The New Lindberg Releases, Yankee Lady

In the first place it appears their pet box-art builder has given up on painting cockpit framing, which is odd for the relatively simple Ju-88, with its' protruding framing.

For your information, I have enthusiastically purchased the following recent Lindberg re-releases:

• 1. Curtiss P6E Hawk
• 2. Curtiss Jenny
• 3. Junkers Ju-87
• 4. Junkers Ju-88
• 5. B-58 Hustler
• 6. Messerschmitt Me-262
• 7. B-17 (Firepower series)
• 8. B-17 (chromed)

My overall preferences for the older Lindberg kits are for the following reasons:

• The wings and tail surfaces fit perfectly, with the wings often having locking lugs as well as the left and right horizontal stabilizers being one piece. The B-58 even has a special peg molded into the vertical stabilizer to ensure positive vertical alignment. This minimizes the typical need for filler and sanding that is the common standard nowadays.
• Minimal, but adequate cockpit detail, with pilot/crew figures. In my opinion, the current cockpit/interior detail trend is overdone, especially since the average person can't see 90% of the work when the modeler is finished. It is my personal theory that this is because human figures are generally more difficult to correctly paint then the typical cockpit hardware.
• Although the panel lines, etc., are raised, they tend to be subtle, and are not heavy like the older Revell releases, and I prefer raised over engraved, as they do not fill as easily with paint, etc. Did you know it is common to "lose" the engraved panel lines over a bit of sanding and an extra coat of paint nowadays (as flowing paint tends to fill them), and have to re-scribe them? There is a whole specialized tool market for this problem alone.
• Their older monoplane kits have fully retracting landing gear, which gives me more options for display media.
• Their decal quality is excellent,and the subjects are large enough to work with if you want to change anything you don't like.

My history with Lindberg began with building their Curtiss Jenny in the '50's(which Aurora's release never came close to when it came to details) and the Curtiss Goshawk kits, all of which I have I have previously built, with the sole exception of the B-58, and including their later 1/72 scale German late-warplane releases. These included the FW-190D, Dornier Pfiel, and the He-160, which they might should consider adding to their current line.

In building the Ju-87, I was obliged to go to my personal reference library, and pull out Luftwaffe Squadrons, 1939-45 as a guide for both a better paint scheme as well as decal/marking placement. I do not know why, but neither the box art nor the instruction sheet was useful for correct marking placement.

Also, I don't know if he is aware of this, but both their He-111 and Ju-88 kits are inaccurately labeled as 1/72^nd scale. This actually made me reluctant to buy the Ju-88 right away, (I got the He-111 under a previous release) since I knew the old Lindberg kit was not 1/72 scale, and I prefer its features to any later released 1/72 scale kit. In actuality, both of these kits are 1/60^th scale (1/57^th to be exact), which in light of their correctly labeling your B-17 and B-58 kits as 1/64^th (I checked) is somewhat puzzling for me as to why "fudge" on these?

Also, their Ju-88's markings are nearly "dead-on" per Luftwaffe Squadrons, 1939-45, p. 53, with the exception of your omission of the tail markings (swastikas) as well as the under-wing letters typical of that era. This is kind of disappointing in light of your including the under-wing letter markings for the Ju-87 kit. I suggest that they might consider this as well. Also, with their 262 release, although the box art is typical of the camouflage used for that variant, for the specific unit marking decals provided in the kit, it is unfortunately very much off, per Luftwaffe Squadrons, 1939-45, and as usual the one in the book is much more striking. 

As for their recent B-17 releases, as we discussed yesterday, following is my evaluation.

The actual plane modeled by Lindberg was a late B-17F/early "G". The features that tell me this are:

1.     The chin turret is a limited-run GE model, as initially installed on the "F", not the Bendix model standard to the "G".

2.     The "cheek" gun ports are flush, which was characteristic to the "F", unlike the "bayed-out" gun port windows standard to the "G" model.

