1:48 Boeing Flying Fortress B -17E of the Pacific

The Pacific at a time when the war was being lost

Version B-17E was the first genuinely combat-capable form of the Fortress and it did its hardest service over the Southwest Pacific, where American units were withdrawing from the Philippines through Java to Australia. The aircraft flew in small groups, often without escort and with crews who waited a long time for replacement.

Two machines on the sheet

The first is a B-17E with the serial number 41-2489 and the name Suzy Q of the 19th Bomb Group, connected precisely with the Java period. The second is 41-2472 with the inscription Yankee Diddler of the 43rd Bomb Group of the Fifth Air Force, captured at the Seven Mile Drome airfield, which was named Jackson after a pilot who had been killed, near Port Moresby.

The extent and content of the sheet

The customer gets one printed sheet in 1:48 proportion. It is an accessory, not a model, so a Fortress kit of the matching size has to be obtained separately. Besides the nose paintings, the sheet also contains the appropriate national markings, which on machines of the early period differed from the later form.

On the finish of the subject

Pacific Fortresses had camouflage quickly faded by sun and salt, with pronounced unevenness in shade. On such a changeable surface a decal behaves worse than on a smooth line, so it pays to even the places under the elements out with a gloss layer beforehand and, once dry, to give them a matte coat again only together with the rest of the airframe.

Why early Fortresses are worth building

Version E still carries a number of features that disappeared from the later machines, and its deployment falls into a period when there was more improvisation in the Pacific than later in Europe. A model of an early airframe therefore looks different from the usual silver Fortress of 1944 and stands out from the rest in any collection at first glance.