Hasagawa B-17F mosified, 388BG [H]

[Phil marchese]

]The Hasagawa B-17 kits are not my favorite. I rank them as the worst of the major brand 1:72, below the ancient Revell kits. These do however make great parts kits, having some nice detail parts. This is an attempt at deception by faking what is too serious an error in the kit to make right. The kit wings are in the wrong place relative to the fuselage features and that puts the wing leading edge and the props in the wrong place relative to the cockpit. Same with the mis-located top turret. That in trail makes the radio room decking too short. I thing it also skews the ball turret location and with that, the whole aft end measure backwards to meet the front instead of continuing station by station from station 0.0 at the front of the plane.

I faked the fix with an appox. 0ne scale foot (1/6 ") adjustment aft the top turret. Note that the cuts are staggered. The interior shot shows the starboard insert forward of the port side ( white area in plan view). I almost always stretch a constant run in this fashion in so much as it adds rigidity and straigtness to the the splice, The cockpit side windows may need all or part of the fix too, it depends on how the peak of the windscreen will meet the nav. compartment bulkhead. It will be a fudge.

http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa389/...ocruz/hasf5.jpg

This build also has a Matchbox Boeing factory tail added which vastly changes the overall look of the kit. I doubt that a scale gunner could turn his chin in the kit tail canopy. The early F feature, the crown windows in the roof of the nav. compartment, the addition of an astrodome base, the Matchbox B-17G angled cheeks shaved from TINKERTOY ( position reversed for F) and the M-Box- B17F tail turret are some of the customizations which will make this build stand apart from an outdated Hasagawa B-17F kit.

This build is following the same half and half bulid approach as TINKERTOY and IDIOT'S DELIGHT with the basic camo & markings applied before the main seam id joined, sanded and paint blended. More pictures will follow,

Edited January 16, 2011 by Phil marchese