I’m not sure if this is the proper place to post this , but here goes. In the dark recesses of my memory I seem to remember seeing photographs of a B-17E or F that had had it’s de-icer boots removed from the wings and tail leading edges revealing yellow primed skin underneath . Does anyone have any knowledge of this? I’ve been looking for photographs on-line and in books but haven’t found anything mentioning it . I was thinking of building a model of such a Fortress, but wanted to be sure I was ‘t hallucinating , although I may build it regardless because it looks cool in my mental photo album .

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

You are probably right, Louis. It probably was bare aluminum and when my mind did a “ Ted Turner” & colorized the picture wrong . It sure seems though like I’ve seen a photo someplace. I’ve been wrong before though. Looking through my decals I found a set with the for a Fortress named “Wabash Cannonball” and I’d like to use those.

That’s a very interesting find my friend. There was a time when I would build a kit based solely on an artist interpretation. Then I started digging into the history of the planes I was building and found out that occasionally the artist got it wrong. I’m not saying that all of these beautiful drawings are incorrect but some of them are.

However Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I personally have purchased numerous kits over the years based on the box top art work alone. So I can’t fault anyone for that when I’m guilty about it too.

I like the picture you posted but I don’t think it’s 100 percent correct.

But that’s the great thing about building models. A person has choices and can paint the wings purple if they so desire. It’s their kit so be it ! Having fun is what the hobby should be about.

Occasionally we all get into the typical rut of trying to make our builds 100 percent accurate. If that’s your thing then by all means go for it.

I do try to accomplish this when I build something new. But for me doing that research on a specific aircraft or tank is just as much fun as it is building up the actual kit.

Here’s a few pictures that I found on the internet that shows the leading edge of the wing behind the rubber boots in natural metal and not yellow.

Hope these help you on your quest.

This first picture also shows the chin turret is in natural metal as well.

Occasionally they were painted in Neutral Gray but they could also be found in a natural metal unpainted configuration.

This next picture shows the leading edge in natural metal.

Hopefully this will help you out along the way.

Thanks , Louis...
That’s interesting to see the various shades of paint on those two red tailed B-17s. There’s no hurry on the B-17 project since I don’t even have a kit yet, just the decals. I should try to stay focused on the B-25 I’ve got started. I ‘ll keep looking for more resource info on the yellow leading edges in the mean time.

What a set of fantastic pictures ! Duly noted on the wing leading edges. It just goes to show you that there's always an exception...

Here's a picture of me inside a full sized version, with a thumbs up for your last posting.

Just a random thought,maybe the olive drab 17's had some variation of zinc chromate under the boots, where as the unpainted birds would have the alclad/nmf.

I can't add any details but I sure like this post, Jay! It gets my mind working!

Nah ... it's not silly. I hadn't heard of this practice until you posted this, so I'm still learning ... and I love it!