During World War Two, American aircrewmen suffered some of the largest loss rates of any combat unit.  With two weeks of expected life and a near impossible tour of combat duty, going home was near impossible.  It is often believed that the most dangerous position on heavy bombers during the war was in the ball turret.  When in reality, the most dangerous position was at the waist guns, due to the lack of armor protection or secure positioning.  This model portays this position.  In the model you are given the early style aircrew uniform and a 50 caliber machine gun, as well as a small section of the waist of a B-17.

THE KIT

      This kit is real treat for aircraft buffs like me, because not only do you model the crewman, but you model the entire position he is assigned to.  Construction is rather smooth and the instructions are easy to follow (with a little nod to their other bomber crewman figure).   The instructions are put on a small sheet of paper not much bigger than an index card, nevertheless, it serves its purpose well.

       I counted 23 parts, give or take a few.  Most of the kit is photo-etch,  which number extremely high.  The metal is quite thick and therefore easy to work with. The resin is cast extremely thick with huge casting blocks on them.  They will be one of your few annoyances with this kit.

CONSTRUCTION

       There are problems in this kit, however few they are serious.  First, none of my glues were very strong in holding the pieces together.  My finished model is not very sturdy even though it gives the illusion as such.  I highly recommend using your strongest glues fellas, this is a doozy.  Second, the fitting of the parts on the human figure are okay but not up to shape, so watch out for those joints.

PAINTING

       Painting is where things really take shape.  I paint by hand and I generally use acrylics but I will use enamels when need be.  My local hobby store didn't have the color leather so I had to make due.  To simulate leather I used some acrylic brown brushed over with Tamiya Smoke.  This makes it look leather.  Then I filled in the wrinkles and shadowed areas with a darker mix of brown.  Finally I gave all the leather in a tan wash, this made the leather look faded.  In the oxygen mask alone there are 5 different colors so take your time there.  The sheepskin is light grey with a darker grey wash.  The parachute harness is gunship grey wet brushed with white.  Parachute harnesses had a seams down the middle so I penciled those in.  The life vest was yellow with extreme fading with a gold tan color.  The face is my favorite part.  I made him look like me in as many ways as possible (so now we have a redhead in the mix).

       I'd like to bring notice to the fact that I have never seen a figure on Modeling Madness (Gerad needs to check out my anime figure as it has these included. Ed) or Hyperscale do this before: life lights.  All eyes have a small light/lights that give a person his or her soul.  Though it cannot be seen in my pictures, I assure you, its there. 

It takes time to get those little buggers in there but I assure you that they are worth it.  My recommendation would be decals.  Make them on your computer and you can't go wrong with the eyes.

       The gun was overall gunmetal with smoke, aluminum, and black washes.  The washes should be very restrained so as to make the gun look used but not old.  The belt is made out of paper, index card, and plastic,  The ammunition box is actual wood.  I had a brace for it but was lost to my feline friend.  The base was done in interior green (evidenced by the interior of the Memphis Belle in Memphis, Tennessee).  The floors were painted in the color wood.

 

MORE CONSTRUCTION

       Even though it is a spectacular kit, it is however lacking in some areas.  They would have you put on an ammo canister to the side of his gun.  I personally had never seen this before on a bomber mount, or at least not until two weeks after I finished it...

       Anyway, I scratch built an ammunition belt and an ammo box to go with the gun.  I ran out of bullets working on it, so for artistic sake, this guy is low on ammo.  Keep in mind that belts always looped around the gun, and also that the slides for the windows always faced towards the cockpit.   Also,  they would have you just let the cords and wires from him just hang loose. So, I scratch built an oxygen regulator, intercom patch, and an suit plug in.  For those of you wondering, the suit plug-ins are located in the trousers of the suit so the wire would come out of the bottom of his pants leg.   

       When finished with the necessary changes it looks great.  It draws more attention than any of my wildest camouflage schemes, so it has become somewhat of a centerpiece.

 

CONCLUSIONS

       This is my first figure, I usually build 1/48 bombers, so I was incredibly worried.  However, I am extremely pleased with the results.  Go ahead all you aircraft fellas, go buy the dude, you wont be sorry!  I for one hope that Verlinden will make more of this type of figure.  Imagine a 1/16 ball turret...