1:72 B-17F Flying Fortress

Olive green Fortresses over Europe

The F version was the form of the Flying Fortress that American daylight bombing over Europe began with. The machines did not yet have a turret under the nose, they wore an olive green finish and their crews learned the trade as they went. The first subject of this sheet is the aircraft with serial number 41-24605, the name Knockout Dropper and the fuselage code BN-R, which earned a reputation with its bombardment group as a persistent machine. The second is the Fortress with the number 42-3082 and the name Double Trouble.

A green finish with a gray underside is not as rewarding as bare metal. It matters all the more that the markings sit exactly right, because on a uniform area the eye has nothing else to catch on. White letters and stars also show through on a dark base if the film is thin, so it pays to check the opacity on a scrap beforehand.

Each of the two aircraft belonged to a different bombardment group, so you are choosing between two different sets of fuselage letters and between two forms of the marking on the vertical tail surface. Before building it therefore pays to go through photographs of the very machine you want to build and to note where exactly the markings should sit.

Faded paint and fresh printing

The paint of Fortresses faded quickly in the field, whereas newly painted markings stayed deep in color. It is precisely this difference that makes a model convincing. Proceed by lightening the base shade on the upper surfaces a little, laying the printing on an intermediate gloss coat and only at the end unifying the whole surface with a matte top coat. So that the effect does not disappear, apply the matte varnish in a thin layer and let the difference in intensity show through beneath it.