tomprobert Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 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 43 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exhausted Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 I'm so glad to see another one of these completed. I have the conversion and I have wanted to do a US B-17D, but your paintjob makes me second guess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 B17's in RAF colours looks so right to me. this one is just beautiful. It's a bit late in the day for me to find out the conversion set is no longer available. Curses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 1 hour ago, exhausted said: I'm so glad to see another one of these completed. I have the conversion and I have wanted to do a US B-17D, but your paintjob makes me second guess! I did consider the US version, but feel the RAF temperate scheme suits the B-17 so well and I couldn't resist. 1 hour ago, TonyW said: B17's in RAF colours looks so right to me. this one is just beautiful. It's a bit late in the day for me to find out the conversion set is no longer available. Curses. Thank you - these conversions do pop up from time to time on auction sites, but they do tend to go for a quite a few quid nowadays - especially since Bill Koster stopped production. I snagged this a few years back for £20 which I didn't think bad considering the amount of plastic you get. There were rumours that someone had bought the molds, but I've not seen anything concrete about that. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stever219 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Tom do you have any images of the mods to the flight deck please? I have an Academy 1/72nd B-17C that I’m converting to an RAF example but for which I’ve got precious few references. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an RAF Fortress 1 in Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey/ PRU Blue before; it looks almost ghostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Superb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris148 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Great job on all those conversions,looks superb.Done a similar thing with the Koster vacform B-24 liberator conversion a few years ago,they are good quality kits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 It’s come out a real beauty. Im not a fan of the early 17s, but it looks great in this scheme, just so right 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 (edited) It's nice to see an early B-17. Really stands out in the Flying Fortress "crowd". Your build is exceptional and the paint work is wonderful. Something to definitely be proud of! Edited April 24, 2020 by SAT69 Spelling error 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 12 hours ago, stever219 said: Tom do you have any images of the mods to the flight deck please? I have an Academy 1/72nd B-17C that I’m converting to an RAF example but for which I’ve got precious few references. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an RAF Fortress 1 in Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey/ PRU Blue before; it looks almost ghostly. I didn’t take many photos of the interior I’m afraid. I just used some spare Monogram pilot seats to mount them behind the front two. The control wheels should also be the earlier wooden type, but I didn’t do this and not much can be seen through the cockpit. There are various differences to the centre console as the early version had different turbo and autopilot controls, but again in this scale I didn’t bother to change anything. 10 hours ago, chris148 said: Great job on all those conversions,looks superb.Done a similar thing with the Koster vacform B-24 liberator conversion a few years ago,they are good quality kits. I was really impressed with the Koster parts. Really good shapes and easy to work with. Clear parts are beautiful too - absolutely crystal. 9 hours ago, woody37 said: It’s come out a real beauty. Im not a fan of the early 17s, but it looks great in this scheme, just so right I was contemplating an early USAAF scheme but this RAF scheme suits it so well. 8 hours ago, SAT69 said: It's nice to see an early B-17. Really stands out in the Flying Fortress "crowd". Your build is exceptional and the paint work is wonderful. Something to definitely be proud of! Thanks - you don’t see many. On another forum, a fellow modeller is giving some cryptic clues about an injection kit of this version in 1/48th being in development, but we’ll see... Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Tom, That is a beautiful conversion! The shark fin Forts were so darned pretty, and the scheme you chose is my all-time favorite for the version. The Koster conversion bits and your workmanship make this one look like a new-tool kit! Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Joyce Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Outstanding job on the conversion, Tom, and those colors really look nice. I have the Koster conversion to turn the Monogram F-101C into a RF-101A/C. I started it perhaps 15 years ago but put it aside, for fear of ruining it when trying to work with the vacuform parts. Seeing how well yours turned out, perhaps I'll have another crack at it! Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Superb work, really nice build 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 5 hours ago, 72modeler said: Tom, That is a beautiful conversion! The shark fin Forts were so darned pretty, and the scheme you chose is my all-time favorite for the version. The Koster conversion bits and your workmanship make this one look like a new-tool kit! Mike Thanks, Mike. As I said the Koster parts are top quality which makes a conversion like this relatively straight forward. 3 hours ago, Mark Joyce said: Outstanding job on the conversion, Tom, and those colors really look nice. I have the Koster conversion to turn the Monogram F-101C into a RF-101A/C. I started it perhaps 15 years ago but put it aside, for fear of ruining it when trying to work with the vacuform parts. Seeing how well yours turned out, perhaps I'll have another crack at it! Cheers, Mark Go for it, Mark. You won’t be disappointed and once the Koster parts are out of the backing sheet I shouldn’t think you’ll have many problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwitrogg Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Outstanding. I've got two later model British B-17s i the pipeline and came across pictures of this version during my research a while back.......I think you've absolutely nailed it! A superb build of a pretty rare subject. Love it Cheers Gaz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangor Lad Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Great job, particularly in marrying injection moulded kit parts and vacform components! Great to see a Fort in a scheme you don't see very often. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 On 4/30/2020 at 12:30 PM, kiwitrogg said: Outstanding. I've got two later model British B-17s i the pipeline and came across pictures of this version during my research a while back.......I think you've absolutely nailed it! A superb build of a pretty rare subject. Love it Cheers Gaz On 4/30/2020 at 12:53 PM, Bangor Lad said: Great job, particularly in marrying injection moulded kit parts and vacform components! Great to see a Fort in a scheme you don't see very often. Thanks, Gentlemen - and yes the RAF scheme is indeed a beautiful one and suits the elegant lines of the early Forts so well. In regard to marrying vacform/injection parts - due to the excellent fit of the Koster parts it was actually very straightforward. As long as you're careful with your sanding of the parts once removed from the backing sheet, these type of kits/conversions go together without any issue whatsoever. Tom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil5208 Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Excellent wok again Tom, look forward to seeing it soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Beautiful work as usual Tom, great to see an early Fort in RAF colours, it makes a change from the bare metal US ones.! Cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 2 hours ago, Viking said: Beautiful work as usual Tom, great to see an early Fort in RAF colours, it makes a change from the bare metal US ones.! Cheers John Thanks, John - and true to a degree about the early bare metal ones. I was considering doing an early USAAF one with the striped rudder and bright yellow cowlings, but then remembered that my skills at producing metal finishes are dire! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Fabulous job. It looks good in that camouflage scheme too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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