Strombecker B-17E

[soslipstream]

Here are a couple of pics of a restoration of a vintage Strombecker B-17 that was once the YB1-17 from their Kit # C2S. The original owner was from the Chicago area but was in the AAC stationed in Washington State in 1941. He was famous in his family as a modeler and modified this Y1B-17 kit model into the prototype B-17E that he was watching daily at the Boeing factory. When he was sent to another station, he sent it home to his immediate family whose relatives relayed this story to me at an estate sale.

So instead of rebuilding it as the Y1B-17 I decided to overhaul it in as that servicemen saw fit. I happen to also have a kid built version of the same airplane that I will overhaul eventually. You can see both together in one of the a pictures. That second Y1B-17 is planned to get the mid-1930's motif of yellow wings, blue fuselage and classic fin flash that Strombecker used for their catalog pictures.

Regards, Tom