Roberts Model

1/72 B-17G Picture Frame Model

Reviewed By  Phil Peterson, IPMS# 8739

MSRP: $24.95 Distributor's website: www.combatmodels.us We have a guy in the Salt Lake club who mounts half a kit on a plaque so he can display different marking options. This gives him two options for every kit (one facing left, one right). It is a great way to use up some of those extra decals you have in your stash plus you don’t have to worry about that pesky fuselage seam. Roberts Model has taken this approach a little differently. They are offering resin profile kits of several aircraft in 1/48 and 1/72 scale. The kit I received is the 1/72 B-17G. It comes with a one-piece fuselage casting, resin nameplate, vacuform frame and a sheet of heavy plastic to add support to the frame. There was no box but the resin parts come covered in bubble wrap.

Construction is very simple. Paint the fuselage, decal it and mount it in the vacuform frame. There is one page of instructions included but it isn’t really needed. You can create any type of background for the plane that you want, blue sky, cloudy, a map, squadron pictures, patches, etc. Your imagination is the limit. There was some flash on the plane that needed to be removed. I washed the resin as I have read others doing (having never worked with resin before) and then sprayed it with Wal-Mart brand aluminum spray paint. After drying I noticed some bubbling where the paint wasn’t sticking. So, out with the sandpaper and then rewash the model. I sprayed it again and still got some bubbling (but not nearly as bad as the first time), so I decided to move ahead. I didn’t have any B-17G markings in my decal bank, so I put out the call for help on several forums. "Ed S." on the whatifmodelers forum came through with a nice selection. Not long after I received the decals there was another modeler looking for the same thing, so I picked a couple options for me and paid the rest forward. Painting the model leaves two more choices, how to paint the wing root areas and the glass. I went with gray for the roots and clear blue for the windows, but they came out looking candied, so I painted over with light blue which I also used for the background. A Flying Fortress needs some weapons so what to use to represent the .50 cal machine guns. The tubing I have was too thin but I did have some floral wire which looked about right. So I cut six pieces and insert into predrilled holes in the turrets, waist and nose positions. I cut the backing to fit inside the frame for support. I picked double-sided tape to mount the fuselage and name plate as I liked the stand-off look it gave (and my attempts at super gluing didn’t work out too well). Drill a hole in the back to mount it and on the wall she goes. The end result looks pretty good to me and makes me wonder how some of the single-engine fighters would look. Thanks to Roberts Model and IPMS/USA for this review sample.