942, the remaining Fortress Mk Is, other than 4 that went to the Middle East, went on the serve in Coastal Command with 220 Squadron in which they were painted TSS topsides with white underneath & sides. They served as patrol bombers to begin with but then as later Fotress marks arrived they took on the role of crew trainers initally with 220 & later 206 squadrons. AN230 is last recorded in Squadron service in Sept 1943, when it was scrapped. I pulled this info from Allied Wings No. 7 by Phil Listemann,which has some good info on colour schemes with several profiles, as well as service records. I have the Academy version of this with some afterrmarket decals to reproduce this scheme. Its nice to see it in the flesh as it were & a nice job of modelling too Pierre, I especially like your last "flying" shot, if I let my mind drift a bit I can hear the roar of the four cyclones as it does a low pass over its base. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve N Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 (edited) Nice job. I've been tinkering with that kit off and on myself for several years..I really like the camo scheme on the RAF Fort Is. The PRU Blue is really striking. One critique, although it may be too late to correct. Those vents on the upper wing surface are not exhausts..they're simply hot air vents for the superchargers. The only thing that comes out of them is clear air. On a B-17, the staining on the top of the wing comes from oil and grime trailing back from the engines, which is actually deflected by the vents, leaving the area immediately behind them clean..a sort of photographic negative of the way they're often depicted by modellers. Heck, even the producers of the 1990 movie "Memphis Belle" got that detail wrong when the added fake weathering to the real B-17s for the flim (and I noticed the same thing on the CGI B-17s in the trailer for the upcomng movie "Red Tails.") Here are a couple of pics that better illustrate what I'm talking about, alhtough I doubt if the 90 Sq. Fortresses got quite this grubby! Yes, that bomb in the forground hit the aircraft below, taking off the left horizontal stabilizer (it crashed with no survivors.) Cheers! Steve Edited November 13, 2011 by Steve N 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coronado Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 Thank you all for your comments about the Coastal Command B 17 and the nature of the exhausts, I'll try to do a better job on my Fortress II ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve N Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Looking forward to it! I hope I didn't come off as too much of a know-it-all. The exhaust thing is just one of my pet peeves when it comse to B-17 models. SN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Thank you all for your comments about the Coastal Command B 17 and the nature of the exhausts, I'll try to do a better job on my Fortress II ! Pierre, I googled this kit & found a few images of the painting call out from the back of the box, no doubt there were others in the instructions sheet, but it was Chris' comments above that set me looking. It s a shame that Italeri has the information on the unit designation so wrong, it surely just serves to confuse all. I like your call out for PRU blue rather than Azure as from the info in the book mentioned above, PRU is the most likely colour for the deeper blue undersides & it will be my choice when I do my version of this. I think yours has captured this well. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 That's a stunner, always nice to see an early model of the Fortress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonkeyVong Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Picture links do not work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Yea,can,t see any pictures at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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