elger

that is interesting news!

I'm adding some rivets to the windows in the front section. These are decals from Archer (now out of business sadly, but there are alternatives, even Eduard is getting in on this game) And I painted the engines. These are OOB: Thanks for looking!

same here. it's disappointing after their FW-190 which looks like a really decent kit that they went for a downscaled version of Trumpeter/Hobbyboss for the Spitfire with all the flaws.

wonderful. one of the best Stirling models I've seen!

neither have I!

It is not - I temporarily glued on one of the kit noses with white glue, and in the meantime I'm working on the vacuum formed nose part. I've cut a hole in it, and added some Archer rivets around it. I then installed the piece I had been working on. The bomb aimer's window of the restored Memphis Belle has kind of a brick colour on the outside, so I went with that as well Thanks for looking!

putting the fuselage together, adding the stinger tail all masked up and ready for priming and with a coat of primer thanks for looking!

Can't find a definitive answer for the gun mount of the radio room, so I'm going for the ring option that's provided in the Revell kit. The gun is a resin item from Eduard and for the belt I used a vinyl ammo belt that came with a kit that I can't remember a long time ago but they're great and I wish more manufacturers would include them. Much less nightmarish to fit than photoetch belts, and they look fine when painted. I've also added some of the details to the roof of the cockpit Thanks for looking!

love it - the figures look so natural

A detail I'm keen to add is the framing for the nose gun. This is a feature all 1/72 kits and all aftermarket companies miss. Revell, to their credit, do give you the option for a nose-mounted machine gun in their kit. But since I'm using a vacuum formed part I'll need to add this mount. I decided the best option was to cut the part from the Revell clear piece with a razor saw: I sanded it to shape, and I cut out a piece of clear plastic to fit at the back. I'll use a rectangular piece of masking tape for the viewing glass. I'm using .4 lead wire for the frames. That's this for now. I also realized that I used the wrong type (appropriate for Gs) of mounting for the radio operator's machine gun. Does anyone ( @vppelt68 perhaps?) know if a mid-production F like this one would have had the ring mount or the bar as seen on the Memphis Belle? Elger

fantastic!

no worries, glad with critical input and glad this one turned out in my favour since I'd just filled up the vents yesterday and would have been a real pain to open up again

42-30056 doesn't seem to have them 42-30060 also doesn't seem to have them

I was wondering if were fitted to Block B-17F-85-BO, but some googling lead me to this text: found here: https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/116067-b-17-wing-tip-vents-fit-date so it looks like I'm good deleting them for Sky Queen!

Turning my attention to the wings. I was under the impression that the F had one vent like on the Revell kit (on the left) and I was thinking about how to change the Airfix wing tip, but after studying photos of B-17 Fs I found out that the F did not have any vents in the wing tip so all I need to do is fill the existing ones on the Airfix wings. I also found out that Fs had navigation lights on the top and on the bottom of the wing tip, rather than on the edges of the actual wing tips like Airfix has it for the G, so I'll be changing that as well. Incidentally, you can also see how much bigger Revell depicts the ailerons on their kit in this photo. Something I've also been thinking about is the shape of the cowls. Although Airfix is close, I think they still get the shape a little bit wrong and I think that the resin ones in the Eduard Brassin set look better. I'm not going to use the Brassin engines, by the way, because I always have enough trouble lining up engines/cowls/propellers as it is. I might use some of the detail parts to improve the Airfix kit engines. As always, thanks for looking!

those exhausts look the absolute business!

Thanks! All Vallejo acrylics - skin tones from their unfortunately named Panzer Aces range and then just some Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade from Citadel

couldn't resist taking some glamour shots of the inside before closing up the fuselage thanks for looking!

80 years ago today, on Wednesday, July 28, 1943, the Eighth Air Force dispatched two wings, comprising 15 Bomb Groups in all, to two targets: 182 B-17s from the 1st Wing were sent to attack the Fieseler factories at Kassel, while 120 B-17s from the 4th Wing the AGO Flugzeug Werke in Oschersleben. The fate of one of the aircraft that participated in this disastrous mission, B-17F 42-30032 BK-D named Sky Queen, is described in volume 1 of Ab Jansen’s Sporen aan de Hemel (“Traces in the skies”). Jansen shares the account of Howard Adams, the aircraft’s flight engineer/top turret gunner which he in turn received from local historian Bindert Helder. In the 1970s Helder corresponded with Adams, who shared his account with him - and via Helder, Adams' account turned up in Jansen's book. Helder featured in a short local newspaper article that appeared last week: (https://lc.nl/weekbladenfriesland/defeanster/Tachtig-jaar-na-crash-Sky-Queen-bij-Koartw%C3%A2ld-28-juli-1943-28-juli-2023-Bindert-Helder-89-herinnert-zich-de-dag-nog-precies-28552320.html) I only have a few images of Sky Queen. I found these at https://photos.384thbombgroup.com/index.php?/category/F42-30032 There is this sketch of the nose art: The pinup looks quite close to one featured on a Kits World decal sheet (KW172010) of "Heaven Sent" so I'll be using that. I'll make the Sky Queen name with my Silhouette cutter, but it won't be able to make the small names written at the windows, so I'll leave those off. Some low quality photos of the wreck: So I don't have an overall photo of the aircraft, but there's quite a few photos of aircraft from the same production block in the same unit, the best example being 42-30033 which presumably was the next one off the production line. It served in the same unit and gives good information about the configuration. Of note are the over painted code letters on the fuselage, and the later style top turret. This image was found at https://b17flyingfortress.de/en/b17/42-30033-little-america/ The rest of the text below is translated from Jansen’s book, pages 243-282. (Jansen, A. A. (1979). Sporen aan de Hemel: Kroniek van een Luchtoorlog (Vol. 1). Hollandia.) The account was written in English originally, translated in to Dutch in the 1970s, and I’ve translated it back into English now – so a few details might be off. 42-30032 Sky Queen and crew belonged to the 546th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group, which was stationed at Grafton Underwood Air Base in Northamshire. The history of this Fort and crew was recorded shortly after the mission by the machine's flight engineer/top turret gunner, T/Sgt. Howard J. Adams (23) from Wilton, Iowa:

