During the week of August 23, 2005, the "Hells Angles" held a reunion in Dayton.  As you can see, above, it's not the infamous motorcycle gang.  This Hells Angeles is the 303rd Bomb group, made famous during WWII flying B-17s against the Nazis over Europe.  A  B-17 Model Presentation for the 303rd Bombardment Group Reunion was conducted on August 26th at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Dayton, Ohio by Dayton Area Plastic Modelers Society members Steve McColaugh and Mark Young. Thirteen 1/72nd scale B-17 models representing actual 303rd planes were displayed during a talk that was attended by over one hundred members of the "Hell's Angels" Bomb Group Association. Some of the attendees present flew in several of the planes depicted. Nine B-17F and two B-17G models on display were built by Steve McColaugh and marked as they appeared on March 18th, 1943. One B-17G was built and marked as "Thunderbird" by fellow club member Charley Payne and a B-17F was built by fellow club member Bob Ellis as "Two Beauts". The two B-17G kits made by Steve represented "The Duchess' Daughter" and "Miss Lace". Miss Lace was presented to the event coordinator Walt Ferrari at the Banquet Dinner the following evening. Walt flew most of his thirty- five missions as co-pilot aboard Miss Lace between 1944 and 1945.

Steve modified the Academy B-17E kit 2141into early B-17F's. For the later F models kit 2142 and 2143 for the G kits. The Academy kits all required some reworking to bring them up to snuff. Steve opened all of the air intake scoops on the wings. The scoops are only scribed in on the kits. He also scratchbuilt radio compartments for all.

Various other modifications were done to reflect the gun placements on individual ships.

The group markings and nose art came from various sources, but quite a few were homemade. The original nose art photos were used to create color drawings. These were then scanned and redrawn in the computer by Mark Young. Mark spent countless hours working the nose art on the computer and the effort was most appreciated by the folks at the reunion. After much testing and tweaking they were printed on white laser paper with a surround of the appropriate color, such as olive drab. This made for much more vibrant colors. Attempts at using clear paper resulted in decals being too transparent. Steve used the Black Magic masks on all of his planes with fantastic results.

Bill used the Hasegawa B-17F kit to model "Two Beauts" The decals came from the Albatros Heavenly Bodies release 72017. Steve also used several sets from this sheet to make "Knock-out Dropper", "Warbride" and "Hell's Angels". These are great decals!

Charley made Thunderbird using the Hasegawa B-17G kit and the recently released Thunderbird decal sheet from Mike Grant. Both Charley and Bill employed the Black Magic masks.

Steve has been working most nights on his 303rd Bomb Group Mission for the past several years. It all started back in 1969, when author Steve Birdsall gave Steve a copy of Mission List 24, March 18th, 1943 detailing the twenty aircraft flown by the 303rd on that date. Steve was fifteen at the time and had the chance to meet Steve Birdsall when he came to the Air Force Museum from Australia. With the advances in modeling technology as well as computers, Steve finally saw his chance at making models to represent the aircraft that flew this raid on Vegasack, Germany. Lt Jack Mathis was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions as the lead bombardier for the 359th Bomb Squadron on this mission.

Steve is currently working with members of the Eighth Air Force Museum to secure a display space for the twenty B-17's. At present he has nine of the twenty aircraft completed and all of the nose art is ready.  The other eleven are coming along.

Steve is also planning on making four or five more 303rd aircraft to bring to the association's final reunion in 2007 in Washington, DC. He plans to enlist more of his club members in making various models to take to the reunion. Not just B-17's, but other aircraft that they flew with and fought against. Vehicles and support equipment.   

The 303rd Bomb Group has a very good web page at  www.303rdBGA.com  .