Page 84 - Model Airplane International - Issue 175 (February 2020)

FINAL THOUGHTS

THE ENDURING POPULARITY OF

THE B-17 FLYING FORTRESS

ith the imminent release of perhaps Shep Paine’s classic diorama that choice from which to build one in miniature.
the HK Models B-17 this he built around the Monogram 1:48 kit during Some are absolute classics as well; who can
month, my mind has turned the 70s. Depicting an aircraft that had been forget the amazing Airfi x box art featuring
to it as a subject, and forced through damage in fl ight to make a ‘A BIT O’ LACE’, guns blazing, outboard
W why over the years it has belly landing, the scene was so enduring that port engine on fi re? To this day the image
remained an aircraft that so many modellers even 40 odd years on, many of us can still is beguiling as ever and I am sure was the
want to build for their collections. remember exactly how it looked without having reason that so many of us built that kit!
Of course, much like the Spitfi re, Mustang seen the completed diorama for some time. So here we are in 2020 and HK Models
and Me Bf109, the Flying Fortress can be Would it have worked had he used another have followed their 1:32 kit with a 1:48 offering
called a stone-cold classic, a shorthand for bomber as the centrepiece? Perhaps. But the that offers a worthy replacement to both the
bombers that ranged over the battlefi elds fact remains that we all know that the model Monogram and Revell kits in that scale. From
of Europe during WWII. Much like all RAF that stars in this now famous diorama was a the images that we have seen the model
fi ghters being a Spitfi re, all German machines B-17 and we all still, to this day, want to build will build up into a very fi ne replica of this
being a Messerschmitt, or all Japanese being something similar. most enduring of subjects and I am sure that
a Zero, every American bomber during WWII Over the years there have been many kits over time we will start to see many made up
was a B-17. It’s just the way it is! of this aircraft, from FROG, through Airfi x, examples to start to process of inspiration all
But of course there Matchbox, Revell, over again. Certainly I’d like to build one, but
are other reasons Hasegawa, Monogram, how I would fi nish it, I’m not sure. Who knows,
why the B-17 has HK Models, etc., the I may even chose to replicate Shep’s beautiful
remained a favourite, world of model aircraft diorama - now wouldn’t that be something?!
one of which is has seen plenty of See you next time. ■

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