Where I live in
England, I am surrounded by former 8th Airforce bases.
The 92nd's at
Poddington, the 379th's at Kimbolton, 384th's at Grafton Underwood, the 365th's
at Chelveston, and the nearest is the 306th's at Thurleigh.
I have gone round
all of these old bases taking photographs and looking for old war time parts of
the old camps.
Not alot remains, as
these airfields were all a temporary measure for the war and were mostly
demolished after the war.
Most of the dug up
runways and taxi ways being turned into foundation rubble for England's first
motorway the M1.
Unlike the others,
after the war, Thurleigh was not pulled down and dug up to be returned to
agriculture, it became RAE Bedford where alot of pioneering research work was
carried out, the Blackburn Buccaneer first flew from Thurleigh and a lot of the
VTOL research for the Harrier was carried out there too.
This model of a
B-17F is in the markings of a machine from the 306th Heavy Bombardment Group
based at Thurleigh.
The 306th were the
firsth 8th AAF bomb group to fly over Germany and they had the longest stay at
their base than any other 8th AAF group.
Another piece of
their history is that the film "Twelve O'clock High" is based on the
early experiences of this group.
The Airfield does
not resemble its old war time lay out very much know.
The main runway was
extended, resulting in the demolition of the control tower and the old
habitation and technical sites were all torn down.
The two WWII hangars
were relocated to the new site and a few war time buildings still exist as do
some of the old hardstandings.
The fusing hut near
the bomb dump is now a museum dedicated to the 306th and is well worth a visit.
(http://www.306bg.co.uk/)
The airfield is no
longer in use. Part is a the home of the Bedford Autodrome race way, the runways
are used to store new cars and the buildings are home to various small
companies.
A lovely memorial to
the American aircrew, and ground crew of the 306th exists near the old officer's
mess site near Thurleigh village.
Click on
images below to see larger images
This model started
life as two wrecks.
One Monogram's G the
other Revell's F.
I created a hybrid
out of the two to represent a late war F variant and added some extra bits and
pieces left over from other B-17s I have built.
No decal
manufacturer produce markings for the 306th (SHAME ON YOU!) so I cobbled together
a set of fictious markings from my spares box.
I used Life Colours
acylics for the olive drab and faded drab and weathered it with pastels, oil
washes and various shades of olive drab to give it the weather beaten look
these aeroplanes developed stood out all the time in our glorious East Anglian
weather!
Angelo
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