Airfix 1/72 B-17G (new tool) as 43-37913 / OR-A / Seattle Sleeper - lost November 26th, 1944.

[elger]

B-17G 43-37913 named "Seattle Sleeper" took part in the bombing mission to the rail road viaduct at Altenbeken on Sunday, November 26th, 1944. It would be the aircraft's 33rd mission.

 

 

(photo from https://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/26025 (IWM))

 

 

The aircraft had been called "Lucky 13" before, but changed its name when it was taken over by a new 1st pilot, 1st Lt. John Stevens. Stevens, who was 21 at the time, was from Seattle himself.

 

On the 26th, the co-pilot was 2nd Lt. Stanley Johnston (21) from Oregon - it was his third mission. That day the navigator was 1st Lt. John Weisgarber (22) who changed shifts to this flight as it would be his 33rd, coming close to his final mission.

 

The radio operator was Sgt. Rene Pratt (21) from California. This mission would be his 25th. Sgt Quilla Reed (22) was the flight engineer. Sgt. Mabry (Don) Barker (24) was the bomb aimer. The mission on the 26th was supposed to be his last.

 

Sgt. Robert (Bob) Anderson (24) was the ball turret gunner. Sgt Richard (Dick) Trombley (25) was the only waist gunner on board. Sgt Henry (Hank) St. George (21) was the tail gunner.

 

The aircraft's position was in the back of the formation, and according to Slofstra and De Boer's book about the aircraft's crash, it was Johnston the co-pilot who was responsible for maintaining the throttle who let the aircraft fall behind the formation. Despite warnings from the crew, they were unable to catch up and when the formation was attacked by Luftwaffe fighters, Seattle Sleeper was an easy target.

 

Heavily damaged by enemy fire, the aircraft lost altitude but the pilots maintained control and ended up in the clouds. Assessing their odds, they decided to fly back to England. However, the damage was too severe and by the time the aircraft was over The Netherlands the crew abandoned the aircraft - not a minute too soon because shortly after the last crew member had evacuated the aircraft it exploded. The crew landed by parachute around the town of Haulerwijk, not far from the city of Groningen. Debris and wreckage also landed around the town, not causing any significant damage.

 

Pilot 1/Lt. J.R. Stevens evaded capture
Co-Pilot 2/Lt. S.F. Johnston evaded capture
Navigator 1/Lt. J.C. Weisgarber taken prisoner of war at Norg (Drenthe)
Bombardier T/Sgt. M.D. Barker evaded capture
Engineer T/Sgt. Q.D. Reed evaded capture
Right Waist Gunner T/Sgt. R.P. Pratt taken prisoner of war at Norg (Drenthe)
Ball Turret Gunner T/Sgt. R.T. Anderson taken prisoner of war near Noordwijk
Waist Gunner S/Sgt. R.A. Trombley evaded capture
Tail Gunner S/Sgt. H.M. St.George evaded capture

 

The crash - but also the context in The Netherlands as well as that of the USAAF, and its aftermath with the narratives of the escapees is described extensively in Slofstra and De Boer's book. The title, Vliegers op de Vlucht, is a play on words as "flight" in Dutch is the same as "on the run" - the title translates as something like "Flyers on the run" and "Flyers in flight".

 

 

I've been working on the model for a few months now, making rather slow progress. I'm adding some parts of Eduard's interior sets, and adding oxygen tanks from Quickboost. Deviating slightly from the build sequence by adding the clear cheek window parts at this stage, masking them from the inside in an attempt to blend them in with the rest of the fuselage.

 

Here's the interior so far:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still working on the flight deck and the floor of the nose, and I'm also going to be adding the guns from the inside (leaving the barrels off until the end).

 

As always, thanks for looking!

[franky boy]

Nice work so far Elger, and an interesting back story. 
 

Looking forward to more progress. 
 

James 

[Christer A]

A very neat looking interior. Those wooden sections looks excellent!

[elger]

1 hour ago, Christer A said:

A very neat looking interior. Those wooden sections looks excellent!

