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just a question, what does this guy:



have to do with this girl?

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Perhaps he replaced her as nose-art on 42-32076?

No idea, pray tell?

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Same aircraft, but with the different markings that were applied to it over its lifetime.

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Not every damned thing is 'awesome' !

Paul is right:

B-17G-35-BO 42-32076 rolled off Boeing's production line in Seattle in march 1944. This was around the transition from camouflaged to bare metal aircraft, which led to the odd situation that the datablock was stencilled onto a OD panel, while the rest of the aircraft was left bare metal. This was because the datablock was sprayed on right at the beginning of production. The aircraft was assigned to the 401st BS of the 91st BG, and was collected at the depot in Burtonwood by Paul McDuffee, who was so impressed with its smooth handling that he asked to be assigned to it. The aircraft was named by its crew chief, Hank Cordes, and was named after a popular song by the Andrews Sisters. Originally, the name was 'Shoo shoo baby', applied in gothic letters, which was later replaced by a Vargas girl and an additional 'shoo', painted by Cpl. Tony Starcer. McDuffee flew 13 missions with 076, before completing his tour of duty. On completion of his last flight, he buzzed the airfield and flew so low that fencing wire became entangled in the tail wheel.
Here she is one one of her missions:

On the plane's 23rd mission, on 29 may 1944, Lt. Robert Guenther was flying 076 on a raid to Poznan when he suffered engine failure on one engine, and a while later, flak knocked out a second engine. 'Shoo shoo shoo baby' started to fall behind, and when a third engine started to falter, Lt Guenther decided to turn to neutral Sweden, with the crew jettisoning all loose equipment. A group of FW190's clossed in, but did not open fire, peeling away. By the time 076 reached Bulltofta airfield near Malmo, it had only one engine left, but it did manage to perform a safe landing. The crew were interned, and the aircraft was impounded. The crew returned to the UK in october 1944, and 'Shoo shoo shoo baby' remained in Sweden.
Here she is in Bulltofta:


and what I painted:






So, 076 was interned in Sweden on 29 may 1944, after losing two engines during a raid on Poznan. At the time, Sweden maintained an aerial connection with Prestwick in the UK, using orange painted DC-3. These were slow, and always in danger of being shot down. After one was shot down, the Swedish Government decided to try and look for alternatives, and a deal was struck with the US: They released several interned flightcrews in exchange for 10 B-17 bombers that had landed in Sweden. In the end, only 9 B-17's became Swedish property, and 42-32076 was one of those. Seven of these B-17's were then converted to airliners by SAAB at Linkoping, the other two were used for spares. The conversion inclued the removal all all military equipment, the addition of a longer, closed nose, and the installation of a bagage compartment in the bombbay and two passenger compartments, one forward and one in the aft fuselage. At the back of the cabin there was room for a small toilet. In addition, they installed extra windows in passenger cabins. This rebuilding lasted 5-6 months. Thus converted the aircraft could carry 14 passengers. They were now called F-17's, after Felix Hardeson, the US military attache in Sweden who was vital for the conclusion of the deal. Most aircraft received a camouflage paint job, with the registration and the word 'Sweden'in large yellow letters on the fuselage. The first operational flight to Prestwick took place in october 1944, continuing until the end of the war. After the war, the F-17's were used for flights to New York, Europe, Africa and South America, but the availability of the new DC-4's after the war meant that the F-17's were retired in Sweden in august 1947. 42-32076 in the meantime never received a coat of camouflage paint, but was left bare metal, with just the registration on the wings and fuselage and flew her post conversion test flights as SE-BAP.
Here she is as SE-BAP:



and what I painted:


I couldn't rebuild the nose, or remove the turrets and guns, so you'll have to make allowances for that, sorry. Unless of course A2A.....
B-17G-35-BO 42-32076, now registered SE-BAP, performed test flights on November 2, 1945 and November 6 the aircraft was transferred to Heathrow Airport and surrendered to the Danish Air Line (DDL). Here it was registered OY-DFA and on November 13 the aircraft was deployed in flight on the UK – Copenhagen route.
Here she is with here new Danish ID:


During one flight, upon arrival to Blackbushe Airport on 28 November 1945, with 22 persons aboard, the left landing gear would not come down and the pilot, Captain Emil Damm, executed a one wheel landing with little damage and no injuries. During the repairs, it also received a new paintjob and the name "Stig Viking".
Here she is in her new paintjob:


In September 1946 “Stig Viking “ was used on the Copenhagen Nairobi in route, which from February 1947 was expanded to Johannesburg in South Africa. In 1947, the DDL also started flying DC-4, and the days of the F-17 as a passenger plane were numbered...

