Greetings from the Energy Capital of the World! My name is Jay and I live in Houston, Texas. Most of my hobby has been devoted to collecting the Corgi 1/72 diecast USAAC fighters and bombers of WWII. However, trying to find the Corgi 1/72 B-17G Flying Fortress model has become all but impossible due to their limited production runs. Even when one comes up for auction on ebaY, it is like trying to purchase a Cadillac. The bids quickly spiral way out of my price range. Ebay sells many 1/72 scale plastic models of the B-17G by a variety of manufacturers. I would like to hear recommendations from the collective membership of this site as to which of these 5 companies produces the best, most detailed versions of the B-17G: Academy, Airfix, Hasegawa, Monogram or Revell. Any recommendations of other manufacturers of a 1/72 B-17G would be gratefully accepted. Thank you for your attention.

Revells new B-17G in 1/72nd is the best kit in quite a while. The Academy kits are okay but need some work, for example the bombadier's seat and cockpit really need to be redone. Also replacing the gun turrets is a good idea. The Hasegawa kit is nice, if you can find it, although it is older and has raised panel lines. The Airfix kit is ancient and I would avoid it. To my knowledge the only Monogram B17G is in 1/48th scale. An old kit, it does build up nicely.

Hope this helps, and welcome.

I got the 1/48 Revell kit for Christmas.



I do believe this kit is made with the same molds as the old Monogram kit. I built the Monogram kit years ago as a gift for a friend. I built it stock out of the box and, I must say, it built very nicely and looked great when completed. Currently there are lots of aftermarket details available for both the 1/48 and 1/72 Revell kits. I am planning on adding as much detail to my 1/48 as I can. I have seen good reviews of Revell's 1/72 B-17G and with all the detailing available for it, I don't think you could go wrong with the kit.

Thank you for your recommendations. For sale on ebaY is a MPC 1/72 B-17G model #1201. Your opinion?

I would avoid it. Its from, IIRC, the 1970s. I would put it in the same class as the Airfix or old Matchbox (the MPC kit may actually be a rebox of the Airfix)

It is indeed the old Monogram kit. Builds quite nice OOB, but there is plenty of stuff to add. It has held up well over the years.

I really enjoyed building the Monogram kit. I presented it to an old friend of mine who was a B-17 crewman in WWII. Looking forward to building the kit again and especially to super detailing it.

Here are some reviews online of the various kits:
Airfix (and MPC, which used the same plastic)
Revell(New Revell Germany kit) Another review of the same kit by our very own Camogirl.
Academy
Matchbox
Revell USA did a B-17F in the bad old days. This kit is even less detailed than the Airfix, and really should be avoided.
There don't appear to be any online reviews of the Hasegawa kit. Apart from raised panel lines it's similar to the Academy in terms of detail, and for many years was the B-17 to get. It'll still look good when built with care.