 

Thanks! Acrylic base (Mig Ammo) sealed with a clear gloss coat with dark brown oil paint streaks on top.

[Volksjager]

Looking forward to this build and will follow along. Excellent story so far and you work is great. That interior is sharp 

[Josip]

Now this is some serious work with properly painted interior too! 

I have actually started working on this kit (rivets 'n all) only to discover that some sub minimum payed Indian worker forgot to pack all sprues in the box and Airfix had turned a deaf ear on my request. 

I will urge you to replace all machine guns with aftermarket ones, otherwise they will really spoil the look of your model as they look like oversized 20mm cannons. 

 

Josip

Edited November 10, 2021 by Josip

[Someguy]

That's looking great. It's so refreshing to see someone get the interior right too. Any time I see one painted entirely baby turd green I lose a year off my life. 

[bigbadbadge]

The interior details look fabulous so far.  Great work and a great backround too.

Chris

[elger]

19 minutes ago, Josip said:

Now this is some serious work with properly painted interior too! 

I have actually started working on this kit (rivets 'n all) only to discover that some sub minimum payed Indian worker forgot to pack all sprues in the box and Airfix had turned a deaf ear on my request. 

I will urge you to replace all machine guns with aftermarket ones, otherwise they will really spoil the look of your model as they look like oversized 20mm cannons. 

 

Josip

 

Thanks! Yes I'm replacing the barrels with brass ones from Master

[Thom216]

Indeed, some real nice work on that interior!

[Grey Beema]

Great research, great start on the modelling.

[elger]

I'm finishing the flight deck and the floors - and getting the parts ready to fit into the fuselage halves.

Some changes to the kit parts - in addition to adding most of the Eduard interior bits I made a hole in the bombardier's floor, and covered it with a thin clear plastic disk. I'm also adding the hose for the hot air that was fitted to the very front of the bombardier's floor.

 

I added seat cushions to the pilot seats from sheet styrene, cut to size and added a bit of texture.

 

There was some difficulty fitting the Eduard instruments panel onto the console in this assembly sequence - the PE parts of the instruments panel on top of the PE parts added to the console made these components not fit anymore and I ended up filing a gap in the lower section of the instruments panel. Not sure if this was my fault, but if you're planning on using these aftermarket parts keep an eye on this.

 

 

 

 

 

Although I generally really like Airfix kits, I wasn't impressed with the fit of the components of the ball turret. All oxygen bottles are from Quickboost by the way.

 

Only the guns left - the PE ammo belts are always very tricky...

[Thom216]

Pretty!

[Volksjager]

Very nice work. The ball turret looks great 

[SaminCam]

Love it! The quickboost O2 bottles are great aren't they?  You've done a top job with the interior paint work, looking forward to more.

[elger]

@tomprobert @72modeler do you have any thoughts about whether or not this aircraft still had the machine gun in the radio operator's compartment? I don't see one in the photo (in the first post) - but is there any reason to think that it might have had it still or were they phased out in service at some point?

[tomprobert]

The interior on this is a masterpiece - great to see one properly with no interior green in sight! 
 

Radio room guns were phased out by the August of ‘44, so by the November they’d have been gone. 
 

All the best,

Tom

[elger]

3 minutes ago, tomprobert said:

The interior on this is a masterpiece - great to see one properly with no interior green in sight! 
 

Radio room guns were phased out by the August of ‘44, so by the November they’d have been gone. 
 

All the best,

Tom

fantastic - thank you for your input!!

[Fritag]

Have to agree with tom @tomprobert that the interior is a masterpiece.  That level of neatness and precision in painting sure makes one envious .  Oh, and the oil work to give the wood effect is exceptional.

 

How do you like the Mig paints?  I’ve been impressed with how user friendly they are to apply and also with the smooth coverage - but I’ve also found them to be not very durable (even by the usual standards of acrylic) and  to begin to rub off with even minimal handling.  I liked the mig varnishes as well but found them not very durable too (which is perhaps mire of an issue).

 

Shall try to keep up to date with this.