This is what I painted:






In late 1947 the Danish Army Air Corps started to look for an aircraft that could be used for aerial photography assignments on Greenland for the Danish Geodetic Institute (DGI) and in April 1948 they purchased B 17G OY-DFA “Stig Viking” from DDL.

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B-17G-35-BO 42-32076, now registered OY-DFA was bought by the Danish Army Air Corps in April 1948 to be used for aerial photography assignments on Greenland for the Danish Geodetic Institute (DGI). The plane was rebuilt with 3 cameras in the nose - one for vertical shots and two to oblique recordings - plus space for a photographer behind a pivoting glass covered nose. An additional 1,400-liter fuel tank was installed in the bomb bay, and finally the plane got the registration 67-672 and was named “Store Bjørn” (“Big Dipper, or Ursus Major”).
Here she is back in military colors:


In 1949 it flew a navigation tour to Sweden and Norway, went to Greenland and Canada to examine the route and alternate aerodromes. After returning the plane had an overhaul, and from July to September it was stationed on Greenland, where it flew a total of 108 hours of aerial photography for GI. When the Navy vessel “Alken” disappeared on Greenland, “Store Bjørn” assisted in the search from 23 October - 12. November and flew 48 hours total as a SAR aircraft. 1950 was a busy year, from July to the end of September it flew a total of 137 hours of aerial photography. Moreover, on the 14th-17th September it flew again as a SAR aircraft for 25 hours in search of Loftleiðirr’s missing DC-4 “Geysir”.
Here she is in action over Greenland:


The Danish Geodetic Institute (DGI) did aerial photography and surveying on Greenland using “Store Bjørn”. In 1950 low-level vertical aerial photography was carried out in the region around Mestersvig, with the main purpose of constructing detailed topographic maps in connection with lead-zinc prospecting. Oblique aerial photography was also carried out over much of the region between latitudes 69°–81°N in the years 1950 and 1952.



After the Royal Danish Air Force was established in 1951 “Store Bjørn?” was assigned to 721 Squadron at Air Base Værløse. It flew a rescue flight to Greenland to evacuate a seriously injured man. During the summer photo flight on Greenland, June to September the weather was not co-operating and only 56 hours of aerial photography was flown. In 1952 54 hours of photo flight was done again on Greenland. When the great flood disaster in Holland happened in 1953 “Store Bjørn?” flew blankets, boots and rubber boats from Heathrow to Valkenburg. During the 1953 summer Greenland flight, from June to September it flew a total of 101 hours of aerial photography for DGI and on the first October of 1954, the plane was officially decommissioned.

Here is what I painted:







The plane was in storage for two years and was then sold to the Institut Geographique National, a French aerial mapping company based in Creil outside Paris, and it was flown there by a Danish crew on 5 april 1955. After the sale to IGN, 42-32076 was again modified so that it would corresponded to the rest of IGN’s 12 B-17's, with the installation of 2 cameras in the belly for Aerial Photography Survey. IGN put the aircraft into service in January 1956 with registration F-BGSH and used it for its worldwide aerial photography program until 15 July 1961, when the aircraft was damaged in a collision and was stored in a corner of the airfield in Creil with a total flight time 3364 hours. Here, the plane was slowly cannibalized to keep the other IGN B-17's flying.

Here she is back in civilian clothes:



and after the accident, slowly being cannibalized:



and here is what I painted:




In 1968, the ancestry of F-BGSH was discovered by the Australina aviation historian Steve Birdsall, who notified the USAF museum, that this was a combat veteran that had flown operational missions, in contrast to most other surviving B-17's. Following negotiations, the B-17 was donated to the US by the French Government. Interestingly, its Swedish heritage attracted interest from Sweden as well, but nothing came of this. The aircraft was disassembled at Creil and trucked to Frankfurt and flown to the US in 1972, where it arrived, packed in 27 crates.
Here she is, being swallowed by a C-5 Galaxy:




No plans or funds for restoration were present at the time, but in 1977, Mike Leiston, a technician at Dover AFB contacted the museum about the possibility of restoring one of the museum's aircraft by volunteers at Dover AFB. With the project approved, 42-32076 was transported to Dover, with the aim of restoring it to a stock wartime B-17G.
Upon arrival, Paul McDuffee, who had flown her for 13 missions, was present, and the reunion was clearly an emotional one as he commented "I've just got to go over and kiss her", which he did.
Here she is, undergoing restoration at Dover AFB:






