Of a B-17 from “NEW RAY.” But I glued the pieces anyway. Had to glue the stand because it was flimsy. Nothing was painted except the red paint and the lettering on the tail. I painted the guns black, which are really too thick and I cut them shorter with a spru cutter. I painted the propeller centers chrome, the tips yellow, the wheel center chrome and the struts chrome. Put some letters and a number on the fuselage with a magic marker and with freehand and a bit shakey I had to do the one letter H on the fuselage over after attempting the 30H three times and it looked bad so I just used the H there and put a 7H further up. Straight lines I can handle free hand but that’s about it. I painted the nose and insides of the engines olive drab as I looked at photos on line. The wheels I painted flat black. Then I printed out a “nose art girl”, cut her out and glued her on with Elmer’s glue. The W on the right wing was already on as were the three stars and bars. It’s a for a dad to show and build for his kid just the way it came out of the box. And was only $15.00 at Hobby Lobby. So what can one expect. Actually, I have painted and built enough detailed ships and aircraft in my time that I just wanted a simple model and then add on otherwise. I printed out the Eighth Air Force logo and pasted it to the base. It is not representative of the aircraft as this is supposed to be “Aluminum Overcast” which never saw any action in World War II but still tours the country today from what I understand. And the girl should be lower on the nose but it was too hard for me to place there with a tweezer. There are some nice actually good kits out there to build of a B-17 but not for me now, anyway. And some really nice diecast models of one with a wingspan of 8” and length of 6”. They cost around .$35.00 and have a little flimsy plastic stand.lol But with this one the wheels do retract as does the tail wheel. You might say, I messed around with it a bit. The Testors company made a snap together model too that is much more detailed right out of the box, nose art and all, but I really did not seek one out and Hobby Lobby only stocked New Ray.
I got a model of a B-24 with a three foot wing span while I was still in high school. Went together in under an hour. Was surprisingly good for the medium, even if the instructions weren't in English, or even our alphabet.
Airplane kits are easier and require less time and paint than a ship. But some kits I find to have less than a desirable landing gear assembly to the wings. But Tamiya makes my day usually. I have done Tamiya, AirFix and Revell.
Back in early May of '69 I was getting ready to go to boot camp. My aunt's BIL and his son came by on some errand and I had an inspiration. Told them to wait and ran into the house. I found a big box and loaded all my ship models into it. Then I gave the box to the kid. His eyes bugged out. My aunt's hubby and all six of his brothers were ex-USN and when the BIL saw what I had given to the boy he said, "There's another Swift boy for the Navy." I knew the Y-donor would have thrown them out the minute I left for boot camp and beat him to the punch. It was six years before I saw him again. Mom would meet me at my Aunt's house when I came through.
You did a decent enough job with what you had to work with. Out of porportions gun? Maybe this was a test model mounting Bofors instead of the M2s?
When I was about 14 or so I had an entire Squadron hanging from my bedroom ceiling. Kind of an eclectic collection of B29, P47, P51, Spitfire, Bf 109, Sopwith Camel and a few others. Really need to get back into that.
When I left for the Navy, back in '69, I had a representative model of every ship at Pearl Harbor, DE and larger, including model variations. Had to special order some, our one-stop-light town didn't stock many naval models.
Birthday is coming up soooooo. Suggested a 1/72 scale Tamiya P47D Razorback. Plan on using the parts to replicate in wood to build a second version in either Basswood or Cedar. Shouldn't take more than the 52 years to finish my Junior year shop class cannon.