[elger]

23 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Have to agree with tom @tomprobert that the interior is a masterpiece.  That level of neatness and precision in painting sure makes one envious .  Oh, and the oil work to give the wood effect is exceptional.

 

How do you like the Mig paints?  I’ve been impressed with how user friendly they are to apply and also with the smooth coverage - but I’ve also found them to be not very durable (even by the usual standards of acrylic) and  to begin to rub off with even minimal handling.  I liked the mig varnishes as well but found them not very durable too (which is perhaps mire of an issue).

 

Shall try to keep up to date with this.

 

Thanks! I switched to Mig paints when my wife and I had a baby two years ago - she was suspicious of the smells from MRP I had been using, and I realized that made a lot of sense. Had a look around, tested some alternatives but figured Mig paints were the best of the worst. Apart from that they don't make your workspace/house smell like a chemical factory, I love how easy they are to use and clean. I still use a spraybooth and mask when I airbrush. But first and foremost, they've made painting more fun again in that respect. And as much as I loved using MRP they are so volatile that if I sprayed them on too thick one layer would start eating another. Because the Mig paints are water based sometimes they splatter a bit but I have about the same rate of mistakes and things I need to fix. Colours are often a bit off (their RAF dark green being a particularly bad offender) but with a bit of creative mixing you get a long way. They are more delicate as you say, but similar to any other acrylic, especially water-based. Their varnishes are even worse indeed. I prefer Vallejo flat or satin mixed with isopropyl alcohol for my clear coats.

 

One thing: I found that Hataka thinner works best with Mig paints - you can indeed get a silky smooth finish.

 

 

[72modeler]

@elger,

 

@tomprobert is pretty much the go-to guy on B-17's- from what I was able to find, (Just now got back to this topic- sorry!) the information he posted regarding the elimination of the radio compartment gun is correct. With the small sighting area, the degree and difficulty in traverse and elevation, added to the fact that the radio operator had to stand to man the weapon in the midst of all that bouncing around, it would have been a  miracle to hit anything! (Much like the Sperry remotely operated ventral turret in early B-17's and B-25's.)

Mike

 

What the others have said about the interior of your model goes double from me- nice to see one that isn't green from nose to tail for a change!  

[elger]

I had a sneaking suspicion that the radio operator's gun might have been removed by November 1944 so I was very happy to get confirmation so I went and removed the ammunition box that I had installed earlier. 

 

Also happy to hear that my choice for the interior colours is appreciated - all the information is out there, in various forums and if you look at period photos it's clear what most of the interior colours are (or what they're not, at least). Most restored/preserved B-17s have interior green interiors, except Sentimental Journey which looks to be pretty authentic.

 

Anyway, some last photos before the fuselage is closed.

 

 

 

 

 

One day I will remember that all but nothing of an interior of a 1/72 ww2 bomber can be seen once the fuselage is closed up

 

 

 

With the fuselage mostly done I can start on the wings. Thanks as always for looking!

 

 

 

[elger]

I have a question for B-17 experts (@tomprobert perhaps?). About the wing vents, a fairly well known issue of late B-17Gs. Airfix provides late wing vents on the port wing, but the starboard wing has blank parts to fill up the gaps - see the illustration from the manual:

 

 

Is this asymmetrical configuration accurate? Were these wing vents of late B-17Gs only fitted to the port wing? If so - should the starboard wing be smooth (should I get rid of the panel lines left by the blank parts?

 

[tomprobert]

If you are referring to the vents related to the cabin heating system (which I think you are) they should be present on both wings. This was a fairly late mod, so I imagine Airfix are giving you both options. 

 

Tom

[elger]

Thanks - yes I think I mean those (I didn't know what they're for). The instructions seem to show one side with a "grill", the darker square near the wing root close to the radio operator's section, and a little square vent behind the air vents behind the engines, but the other side appears to only have blanks - no details. But I think the Eduard exterior detail set includes a grill for both sides.

 

But I gather that if these vents/grills were fitted on this aircraft they would have been fitted on both wings.