Scan above is blurry.....actual decals are very clearly printed.

Mike Grant Decals

1/48 B-17F's

product # MG 48-040  $7

Review by Steve Bamford on July 28 2004

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This new decal sheet from Mike Grant Decals features 3 early B-17F’s from the Seattle assembly lines.  This decal sheet is a silk screened just like other decals and is not an ALPS printed decal sheets such as some of the limited release Mike Grant decals.

The decals on the 1/48 example before me are contained on 2 decal sheets…..the B-17 is a big plane.   

The first is the B-17F 41-24381 ‘Panama Hattie’ with the 63rd BS / 43rd BG in the Pacific Theatre of Operations.  This aircraft was Olive Drab on top and Neutral Grey on the underside.  This particular aircraft didn’t have the upper nose blister.  The nose art features a sexy looking red head with ample breasts wearing a low cut black dress.  A second nose art decal is included for the right side, although it is not know if ‘Panama Hattie’ had nose art on both side of the nose, but other 43rd BGB-17’s did wear their noseart on both side of the nose, so the final decision is left up to the modeler.

The second is the B-17F 41-24358 ‘Lulu’ with the 63rd BS / 43rd BG in the Pacific Theatre of Operations.  This aircraft was Olive Drab on top and Neutral Grey on the underside.  This particular aircraft didn’t have the upper nose blister.  The nose art features a muscle bound woman smoking a cigar with script overpainted on the noseart reading “Lulu Belle”.  The noseart script was actually painted first and the noseart painted later and you can either build your model with just the noseart script or portray your B-17 with the noseart and noseart script.  A second nose art decal is included for the right side, although it is not know if ‘Lulu Belle’ had nose art on both side of the nose, but other 43rd BG B-17’s did wear their noseart on both side of the nose, so the final decision is left up to the modeler.  Mission marking are numerous with 49 bomb mission markings, 8 aircraft destroy markings and 7 ships sunk mission markings.

 

The third is the B-17F 41-24343 ‘Blooming Grove’ with the 325th BS / 92nd BG.  This aircraft was Olive Drab on top and Neutral Grey on the underside.  This particular aircraft didn’t have the upper nose blister.  The nose art features a muscle bound woman smoking a cigar with script overpainted on the noseart reading “Lulu Belle”.  The noseart script was actually painted first and the noseart painted later and you can either build your model with just the noseart script or portray your B-17 with the noseart and noseart script.  A second nose art decal is included for the right side, although it is not know if ‘Lulu Belle’ had nose art on both side of the nose, but other 43rd BG B-17’s did wear their noseart on both side of the nose, so the final decision is left up to the modeler.

The instruction sheets are contained on 2 pages of coloured instructions that include some views of the aircraft.  The instructions are clear and easy to follow and include text instructions pointing out different features of each plane.

The decals were flawlessly printed and in perfect registration and the clear carrier film is trimmed very close to the crisply printed colored areas.  

A very nice decal sheet and highly recommended if you want to build a B-17F.

Steve

I would like to thank Mike Grant Decals for providing me with this review sample.

Click on images below to see larger images of the instruction sheets

Photos and text © 2004 by Steve Bamford