Kit Photos |
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| A quick glance in the box shows in jam-packed with goodies and the box strengthener across the top. A feature only ever seen before on the Revell B-17F boxing. | Removed the strengthener for a closer look at all those goodies. It is a good thing that Monogram made the box far bigger than necessary in order to squeeze all the extras in. | Those classic Kit instructions. Just feel the excitement. Imagine just how good this looked to a model-maker in the 1970's! | An overview of the Instructions. It will take a very sophisticated form of Project management in order to plan construction alongside all the aftermarket bits. Maybe tracing paper overlays would be helpful? |
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| The Instructions are in booklet form. This is pages four and five showing interior construction steps. | Pages six and seven showing gun, undercarriage and wing joining to fuselage. There is (bizarrely) no wing assembly step in pictures, only words. | Pages eight and nine showing tail, engine and bomb trolley assembly. Bizarrely there are no steps for fuselage assembly!? It is just written in words. | The guide to the finished kit's painting and markings. |
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| Some history and notes. | The kit decals showing Chow Hound and El-Lobo. Not bad. | The Diorama guide booklet by none other than the famous Shep Paine. | More of Shep's work. |
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| Much like their B-29 kit Monogram mould it all in silver apart from one black sprue. It assumed that this would give a nice bit of visual variety for the kids who didn't paint their kits. | The black Sprue contains all the guns, props, wheels and pilot seats. The clear parts are shown on their sprue (right). | Wing and tail sprues for the left wing. Note this sprue also contains various bulkheads, tail section, undercarriage and bombs. | The same sprue from the other side. |
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| Another sprue similar to the last on but this showing the right wing sections plus tail, bombs, undercarriage and interior bulkheads. | The same sprue from the other side. | The final sprue showing the fuselage sides, cockpit interior, bomb trolley, personnel and engine parts. Detail is raised and there are pronounced rivets. | The same sprue from the other side showing the internal detail which sets this apart from the Revell B-17F which is bereft of this kind of detail. |
Aftermarket Extras |
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| The Aeroclub Wright Cyclone Engine in White Metal. Aeroclub were early pioneers but these old metal efforts are nothing like the quality of the modern resin equivalents from CMK & Aires. | The Aires equivalent of the Wright R-1820 Cyclone engine for the B-17. Beautiful but very expensive for four! | The CMK equivalent of the Aires and Aeroclub Wright 1820 Cyclone engine for the B-17. Another beautiful effort. Again - expensive if you want four. Consider Quickboost instead. | Cutting Edge .50 Cal Ammo Chutes suitable for the B-17. They appear to be in white metal but are probably not as good as photoetched equivalent. They would be easier to use however. |
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| A few reference photo's from my own collection. | The Cutting Edge Oxygen Hose in flexible resin. Nice but extremely expensive for two short lengths.... | The three original Eduard Photoetch sets I purchased before buying the BIG ED Set (below) include: Armament 48209, Exterior 48208 and interior 48207. | The Armament set 48209 features perforated gun barrels. Quite how you bend the photoetch into this tiny barrel is anyone's guess but I will use a paperclip as a guide. |
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| The Eduard Armament set 48209 also include a lovely set of Bomb Bay Doors. Very useful. | Eduard's Exterior set 48208 for B-17F/G. Numerous small details including canopy frames. | Other details include wing intake blanks, supercharger details and other small fuselage plates. | Eduard's Interior set 48207 shows numerous components for the Bombardiers' position and cockpit. |
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| The set continues with alternate Instrument Panels for F and G models. The set 49337 (see below) is in colour but has only the G model panel. | A couple of Eduard's Express Masks XF166 for B-17G. | The FlightPath set FHP48013 shows numerous interesting components including engine ignition harness's and canopy frames. | The Instructions show canopy frames, top turret frames, nose details, gun mounts and other small details. |
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| The second Instruction sheet shows the brass gun barrels, undercarriage details, chocks, supercharger details, ball turret fames, etc. | Paragon set 4852 B-17 Crew access doors in resin. | Another Paragon set supplies the Wing Intake blanks (like you really need them!?) and prop governors. | Reverse of the Paragon pack with Prop Governors and Wing Intake Blanks. |
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| Paragon set 48103 B-17 Landing Flaps. These are in resin. The Photoetch equivalent by Eduard are shown below. | Another view of those Paragon Resin Landing Flaps. | Paragon set 48104 the B-17 Open Bomb Bay set includes the Bomb Bay doors but these are best discarded in favour of their Photoetch equivalents. | Pro Mods set PMC1120 USAAF Aircrew Equipment. |
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| Squadron Vac-canopy sets 9551 and 9552 supply cockpit, ball turret, nose Perspex, upper turret, radio room hatch, astrodome and tail turret for B-17G - hence the Monogram kit. | True Details set 48098 wheel set with circumferential tread. | Verlinden photoetch set 1267 with .50 & .30 cal ammo and ammo chutes. This includes gun sights. This was picked up cheap off EBay hence the lack of packaging. | Verlinden Update Set 718 for B-17G and the Monogram kit. Poor old Revell! Nobody loves the B-17F. |
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| An overall view of the Verlinden set. I am not always impressed by Verlinden... The last few sets I used have been terrible.... | A bag of resin bits for the Verlinden set. | The Verlinden photoetch set shows the Bomb Bay doors. | The Instructions show superchargers, crew doors, tail & main undercarriage leg additions as well as canopy framing and cockpit details |
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| The rest of the Verlinden Instructions showing gun details, nose Perspex details and tail turret additions. | Eduard's Kabuki Tape flexible mask EX106 for B-17G. | That Big Ed set 4873 for B-17G includes all the sets listed right. | This list is taken directly from the packaging. The contents actually was missing the EX 106 paint masks. |
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| Included in the set is this Coloured Photoetch set for B-17 Seatbelts. | The Cockpit set 49337 showing its colours. | A close up of the coloured etch from this set. | Set 48528 Landing Flaps are not (obviously) in colour. |
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| Just out of interest - the other side of the Landing Flaps set showing and interesting variation of Eduard Packaging. | Exterior set 48533 is different from the set shown earlier as 48208. | Eduard set 48534 - again, not in colour - shows engine cowling flaps and engine ignition harnesses. | At first sight Eduard's set 49360 does not appear to be in colour but referral to Eduard's web site shows otherwise. Click here. |
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| Eduard's set 49361 is for the B-17 mid-section. It does also appear to have a colour fret if you care to open the bag. Click here for Eduard's Instructions. | Eduard's set 49362 Rear Section also doesn't appear to be coloured until you look at Eduard's web site here. | True Details resin detail set for the B-17G's Bombardier Section. Set number 48508. Purchased from Squadron.com in the USA because these are not sold in Europe (why?). | True Detail resin detail set for the B-17G's Cockpit. The quality of the resin is not as good as other releases. It is not as crisp or smooth. In fact is quite rough and feathery. |
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| True Detail resin detail set for the B-17G's Waist Gunner section. There is no reason to believe that this could not be adapted for the Revell B-17F as that has no interior detail. | Scale Aircraft Conversions white metal undercarriage purchased in March 2010. A dissappointing copy of the kit undercarriage with no obvious improvement other than strength. | | |
