**** DONE: GB-40 1/72 B-17G “Carolina Moon” - Heavy Hitters III

[Crimea_River]

I like that cheek gun detail.

 

[Donivanp]

I've got a couple of these Academy 1/72 B-17s, B-24 and B-29 kits, they look pretty detailed for the scale. great choice.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Glenn!

 

[fubar57]

Nice work Glenn

 

[ArmouredSprue]

Following your building. This nose art is very nice and I didn't know Academy had it. How is this kit compared to revell and Airfix ones?

 

[T Bolt]

The interior is just about finished up. Just needs a bit of touchup and the bombs before I close up the fuselage. I didn't do any detailing because mot much will be seen. The only a bit on the mavagators table to make it like wood that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped

This is a picture I found of the 490th bomb dump. As you can see the bombs had unusual yellow paint markings that looked to be hand painted. I tried to replicate it as close as I could by first painting the nose of the bombs yellow, then OD and scratching off the OD with a pointy tweezer to make the marks.

 

[N4521U]

Nice work.
Agree unusual noses, "A little dab'll do yah".
The tracklayer hoist is a jewel too.
A scratch build project!!?

 

[T Bolt]

Following your building. This nose art is very nice and I didn't know Academy had it. How is this kit compared to revell and Airfix ones?

I've never seen the Revell and Airfix kits in person but I believe they have much more interior detail, but in 1/72 scale there can't be much seen. The Academy kit doesn't have a lot of interior detail but the exterior seems really nice and defiantly enough for me. I'm not sure of how many boxings they have of the B-17 but I believe that they make enough different models that you can build every sub model of the B-17 except for the prototype and the 13 YB-17s.
As for the decals I would not recommend using them. I bought an after market set because I thought they looked better and was thankful that I did when I used the kit control panel decal. It was thick and did not conform at all to any irregularities in the plastic. I used multiple applications of Solv-Set which would have completely melted any other decal and it had absolutely no effect on the kit decal. I ended up cutting it up with a hobby knife and painting the edges to hold it down. The only way these decals could possibly be used is on a flat surface which curved in only one direction, and at that none of the panel lines would come through. If I had tried to use the nose art on the compound curve of the nose of the b-17 it would have been a disaster.

 

[fubar57]

Interesting bombs. The smaller bombs(100lbs?) behind look to have the normal rings

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

Good stuff Glenn.

 

[Crimea_River]

I agree. I had similar issues with decals from early ICM kits. They looked great on the backing and that's where they stayed.

 

[T Bolt]

Some recent progress

 

[SANCER]

It's a good move Glen. Those bombs are already in his compartment.
Saludos

 

[Crimea_River]

Always a milestone when the fuselage halves come together. Good progress Glenn.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Glenn!

 

[N4521U]

Noice!

 

[Wayne Little]

Good stuff mate.

 

[fubar57]

Agreed