Thanks Keith

Sal: Academy makes pretty good kits overall. I would more than likely buy that kit right off the shelf if I saw it. Just my two cents
Btw, what scale is it? I'm guessing it is based off of their 1/72 B-17s.

Yeah Jeremy it 1/72 and I put in the order for it. Buy the way that PBY you got there looks like a good 1 to. Always wanted to build 1 of those in my younger years

OORAH Gunny,
I'm considering joining this build, as I have recently returned from my latest deployment and now have a few months to kill. I've been reading the posts and I'm suprised no-one has considered one of the most famous rescues/tragedies in US history...the USS Indianapolis(CA-35). 1196 men went into the water 316 emerged alive. Six ships and one Catalina participated in the rescue. A PV-1 Ventura spotted the survivors, a Catalina was the first responder rescuing 54 and the USS Basset(APD-73) rescued the majority(154). I have the Trumpeter USS England Buckley Class Destroyer kit in my stash, and the USS Basset was a converted Buckley class. From the few drawings and photos I have been able to find the conversion to a Charles Lawrence class high speed escort is very do-able, with the majority being shipboard armament(3"/54 as opposed to 5'/54, etc.), Just my two cents. I've never joined a group build before, but what the hell. I'll try anything once...sometimes twice. Happy Modeling.
Mike

Sal: Sweet! I'm looking forward to that one
And thanks, the Cats have always been a favorite of mine and this looked like a good opportunity to finally build one

Mike: I would have considered building that Cat, but decal choices are pretty limited. Look forward to your conversion and first campaign build.

Sal and Mike nice to have you join in don,t forget to sign up on the campaign main page when you start your builds, not long now to the start date so you can plan and collect all you need for your builds
Cheers Keith

Would like to join in with the Airfix 1/72 Lifeboat.

Long time no hear from you Murdo glad to have you along,hope you know what your getting yourself into with that kit did one not long ago and it was hard work but worth the effort in the end

Nice to see some activity here again, it was getting kind of quiet.




I've got two of the Academy B-17s, a B-17B and the SB-17, I haven't built either yet (I'm running out of room and need to build a new display case) but they look like good kits to me.

The SB-17 has all the parts to build a regular B-17G, plus the special parts for the SB-17. You have a lot of options open to you, the SB-17 could be fully armed except for the belly turret, stripped down to only a few guns, or unarmed.

They were flown with and without the boat. The boats were kind of overkill, so often not carried. The boat provided the means for self rescue (enough provisions and fuel to go something like 1000 miles) but most of the time the rescuees were picked up within a few hours by a flying boat or ship directed to their position by the SB-17.

After the war the US Coast Guard flew unarmed surplus B-17s (PB-1G) until they were replaced by the C-130s in 1960. The USCG PB-1G is pretty much the same as the SB-17. The USCG even used the same air droppable life boat.

I will see if I can start work on my Cat next week. I really can't paint so I'm going to try to get as much sub-assembly work done on as many of my campaign entries as possible.

Woo there Horse; Jeremy remember this one does not start until 1st March but if you are just cleaning up parts ready for the start thats Ok with me if you want to get off to a flyer on start date if you know what i mean

Thanks for the catch, I don't want to jump the gun so March 1 it is then

Really looking forward to the start of this group build!

Would anyone mind if I just went with 1 build (instead of the 2 I had originally planned?) - the workbench is a little busy right now!

I was going to attempt Revell's 1/72 little USCG HH-65 Dolphin. Not the most accurate kit by a long shot I know, but will try my best!



Thanks and best wishes,

Dermot I,am not the fast build merchant either so the one build is fine and if you can do another it is a bounce. I,am having computer probelms at the moment but hope to have it resolved soon my son wants his laptop back

Think I might at last have found my subject for this build. 1/350th fairmaile RAF ASR launch from WEM.

Idea in my mind at the moment is the lauch stopped and fishing a downed pilot out of a raft.

I am off to order the kit from WEM.

sI

Gentelmen the start is near don,t forget we start tomorrow

I'm hoping to get started this week. Is this where we are going to post our progress of is there another thread open for that?
It seemed like there was a bit of pre-GB commotion of people waiting to start, then the 1st came and went without a peep, so I thought I might be looking in the wrong place.

I haven't settled 100% but I'm thinking about starting off with a USAF HH-34 rescue helicopter.

Aaron this is where we will be displaying our builds unless jim has other plans. I,ve have made a start on the hull of my build the German Search and Rescue launch Arkrona by Revell unfortunatly my computer is in the repair shop still and no word as to when i get it back so for now I,am using my sons laptop and can not upload any good photos as yet. But everyone please feel free to start your builds and post your progress so far. I,ll still be checking in on the thread and hope to show my own work soon so lets get started Gent,s

Hi Guys,
here we are a week into this campaign and no progress shot yet. I myself have to clear some room on the bench before I can get started on my entry. I plan to go with Academy Boeing SB-17 Air Rescue Service

This will be my 1st B-17 build since high school almost 30 years ago but I might not get started until next week

Not my scale, but way cool!

I'll take some 2-3 months before I can join the fray: I have too many projects going on right now. I have 5-6 kits that will fit the campaign, so I haven't made up my mind either.
In any case I'll be watching your every move, gentlemen!

Cheers,
Guido

Gentelmen my right arm is back or should i say my computer is back from repair after five or so weeks this is what I,ve started so far

I can now give my son his laptop back looking forward to your build progress

I'm going to start with an HH-34 USAF rescue helicopter. During the Vietnam war the USAF was running into a shortage of helicopters. In the early 1970s the US Navy transfered some surplus SH-34 Seabat helicopters to the USAF. These were redesignated HH-34 and assigned to rescue units in the US.

I really like the Sikorsky H-34 and have built several so far. I made up a set of decals for the HH-34 awhile back, so this is a good opportunity to use them.



and the interior in progress