Maquette’s B-17F 1:72 - by “Tuk” :
For more pics, please try my latest page :
http://www.falconbbs.com/model34c.htm
Enjoy!
Me thinks “Tuk” needs to work on his skills as far as fitting clear pieces. The canopy & the glass on the left hand wing are pretty poor fits & should have been faired in better. The props are missing the normal yellow tips but it may be correct to references ?
Regards, Rick
Well, maybe aircraft is not Tuk’s specialty. He’s just practicing aircraft building. I don’t know whether Maquette’s clear windows fit well with their frames or not. But the instruction sheet is quite poor. It didn’t mention about the yellow tips, so Tuk had no way to know.
Model Maniac,
Yeah, maybe Tuk needs more practice building aircraft because I know his other work is really good. This one looks good too, but like you said, maybe he just needs more practice. Now go buy more aircraft kits and have Tuk practice on those kits. [:)]
Many thanks for your comments, m1garand! Tuk will continue to build more and build everything from warplanes, warships, figures and dioramas. As for armor I let him try a small T-26 to see how he’ll paint and weather it, and is that comparable to Art Instructor his brother. As for figures painting, I think they’re neck to neck…
This might be a stupid question (yea, yea, I know - the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask), but isn’t the Maquette kit the old Frog kit of the E? (the one that got released and then immediately thereafter Frog went belly up)
I don’t know for sure but historically I don’t think so. Frog was a Western Europe country’s company while Maquette is an Eastern Europe one. At the time Frog went out of business - probably long time ago - the Berlin Walls were still there. I don’t think there were much cooperation or even contact between companies inside and outside the iron curtain. The chance for Maquette to takeover or inherit Frog’s molds was very unlikely.
Just my $0.02
It is possible this is the old Frog kit, when Frog when bust the moulds were bought by Novo a russian company. There was a lot of headlines in the press here in the UK that the Soviets had managed to acquire the moulds of a 1/72 Harrier
Thanks for your information, barrovian! Still I wonder how come that was possible. Did Frog has the B-17F too? Maquette offers both E and F.
It is Frog’s B-17E, and the fit is very, very poor, so the gaps are excusable. Maquette also produced the Boeing Model 307, and included Frogs B-17E wings, along with their own little HIDEOUS rendition of a Model 307 fuselage. Oh how I wish a quality company would produce a good Model 307!
Frankly, I wish some good Samaritan would buy up these Frog molds and just destroy them. I see these horrible little nightmares released and re-released over and over again, and they never get any better. Truly some of the worst kits ever made in my opinion. Most of the Matchbox kits aren’t much better (if any).
I have build the B-17 in the 48 scale and that was tring, can’t even imagine what it would be like doing it in 72 scale. Take my hat off to you mate. By the way what is the wing span on that scale??
Thanks; SteveK
Yep, many of the old FROG kits are quite dire by today’s standards. However, they did produce some kits of some interesting subjects, which only now are being made available by others. As for Matchbox, same thing, except, their kits were better IMO, except for being more ‘toylike’. However, Revell, who own most (all?) of the old Matchbox kits have cleaned the moulds, and produced some reasonable kits. Their 1/32 range includes loads of old Matchbox stuff, as well as 1/72 tanks, etc. OTOH, FROG went out of business about the time Matchbox started, so, one would expect Matchbox to be better.
Many thanks for more comments and information since my previous reply. The wingspan of this B-17F is around 17" and it costed just $10.95. Other producers may build better ones, but they sure cost several times more…