The legendary B-17 needs little introduction here. By its almost unrivaled tenure of front-line service, the Flying Fortress proved itself one of the classic bomber designs of all time. Its performance vindicated the principles of air strategy and bomber design established by a few far-sighted American airmen and engineers long before World War II. In August 1942, a handful of B-17E Fortresses became the first Eighth Air Force heavy bombers to be based in England. On August 17, it was B-17Es that flew the first American heavy bomber mission over occupied Europe when they attacked the rail yards at Rouen, France. The B-17Es continued to fly these early missions, being quickly joined by much larger numbers of the more powerful and better armed B-17Fs and ultimately, the B-17Gs. Interestingly, the first of the dozen B-17E Fortresses to clear the runway on that first mission was Butcher Shop, piloted by twenty-seven-year-old Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. of Miami, Florida. The finest flier in the 97th Bombardment Group, Major Tibbets was leading the opening assault of what would become the biggest American bombing offensive of the war.

Photography of these little gems is a challenge for our equipment and limited skills, check out the well proportioned model including the fuselage with detailed cockpit, nose blister, dorsal turret, ventral ball turret, waist and tail gun positions; the tail assembly; the wings with well defined engine cowls and even the superchargers and retracted landing gear under the wings! Camouflage and color reference is provided including pattern reference for one of those early field applied patterns worn by those early 97th BG Fortresses and a profile of one of those mysterious 'Hawaiian Depot' schemes applied to several Pacific B-17Es.

Although the surfaces are not perfectly smooth (3D printing is done in layers), the plastic used can be sanded and painted much the same way you would handle resin or styrene. The models may still have some powder and oil-like agent on them that can be removed by washing in warm water with a drop of detergent in it. Although the landing gear is represented in the retracted in-flight position, it should be fairly straight forward to add photo etch parts for a "gear down" rendition, perfect for an air base diorama.

NOTE: While we currently maintain limited inventories of most items, some items may be "printed on demand", which usually requires 10-15 business days from order to shipment.