1:144 B-17G Flying Fortress

The Fortresses that survived

Of the thousands of four-engine bombers built, a few dozen airframes are left today and only a handful of machines have stayed in the air. Behind that stand associations of volunteers who repair them, hunt down spare parts and pay for their operation out of sightseeing flights. Every such aircraft has its own name and a recognizable color scheme, which has changed several times over the decades. The sheet brings four of them.

What the schemes look like

For each machine the supplier gives the name, the serial number and the abbreviation of the organization that operates the aircraft. Three of them belong to large North American associations focused on preserving wartime equipment; for the fourth machine the supplier gives only a single-letter fuselage marking. Since this is the late production version with a chin turret, an ordinary kit of the matching form can be used.

Laying and clear coating

The span of a model in this scale barely exceeds twenty centimeters, so even large inscriptions on the fuselage are tiny and break easily. Keep the sheet dry before laying, therefore, and wet only one cut-out piece of artwork at a time. The model should be glossy, the decal is lined up with a wet brush and the excess water is blotted off. A matte clear coat applied at the end evens out the surface and the edges of the film disappear.

What is in the box

Only the sheet with the decals and a list of the individual schemes. The model, paints and clear coat do not come with it, so obtain the kit separately. It is worth checking whether the kit you choose matches the late version, because the earlier form of the bomber differs in the forward part of the fuselage.