I think (hope?) a kit like this will make all the enthusiastic 1/32 scale modelers realize they have all been led astray by the revival of 1/32 scale about ten years ago... This, it seems to me, started in earnest (from what I can remember) with the Tamiya 1/32 scale A6M5 Zero in 1999... Truly a "seminal" kit I realize now...

This B-17 kit has a fuselage LENGTH of slightly over two feet, meaning the shelves for it will have to be very close to that deep, or it's a ceiling hanger, or it has to occupy an entire table in a room... Half or a quater of a small room in other words...

People will then hopefully realize this scale is strictly for fighters, or barely above that in size, and lacks any real versatility... This is exactly why I think it should not have been so forcefully revived, or popular, in the first place, but what do I know...

I hope many of these huge B-17 models are built, because I think after having a house encumbered for a few years with this annoying monstrosity, many modelers will have second thoughts about how much fun that great idea is... Hopefully this will hurt 1/32 scale in the long run enough that the focus will come back to 1/48th, and we will finally emerge from the benign neglect that TOTS has suffered from for at least 10 years, and more like 30 for anything really "big"... (Unless you don't consider malformed kits like the AZ models Ki-48 "neglect"...)

The annoying thing is that many new 1/48th releases are desperately inferior to 1/32 in quality and accuracy, even up to the supposedly high level of the tubular-cowled Eduard FW-190As (or the narrow-canopied AM Avengers), and even when they are not as badly made as that, they are very often of completely obscure oddball subjects, provided they do not exceed much the size of a fighter (because not exceeding a modest size is VERY important in 1/48th you see: The market can't bear anything too big: Too risky an investment... Gosh; the cost of tooling; the lack of space in customer's houses you know... Roll eyes...).

It's especially annoying to see this when you have been hearing for decades that the reason big 1/48th WWII models were so rare was that the marketplace could'nt bear such big kits... Sure we have had a few of those in 1/48th in the past 10-12 years: A poorly done FW-200, an even far worse B-25, and a few not very sexy transports or flotplanes like the Ju-52, Catalina and the way overpriced C-47... For decency sakes, let's only briefly mention the gut-wrenching FM Halifax or the inaccurate (fuselage depth) He-177... Hem...

Even Mr Tamiya weighted in on this at Nuremberg in 2008, and said openly on video that such big kits could not be profitably made anymore... "Tooling is just too expensive" were his actual words...

All of a sudden when it comes to 1/32, the "market rules" don't apply anymore... Maybe because people's appetite for pointless novelty really has no rules...

So while I am still waiting, for a third consecutive decade, on a non-egg plane-like 1/48th B-24 Liberator, a neatly buildable 1/48th B-29, or a 1/48th C-46 Commando, Il-4, C-54, H8K "Emily", Ki-67 Peggy, Stirling, Sunderland, SB-2, TU-2, Ki-21 Sally or Coronado, I just hope that the fans of 1/32 scale will now experience fully the adage: "Be careful what you wish for"...

Gaston

It wouldn't surprise me to see them do other variants of the B-17 if this one sells well enough...I would think an F for sure. Then we can see if we can talk them into a 1/32 Lanc!!!

I hope many of these huge B-17 models are built, because I think after having a house encumbered for a few years with this annoying monstrosity, many modelers will have second thoughts about how much fun that great idea is... Hopefully this will hurt 1/32 scale in the long run enough that the focus will come back to 1/48th.

I said my eyes are playing up, when i first read it and looked at the link, i thought Windnuts! its Windscale you dummy!

Hi there

It does look great - but I can't help but agree with Andreas about the missed opportunity to represent the overlapped skinning.

I have to admit I don't quite understand where Gaston is coming from on this one. While the Fort will be too big for me, it's only about 4" bigger in each dimension than his 1:48 Monogram B-29 which he's shown us under construction. That's always defeated my available workspace too, so it's sat in my Stash for years, but I live in hope!

All the best

Rowan

It does look great - but I can't help but agree with Andreas about the missed opportunity to represent the overlapped skinning.

It is true 1/32 may be more in line with people's actual building rate, but you really have to see a 1/32 scale Thunderchief (same lenght as the B-17), to really appreciate what a modeling dead end this is...

They're TOTALLY impractical-- just like the 1/72nd U-boat, Gato-class sub and Flower-class corvette kits in my stash.

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They're TOTALLY impractical-- just like the 1/72nd U-boat, Gato-class sub and Flower-class corvette kits in my stash.

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Bill,
This may not be in your stash, but don't forget the TOTALLY impractical 1/35th scale Dora railray gun. As an armor builder when I first heard about it I thought "Not for me, but TO EACH HIS OWN."

Which is the way it should be in this hobby. Demand and profits will drive what the manufacturers produce.

Keith

Bill,
This may not be in your stash, but don't forget the TOTALLY impractical 1/35th scale Dora railray gun. As an armor builder when I first heard about it I thought "Not for me, but TO EACH HIS OWN."

Which is the way it should be in this hobby. Demand and profits will drive what the manufacturers produce.

Keith