B-24 J 'Tubarao' - any pictures before she was an assembly ship?

[nmayhew]

Hi,

 

re B-24 J 'Tubarao' - are there any pictures before she was an assembly ship?

 

As striking as I find these aircraft, and the fact there is a pretty cool masking set out there for this one by DN Models - it looks like she only had guns in her nose turret

 

The dorsal turret is clearly empty in some pics but possibly has a hint of guns in other; the sides are closed up, and I presume the tail turret is either empty or has been turned into a 1944 disco light show 

 

Modelling a B-24 without guns is like taking a picture of Granny without her teeth in, so I wonder if anyone has any information on what she looked like before she was an assembly ship?

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

dorsal turret empty...

 

 

dorsal turret maybe with guns?

 

No clear pics of rear turret that i can find.

 

 

 

 

[nmayhew]

anyone?

 

Thierry? 

[nmayhew]

back again

 

i had a trawl on the American Museum in Britain website and found quite a few new pics, including one which shows her with a full complement of guns...

 

even more interesting is the fact that it has different tail markings!

 

 

per this b-24 site...http://www.b24bestweb.com/tubarao1.htm it says "Assigned to 854th BS as 6X (D-) changed to (A-) in Aug 44. It was out for repair from Oct 44 until Dec 44 when it was transferred to 855th BS as V2 (O+), and became the third assembly ship for the 491st BG"

 

so my question is in what guise does the above pic show this aircraft?

 

Nick

[Kagemusha]

There's four pages on it in the book, Assembly Ships of the  Mighty Eighth, including profiles of both guises, pm me your email Nick.