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Boeing B-17G/Flying Fortress Mk.III (A08018A) 1:72 Airfix The B-17 that first flew in 1935 was quite a different aircraft than the one that flew during WWII, having a glossy bare metal finish, a traditional vertical tail with no fin fillet, and lots of bulging art-deco glass. The press coined the term "Flying Fortress" because of the number of gunnery positions around the aircraft, which stuck and was later trademarked by Boeing. Its first attempt to gain approval and induction into the USAAF was foiled by an unfortunate accident that wrote off the prototype and killed the pilots, but it was given a second bite at the cherry because of its comparative performance, and was eventually accepted into service with more powerful Cyclone engines and without the blister-type waist gunner windows. The E model (British Fortress Mk.I) was probably the first "real" fortress, with a large expanded tail, tail gunner position and guns in the nose. It also has the familiar ball-turret on the underside that stayed with it throughout the rest of production. The F model (British Fortress Mk.II) brought in some more changes, most notable of which is the almost frameless nose glazing, which afforded the bomb-aimer a much better view, although he must have felt commensurately more exposed as a result. The G model with its jutting remotely operated chin-turret was the final mark of the war, and fought doggedly over Europe with a formidable offensive armament consisting of 13 guns. This of course was at the expense of bomb-load, which diminished with the distance from home that the Fortress was sent to bomb. In British service it was known as the Fortress Mk.III, where it served with Coastal Command in small numbers. Post war the B-17 was converted and used in a number of civilian roles, as well as some remaining military and pseudo-military roles such as Coast Guard or search and rescue. There are still a comparatively large number of airframes in airworthy condition, and most Brits that have been to the air show circuit have probably seen the Sally-B at some point in their lives. The Kit Airfix released this kit back in 2016 and then followed it up a year later with an RAF Fortress III version and a couple of special editions, one with diorama potential, the other with extra decals. This kit is a rebox of the original release but with a new sprue and decal options. The red top-opening box is adorned with the usual high-quality digital artwork from Adam Tooby, this time showing a stream of Fortresses on a bombing run. Inside the box are ten sprues in mid-grey styrene, a clear sprue, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that is printed on white paper with spot colour. Inside the booklet are two separate folded A3 sheets of glossy paper that contain the profiles for the two decal options on one sheet, and the stencil locations for the British and US variants on a separate sheet of line drawings to keep the profiles uncluttered. The mouldings are clean and crisp as we’ve come to expect from Airfix, with fine, recessed panel lines and plenty of crisp detail on smaller parts, bomb bays, gear bays and the interior. Construction begins with the cockpit, building up an open-topped box with two pairs of rudder pedals in the raised forward area, separated by a two-part centre console, adding control columns with semi-circular yokes at the top, locating them in small recesses near the rear of the raised section. The flight crew seats are built from a single-part seat with two sets of legs and a piece of armour at the back, slotting them into the main floor, at which point you realise the length of the legs. A stepped bulkhead is inserted in front, fitting the full-width instrument panel after detail painting and applying the dial decals under the coaming to add realism. The bomb bay walkway has a pair of bomb ‘ladders’ attached to slots, making side frames with their own ladders, each with slots to accept bombs, which are made from a two-part body and separate fin unit, following the scrap diagram to align them correctly. One bomb is installed on each ladder, sliding them into the rear spar if you are modelling the US Fortress, while the British decal option leaves the bombs on the sprues, but retains the ladders, both options adding a section of the roof to the spar, then closing the assembly with a shorter forward spar. The rear of the aft spar is detailed with four radio equipment parts, following the detail painting instructions, then the cockpit is installed to the forward spar, extending the interior before building the rear compartment. A long floor section has a bulkhead with three more equipment boxes and a pair of three-part swivelling seats fitted forward of the belly gun cut-out, with more detail painting needed before proceeding. The fuselage halves have ribbing moulded into the interior where it will be seen, and waist gunner windows can either be fixed in place, or left off, drilling out several holes, fitting a small square window over the wing root, and opening the slot in the upper nose to accept a bull-horn antenna late in the process. The forward interior is slipped into position in the port fuselage half, adding the rear behind it, which locates on tabs in the fuselage and on the rear spar. If building the British decal option, a blanking plate is inserted into the belly gun cut-out, as they were removed and faired over to allow more weight for fuel on longer flights. A gear bay insert is added behind the floor for the tail wheel, fitting a large ammo box in the sides that feeds the waist guns, each with moulded-in supports. Another pair of crew seats are built for the nose crew from three parts each as before, but the bomb-aimer’s chair has a different set of legs and the famous Norden bombsight in front, adding an equipment box, ammo supply and a tubular mount for the nose gun for the US option, omitting the ammo and fitting a box on the raised left side after drilling out a location hole from the underside. Scrap diagrams show the correct orientation of the interior parts from the front for both options to assist. If building a US airframe, the belly turret is made from a clear portion of the bulb, fitting an insert, then sliding a pair of guns through the holes from within before adding one side of the glazing, the rudimentary seat, then the other side to complete the sphere. The completed turret is then clamped in a two-part mount, adding a suspension arm to the top, then trapping the top end in a curved fixture with a styrene washer that should allow it to rotate if you are careful with the glue. The completed assembly is then glued into the roof of the fuselage through the holes in the fuselage and floor, and can be posed semi-retracted or deployed for operation as you wish. The fuselage can then be closed, trapping the two-part rudder panel between the tail halves as you do, dealing with the seams in your preferred manner once the glue has fully cured. The wings are prepared by adding three inserts around the inner nacelle lowers to form the main gear bays, fitting another section of skin to the outer face that has the supercharger trunking moulded-in. A bulkhead with engine mounting stub is inserted in the nacelle, adding more detail