All-new Revell 1/72 B-17G

Google translation of the German IPMS first-look at the sprues: LINKY

This is going to be one fiddly kit!

All the best,
PB

PS... PFF radome included, yay.

That top turret looks rather too prominent to me or am I being nitpicking?

Yes it is a little tall, by about the height of the turret ring the clear section is sitting on, but having said that all the B-17 kits have over-tall top turrets.
Once the cockpit transparency is painted it it will probably look better.
Nice to see the entire turret basket is included in the kit, as is the ball turret cradle and post.

Random factoid:
I didn't realise the Sperry A-1B/C dorsal turrets as fitted to B-17Gs only had thin ally framing to hold the glazing until I found a couple of the domes last year.
I was expecting the thick cast ally framework as on the earlier A-1/1A dorsal and A-2 ball turrets.

TTFN,
PB

Talk of B17G, where can i get details of a particular aircraft from the 364 Bomb Squadron,(WF-D) as i have No idea which airfield it operated from ??

Many thanks

Able wrote:

... where can i get details of a particular aircraft from the 364 Bomb Squadron,(WF-D) as i have No idea which airfield it operated from ??

The 364th was a component of the 305th Bombardment Group 'Can Do' (Col Curtis LeMay was CO June 42 to May 43.)

Source: Roger Freeman's Mighty Eighth.

Graham

Able wrote:

Talk of B17G, where can i get details of a particular aircraft from the 364 Bomb Squadron,(WF-D) as i have No idea which airfield it operated from ??

Many thanks

There were a number of 305BG 364BS B-17s with that code, at least four of them were Gs:
42-37931 "Bertie Lee"
42-107136
43-38252 "Spare Parts"
43-39207

All the best,
PB

Thanks for that PB,

its 'Bertie Lee' i'd like to know more about as it crashed here at Waltham.

Hmmm, I've got a contradiction in the records here......

42-37931 was certainly with one of the 305BG's squadrons and coded D, and belly-lnded somewhere in the UK at some point:

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Originally assigned to the 305BG's 422BS as JJ-D on January 5th 1944 [1] , she was lost over Germany during a mission to Stettin on April 11th 1944.[2]
J Baugher gives the name of Bertie Lee to B-17G 42-38131, being stuck off charge following her return to England after being badly damaged on the same mission [3] .
However, the squadron assignment given by Baugher (305BG, 304BS) doesn't exist, and 42-38131 doesn't appear on either the 305BG roster or indeed the entire 1st Air Division roster prior to the 1st April 1944 when my main records stop.

More digging required here I think...

All the best,
PB

[1] Fortresses of the Big Triangle First: Cliff Bishop
[2] Missing Air Crew Report MACR 3818
[3] www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_2.html

42-38131 shows as belonging to 364th BS, 305th BG, named "BERTIE LEE" and MIA 5 April 44 in Freemans "The B-17 Flying Fortress Story". Perhaps Baugher just misread his source? Of course, being MIA (Cottbus-Sorau) doesn't work for crashing in England. 37931 also shows as being "BERTIE LEE" and 364th/305th crash landing on base 12 April 44. Seems unlikely you would have two airplanes with the same name being lost within a week of one another. Must be a record keeping error someplace...

EDIT: Also, "Project Bits and Pieces" shows another "Bertie Lee" (364th/305th) with a S/N of 42-38130.... Ya got me on this one folks ; ) !

Karl wrote:

"Project Bits and Pieces" shows another "Bertie Lee" (364th/305th) with a S/N of 42-38130.... Ya got me on this one folks ; ) !

The MACR covering DI-B 42-38130 (MACR 4170) gives her loss "over Prussia, Germany" as 22 April 44, while assigned to the 390BG 570BS.

All the best,
PB