WHERE TO START?

I came from a USAF family and have a lifelong love of aviation, in particular WWII aviation. I never had the eyesight or, I suspect, the physical aptitude to be a pilot myself, but a boy and then a man can still dream, can't he?

On and off I've been making plastic model aircraft since the 1950s, and naturally gravitated to 1/48th scale (1/4" = 1').  If it was built or flew between, say 1935 to 1955, I'm interested in it, especially if it flew between, say, 1937 and 1949.

For the past couple of years I've been engaged in the build of a lifetime, which is to say Luscious Lady, a B-17F of U.S. Eighth Army Air Force, specifically the 303rd Bombardment Group (H), and its 427th Bombardment Squadron.

The Lady was flown by the Robert J. Hullar crew on both of the infamous Eighth Air Force ball bearing raids against Schweinfurt, Germany on August 17, 1943 and October 14, 1943. You can read more about the airplane and the build here. (Pssst, don't blow my cover!)

Since there aren't going to be any additions to my display case while that massive project continues, I thought I would do posts of my other builds, and the original aircraft they replicate, while discussing the history behind them.  Of course, being a modeler, I'll also discuss the builds themselves, and how and why many aren't "out of the box" (or "OOB" as we modelers call it.)

If you're interested, by all means follow me, but be forewarned that, just as "I build for myself," I write for myself here too.  This blog is mainly a retrospective of my involvement in replicating a fascinating era in aviation history, in 1/48th.