1/72 Academy B-17G Little Miss Mischief

Gallery Article by “Danny” Yifei Zhao on Dec 10 2013

 

 

This strange looking Boeing B-17G was probably the only bomber in WWII that was repaired by joining two plane’s fuselage into one. On 15th Oct. 1944, B-17G 42-97880 “Little Miss Mischief” was directly hit on the waist by German Flak during the raid over Cologne, but the pilot managed to fly her back to Bassingburn base in England along with her crew. The ground team then connected her with another scrapped B-17’s (42-31405 “Wallaroo Mark II”) rear fuselage and managed to send her back into the sky. Pilots gave this silver-olive painting plane a nickname----“half and half”.

 

Click on images below to see larger images

This model was built by Academy kit No.12414 B-17 “Nose art” special edition. I painted it all with Tamiya can sprays except the anti-glare surface in front of windscreen and the tail gunner’s cockpit, by hand painting with olive drab. The engine size was not accurate, so I had to put a 2mm grommet on the propeller axle, to prevent the blades from scratching the engine cowling. The most valuable part of this kit, in my opinion, was the decal sheet printed by Italian Cartograf. Academy’s decal sheets have had a terrible reputation for many years, the replacement of Italian production made it much more attractive in the model market.

Enjoy the photos.

“Danny” 

Click on images below to see larger images

      

Photos and text © by “Danny” Yifei Zhao