Forty years ago, I built Monogram’s 1/48 scale B-17 and somewhere in my stash is Revell’s Memphis Belle, so I never thought I’d see another B-17 in 1/48 scale.
But HK Models has proven me wrong. Its first kit is referred to as an “early Production B-17G, with cheek guns, a chin turret, the flat tail gun position (rather than the Cheyenne ball assembly), and enclosed waist positions that are not staggered.
The gray plastic parts feature delicate recessed rivets and crisp panel lines. The windows are as clear as water and the frames include raised rivets.
A small photo-etched metal (PE) fret provides the pilots’ seat belts and wing intake grills. No ammunition feeds or belts are included.
The beautifully printed decals sheet gives two marking options, one olive drab over neutral gray, the other bare aluminum. Both have stunning nose art with the best color blending I’ve seen.
The navigator’s compartment and the tail gun position are molded separately from the fuselage, which should permit other variants to be kitted in the future. The upper fuselage is also molded separately with the joints falling on panel lines — no upper fuselage seams to clean up!
Detail in the flight deck and bomb bay is impressive, but the instrument decal does not match the molded detail on the panel.
Unfortunately, myriad ejector-pin marks mar the interior, many in hard-to-reach spots. The good news is if you close up the bomb bay and the crew doors, the only ones that need to be dealt with are the ones seen through the nose glazing.
Construction continues working aft section by section. The level of detail is impressive and it’s a shame how little of it will be seen once you close up the fuselage.
You need to remove sections of the fuselage sides to accept the waist position windows and the cut mars are clearly indicated inside the fuselage halves. I left the waist and radio room glass off until final assembly to avoid damaging the guns.
I had a tough time aligning the tail gunner’s floor when I followed the instructions. I suggest adding it before joining the tail and fuselage. I used a swipe of putty on the nose-to-fuselage and the tail-to-fuselage joints to correct small steps that may have resulted from modeler error. A small step along the lower fuselage joint also needed work.
The ball turret comprises 19 parts; better mounting points for the interior parts would have made assembly less complicated. The instructions did not show Part H1 being installed, but I believe this may be the turret controls. Even with all of those parts, the kit does not provide ammo boxes or feed chutes.
The top turret goes together quickly, but I widen the opening in the fuselage for fit.
I needed to open and thin the firewalls to accept the engine mounts.
The exhausts and superchargers can be painted separately if you wait to add the completed engines and cowls during final assembly. That was when I discovered that my modifications left the engine mounts slightly off-center causing a fit problem. The cowl flaps slide over the back of the engines and then are glued to the cowl rings. The entire power egg is then slid over the mounts. With the mounts slightly off-center, the cowls wanted to push back off the nacelles and droop forward. If I had left the mounts loose rather than gluing them, I believe the cowls would have centered themselves and relieved the pressure pushing them off of the nacelles.
I painted my B-17 in subassemblies with Mr. Color lacquers, then I added the wings and horizontal stabilizers.
Fit the wings over the tabs on the fuselage and then slide them aft and they wedge into place. The mounting system is so tight that the wing roots didn’t need glue.
The fit of the horizontal stabilizers is perfect, although they have a slight dihedral when they should be flat.
The markings went down over a coat of Pledge Floor Gloss without problems, quite impressive for such large decals. Check references for the markings on the props; I followed the instructions, but I think the stencils and logos should be closer to the hubs.
The kit provides the option of either raised or lowered landing gear. An image of exactly where the drag-links mount inside the wells would have been helpful.
Then it was time for final assembly adding the antennas, gun barrels, waist and radio room windows, exhausts, and the engines as described earlier.
The finished model is impressive with a wingspan over 26 inches and is worthy of the title Flying Fortress. I couldn’t help but compare my experience with the HK kit to my rosy memories of building the Monogram B-17 40 years earlier. I wondered if the recessed panel lines were worth the price tag ($140 vs. $40). That was until I added the wings.
The superior fit of the subassemblies and the quality of the decals are worth every cent.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the September 2020 issue.