My new-tool Airfix B-17G

[Airfixfan69]

I got my new-tooled B-17G last Dec 12 and I can say that the excitement I had on opening the box is the same as the excitement I had when I opened my old mold Airfix B-17G way back in 1972! 

Upon inspection of the parts and the instruction sheet, it looks like the parts and details I was looking for in the old kit are now included. I will find out more when I start the build.

The big let-down for me is the lack of raised rivet detail. Panel details were represented with recessed lines. If you woulld look at a B-17G photo or actual aircraft you certainly will not miss the vertical rows of raised rivets intersecting the horizontal panel lines which are also lined with raised rivets making an impression of square panel details. If the lines, representing the overlap of aluminum skin, are a millimeter thick the diameter of the rivet heads lining them are about five times bigger. How come a more prominent detail was omitted. The rivets of the old mold B-17G were very much criticized as over-sized. New technology could have made it smaller, better than none at all.

At the moment I am in the process of a parrallel build of 1/72 old mold Airfix, Academy and Hasegawa  B-17G and will include this new- tool kit. Also now I'm planning to build a cross-kit of the old and new Airfix Fort using the old kit's fuselage and the wings of new-tool kit. The rivet pattern on the fuselage of the old kit is fairly accurate and I will just have to  modify areas that need corrections.

A plus with the new kit is in the inclusion of H2S (RAF undernose radome) and the long and short H2X radomes  (USAAF). Thank you Airfix.

[John Symmons]

Did it smell the same, I seem to remember the old Airfix boxed kits had an odd smell when new, that was not found on the poly-bag releases?

Remember we do this for fun     John the Pom

[peebeep]

Rivets went out of fashion aeons ago. More recently they've come back into fashion, but not in a big way. I suggest you get yourself a rivet tool and have a gander at this video by Spencer Pollard:

[Airfixfan69]

Thanks John for bringing out the smell of the boxed Airfix kits and I think this is the first time in about 50 years of my modeling that this was mentioned. I've noticed it back then but dismissed it as natural for newly opened kits. Yup the new release smells different, smells fresh plastic.

Thank you Paul for the link. Is there any for doing raised rivets?

[peebeep]

HGW Positive rivets. These are in the form of a decal, you can watch this video to see how it's done:

There's no dedicated set for a B-17, unlike the Fw 190 in the video, so you'd need to make your own patterns from the generic sets they do. Use the Hannant's search to see what they do. You would need several sheets to cover a B-17.

[Airfixfan69]

Yaaay! Just what I need. Thanks Paul!

[ironsides]

HGW Positive rivets. These are in the form of a decal, you can watch this video to see how it's done:

There's no dedicated set for a B-17, unlike the Fw 190 in the video, so you'd need to make your own patterns from the generic sets they do. Use the Hannant's search to see what they do. You would need several sheets to cover a B-17.

Thanks interesting video amazing what people will come up with, theres also Archer Fine Decals but this method looks superior.... 😉

[bobster0001]

 Hi,

I agree, seems w/the new tool technolgy they could include rivet detail. Some kits do, lots of them don't. Even recessed rivet detail would show up nicely w/a panel wash, which is what I'll end up with if I decide to add that detail! I'm not understanding why they choose to omit it totally! Come on, they could to it better back in the 60s! For the cost of these kits today I for one would expect rivet detail. Otherwise it is a very nice kit. I like it, but some rivet detail would go a long way to enhance the detail. And since when did rivets go out of fashion, what the heck would have held the aircraft together? Models are supposed to be realistic.

I bought my kit a little over a month ago, shipped from Poland to US. By the time I got it there were a dozen small pieces floating in the bag. Upon opening it half of those pieces were broken!  In my opinoion due to the fact that the box is way to large for the kit, and all the trees are stuffed in one bag! Who knows how many times that parts bag got slammed from one end of the box to the other during shipping. A couple of 2 cent airbags to fill the empty space would have prevented this problem. A very minimal cost to the kit makers. Airfix is not the only kit maker I have had this same problem with. It seems only common sense to me, something that seems sadly lacking these days!

I must say that Airfix was wery prompt at replacing the broken parts, and their service was quite fast and courteous. But I think this type of issue could be avoided with a bit more thought into proper packaging. I'll admit that "packaging" is better than in the "old" days, there was no packaging, everything was just loose in the box. But, then again the kits were about 1/10 the price they are today! For the average kit prices today I at least expect decent packaging. Buy the High Dollar kits and you get extremely good packaging! Trumpeter, Dragon & Tamiya kits have exceptionally good packaging.

I don't see any topics about "packaging". I cant be the only one that has had this issue.

[david_fleming]

Stand 20 feet away from the real thing and tell me how many rivets you can see.

 

Rivets in 1/72 are grossly overscale, regardless who does them

[Airfixfan69]

Stand 20 feet away from the real thing and tell me how many rivets you can see.

 

Rivets in 1/72 are grossly overscale, regardless who does them

Stand 20 feet away from a real B-17 and tell me how many panel lines you can see. If this will be the basis, not much surface detail can be incorporated in a 1/72 model kit since not much surface detail can be seen from that distance.

The question is why is it that the panel lines which are finer than the raised rivets on a B-17G were shown in the model and the more prominent raised rivets were not.

[Kenneth ONeill]

...and why do spray-gunners insist on accentuating panel lines between fixed panels anyway? I can just about understand accentuating access covers since they're joints between separate parts that can't be stoppered or painted over on the actual subject.