1:32 B-17G Decal Sheet

The Fortress that was given somebody else's tail

The decal sheet covers a single particular machine: the four-engine bomber with the serial number 42-97880 and the fuselage code DF-F, flying with the 324th Bombardment Squadron of the 91st Group of the Eighth Air Force. It went down in history under the nickname Little Miss Mischief and, above all, for the way it looked. After heavy damage it was given the rear section of the fuselage from another, older aircraft that still wore olive paint. The result was a bomber whose front half shone in bare duralumin while the tail stayed dark green, with a visible seam exactly where the two parts met.

What that means for the build

This machine is an exercise for the modeler in two completely different surfaces on one fuselage. The metal part is built as a set of panels with slightly different degrees of polish, while the olive tail is built as a faded flat surface with patches from repairs. The transition between them must not be drawn with a rule: on the real aircraft it followed a riveted strip and was irregular.

The last layers

A metallic surface takes varnish badly, so transfer the sheet onto a gloss layer laid only in the places where the decal will go, and leave the rest of the metal alone. A unifying matte varnish would knock the duralumin down to a gray surface and the whole effect would disappear. The olive part, by contrast, will take a matte finish and will benefit from it, because dust and traces of refueling then hold there well. The difference in sheen between the two halves is part of the real subject on this machine, so there is no sense in suppressing it; rather the opposite.