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Suitably inspired (nagged!) by my 9 year old son Cameron to dig out our respective B-17 projects, I thought I ought to put a stick in the ground and post a thread here. Cam is a huge B-17 fan (especially the 'Memphis Belle) as so last year we got him the old Revell 1:48th 'F' kit. He was very excited - and then a little put off by the complexity of it all so I had 'another bright ideaTM' and suggested that if he had a go at his, I'd dig my 1:32 monster from the loft and we could build both in parallel. This weekend just gone Cam has called 'in' on the deal - so, well, here we are! No digs, or jibes about Connie et al and my ability to get majorly sidetracked - oh look - there's that squirrel again!!! Add to that I'm seeing some majorly superb B-17 projects on the go and I'm kinda thinking just how hard can it be? Plan is to make some corrections (nothing major) and, having discovered AK Interactive Xtreme Metal paint, go for 'Bit O' Lace'. OK - she's been done before - but the decals are available - and she's a well photographed airframe. Will have to 'un-stagger' the waist guns and vac some bulged 3 window waist gun positions - that's the plan anyway. Now, I wasn't going to get too much aftermarket stuff for this project - I already had the beautiful Master gun barrel set I acquired a good 18 months ago at a bargain price - but, hey, ho, you know how it is and, whilst surfing for B-17 info the other night I spotted some Brassin engines going cheap - at least engines 2,3 and 4. Now I recon that 1 and 4 are most likely identical (and a quick look on the Eduard site shows all the same part numbers on engines 1 and 4) - so the eagle eyed will spot the odd box numbering. If I mention the engines were only £8.17 each you'll understand my madness a little better! Oh - and the wheels just had to come along for company! These should dress up the model nicely - but I've succumbed to a little more today - details to follow when they arrive - but I recon main areas to concentrate on detail-wise are the cockpit and nose area. I'll be cheating a little - if it's unlikely to be seen on the final model then I'm not going to worry too much. Have a few refs. dug out so far - but my absolute fave is 'The Mighty Eighth In Colour' - full of cracking period colour images - and heaps of inspiration! Here's Cameron with his B-17F: And holding the HK Models 'G' - whilst we were trying to guage the magnitude of our folly yesterday: More soon*... Iain *No warranty given, or implied!

Greetings all, After lurking for a year+ on this site I'm going to take the plunge. This kit marks my return to modeling after more than three decades away. When I first saw this massive kit, and then later, what the excellent modelers here were doing with it, I could no longer resist joining in! And frankly, I can use all the help I can get! It will be my first attempt at anything not right out of the box, spraying anything that isn't in a rattle-can, so amateur fits. All tips and suggestions are welcome, constructive criticisms too. Some background... I've been working on this kit periodically since it came out so I have a bit of it together and am currently enjoying the build, I'm in hot mode and hope to be until it's finished. I got the MK1 Design - Super Detail Up PE, at BNAModelWorld early on and have all that primed with some in place as we speak. I'm intending this B-17 to be a camo, non-checkered 385th vertical stabilizer, and displayed gear down, bomb bay, crew hatch and waist door open, flaps down - if I don't mangle the PE beyond repair. Also intending to simulate a mission load on the main gear. This particular build will not be a specific ship, but an amalgam of planes from the 385th BG. The research was 95% the memories of my 97 yr old father and was intended for him, when he was living. Some wrong colors, strange scales for some of the scratch built stuff and various other atrocities, all on me of course, will result and are mostly from what I've finished already. Now, I do plan to build a specific plane (not sure which ship yet) with the re-release of the G model, but let me knock this one out, and learn a bit, first. I'll be back after work to post some photos of where I am currently, then I'll play catch up with photos from earlier in the project as the days go by. Thank you for reading this far! On an aside... I live 15 minutes away from the newly restored Memphis Belle (and the rest of the Museum of the USAF). I'm more than happy to grab photos for any modelers needing any visual references for their "F" kits. Only constraints, week days the museum is open while I'm at work. FYI: She is currently posed “in flightâ€, gear up and on supports about 15' above the floor. I haven't seen her in person yet, though. Below you'll no doubt recognize these two, image is from a photo-op as the Belle's debut approached, and not of my making...found on the interwebz. Respectfully Submitted / David

A few years ago I met the radio operator of this plane, and he explained to me that it was an airbase-creation of a Boeing manufactured front spliced onto a Vega manufactured rear, which gave the ship a definite permanent upward pitch, since Boeing's manufacturing techniques resulted in an overall lighter airframe then Vega's. So they named it "The Ruptured Duck". He told me about the deadly air attack by a group of Me-262's, and I think I found the record of it: https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrEwNayQyNb58oAFgUPxQt.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcwMDU1OQRfcgMyBGZyA3locy1hdmFzdC1icndzcjAwMQRncHJpZAMzZ3kzQ0pBa1NBeXFMX2N2TVpnQm5BBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwMwBG9yaWdpbgNzZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDMARxc3RybAMzNwRxdWVyeQNCb2VpbmclMjBCLTE3JTIwTWFudWZhY3R1cmVyJTIwcGxhbnRzBHRfc3RtcAMxNTI5MDM3Nzk0?p=Boeing+B-17+Manufacturer+plants&fr2=sb-top&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-brwsr001&type=osf01s1 He told me about the experience of the emergency landing described near the end of page 2 of the linked document. The plane's hydraulics were shot out, so with no brakes they crashed right through some buildings and stuff surrounding the airfield! I found the description of the Me's to be particularly interesting. If I read the '262's description correctly, It looks like they could see no rivet pattern whatsoever: "It had swept back wings with a jet engine mounted on each wing. Its skin was so smooth that it looked like it had been sandpapered." "There wasn't a rivet to be seen."

Done, finally after three and half years :0) Please check my pictures from the progress from the work in progress-forum. I had to build a transport case. The first "mission" for my Fort is to land Stockholm -08 modeling event arranged by local IPMS on Saturday 8-9 April 2017. Btw- there is also a video made by my good friend from this plane ( ). Looking forward your feedback and comments. :0)

I was in my LHS last week and saw on the shelf a huge box, HK's 1/32 B-17G. I was able to look inside the box and from what I could see the casting looks very nice. Building up to a late war B-17G with the staggered waist gun positions (finally!). Has anyone bought the kit yet and even better, has anyone started building it yet? I can only imagine how much paint will be required to make this baby shine.