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.

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.

This kit's molds have been around for a long time and despite that it is still a great, highly detailed model. The interior is super detailed and fairly accurate for the scale. Problem is that most of it is not visible as is. You'll have to be creative with some battle damage if you want to see any of it. This kit is in 1/48 scale, so a man in that scale is about 1.5 inches tall. This kit is huge then! It will take up alot of shelf space. And remember this is a model kit. You will need to paint, build and finish the kit. It's really for display and will be a most impressive sight in your collection but it will take alot of time and work to make it so. It is not a toy to play with although there are moving parts. As a child my first one was just slapped together and played with, but did not last too long as some of the small parts (guns, turrets, wheels etc) are fragile even in this scale. But my intent then was for a toy, not a display piece. Overall a modeller will have a great time with this kit, and you mostly know that already if you build models regularly. For the novice, this is a hard kit to get started on, it's way too busy. But with some experience you'll be able to make a beautiful model even without many aftermarket parts. The main problem I had was with Amazon itself. I searched for "visible B-17" as Revell-Monogram has recently reissued that classic. That version has a clear half of the fuselage to display the interior, a great concept that they didn't repeat with some of the other classic models. Regardless, this kit came up on the search and I jumped on it. However I did not read through the description and ordered this instead. Again, this is NOT the VISIBLE B-17 kit even though their search took me there. Returning the kit was a very odd experience. I printed the return label and shipped the kit back. Then Amazon charged me approximately $7 each to return when the total amount was about $7. Still not happy with the way they handled that. I somehow have a credit but have been unable so far to use it, doesn't show up when I check out. So beware with any returns to Amazon.

I like how it is easy to assembly all u need is the red cement glue tube. I didn't put a lot of detail in mine, this is my second model ever so it was fun. The waterside decals are easy to put on to because they r big. Just get warm water into a bowl then put the sticker for a minute then take it out and apply it. Overall this set is epic and nothing is wrong with it as far as im concerned.

The description of the condition of the outer box was exactly as described. Good experience

This is a great model. Form fit and function are there. Price is reasonable. No filler needed.

Parts don't fit well

Il vecchio Monogram, oggetto comunque sempre verde

Looks fantastic can’t wait for the build

Sucht man in diesem Maßstabssegment nach Modellen, sind die doch recht teuer. Hier eben nicht. Modell war gut...allerdings die Anleitung in Englisch und so gar nicht kompatibel mit der Deutschen revell anleitung wie man sie downloaden kann. Das Modell eignet sich hervorragend für ein Diorama ... da man es aufschneiden kann und darin sehr viele details vorhanden sind die das deutsche modell nicht hat

tres satisfait , tout est ok , merci.

Buen producto, en relacion a su precio, lo compre para regalo, me comentan que biene bien detallado