Boeing Fortress Mk III
First look at Airfix 1/72 Boeing Fortress Mk III by Huw Morgan
T
he Boeing B-17 Flying
Fortress is probably best
known from the images of
boxes of the aircraft, in natural
metal or olive drab, droning over
Germany in daylight, besieged
by swarms of Luftwaffe fighters,
and, often as not, trailing
smoke and sundry airframe
parts. Little known, however,
is the use the RAF made of this
remarkable aircraft, in several
variants, but most notably as the
Fortress Mk III. This was roughly
equivalent to the USAAF B-17G,
and was used in clandestine
operations by 100 Group.
100 Group was a clandestine
special operations unit, assembled
to deploy the increasingly
sophisticated electronic warfare
techniques being developed to jam
and disrupt German ground-based
and airborne radars (at times,
German-speaking crew were even
carried to impersonate Germanground controllers to misdirect
night fighters). The Fortress III
variants had the chin and ball
turrets removed, and a large,
chin-mounted radar installed,
together with various transmitting
and receiving aerial arrays.
Airfix has produced a tidy
Fortress III kit, based on their
2016 B-17G issue. The kit contains
all the original parts, adding an
additional sprue to carry the aerials,
radar scanner, and plain wheels
appropriate to the RAF version, plus
a clear sprue, modified to include
the nose radome. The 264 plastic
parts are very neatly moulded, but
as the panel lines are much more
restrained than on earlier kits, they
will no doubt recede under paint.
Two very similar
schemes are offered:- #223 Squadron 100 Group,
RAF Sculthorpe and RAF
Oulton. 1944. (Dark earth and
dark green overnight black,
with painted radome).- “Take it Easy” #214 Squadron,
100 Group, RAF Sculthorpe
and RAF Oulton 1944. (Dark
earth and dark green overnight
black, with frosted radome).
Airfix’s instructions follow the
recent pattern of being based on
3D, computer-aided design images,
with incremental parts shown
in red; there are 127 assembly
stages altogether. Painting
instructions are covered in two
separate A3-sized colour sheets.
Paint references are for Humbrol
enamels only. There’s no listing
table, so you’ll need a paint chart
to be able to find alternatives.
There are no sprue maps to
help find those elusive parts.
Detail looks excellent, with
lots going on in the interior and
gun turrets, and the engine front
faces and turbo superchargers
look to be nicely rendered. The
engineering of the kit is well
thought out, albeit perhaps a bitover-complicated to simplify
moulding. There’s a full interior
for the bomb bay, but no bombs,
and a hefty central spar on which
to hang the wings. At first sight, fit
looks like it will be trouble-free,
although where there are multiple
parts to make up sub-assemblies,
care will be needed in alignment.
Airfix is to be commended
for bringing us a modern model
of a remarkable and unsung
RAF aircraft. Thanks to Airfix
for the review sample.WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2018 • 53
FIRST LOOK!
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