Accessories update
I just noticed that all the Eduard brass and Brassin sets are now out. If you elect to use them all you will need to add a whopping £376.00 to the £240 of the kit! The Brassin Engines alone are 20.00 each and I have not included the costs for new decals or the guns in this price. In short this is a £600 plus kit and I suggest to you that almost none of the accessories are needed.
The masking is a must have, I think the Master guns are a must have, the seatbelts a must have and your choice of decals a highly recommended. The rest is just expensive fluff in my opinion and if included much of it won’t be seen.
Take the flaps at £67.00 for brass replacements. Almost all the references I have seen show B-17s on the pan with the flaps up. I have seen only one with flaps down and it was a damaged aircraft which may be the reason. So given this is it really worth a £67.00 investment? It’s up to you.
Sorry to pitch this in here but thought that you might find it helpful… now where was I?
Decal application
Once on, ‘The Lace’ really comes to life and I got a genuine frisson of excitement as I was once again swept back to childhood memories of that Airfix kit.
Tail-planes
The tail planes assemble easily and fit with almost flawless precision. There was a minute gap on the joint on the port side but a swipe of filler and no sanding cured this in seconds. I followed photographs of ‘The Lace to represent the OD rudder and elevators but noted that the starboard elevator had lost almost all of its OD paint. I took the same approach as I had for the Identification Stripes and used Maskol to cover the dull aluminium paint before spraying OD. Removing the Maskol revealed the worn elevator in all its glory.
