Several weeks ago I acquired the Revellogram kit of the B-17 G, the same kit that I built at age 14. Then it was a toy, now it gives me an opportunity to remember my uncle who taught air gunners at Camp Roberts, CA and never made it overseas.

Since I just acquired a stable mate of sorts, the B-29I believe I should make a pair of dios. One featuring the B-29 will center around the loading pit where the weapon was loaded into the bombay. I want to show the ordies going about their tasks with the ground crew giving everything one last check before chocks are pulled and the bird taxis out to begin it s12 hour plus mission . This will entail converting it to a "Silverplate" version of the aircraft.

The ubquitous B-17 dio will show a heavily damagedn early -G model beging surveyed after the mission by the ground crew and air crewmen as well who are nervously waiting on the verdict -- can she be reapired or will she be consigned to the bone yard where she will be stripped for parts to keep others flying.

Both ground and air crew will be a mixture of Eduard, ICM,Jaguar, Verlinden, and possibly CMK. Structures will be scratchbuilt, I have begun a control tower found on US bases in England, at the moment it is bein framed (like a real building). Should have bought stock in Evergreen, Plastruct, and Grandt Line!!! Sorry one and all pics to follow, camera trouble at the moment. Come back next time for the next episode of "So that's what you're doing down in the basement..."

What scale are your planned Dios to be ? Even in 1/72 they will be pretty big

I'm planing on 1/48 scale for all. They will be huge, but I am hoping that in the longrun the effort will be worthwhile.

They will be indeed huge, but glorious too. I wish you the best of luck, and will be watching with great interest.

In 1/48 scale, it will indeed be huge. It takes a lot of planning to pull it off. One of the most important parts of the planning is "where do you plan on displaying it?" Just think about how big the base will be.

I have the B-17, unbuilt. No room to display it though. I know it will be glorious when finished.

Interesting project. It will surely need some display space. Pictures to be shared is a must on this one

Good luck with the project - looking forward to see more

Struck my first stumbling block on the B-29 already, thankfully nothing major. It will however necessitate rethinking the project and abandoning the idea of depicting the weapons being loaded into the aircraft for the mision. I found the decals for Great Artiste at Squadron on Comsale for $1.99. This was also a member of the 509th CG and participated in the bombing missions, just not as the plane with the weapon. I will proceed with Plan B, aka something less ambitious -- say ground crewmen giving the aircraft a once over before take off to meet up with Col. Sweeney on the flight to Kokura (Primary target of the 9 August mission) - Nagasaki was the alternate.

One minor point, I think you will find that Capt. Frederick C. Bock flew "The Great Artiste" on the August 9th mission. Col. Sweeney and Capt. Bock switched planes. Col. Sweeney and his crew flew "Bockscar" on that mission (not that,that will make any difference in your Dio).

Oh, and the ship didn't carry the nose art for "The Great Artiste" until after the mission ?

"It was originally assigned the victor number 9 but on August 1 was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 89 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th BG aircraft. It had its nose art painted after the Nagasaki mission, and the name purportedly referred to undisclosed talents of the bombardier, Capt. Beahan."

Chuck,
You're right on that point, I mispoke. The only A/C that carried nose art was Enola Gay, clearly an illustration of RHIP -- the usual PIC of that A/C flew the 6 August mission as co-pilot.

Not much progress on either of my project, however I did find a set of ground crew figures to add to them, both A/C can overwhelm too few figures... The ICM USAAF figures I ordered came in, they're nice enough but I wish there were a few more to the set. On a brighter note the decals for the B-29 came in and I have the Hasegawa 'Follow Me' jeep for the B-17, it convienently comes the 91st Bomb Group decals (guess the modelling gods have smiled upon me here); the Cleatrac is going to labor intensive to make it look good, and the M-6 Bomb trailer needs work as well. That Tamiya deuce and a half is calling to me every time I pass it in the LHS, it's begging to be included... Camera is up again, pics to follow possibly tomorrow.