B-17

[jankees 917]

This was done on request, the original was a B-17E operating out of Mareeba, Queensland in 1943.

[mutley 4,498]

A classic "JanKees"

Superb.

[jankees 917]

and two more requests:

"the daylight Ltd", which crashed in Mareeba:

and "yankee doodle", which also crashed, with Lt Gene Rodenberry as pilot. He went on to create the Star Trek TV series.

[mutley 4,498]

It's sad to hear that these beauties crashed but these repaints help to the memory live on.

[jankees 917]

These last three paints are now available at OZx, I hope you'll enjoy them!

[jankees 917]

another request: the 'Pink Lady', that was recently grounded....too bad..

[RB16015 0]

TRuly amazing work JK

[mike H 456]

Very nice love your work. Well Done

[jankees 917]

same aircraft as the last, but at the start of its life:

both paints are now available on OZx: http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1493-a2a-b-17g-the-pink-lady/

[jankees 917]

beware of the Hun in the Sun!!!

[jankees 917]

B17F 41-24585 "Wulfe Hound" flew with the 303rd BG from the UK until it was forced to make an emergency landing within enemy territory on 12 december 1945. It was not damaged very much, and the Germans managed to get it airborne again. It was given a yellow underside and the markings DL+XC and was extensively tested at Rechlin airfield. It was also sent on a tour of Luftwaffe fighterbases in France, to make the pilots there with the weak and strong points of the B-17. Afterwards, it was transferred to KG200, a squadron for all kinds of clandestine missions. It was destroyed during an American airraid on Oranienburg Airfield near Berlin in april 1945.

Here's a few pics of a repaint of Wulfe Hound I was asked to do for the A2A B-17:

and the original:

[stu7708 244]

Great paint..

The first image with german markings did make me wonder so thanks for the deeper info on it...

[mutley 4,498]

I like that repaint JK, very distinctive.

The background info is interesting too, especially its demise being destroyed by the American's in that air raid.

[Gunnar18 0]

Very nice work Jan! :icon_thumbup:

I've started to paint 2 liveries - the «Sally B» (old color scheme from mid eighties) and «Betty Jane»

Not quite finished, as I have to look closer at the rear of «Sally B» :blush:

[jankees 917]

Wulfe Hound is now available on OZx: http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1554-a2a-b-17g-wulfe-hound-luftwaffe/

[jankees 917]

here's another B-17, "Cheri" of the 91st BG:

it still needs some more work, but hey, it was only its first flight..

[mutley 4,498]

I'm liking the red patches :001_th_smiles89:

[jankees 917]

and what about the old B-17F wing then?

[mutley 4,498]

>and what about the old B-17F wing then?

Got it :001_th_smiles89: I wasn't sure how much it was work in progress, looks great!

[jankees 917]

it's now on OZx, happy flying!

[jankees 917]

B-17G-10-VE 42-40000 first received the name Quad Zero, when she started flying with the 91st BG, but as the ground crew filled out the maintenance forms with the usual three digit code of '000', the aircraft acquired a new name of 'Just Nothing' to go with the new noseart by Tony Starcer, based on a Varga's drawing in Esquire of december 1943.

it was part of the 3rd raid on the ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt on 24 february 1944. The debriefing was more intense than usual, since the intelligence officers wanted to know every detail about the damage. The story goes that the tail gunner of 'Just Nothing', Bob Smith, got so fed up with the endless questions that he snapped that he was sure they had hit the target, and that he could prove it. After the explosion below, something had ripped through the fuselage and he had grabbed a handful of it, at which he threw a handful of ball bearings on the table!

'Just Nothing' completed 21 missions, but was hit by flak on a mission to Hamm on 22 April 1944 while flying lead. Although 10 parachutes were seen, two crew members, including the pilot, Captain Hesse, died.

[jankees 917]

A while ago, I was asked to do a repaint of one of the better known 91st BG B-17, 42-3190 "Nine O Nine". Seatac kindly provided me with some nice photographs of the present-day 909, and I finally started. I thought I'd show a bit of progress here.

First I drew the noseart in Illustrator:

and then I applied that to the model, together with some of the mision markings:

mmm, doesn't look too good yet, part of the noseart is missing, and that top row of bomb markings looks terrible...back to the drawing board..

noseart is better, but not quite right yet

bombs are better, but still far from right, with those different sizes, and cut outs... back to the drawing board

bombs look better, but when I add the mission numbers, I'm still in trouble. Too bad you can't read the numbers, took me a while to figure out which goes where...

Note the lighter, more weathered paint btw, below too, looks real good I think

but the noseart looks much better, all I need to add is Tony Starcer's name.

Note that 909 flew 140 missions in the end, and the Collins foundation aircraft shows that number, but I want to paint it with a few less.

909 completed 126 missions without an abort due to mechanical problems (a feat which gained M/Sgt Rollin Davies, its crew chief, a Bronze Star), and so I thought I'd paint it as it lookedjust before those 126 misions. You guys can fly the remaining missions...

So that is progress so far, more later.

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks for the update JanKees,

Does drawing the art in Illustrator give you a better result than Photoshop or is it just a better tool for hand-drawing?

It's a shame that looking close the image deteriorates so much by the time it reaches our screen, but at normal viewing distance it looks fantastic. I had the same problem with my (simple) ATWC repaint.

She shaping up to be a great looking bird.

Cheers,

Joe

[jankees 917]

don't you just love lazy sundays...

Yes Joe, for line drawings like this one, I prefer using Illustrator. Just easier on the vectors..

Now some final touches on the nose:

we continue with the rest of the aircraft, first the tail, then the wings:

Coming along nicely, don't you think? Maybe a bit more paint scratching on the engines?

Please note that this is not meant to look like the B-17 of the Collings Foundation, but rather like the original.

I've done 'only' 124 mission markings, so you guys will need to fly two more for Sgt Davis' Bronze Star, and in total 16 more before the end of the war..

[brett 2,316]

Pretty impressive, the story behind the aircraft markings, the pilot and crew and your usual extra fine detailed paint job. I think she looks great.