Revell B17G Flying Fortress 1: 48 Scale

What a fun build! I used to build tons of models as a kid since all of us would build our arsenals and wage war in our yards in California. Ships, planes, tanks, etc. I decided to get back into model building, as my older brother has been doing for many years now, and have a hobby as I have basically retired and started working part time for my employer. It took me a couple of months to put this puppy together but I am a detail person (some say I'm an anal perfectionist). The parts fit together quite well overall and I had to use very little putty to fill in what gaps there were. I took the time to do all the detail painting of the compartments of the interior and found, as my brother said, that you can't see any of it. Don't care, it was r and r for me. I spent a lot of time painting the details and glad I did. The overall finish is worth building a glass enclosed table to put her and avoid the dust factor. The only real defect was a molding problem on the bottom of one wing with a small hole and indentation where it was an incomplete fill.......... took a bit of silver and black paint and ...... flak damage! Looks great. Good model, good instructions. Hope this helps if you are wondering if it's a fun project or a chore.

This B-17G model kit is a Monogram, now Revell-Monogram, classic. It is a huge model that is fun to build. The kit has been around for a long time and is the only 1/48 scale kit available of this magnificent World War II bomber. The interior, engines, guns, and landing gear have plenty of detail for the novice and expert modeler alike. The kit also includes a bomb cart, 4 bombs and a few aircrew figures for display purposes. The instructions are straight forward, the decals are the normal Monogram-Revell quality, a little thick but fairly decent. The decals allow for two different paint schemes, either olive drab over neutral grey or an all natural aluminum finish. A nice brochure with photos and tips on how to build a diorama is also included if one desires to make a diorama to display the finished model. Plenty of aftermarket decals and other accessories for the B-17 are avialable through online hobby retailers like Squadron.com, MeteorProductions.com and SprueBros.com, to name a few. I built my model just using a set of aftermarket decals, with some hand crafted details and an airbrushed finished paint job. The completed model more than met my expectations. Most of the pieces fit together very nicely. I had to apply some putty along the bottom edge of the wing to fuselage joints and to one edge of both waist gunner windows. Other than that everything came together quite well. I am more than likely going to purchase another one soon and hang the next one from my ceiling.

First off, this is a very big and detailed plane. The parts all fit very well, and there were many. The decals also were good;as in they didn't rip at all. The five little figures that it came with were also detailed compared to others that I have had before. The instructions were very comprehensive and helpful, which made it funner to put together. I don't know how to sum it up other than to say it was perfect. In fact, I liked it so much that I might get another one. I would definitely recommend this plane to any modeler.

Revell has always made good plastic models and this B-17 is no exception. If your goal is to make a replica of an actual plane that saw WWII service, the instructions provide in great detail the necessary info for two possible B-17s regarding which optional parts to use, what paint colors to use on various components, and proper selection and placement of decals. The assembly instructions are quite pictographic and schematic, which works well if you take the time to read all the notes about the symbols and codes. As with all "parts on a tree" plastic models, it is important to use a bit of sand paper to remove unwanted flashing or bits of the points of attachment to ensure proper fit between parts. The most important drawback to the model is that some of the sub-assemblies inside the fuselage cannot be seen to advantage or even seen at all once the model is assembled. A purist might not mind this aspect of the model, but for many of us, putting in a lot of work on something that can't be seen seems unnecessary. The bombardier's station in the nose is quite visible and the cockpit and pilots' deck can be seen relatively well. But the navigator's compartment and the bomb bay, despite intricate assembly, might as well not even be included if all that matters is what can be seen. I took a cue from another reviewer and used a Dremel tool to cut away the bomb bay doors from the fuselage and used some spare plastic I had to fabricate new bomb bay doors that I glued into place in the open position. This made the bombs and the bomb racks clearly visible. I should also mention that I bought and built the 1:72 version of the B-17. In some ways, I liked the smaller version better, although both were quite similar. The smaller version had more operable parts (ailerons, elevator, rudder) and more intricate sub-assemblies (engine components, exhaust system) than the 1:48 version. Plus the bomb bay doors on the 1:72 version could be assembled in the open position. On the other hand, manipulating the small parts of the 1:72 version was much more difficult than for the 1:48 version.