AIRFIX
T
he Airfix B-17 kit has been out for a
couple of years now and I’ve already
built two of them and I have to say, it’s a
really good kit. The B-17 is a big aircraft
so even in 1:72 this still builds up into a
large and impressive model and it comes in one
of Airfix’s sturdy top opening boxes which has a
fabulous box top artwork of the type we have come
to expect from Airfix.
Airfi x has crammed this kit full of detail, the fuselage
interior is superb and takes quite a long time to build.
One odd omission are the doors on the bulkheads -
though this is easy to fi x with some plasticard. The
nose has clear plastic inserts for each side which carry
the small side windows; this is the same approach
Revell took with their B-17. The seams where these
meet the fuselage need to be fi lled and re-engraved
to get a seamless fi nish, a bit of extra work but it does
look great once fi nished.
The detail keeps on going with this kit, excellently
detailed engines and undercarriage adorn the wings
and we get both the early and late (Cheyenne style)
tail turrets in the kit. The exterior detail of the kit is in
the form of engraved panel lines, which are reasonably
fi ne and consistent. The control surfaces have a good
fabric effect with visible ribs.
A large and well-designed instruction book is
includes with colour painting guides for the markings.
Two sheets of decals are included and these are very
well printed with good colour and perfect register.
This particular boxing comes with decals allowing four
colour schemes be built, but if you don’t like any of
these, there are loads of colourful aftermarket decals
out there.http://www.airfi x.com
BOEING B-17G FLYING FORTRESS
Airfi x/Materials: IM/Kit No. A08017/Availability: All Good Model Shops/Price: £27.
1:
VERDICT
I’ll be building this one soon, in a suitably
colourful scheme! Highly recommended.
(Alan Price)