1:32 B-17F-25-DL 'Double Trouble'

A machine from Douglas production

The designation of this subject gives away more than it seems at first glance. The letters at the end say that the aircraft did not come off the line of the parent Boeing but off a licensed line at Long Beach, California. It was precisely the secondary builders who in 1943 bore the main burden of deliveries, because the demand for four-engine bombers grew faster than the original plant could produce. The machine with the name of its own, Double Trouble, belonged to one of the last series of this version.

Not quite four months with the unit

The aircraft was assigned to the 333rd Bomb Squadron in the middle of June 1943 and served with it until the beginning of October of the same year. It was flown by Lieutenant William Winnesheik and the unit operated from the Rougham airfield in eastern England. The combat career of the machine ended after a raid on a French target with a forced landing near the coastal town of Margate in Kent, which the damaged aircraft reached on the way back. Not quite four months was an ordinary life expectancy by the standards of the time, and by building it the modeler captures a quite precisely bounded period.

What the modeler should watch

With named machines the main rule is not to mix elements from different periods. The fuselage letters, the name on the nose and the recognition markings belong together as a whole, and swapping them with another set usually produces an aircraft that never looked like that. Gloss clear under the printing goes without saying, and in a large scale it pays to apply it in two thin layers instead of one heavy one. Seat the letters on the fuselage along the rows of rivets, because those are clearly visible on a model of this size and the naked eye spots a deviation at once. The sheet on offer contains no plastic components and no paints.