3.     The waist gun positions are directly opposite each other, as was typical to the "F" variant, unlike them being staggered on the standard "G" models.

The only feature that actually can distinguish this as a "G" model is the upper turret, which is shaped more like a high-crown baseball hat then that on the "F" model, which had a lower profile, with a flat top.

Also with this kit in particular the right-hand cheek gun port should be in the center, or second window position, not the front as on the left. This is in addition to the total omission of the typical small "skylight" windows that doubled as emergency escape hatches, over the pilot and co-pilot. I would think it would not be too much trouble to find a way to add these for future releases.

I appreciate the inclusion of the wing bomber-group markings in their nice decals sheets, however as I tried to mention yesterday over the phone, the letter under the plane's serial number on the tail should be normally marked on the fuselage as well.

I do not doubt the sincerity of the research his friend did on-line, but he really should have had someone check or review it before releasing these kits.

The Yankee Lady, for instance is actually a currently flying "show-bird", a function of an outfit that calls itself "The Yankee Air Force" (not unlike the Rebel Air Force) and does not necessarily accurately depict the actual in-use markings of any 381^st bomb group aircraft of the Eighth Air Force that I have actual WWII period photos of in my reference work "Fortress of the Skies, The B-17 Flying Fortress in Combat", as well as Allied Bombers of WWII. For your information, this book has 388 pages, including black-and-white as well as color photos, color plates and nose art illustrations for all variants of the B-17 used in WWII combat.

Other "proclivities" about ‘Lady's markings are that when the serial numbers were that long (this is a late "G" model, unlike either the Lindberg or Monogram kits, having a late-war tail gun position like the B-29's), they normally "ran off" the vertical stabilizer, and onto the rudder, with at least one digit marked on the rudder. Also, the owner placed the national marking on the fuselage is incorrectly behind the waist gunners' window along with his groups' designation (GD) being incorrectly to the left of the insignia, which I am skeptical of anyway. I mean, we do know what "GD" can stand for don't we?

Frankly, I think this is a bit of "wise guy" humor on Yankee Lady's owner's part. You see, these restored warbirds are at the owner's discretion, and do not have to be "pure-and-true" to history. You know the "Since I own it, I want it this way" personal perrogative kind of thing. The only example in the entire book that shows the national marking behind the waist gunner's window is for the right (starboard) side only, (which is opposite of your box art) and does not have the group designation behind it (to the left), but on the opposite side of the gunner's window (to the right), as well as the typical single letter designation from the lower tail fin. In all cases, on the left (port) side, the star and bar are in front of the gunner's window. So you see this warbird owner "cheated" all the way around, confusing your box art builder in the process.

The kit's decals are very nicely done, but they also include the show-bird's campaign badges depicted on the right side of the plane's nose. Definitely not a historical WWII feature.

As for their "Firepower Series" B-17, the only aircraft serial 42-34083 (which 234083 is an abbreviation of) in WWII was a Fairchild PT-19A which crashed in Texas, circa 1942, which added to the odd paint color designation in the kit's instructions (overall brown), seems to underscore this kit being a totally fictitious aircraft depiction.

So that leaves us with one accurate depiction of a current show-horse, with no attempt to necessarily replicate an actual historical aircraft on the part of its' owner, and an incorrectly painted-and-marked "phantom" B-17 (the de-icer boots on the wings are painted the wrong color as well, as when the vertical fin's boot was left bright, so were those on the wings).

Honestly I feel he could have done better with that one, especially considering some of the more humorous nose-art variants, like "Flak Eater" (ser. no. 44-6009), "MAN O WAR II HORSE-POWER LTD" (ser. No. 42-38083), "FLAK EVADER" ( ser. no. 43-38317).

Also, since this is a late F/early G model, I would suggest they stay with the low serial numbers as well, as all those with higher numbers were definitely late "G" models.

Just to ask a perfectly simple question, why is his "research guru" at least basically accurate for German but not American WWII bombers?

Tom T