to the side opposing the trunking, with the help of some scrap diagrams that show correct alignment, strengthening the assembly by placing a bundle of cables/hoses in the centre of the roof of the bay, before inserting a pair of twin intakes in corresponding holes in the lower wing leading-edge, slipping another pair of inserts on a carrier between the nacelles. The ailerons can be posed clean or deflected anywhere up to 12° in either direction as you please, filling the outer nacelle with a circular bulkhead that also has an engine mount moulded into its centre, fixing another pair of inserts on a carrier into the inner wing toward the trailing edge, after which you can close the wing halves, repeating the same process for the opposite side. The completed wings are then mated with the fuselage by sliding them into position over the two wing spars, gluing them into position, allowing the glue to set with the aid of a jig or jury-rigged contraption to ensure correct alignment of the wings. The elevators have separate single-thickness control surfaces, making the panels themselves from two halves each, inserting the completed assemblies in slots to the sides of the tail, and noting that they can be deflected either 23° up, or 14° down to add a bit of individuality to your model. All four nacelles have two-part superchargers inserted in recesses in the underside, adding extra trunking into the recesses on the inner nacelles, following which the engines can be made from three parts each, the front cylinder bank, intake spider, and exhaust collectors, which differ between the inner and outer engines. After detail painting the engines and installing them to the front of the nacelles, two-part cowlings can be slipped over them, with a choice of open or closed cooling gills in the rear, as shown in scrap diagrams nearby. The first gear leg is the diminutive tail-wheel, which has a two-part strut and separate wheel, fixing it to the bay installed earlier, following which the main gear is started by gluing the two hub halves together, then sliding them through the two-part wheels, which have diamond or circumferential tread and a small flat spot moulded-in, with the option of posing the gear retracted or deployed as you prefer. There are no bay doors to hide your sins however, requiring two parts to depict the struts, rolling the wheel around to hide the flat-spot within the bay, gluing them in place with the assistance of accompanying diagrams. The deployed gear option also uses two parts, first adding one, then the other into the bay, followed by your choice of tyre tread patterns. You also have a choice of open or closed bomb bay doors, the latter achieved by simply cutting away the hinge-tabs from the single bomb bay door part and gluing it in place in the bay. To open the doors, you must first score and cut the bay door part in two along the pre-weakened seam-line, adding a pair of actuator jacks into the front and rear of the bay so that the doors can be fitted at the correct angle to show off the bombs. The Flying Fortress lived up to its name by bristling with .50cal machine guns from almost every aperture, which were intended to give full coverage against enemy fighters when flown in tight formation. The tail guns consist of a pair of guns that are slotted through the rear lens into a vertical pivot, which is in turn attached to the two-part clear fuselage section, adding a one-part depiction of the floor and ammo supply before it is glued to the rear of the fuselage under the tail fin. Another pair of guns are mounted on a pivot and trapped between two halves of a cylindrical turret that has two small windows in the rear, mounting it under the nose in a recess, adding a teardrop-shaped aerodynamic fairing behind it. The British decal option mounts a small radar instead of the turret, then covering it with a different all-encompassing aerodynamic fairing over it. The upper turret has a basket added under its ring, fitting the twin guns into recesses in the top, either aerodynamically posed level for travel, or elevated for battle, dropping the turret into position behind the cockpit, installing the glazing later at the same time as the canopy. A single rear upper gun is slid through the large window in the rear of the crew blister, adding a small aerial mast on the spine, and inserting the waist guns through the windows, and a hatch with window into the port fuselage side aft of the wing trailing edge. If you have elected to open the waist windows for action, two small supports are added to the lower edge of the cut-outs, mounting the gun in the socket just inside the lower frame. The British decal option has a pair of fairings fitted under the fuselage just behind the waist gun positions, locating on a hole in the underside. Clear landing light lenses and their covers are added to each wing outboard of the engine nacelles, then the nose is finished by adding clear side panels that have ribbing moulded-in, and an optional cheek gun pushed through a hole from the inside before installation, adding a lozenge-shaped window to the centreline at the top. Behind that an astrodome is inserted in a circular cut-out, with the fairing moulded into the clear part for a clean join, adding the clear nose cone to the tip, and the main canopy over the cockpit, with a bull-horn antenna between the two top nose windows for both options, finished by placing the glazing over the top turret as previously mentioned. Another antenna is mounted under the tail gun for the British option along with another pair of masts on the fuselage. The final act is to add the props to each of the four engines, which are each made from a three-bladed prop with boss moulded-in, which pushes through the separate bell-housing of the engine, and is secured at the rear with a pin, carefully gluing the pin to the back of the prop if you wish to be able to move them later, inserting them into the centre of each engine, completing the engines and the model, so remember to paint the bell-housing before you get to this stage. Markings There are two decal options in this boxing, one in British colours, the other in USAAF service. There are differences in equipment fit that will influence your build process, so it’s a good decision to choose early. From the box you can build one of the following: B-17G, 774th Bomb Sqn., 463rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), Italy, July 1944 Fortress Mk.III, No.214 (Fe3derated Malay States) Sqn., No.100 (Bomber Support) Group, RAF Downham Market, Norfolk, England, 1944 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Both decal options have different stencils, so a second sheet of decal instructions are provided, consisting of line-drawings with the stencils pointed out to reduce clutter on the main painting and decaling sheets, which are both A3, and printed in full colour. Conclusion This isn't the only available kit of the B-17 in this scale, but it is up there with the best. This recent tooling has excellent detail and plenty of parts that include options specific to each airframe. It won't be a done-in-a-day build, but it should result in a rewarding experience. Overall, this kit is a real gem and should build up into an excellent model. Highly recommended Review sample courtesy of

