Memphis Belle restoration

The Geneseo B-17 was in the movie, but didnt play the Belle, that was the Imperial War Museum's B-17 based at Duxford where most of the ground scenes were filmed. She's a G model which needed her chin turret removed and the tail gun position modified as well as the new paint for the role.

Pretty fascinating video. In particular, the story of the Wilder movie.

I really liked how they drilled down to a specific date for setting up the restoration.

Actually, “Hells Angels” from the 303rd Bomb Group was the first B-17 in the 8th AF to complete 25 combat missions. This happened six days before the Belle flew her final combat sortie.

http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/ha-vs-mb.pdf

The left fuselage star is crooked.  That's going to cause some fits to modellers. 

Even the United States Air Force has trouble matching shades of Olive Drab. 

Great video, thank you for sharing. 

I've been keeping an eye on the restoration process via the museums facebook page.  I've gotten to see Movie Memphis Belle who calls Geneseo NY home.  Plan on seeing her again this summer.  I'm hoping to get to the museum one of these days and meet the Memphis Belle. 

Classic example of the disconnect between good intentions and reality. My friend Airman Jim watched her rot for years in Memphis.

He briefly got into aircraft modeling, we built the Academy one together. But after that he switched hobbies to tube radio. Probably couldn't stand my "modeling self".