I was fearing the worst for a second with Airfix' "mystery announcement" yesterday. But thank goodness it was only a helicopter

I finished most of the interior. For the front I used most of the Eduard F interior set (for Revell) and for the flight deck I used some parts of the Eduard G interior set. I also used some parts from the CMK F interior set. Test fitting the parts with the crew: Next I'll add the guns, and my least favourite part, the ammunition belts. Thanks for looking!

To follow up on this, I've shared this anecdote before, but some years ago on a Dutch modeling forum someone was building a 1/32 F-104 and he had obtained some original paint RNLAF 104s were painted in, but when he put it on his model it looked all wrong. Same principle as described above.

Have you given any thoughts to the look of the exhausts yet? The ones fitted to N3641 look very similar to those fitted to Beaufort mk 1s (definitely not the porcupine type fitted to later Stirlings or Lancaster IIs).

Saturday was the first day of my vacation and in the morning it suddenly hit me: I should build this model wheels up. I was looking through my folder called "just nice models" on my computer that I save any picture of a scale model that I find in some way attractive or inspiring and I noticed a pattern: as I follow builds along on this and some other forums, my favourite moment is when models are almost done, with only the last remaining things (usually including the landing gear) left to add. And I save a lot of those photos, but fewer of finished models. I tend to find finished models less interesting. So it hit me: right before models are completely done, they still have this sort of 'fantasy of flight' thing going on. I had been thinking about this notion a while back as well when my wife asked what's a really good question: why is box art of models paintings of the subject? I'm not sure, but at that time I also came to the conclusion that beautiful box art sells because it's about the fantasy of flight - the fantasy of the subject. I only built a few models as a kid in the 1990s with the wheels up - but certainly not anymore after I'd bought my first copy of Fine Scale Modeler magazine and wanted to be a serious modeler. But also in the 1990s, I used to visit a local war museum and the first time I went I remember they had, what looked to me, a fantastic 1/72 B-17 on display (it must have been the ancient Revell kit). That was also on a stand, with the wheels up. Some years later I visited the museum again and the model had split right down the middle and didn't look nearly as good as I remembered. One practical thing that was holding me back is that good stands are hard to find - I've got hold of some clear ones from Airfix that I'm going to use here. Another practical issue that came to mind immediately is that the aircraft will need a crew. Luckily a few years ago I had bought the Legends Productions B-17 crew set. Anyway, in the flight deck but also in all the other parts the first layer of the photoetch parts has been applied. Going to do some priming next!

Work continues on the stinger tail. I did consider using resin, after @billn53's suggestion but also after having seen @Heather Kay's work on that beautiful Stirling she's working on. However, I ended up cutting pieces of spare clear styrene carefully to size, following Andreia Rodrigues' ("modest modeler") example of making clear pieces for her Y-wing on Instagram. The first thing I did was glue a piece of clear styrene sanded in the shape of a wedge into the tail piece with superglue. It was actually quite hard to find a piece of clear styrene thick enough to fit - not even plastic from a CD case was thick enough. I ended up using one of the fuselage windows from the Academy B-17 kit. After the superglue had thoroughly dried I started sanding it into shape so that it followed the tail piece. I then polished the piece. I should be able to mask this off and get something resembling the upper back facing window that way. The real thing reminds me of a Trojan helmet. The lower back facing window is a plain rectangle and didn't cause me much of a headache. The side windows were a different matter, because they're curved. I ended up using large sections from turret pieces from an Italeri Stirling that I had leftover. It took a few hours but I ended up with 4 pieces that fit just right: Finally all the pieces are installed. I placed them mostly correctly and they're fairly transparent. Especially next to the Revell piece, it's an improvement: All in all I still think this is the best way to get a stinger tail onto the Airfix B-17G tail. The Revell clear part is just awful. The Academy parts could be made to fit, but it's much more work and you'd have the seam running right through the middle. I have a vacuum formed part for the old Hasegawa kit, but that's much too wide to fit the Airfix tail. The only alternative that I don't have for testing the fit and suitability is the Matchbox tail. I'm going to focus on some of the interior sections next, and I have remind myself that most of the interior won't be seen. It won't be seen. It won't be seen. It won't be seen. Thanks for looking and thanks for the input so far!