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Hobby Boss 1/32 B-24J - Initial Observations

acresearcher

By acresearcher
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Dave Williams

Dave Williams

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, AnthonyWan said:

Alright... without having to go through 22 pages. Is this kit good or bad? 

 

Also, how crazy would I be in wishing for a PB4Y-2 conversion? 

 

 

 

Depends on what your criteria for a good or bad kit is.  Definitely one of their B team kits.  Major issues so far:

 

1.  The wing airfoil profile at the root is completely wrong and almost unfixable without making a new wing

2.  The nose and tail turrets have seams across their clear parts like the Monogram 1/48 kit, and worse, the portions of the nose turret that should be clear are frosted and the metal parts that should be painted are crystal clear.

3.  Squadron/MMD is forcing all US realtors to sell at the same full MSRP $250, which is high, considering the issues of the kit IMHO

 

Lesser issues:

 

4.  Most of the decal options are incorrect for the kit configuration.  Two of the real aircraft have Consolidated nose turrets, but the kit only includes the Emerson nose turret.  If you’re using aftermarket decals, it may not be an issue.

5.  Engines have detail level of old 1/48 or 1/72 kits.  Namely, a one single piece with a front row of cylinders molded over a half thickness of rear cylinders molded directly to a firewall.  You can’t see much of the engines anyway, and it’s possible Eduard or someone will come out with aftermarket engines like they did for the HK B-17

 

On the plus side, it’s a 1/32 B-24, and likely the only IM one we’ll ever see in our lifetimes.  

 

Everyone has to make their own determination on whether the kit is “good” or “bad” based on what’s important to them.

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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

Posted
Posted

My take on the bad.....

1). Wing airfoil

2). Plastic LG, big plane. 

3). Front and rear turret disaster

4). Rubber tires. Needs weighted look.

5). Lack of engine detail.  

 

1 & 5 I can live with. I think Tires are already available.   It will sit in the stash waiting on AM to catch up.   

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Pup7309

Pup7309

Posted
Posted
On 12/19/2018 at 1:39 AM, John1 said:

Can't help you with turrets and honestly, given how few of these kits will probably be sold (I have to believe that any 32nd scale 4-engined bomber has to be at best a niche product), I'm not certain you will ever see an aftermarket company invest the money and time to produce clear resin turrets. 

That doesn’t bode well because the turrets need an AM fix. Even though it’s a niche market I imagine they’ll sell a few of these so maybe it’s worth someone’s while- an opportunity for a little cottage industry start up...?

 

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titan

titan

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, AnthonyWan said:

Alright... without having to go through 22 pages. Is this kit good or bad? 

 

Also, how crazy would I be in wishing for a PB4Y-2 conversion? 

 

 

 

Kit's a B-24.  I think that's good.

Wing cross section is off though I'm still not convinced it's that noticeable to most.  

Emerson turret has some difficult cleanup and the clear sections are frosted.  To be fair, they aren't THAT frosted and I think they'd clean up fine with some buffing, NOVUS, and/or Future.

Engines are very simple, though again, I don't know how much you can actually see with the cowls on.  This one bothers me far less than most.

And as in every other 1/32 bomber kit ever the M2 Brownings are a complete mess with different stations having different size guns with different barrel lengths and bogus cooling jackets when they should all look more or less the same.  This one is my pet peeve.  Really made me mad on the HK B-25.  If you want replacements Eduard makes the best 1/32 Brownings and Master makes the best  barrels though Aber is also very good.

 

For the Privateer question, see here:  The good news if you go the Privateer route is that you don't have to deal with the Emerson turret issues.  I've got the ERCO turret exterior nearly ready to go.

 

 

 

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titan

titan

Posted
Posted
On ‎11‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 2:39 PM, acresearcher said:

I've spent a bit of time going over Jeff Verswyvel's in-box video review of the this kit over on Hyperscale as well as some additional closeup photos Jeff was kind enough to send my way, and have the following observations. Please note that these comments are based upon what I could determine from photos - not handling the plastic - and thus may be open to further discussion.

 

Turrets

While the nose Emerson and tail A6C are correct for "My Akin?" - a Block 185-CO - the nose turret is NOT correct for either "War Goddess", a Block J-105-CO, or for "Going My Way", a Block J-175-CO. Both of these aircraft had the A6C nose turret such as fitted to the tail. The Consolidated J's started mounting the Emerson nose turret beginning with Block J-185-CO. The tail turret may or may not be correct as many B-24's had the shields over the guns on the tail removed since it didn't have the draft problem of the nose.

