Eighth Air Force Memorial.

[forget]

I often drive past this memorial. I know, it serves its purpose - but it makes me cringe. Paid for by donations from the 457 Society members, nice design - and then completely ruined by an inept ‘artist’. How can you get a B17 so wrong? Surely someone noticed before he/she started spoiling a very expensive piece of granite. I sometimes wonder how much it would cost to put a bronze casting over the present effort – with something that looks like a B17.

[nacluv]

It does look a bit "Junior School" doesn't it? Are you sure it isn't?

I do like the Avro Manchester tail fin though. And the stbd horizontal stabiliser which is 3 times longer than the one on the port side... And the whereabouts of the no 3 donk is also open to scrutiny...

[forget]

This is a mystery. The aircraft has a valid tail number. The artist must have been supplied with detailed drawings and photgraphs. So what happened after that ........ ?

The B-17 upon the Glatton 457th BG Memorial at the Conington village turn is #43-38528, THAT'S MY BABY, which was assigned to the 750th Bomb Squadron on 8th September 1944. It survived the war.

Huntingdonshire Aviation Group • View topic - 457th BG Glatton Memorial B-17 #43-38528 THAT'S MY BABY

[nacluv]

And I forgot to mention the Halifax V front fuselage section...

I was looking in detail at the photos in your link. If you can imagine the following, the proportions don't look so bad. If you imagine that the profile drawn is in silhouette, but viewed from the lower 3/4 (7 o'clock) rather than the upper 10 o'clock, everything looks in proportion, including that ridiculous tail section. It would also explain why the engine (I called it no3 before, but imagine it's no2) is obscured.

Or maybe I need to get out a bit more.

P.S. I would have laughed my t*ts off if the photos of the real 338528 had shown it to have been exactly the same deformed 3-engined shape!!!

It's a shame, because the memorial area in question is actually quite a creditable effort, with the flagpoles etc etc: a lot more attention than most old wartime airfields seem to receive. The memorial in the nearby churchyard has a more credible B17 profile on it though. Have a look on GoogleEarth for the images.

[forget]

nacluv. Brilliant. You've cracked it. I've just done a very rough photoshop of the aircraft's outline profile. View it from below, left aft quarter, and it works! The artist must have been given a silhouette, got it the wrong way round and then added details.

I'll post a better photoshop later and you can see it.

PS Do artists carry insurance?

[forget]

This has got me hooked. Here's a quick roughie. Apart from the still short tail fin -works for me. Who's the 'artist'. Can't find a mention.

[nacluv]

That's it alright. Even without the mental juggling, one glance at the silhouette you have done says lower left quarter view.

I've got a tub of polyfilla - how are you at drawing??

[forget]

Hmmm. Moral quandary for someone. The site remembers the guys from the 86 B-17s which didn’t come back. Change it - or not? If there is an after life the ex East Coast guys will be rolling around laughing, the Mid West guys wagging fingers at the artist, with the West Coasters somewhere in between. A bronze plate over the current offering would do the job. Here’s the reverse. Apart from the inside out B-17 it really is a cracking memorial, with the folks from the cottages next door cutting grass etc.

[XV490]

I'm reminded of the late 'Mighty Eighth' author Roger Freeman, who used to get hot under the collar at 'bad' representations of B-17s by so-called artists.

Understandably, he admired Robert Taylor's work (the respect was mutual), but there was one particular British painter whose work really pi**sed him off.

No names, no pack drill.

[Gingie]

A short video of the Memorial service this year can be found here:

YouTube - Raf Glatton - Memorial - Memorial Service 2010