easixpedro

Am guessing it's the same venturi effect that caused fuel to siphon out of the refueling probe of the Prowler, and why you see the area gunked up with sealant. i.e. enough airflow over it creates suction and causes the fuel to seep out. A layer of tape seems like a quick an expedient way to solve the issue. Agree with OBG--specialized tape. Also the same stuff they used to cover the gun ports. Nowadays it's "ordnance tape," "Speed tape" or "400 mph tape" or any such nomenclature. I think each service has their own name, but it's really just heavy duty duct tape that OD green.

Chain you say? After reading this article this morning, I think use it to replicate a gigantic Pumpkin Boat that's tied up to a pier in your scene! Nebraska man rides pumpkin for 38 miles down Missouri River | Omaha State and Regional News | omaha.com You can thank me later! All jokes aside, looking marvelous!

Cool! Always fun to try our skills out on something that just lets the imagination flow. Fun to see where the path takes you. Can't wait for more.

Found it! Check out this pic. Nav laying across his table, chart in hand. Look at his eyes...thats some stress. As in "I'm not sure where we're at, but the Initial Point is coming up, and they're shooting at us" stress. Found it in this book, which is a gem. (And posted under fair use) To keep things moving on, I've been adding the kit basics. Am attempting to add enough details to spruce things up without going completely overboard. You can see where I opened up rhe radio room over the bomb bay. Trying to be reasonable in my approach. That section won't be visible, so no point going overboard. And from the other side without the glass. Would be blocked by the waist gunners. I guess that's the fine line we all try to balance on. How much is enough? Could I add all those lines you see by rhe Navigator? Sure. But they won't be visible. But he'll look cool peering out the window! YMMV, but that's my approach for this build. -Peter

I'm out of superlatives Peter. Excellent tutorial as always. Appreciate you taking the time to show us how it's done. What I love about this place - people taking the time to share so we're all learning. What does impress me is how much you've improved the process since the earlier builds. Makes me think you need to try a NMF monster like the B-17 or Liberator. Or maybe a B-25, but something that has enough data for the amount of detail you can produce. Easy for me to say and recommend of course, I'm not building it! -Peter

You and me both! Here's the plan in my mind (for both the top turret and the tail turret): My son's off at college, but he left his lathe sitting in the garage. Will turn a master out of wood to check basic shapes and refine them. Then cast in resin and vacuform. That's the plan anyway. We'll see--lot's of ground to cover before I get there. Also need to find better pics of the tail turret--I saw one that had windows on the top as well as the sides--looks like major mods to the tail feathers.

Sigh... How many times can I say that B-24s are confusing? Realized last night that because I'm building a B-24L built at Willow Run, this plane likely had the M-6A stinger guns in the rear, vice the standard Consolidated turret. Need to do some more research to confirm, but from what I've read, that's what Ford was putting in their bombers. As I was reading about Willow Run though...by 1944, Ford was pumping out a B-24 every HOUR. They were producing so many, that the Air Force had to cancel contracts with Douglas, North American and the Consolidated plant in Fort Worth! That's crazy - I can't even process that. The AF literally cancelled a contract with the company that had originally designed and built the plane because Ford could do it faster and better... Anyway, here's a picture of the turret in question. Found it on this site: Aircraft Gunnery_Tail Turret (liberatorcrew.com) At least the same site has a really good schematic too! If there's a bright side (there always is), it's that at least I don't have to deal with the crappy seam in the middle of kit turret... More soon. -Peter

Looks amazing! Those Cold War Studios turrets make a tremendous difference! Did you replace the oversize tires? (tyres? Wheels?) Happy to see one of these completed--gives me hope that it can be done. -Peter

I think your best bet will be scouring official websites for Public Affairs photos. Photo Gallery (navy.mil) Photos (af.mil) Explore Photos (marines.mil) or you can try DVIDS DVIDS - Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (dvidshub.net) it'll show all the US DoD photos--even the ones that don't make the PA cutline. I'm sure other country's have their own Defense websites with pictures as well. No chance anyone will be doing a walkaround. -Peter

Agreed! I was going to make a snarky comment about the photo along the lines that it's the Bomber Mafia's dream: CAVU skies and no defenses. Was doing some research at work and was thoroughly depressed while reading about the performance of the precision bombing during the oil campaign. Post war analysis showed that only 12.9% of the bombs dropped fell within the fences of the oil refineries. Only 3% of the total dropped hit any structures or equipment. That's a whole lot of effort for not good results... Those planes are amazing! Of course everyone loves "The Dragon and His Tail," but there are so many to choose from. Me, I'm partial to the Zodiacs. They had some great artwork too. I've never understood it (honestly haven't dug too deeply), but the Zodiac B-24s were transferred from the 8th AF to the 15th. At least 2 ended up in this BG, but they were scattered about. You could really blow peoples mind and have 8th AF markings on 1 side and 15th AF markings on the other!

Alrighty amigos. Wanted to see what my handiwork looked like under a coat of paint. Only did one side as I’m still in the middle of stringer hell on the other one. Also wanted to see just HOW much was going to be visible. I think I’m on the right track - there’s a hint of what’s there, but not much more. And with pilots sitting there, the eye will be drawn to them anyway. So I’ll keep the detailing to a minimum, as well as the paint. and here’s the bombardiers station. I lopped off a good 15 mm of the flooring as it’s quite different with this nose glazing. As I look at how tight of a fit it is, I’m realizing why I saw a picture of the navigator laying on his table. Also, stumbled across this excellent shot in ye’ old personal archive. From the same BG, but am unsure what squadron. The white cowls would be the 767th, but the lower numbers were reserved for the 764th. But I like it for the excellent detail on all the nose modifications! In the same folder, I found this gem. Another 15th AF B-24L. Look under the nose, and you can see the self protect jammer antennas. There’s 1 forward of the nose gear, and another 3 between the nose gear and bomb bay. I’m still trying to find out exactly how many/where they were installed. If anyone knows, or has better pictures, I’ll take ‘em. Honestly, I can’t believe I’d never seen ‘em before, but once you know what to look for, they pop up in a lot of pictures. so that’s it for now. Plugging away on stringers and adding bits from the kit as I can. Don’t know if I’ll work my way aft, or start thinking about crew members for the nose. Thanks for following along, and appreciate the comments. -Peter

Salt water corrosion and stack gas from the ship’s exhaust do horrible things to airplanes. Add an insane flight schedule and corrosion from 65-68, and there were a lot of USN jets looking like this. Most of the planes repaired at Cubi Point were corrosion issues, not battle damage.

That’s looking incredible! And what a journey it’s been!

Morning folks. Unexpectedly found myself alone in the house last night, so spent some quality time at the work bench. Managed to get the left waist window done. Had previously opened it up, so last night I was able to cut a piece of clear sheet and glue it it. After a quick polish, I used some foil tape to replicate the panel that was used to attach the window to the fuselage. You can see the hole I cut for the .50 cal. will sort that when I start working on the waist section. Am debating on the right side window. My uncle said his was blown out. I might make the opening and then leave the clear bits out. That would be a cool conversation piece! Also managed to get one side of the cockpit painted up, but no pics of that yet. Hopefully this weekend. Thanks for following along, appreciate the comments! -Peter

I was shocked at how easy the process actually was--wish I would have taken more photos to help explain the process, but I was dealing with resin spillage Your Lib is looking fantastic--I look forward to the RFI. Fun bit, looks like a B-24 despite the wings. I'm still debating whether or not to tackle those...