 

The top turret just looks "wrong". It appears to have to be somewhere between the round dome top of the A3C with the glass sighting panel of the A3D. The A3D had a very distinctive rise of the top going from front to back to accommodate both better headroom and to maintain a very strict +/- 3 degree angle relationship with the later lead-computing gun sight (although this is actually more complicated than I've just stated). The A3D also did not have external metal straps the kit seems to show. Hey! It's the B-24! What did you expect?? "War Goddess" should have the older, rounded dome of the A3C, but both "My Akin ?" and "Going My Way" both mounted the A3D "High Hat". Jeff Verswyvel was kind enough to send me a photo of the turret from the side, but it still looks wrong to me, not appearing to rise high enough in the back for the A3D nor low enough for the A3B/C. Thus, the top turret in the kit may not be correct for anything.

 

Nose glass

The box art correctly shows "My Akin ?" having the slightly bulged bombardier observation window addition unique to the 15AF located between the main bombardier sighting glass on the lower front nose and the navigator's observation window. The kit's front fuselage does not have a flashed-over cutout on the inside of the fuselage for this bombardier observation window mounting and I didn't see anything on the clear parts tree that resembled these bulged windows. This would be an excellent opportunity for a vacformed window.

 

I've not taken the time to do a detailed examination of photos of the kit with the above exceptions. It is highly likely there are a number of much smaller errors, but overall it still looks like a magnificent example of the manufacturer's art.

 

Alan Griffith, author

"Consolidated Mess, Vol. I"

 

So on the top turret, the kit part does indeed have a rise toward the rear as in the A3D.  That said, in my opinion the rise is not quite enough and it's easy to miss it with the geometry of the gun cutouts.  I think they were going for the A3D but didn't get the high hat high enough.  

Just my opinion after eyeball-only inspection.

 

Out of curiosity, do you or anyone else here have access to good engineering drawings of the A3C and A3D profiles?  I've started CAD for an A3C replacement part but I'm not sure I got the curvature totally correct.  And I've got less on the A3D.

 

I plan to work 3D printed, non-vac, replacement for the Emerson turret as well.  If you don't mind vac, John at Tigger Models has you covered for all the B-24J clear parts.

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nmayhew

nmayhew

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

They have two sets for the Mustang, and one for the I-153. And Alistair is formerly the man behind A2Zee and Alley Cat.

 

Kev

yes thanks Kev - now I know who the guy is!

 

Had a look at their / his site, and saw the P-51 canopy and was enthused...then read the blurb and was less so - did the thing ever get produced I wonder?

 

"UPDATE AS OF 28th September 
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS ON HOLD UNTIL WE CAN ACHIEVE GOOD CASTINGS 
Apologies for the delay, it is driving me crazy as well.......... 
All being well I will know by the end of May 2017..."

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nmayhew

nmayhew

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, titan said:

 

So on the top turret, the kit part does indeed have a rise toward the rear as in the A3D.  That said, in my opinion the rise is not quite enough and it's easy to miss it with the geometry of the gun cutouts.  I think they were going for the A3D but didn't get the high hat high enough.  

Just my opinion after eyeball-only inspection.

 

Out of curiosity, do you or anyone else here have access to good engineering drawings of the A3C and A3D profiles?  I've started CAD for an A3C replacement part but I'm not sure I got the curvature totally correct.  And I've got less on the A3D.

 

I plan to work 3D printed, non-vac, replacement for the Emerson turret as well.  If you don't mind vac, John at Tigger Models has you covered for all the B-24J clear parts.

 

Alan is definitely your man ;)  if you need B-24 info 

 

Very much hoping your 3D printed turrets work out - that would be awesome!

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PhilB

PhilB

Posted
Posted (edited)
52 minutes ago, titan said:

Emerson turret has some difficult cleanup and the clear sections are frosted.  To be fair, they aren't THAT frosted and I think they'd clean up fine with some buffing, NOVUS, and/or Future.

 

If the frosting is purely external then I agree,  that isn't a big issue.

Less work than cleaning up those canopy seams on some models.

:)

Edited by PhilB
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Tony T

Tony T

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

My take on the bad.....

1). Wing airfoil

2). Plastic LG, big plane. 

3). Front and rear turret disaster

4). Rubber tires. Needs weighted look.

5). Lack of engine detail.  

 

1 & 5 I can live with. I think Tires are already available.   It will sit in the stash waiting on AM to catch up.   

 

2)  are not the plastic legs on show 'place holders' for cast metal parts? 

 

1)  don't expect this will change with the D / Ploesti boxing but a good squirt of PB4Y dark grey blue on the uppers will hide much sin

 

Tony 

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