Hasegawa's 1/72 scale
B-17G Flying Fortress

by Jürgen "Jerry" Lehrach

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This is Hasegawa´s 1/72 B-17 G “Flying Fortress”, Nose Art Edition, from 1994. This is a truly wonderful model, except of it´s growing age.

This age is showing in the kit's raised panel lines, fit difficulties with the clear parts, incorrectly scribed windshield panel lines… but all this should not be a hump to a true Fort Fancier.

My model depicts “Little Miss Mischief”, 324th Bomb Squadron, 91th Bomb Group (Heavy) from the famous “Mighty Eighth”, the 8th USAAF, bit more than one month after it´s fatal-almost-split-in-two-halfs-FLAK hit over Köln on October 15th 1944 (3rd mission of this aircraft over Cologne). The Fortess was repaired by its ground crew using spare parts from 13 other ships!

I did not use any aftermarket accessories for this kit, just built it out of the box - just me and the plastic - although with some minor changes of my own.

Some details have been added, for example, the antenna at the nose made of copper wire, wiring made of thin IDE wire, the 0.50 caliber MGs made of hypodermic needle, and - last but not least- I threw away the decals except for the nose art, and brushed the markings on by myself with the help of self made templates, which made the weathering much easier for me.

The most fun part was the weathering of the wings and the rear fuselage…first glossy black, followed by Alclad, and then I airbrushed different shades of Olive Drab, layer by layer, on the replacement wing (which I sanded off after brushing the markings on) and the rear part of the fuselage.

Pictures were taken by Wolfram Bradac from http://rlm.at

I wish Peter Kormos good luck with his 1/72 scale Academy Fortress, which sure will be a truly eye-catcher!

Liebe Grüße aus Wien.

Greetings from Vienna, Austria


 

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Text and Images Copyright 2005 by Jürgen "Jerry" Lehrach
Page Created 05 May, 2005
Last Updated 04 May, 2005

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