I've been working on and off on this build for a couple of months, and decided you make a concerted effort over the last week to get it finished.

I've used Revell's latest 1/72nd B-17G, and Kits World decals to finish this model as the recently destroyed 'Liberty Belle' of Don Brook's Liberty Foundation. His B-17 was restored in the colours of his father's aircraft, on which he was a tail gunner based in Framlingham, Suffolk with the 390th Bomb Group.

Here she is in happier times on a visit to Duxford, England, a couple of summers ago:

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To bring this up to 'warbird' standard I made a few minor modifications to the interior, such as adding a couple extra seats on the flightdeck, and leaving out the top-turret mechanism (I presume on modern warbirds this is an important weight saving.) The interior was also completely painted (as I saw when I went inside her) unlike her WWII vintage counterparts:

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Revell's kit has the earlier non-staggered waist guns, so I had to move the startboard opening forward, and used a spare waist window from the kit to plug the gap of the original:

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Being a late model B-17G, Liberty Belle also has the Cheyenne tail turret which is an option supplied in the kit:

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Although I've not seen any photo's of the restored Liberty Belle with the bomb-bay open (in fact during my tour of her there was a wooden floor installed with spares etc in the bay) I decided to open the doors on my version to add a little interest:

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Here are some general shots of the finished model. I used a silver/grey automotive paint as the real warbird Liberty Belle was painted in this way (I presume for protection) rather than being in natural metal:

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The Kits World decals were excellent and give a good representation of the nose art. I also added the modern aerials applied to the real aircraft, which you can make out behind the chin turret:

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Finally - here she is with an older and war-wearly sister ship built last year:

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... 1 & 2 fired up and ready to go:

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All in all a straight forward build of a super little kit. Here's hoping one day we'll see the real 'Belle' back in the air.

So beautifuly done , excellent NMF and paint work . I really like this model.

Serge Dompierre

That was a shocker when I seen the Liberty Belle burning on the news. What a sad loss!

Charles

Interest you on Plane Talking. Take a look and tell me what you think.

California Steve

It's such a shame that we won't see her again... not at least for a while anyway.

Regarding old airstrips in England... I use Google maps a great deal, as I've visited almost every Eigth Air Force base in East Anglia. Some are almost complete and as if the 'Yanks' have just left, others it's hard to know there was ever a base there. Most have some kind of memorial and some, such as Thorpe Abbotts (home of the 'Bloody Hundredth') have fantastic museums.

I have a huge collection of pictures of these bases, I must get around to publishing some someday, as they make very interesting viewing.

I saw some lovely shots of Liberty Belle over the base at Framlingham; it must have been very moving for Don Brooks to fly over his father's former base.

My eventual goal is to build a B-17 from each of the Bomb Groups that were over here during the war - so far I've done the 91st from Bassingbourn and just finished this 390th example. Only 24 more to go...

i really like the lines of this kit. When photographed from low angles, this model seems to "sit" more like a real B-17.

My friend Frank Hale flies the B-17 for the Collings Foundation. i'll have to tell him about this one.

david

Interesting to adapt the model to represent a modern warbird rather than combat ready. Nice job throughout.

Steve Heeb; Puyallup, WA
In fond memory of Loran B Heeb
"Ol' Scrapiron"
447th BG; Rattlesden England