There’s an interesting article on Hornby in today’s Daily Telegraph; https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/12/the-end-of-the-model-railway/ You might find that their paywall prevents you from reading it. Of course, you will understand that telling that clicking on the refresh button your browser as soon as the article text appears will defeat the paywall is not something I would recommend.

My second entry will be this Scooby-do. It was actually developed and built in the UK by Prodrive, but has clearly got Japanese DNA, so is hopefully OK for the GB Cheers

I picked up a Hornby Battery train set from the car boot sale today. Twenty quid sounded good at the time. Large blue diesel, five wagons, rails and a controller. It's decades since I've done railway stuff! This is for the Grandkids. Honest guv. Got it home, to find that the controller has no insides! I have another on order from the bay. My question is, what voltage does this engine work to? Can it be run as is, on ordinary mains type HO rail?

And now for something completely different (as someone once said). Having ditched my proposed Cirrus Moth build, I've decided to build this instead. Sliding the tray out from the box, reveals some nicely packaged bits and also the painting paraphernalia promised by the "Starter Kit" flash. Under the tray, there's also a tube of cement. The decals are for the Alister McRae/David Senior car from the 2002 Monte Carlo Rally (in which they finished 14th). The kit itself is pretty basic - it's little more than a Scalextrix body shell and a set of wheels Having said that, I've previously built the companion Focus WRC kit and found it to be a delight. Everything was crisply moulded and fitted together beautifully. One of the highlights was the decals, which were superb. Unfortunately, my Focus kit came from a London Science Museum boxing, which had a unique decal sheet. In contrast, this Hornby version has the standard decals, which look worryingly thick and glossy. Fingers crossed they work OK. Cheers

Hola comrades, not sure if anyone here might know the answer to this but I have seriously been considering pursuing a career of some sort in the hobby industry and I came across this page on Airfix's website. Would anyone here happen to already be employed by Airfix or another kit manufacturer and know what sorts of jobs they interview or hire for? If anyone can answer I would greatly appreciate it. Muchas gracias. https://uk.hornby.com/careers

I started this 1/32 Hornby kit earlier in the year as part of the Africa GB. Unfortunately I subsequently had to withdraw it, when I realised that I couldn't pull together the necessary Safari Rally decals (here's a link to my build thread). Currently the car looks like this, with just the body shell needing to be painted and decalled. I'll be using the kit's Swedish Rally decals and will be making a start just as soon as my French Fancy and High Wing builds are finished. Cheers

Hi folk's, my eldest bought me a Hornby set for my birthday nice size to make a small layout,included was an oval with their pack A extension and their midi trackmatt.Now I'd like to build it around the trackmatt so need BC and D to do this.the question is if I eventually ran two train's would I need two transformer's? I also noticed that buying the individual pieces in the revevent pack's was a fair bit cheaper.My LMS is a Hornby stockist and as with my modelling Ilike to keep it local also wondered if you can recommend some other retailer's with good service and prices,Hatton's have some great offer's and the set came from Jadlam. Cheer's Steve.

Hi all this is my first railway related post. I have just gloss varnished one of my Hornby A4's 4903 Peregrine in the gorgeous LNER blue livery. She might be a railroad loco but she looks the business. I have swapped out the motion set for finer super detail versions and Glossed her up so she looks to me more "real" like shes made out of metal. I am very happy with how she now looks and thought I would share her with you. I hope you like her. Here she is outside curing off in the afternoon sun. Cheers Rob So there she is thanks for looking. Rob