Airfix 1:72 Boeing B17G 

It looks good to me! I can't recall building a B17 as a young lad though I started a 1/48 one some years ago although I never finished it. Some Glenn Miller would have been the ideal accompaniment to this, it's a shame about the copyright.

What do they say go big or go home? It’s a trend that many manufactures are following of not supplying pilots. I seem to remember when I last made the B17 you had at least the pilot and co-pilot. Like the idea of leaving the wings off to get the glazing done. Will be trying your method of masking the glazing now the old shakes have taken over, no longer able to do paint the glazing free hand. Another cracking build mate, the light sets it of beautifully, "cùm iad a’ tighinn"

David R Lentz, Columbus, Ohio, USA (Thursday, 4 July, 2024) (ERROR CORRECTED) (UPDATED EXTENSIVELY) Hello, Mr. Paul. Round 22.00, you seem to have quite the difficulty affixing a transparency into place on the dorsal fuselage aft of where the dorsal turret will go. My suggestion would be for you to find a modest length (round 2 or 3 cm) of very slender (1 mm x 1 mm would be my estimation; however, one must be there to take the measure, as precision is critical for exact fit) strip stock (e.g., Evergreen, Plastruct) [my suggestion would be for you to find a modest length of very slender strip stock], affixing it along the interior of the opening just 1 mm or so below the very edge of the opening, to create a sort of two-sided shim, or perhaps a framework upon which one can seat the clear part; as with the two earlier pieces, one also must allow precisely for the thickness of the transparency, so that it fits into place flush with its surrounding fuselage. Once securely in place and dried, one must colour them black with a permanent ink marker (one cannot use paint, for it will deny glue) to diminish their presence. At 27:20, you mention painting the fuselage as being easier without the wings affixed into place. I cannot be certain, but at the factory, they paint much as you plan, except for the final camouflage (or if natural metal, a clear coat to forestall metal oxidisation). Round 50:00, you seem to be wrestling with your decidedly troublesome main landing gear. This brings to mind: how would one proceed to build the model in-flight, installing the main landing gear, including the tail wheel, raised and stowed, the crew figurines in their assigned combat stations, the cowl flaps closed, the control surfaces in their positions to commence an easy, thirty-degree right turn and a shallow climb? I have been unable to determine which defensive gun arrangement your model has at its far aft end (the only direct look your video provides us is at 31:47-and then for just a few scant seconds, with the blur of quick movement denying us any clarity of focus); either the earlier so-called “stinger tail” design, or the later Cheyenne tail (named for its manufacturer’s location: Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA), a partial rotating sphere the gunner controlled for a rather better field of fire. Please clarify, if you would. Overall, an enviably capable job of it, mate! Now show us your builds of the Hong Kong Models kits of the Boeing B17G Flying Fortress USAAF Four-Engine Heavy Bomber in 1:32nd-scale, and in 1:48th-scale; these come in the early “stinger tail” and late-war, with the Cheyenne tail. In my project, my ambition (eventually) is to build these (and other models in ascending scales; or descending sizes-I am poor at maths!) airborne, with figurines to represent the crew as they man their combat posts, small electric motors to spin the propellers, LEDs to illuminate the crew’s duty stations, robust internal bracing to accept the external suspension arrangement and electrical circuitry, etc. Additionally, models in 1:64th-scale (two of the Lindberg kit, one breaking up in a fierce explosion), two in 1:72nd-scale (for the B-17G, the Airfix kit; in a similar project of the B-17F, the Revell AG kit); three replicas in 1:100th-scale; several in 1:144th-scale; a half-dozen or more in 1:200th-scale (it may have been in 1:240th-scale). An ambitious proposal. I frankly doubt my skill in the overall scope of it, especially in the non-standard internal arrangements (electrical, figurines, internal bracing, etc.). The late-war B-17s, all natural metal to save weight, would have little wear, dirt, etc. A number of North American P-51D/K Mustang USAAF Fighters would run escort. Of these latter aircraft, I would like to incorporate the newer 1:24th-scale and 1:32nd-scale models; my hunch is that these would over-complicate the scene. One could include a few, to offset the Messerschmitt Bf-109 and Focke Wulf FW-190 Luftwaffe Fighters. Even including these swift, agile defenders of Germany’s skies requires a bit of thought. If the fearsome heavy anti-aircraft batteries of the Wehrmacht’s experienced artillery regiments were blazing away, with many score black explosions all round, the enemy fighters would be well out of view, though yet close to hand to await their turn. I have similar ideas with the B-17F; these models are grittier, with some showing more battle damage. Another centres round the Hobby Boss kits in 1:32nd-scale and 1:48th-scale of the Consolidated B-24D Liberator USAAF Four-Engine Heavy Bomber, in Desert Sand over Neutral Grey, the desert camouflage of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO); these (and others) would represent those valiant men who flew at just 250 feet above the deck as they stormed over the sprawling refineries and oilfields of Ploiești (Romanian orthography, formerly spelt Ploești), Romania. In this forced perspective display, I also would add at the base a rather substantial Z-gauge (1:200th-scale) model railroad layout set along a portion of a refinery, its storage tanks, etc., with several lines of train tracks, one bearing generally to the northwest, the other toward the east; great, black explosions here and there would glow red, yellow, orange, scarlet. As I contemplate this, one might not need such a tiny scale/gauge for the setting below. The altitude of just 250 feet above ground-from what I can recall of my reading of the Ploiești air-raids, the height that the USAAF commanding officer of the wing had set, in his effort to 1) achieve surprise (at first succeeding, though the consequences of catching a foe unawares are fleeting) and 2) to avoid the Wehrmacht’s heavier anti-aircraft batteries (the seasoned gunnery officers and their crews quickly compensated with point blank fire)-would be less than eight feet in 1:32nd scale, so objects from the bomber crews’ perspective would not look so small as I initially had estimated; one might be able to use HO-gauge (1:87nd-scale) or even S-gauge (1:64th-scale) model train layout set-pieces. I have plenty of ideas that, if executed well, ought to merit display in museums.