B-17G Flying Fortress "D-Day Doll" Limited Edition

Published on
January 26, 2016
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$47.99
Product / Stock #
02170
Company: Hasegawa - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: Hobbico
Box Art

The B-17 Flying Fortress was one of the best-known bombers of World War Two. Being able to withstand large amounts of battle damage and still come home endeared the aircraft to its crews.

This release by Hasegawa is an aged kit but still a joy to build. It features a new set of decals, overall good fit, and lightly raised panel lines. The light grey plastic has some sink marks, the worst being the backs of the propeller blades. The kit contains 97 parts and comes in a nice box with a sturdy card stock bottom and a nice glossy top with beautiful box art.

Although this kit was received in good condition, one of the propellers had a blade broken off. While I was able to fix that one, my kitten Amelia decided to chew up another. I had to go to the spares box to find a replacement for that one.

The props, as I stated, have ejector pin marks on their back sides near the hubs, but most of that can be sanded out. The pilot's and copilot’s seats have marks on them too, which would be covered up if you opt to install the pilot figures. I added seat belts made of tape to hide them. The interior is sparse by today's standards, but includes a cockpit floor, rear bulkhead, instrument panel, and a nose compartment floor. The kit comes with three figures---two seated and one standing.

There are seats for the pilot, copilot, navigator, and bombardier, plus a navigator’s table; there is no wheel well or bomb-bay detail. The wing- and stabilizer-to-fuselage joints fit well, but there are gaps in the wing leading edge-to-nacelle joints. The tail wheel is molded to the tail gear, and several antennas are molded on.

The model looks like a B-17, but could use more detail for most areas. The ball turret is split down the middle with no way to make the seams go away on the round sighting window. The upper nose window should be a little larger so I enlarged mine. The kit could use a wall to close off the landing light, but I chose not to include it on this build.

The instructions are clear and simple, and give two options with the same name, "D-Day Doll". The options are a wartime paint job and a post-war one, the only difference being the post war nose art is larger and a little different. The decals are thin and settled well in most places with setting solution, except for the green strips around the fuselage. They left wrinkles and didn't like the transition around the dorsal fin so I had to slice and touch up a few spots with paint. Overall a nice model can be had, and the build time is low, but state of the art it’s not.

My thanks to IPMS/USA, Hasegawa, and Hobbico for the opportunity to review this kit of my favorite aircraft.

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