White Dog Decals

#721004: 1/72 B-17Gs from the 490^th BG
$6.95

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

(Click on decals for larger image)

The excellent Minicraft B-17G cries out for some nice decals, and White Dog has come to the rescue. This sheet provides markings for three B-17s from the 490^th BG. Two are with nose art and the last is the replacement aircraft for the squadron. All are in a natural metal finish with the standard 490^th BG markings consisting of a red tail tip, red wing stripes, and red horizontal tail stripes.

The first choice on the sheet is "Bobby Sox", a B-17G-50-VE from the 850^th BS. The nose art is of what I must assume to be the Ms. Bobby Sox, although she's not wearing any socks. In fact, the only article of clothing seen is a rather large hat. What makes this nose art interesting is that it looks like it was painted, just like the real thing. This sheet has a small second sheet with Photoflex decals done by Woody Vrondacek, and if you haven't seen any of his work definitely go out and buy one of these decal sheets. The nose art is printed on a continuous clear film, so you need to trim it out, and it's incredibly thin. It also has to sit on top of a white decal backing, as it is translucent. Once on the model, though, it will definitely be leaps and bounds better than any other decal, and will look like you painted it yourself. Bobby Sox has a black H on the tail with a black BuNo of 48158 right above it.

The second choice is a B-17G-95-BO from the 851^st BS, 490^th BG and has the nose art of "£5 With Breakfast", complete with a reclining unclothed redhead female. Again, the nose art is incredibly well done, and the rest of the markings include a "+ U" on the tail in black along with the BuNo 338728.

The final option is the replacement aircraft, a B-17G-75-DL from the 851^st BS, 490^th BG. This is a plain scheme, with no nose art and no tail code, just the BuNo of 483254 on the tail.

The decal instructions explain how to build each plane up as far as what guns and turrets to use, which is a very nice touch. Another nice thing about this decal sheet is that there are decals to do all three planes. By this I mean that there are three sets of Stars and Bars and three sets of propeller logos, as well as all the individual aircraft markings. That is really nice, as you don't have to raid your decal box for extra markings if you want to build all three planes.

The quality of the decal printing and the excellent research that went into this sheet definitely makes this a great option for B-17 modelers. In fact, building all three would make for a rather impressive display of 490^th BG Flying Fortresses.