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I've been working on this on and off for the last few months and have finished it off this week. I've used the classic Revell 1/48th B-17F kit and coupled it with Koster's vacformed beautiful early Fortress conversion set. This comprises a new rear fuselage with the distinctive 'shark fin', a new early nose and cockpit transparency as well as other various vacformed clear parts, along with some additional air intakes for the early oil cooler set up - all in all a very comprehensive conversion set. You have to undertake other mods to the Revell kit such as shortening the nose (the later Forts had a longer nose due to the heavier rear fuselage needing to be rebalanced), add additional seats to the flightdeck as well as reshaping the later paddle-bladed props to the earlier 'needle' type. The cowl flaps have to go too, as these weren't introduced until the D-model. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here's a good summary of the work carried out: DSC_0063 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I started with the Revell F-model kit rather than the Monogram G-model as the nose is far easier to modify - I just needed to blend in the larger cheek windows and then open them up in the shape of the smaller windows seen on the earlier models. Here you can see I have removed the necessary section to shorten the nose, as well as removing the rear fuselage and the Koster rear part is being offered up for size: IMG_E1388 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I decided to do a later scheme used by the RAF on their Fortress Is which was slate / extra dark sea grey uppers with PRU blue undersides. I used my favourite Xtracolor enamels with generic Xtradecal codes and insignia to cobble together a 90 Squadron machine which was operated out of Polebrook in the Autumn of 1941. DSC_0091 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0058 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0064 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0066 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0068 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0070 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0073 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0081 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0082 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0088 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The fit of the Koster parts was exceptional - once they were removed from the backing sheet and sanded correctly it was like working with an injection-molded kit. In fact, the Koster parts fitted better than the Revell kit! The only tricky area was the nose transparency - this was a little too large to fit the Revell nose, but some careful trimming and careful blending with Milliput solved the problem. I'm now trying to get hold of the 1/48th Privateer conversion, but now Koster kits are OOP I'll have my work cut out - and they're currently going for silly prices on eBay! Regards to all, Tom

Resin2Detail (http://resin2detail.com/ & https://fr-fr.facebook.com/RESIN2detail/) has acquired the assets of the famous producer Koster Aero Enterprises (KAE - https://www.scalemates.com/companies/company.php?id=1800) and will be re-releasing them. Sources: http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/message/1514828649/News+to+you-+Koster+products https://fr-fr.facebook.com/RESIN2detail/posts/746696398854448 V.P.