1/72 Academy B-17F "Memphis Belle"

[plheure2]

Greetings, Gents:

At long last, my "Belle" is completed. It was a labor of love all the way. The only real fit problems I had with the Academy kit was with the main wings-fuselage join. In retrospect, I should have shimmed it both topside and bottom in the gaps, then I would have had the correct dihedral. As it is, the dihedral is a bit pronounced. But the rest of the kit was a joy.... highly detailed and pretty accurate. I did a few inhancements: Added aluminum foil gun belts to the two nose and two waist guns; constructed a wooden floorboard out of basswood for the waist interior, along with wooden ammo boxes which can't be seen unless you shine a penlight into the waist interior. I also added pilot and co-pilot seat belts from wine bottle foil. The "Memphis Belle" patch came from the US Air Force Museum store.

I built this kit as a present for a friend. Would I build another B-17? Absolutely, like two of them! Hope you enjoy the pics.

Best regards and happy modeling,

Pete L.

 

[hub]

Nicely Done Pete
She Looks great, nice kit 8)

Mike

 

[Airframes]

Great stuff.

 

[brucejscott]

Very nice!

 

[otftch]

Nice job.
Ed

 

[Hotntot]

Good looking build. Great panel line work.8)

 

[plheure2]

Thank-you, gentlemen, for the kind words.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nicely done Pete!

 

[Wurger]

A good job.

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done!

 

[le_steph40]

A beauty !

 

[LA2019]

Cool build and the weathering looks great!

 

[Crimea_River]

 

[Andy70]

Very cool! Love the weathering!