The restoration continued to 1988,and after some 60.000 ma hours, "Shoo shoo shoo baby" took to the skies again for the first time on 11 september.
Here she is back in the air:


On 14 october 1988, she flew for the last time, to the USAF museum near Dayton, Ohio, where she can still be seen.
Here she is in the USAF museum:


Even the nose art was recreated by the original artist, Tony Starcer, although she looks a bit different from 1944. I tried to replicate this in my paints too. The main difference however with her wartime looks is the fact that she currently sports an olive drab camouflage paint, which was necessary due to all the metal work needed to bring her back to a stock B-17G condition.

and finally, here is what I painted:






So there you have it, the amazing story of one B-17 combat veteran that survived to the present day.
The paints are nearly finished, a bit more patience please.

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A very interesting story, and remarkable that after all that, she ended up safe and sound in as a museum piece.

Jan, you really are a master repainter. Your work is astonishingly good - I wish I could do plain and simple bare metal textures the way you do them. Anyway, thanks for all the repaints of the B-17, of which I have many.

May I make a couple of requests ? The A2A B.377 and the Aerosoft Catalina, ( the Dutch one based at Lelystad )...would it be possible one day to do simple bare metal textures for these two aircraft, without any markings, so that we can add our own markings? I love bare metal on vintage aircraft, and I have an Air Hauler cargo airline, for which I'd like to mark up the Strat and Dutch Cat.

Thanks very much if you ever get round to doing them, and apart from that, keep up the great repaints. Wonderful stuff!

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Not every damned thing is 'awesome' !

Jankees, that is awesome. Many thanks for putting the repaints and then presenting them as this post in such a nice cool fascinating way. You have really told the story well of one B-17 and I am very grateful for you sharing it with us here.

I love this kind of thing and often wonder the background of warbirds, even the none WW2 vetrens. I mean many served post WW2 in forgotten wars or like this B-17 went over seas to be owned and operated by multiple countries in different roles. If machine could speak, that B-17 would be one hell of a story teller!

Many thanks,
Lewis

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Wow. This is simply amazing.

Two questions, if I may,

1) Why did it not continue to fly after arriving to Dayton?

2) Is there a repaint of a standart Swedish markings (as you described them, camo, with word "Sweden"? I was actually thinking about painting it as I learned about this interesting development in B-17 history.

Hi Jan! That looks amazing, but I have one thought. I just saw the aircraft myself in Dayton a few weeks back, and I must say IRL its paint is considerably closer to brown than green. I can post a very close picture of the noseart, similar but much closer than what you posted, showing the natural paint color (no lights/flash or surrounding colors to throw it off) if you'd like.

Fabo- The museum in Dayton is very much a museum in the traditional sense. Many of the aircraft are displayed in diaramas, and all of them are on permanent display with metal railings bolted to the floor. It is not a "living" museum in which the aircraft are airworthy and moved around from time to time. The National Museum of the USAF in Dayton and the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola are by far my favorite "static" museums in the US. IMO they are both considerably better than both locations of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC.

Joe

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Thanks for the info, Joe.

Still, its too bad so may hours went into restoring her to flightworthy status, and then she is grounded again barely a month later.

yes, but you can look at in in another way too: it is one airworthy B-17 that will not crash and thus is here to stay..
Joe, I used the OD of the paintkit. There are a 1000 variations of OD around, getting it right is always very hard. Besides, I am really colorblind, and the difference between green and brown is nearly completely lost on me, so recreating subtle tones in between is almost impossible for me.

But my paints are now on Ozx, I hope you'll enjoy them.

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This repaints is realy lovely, I hope you continiue and do more, fantastic work. And if you or any other person find a way to remove the guns from the model, please tell. Or even better if A2A in an update will include a model where the guns are removed, it will be realy lovely to fly this aircraft as a civilian one.

Yes I agree, it would be nice to have a 'civilian' B-17. A lot were used for aerial survey and geographic scientific work after the war. They all looked a bit different in one way or another, so a 'representative' model created simply by removing the turrets and guns, and fairing them over, would be great.

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Not every damned thing is 'awesome' !

Jcblom, I do enjoy your repaints a lot. I have never used the repaints, but I wonder if it is possible to paint the turrets in the same colour as the aircraft or another 'colour' instead of the glass? If this is possible so can the turrets be seen as radars. But this is may not possible.