The one that I was keen to get finished was the Anigrand 1/144 Boeing B-17C. My original hope was to make it as a RAF Fortress 1 but in the end I could not get together the decals to do it and had to settle for a B-17C of the 2nd Bombardment Group around the time that the US entered the war. This is not an easy kit to make. I'm beginning to wonder which kit maker is worse, Anigrand or Mach 2.
Here are two little kits that came with the B-17. The Ryan FR-1 bears a passing resemblance to the real thing.
As it comes out of the box the Beech UC-43 (military version of the Beech 17) looks almost nothing like the real thing and this one bears the passing resemblance only after I put a lot of work into it. I had originally planned to finish this as the Beech JB (US Navy version) but the drab olive hides all the problems with this model much better than a bare metal finish would have. (That's why they call it camouflage, I guess.)
Opps! A propeller blade seems to have fallen off. No idea where it went and making and attaching a replacement in 1/144 is going to be a challenge.
Just to prove that I can make models of ordinary aeroplanes, here's the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire IX
Finally for this month, here is one version of the Heller 1/72 Alouette III, the SA.319 in Armee de l'Air markings straight out of the kit box. Something went wrong with the gaps between the cockpit transparencies which I did not see until I did the unmasking right towards the end. By they it was too late to do anything about it. This little one is not going to win any competitions for sure. (Not that I'd enter one.)
