Aircraft spotted off the starboard....

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by robbo180265

^^ That's a beauty Steve , was it scratch built or from a kit?

Thank you.

The fuselage was the RarePlanes vacuformed Y1-B17 and the wings and stabilizers came from the Acadamy B-17B. The rest was scratched, as the 299 had different landing gear from every B-17 that followed, as were the engine oil intakes and the landing lights.

I had a good source in Detail & Scale's B-17 volume. Lots of close-up photos. I love how the insignia were smaller than the wartime ones, and are lined up with the aileron coupling, not the leading edge of the wing.

The numbered decals on the wing and tail were aligned by hand, and I was lucky enough to have a 1/72-scale Boeing emblem from the Williams Bros 247 airliner kit.

Unfortunately I didn't know beans about taking a good picture, so the detail on the tail doesn't show up very well. If you're ever in Utah, the model is still on display at the Hill AFB Museum.