B-24J 42-99949 of the 93rd BG/328th BS - Naughty Nan

[ChuckD]

Hello, all.  For this group build, I decided to do something a little off the beaten path.  I'd considered a couple different fighters in the stash that would be applicable, but ended up deciding on the B-24J that'd been sitting on my shelf of doom for years.  I think I originally bought it as a COVID project and, to the SoD it went after something else happened to catch my attention.

 

I typically don't like to do any of the markings included with kits as they often tend to be overdone.  And, with access to a mask cutter and decal printing paper, I usually like to try to do something unique.  To that effect, I've spent the better part of the evening scouring Joe Baugher's USAF serial number lists and b24bestweb.com trying to determine which ship to build and have ultimately landed on Nan.

 

If you're at all familiar with the B-24, you know that it still holds the title of the most produced heavy bomber aircraft in history.  As such, the modeler is left with a dizzying array of options and combinations as to what may or may not be appropriate for a particular build.  Best I can tell - and I make no claims to be a B-24 expert - the kit really won't make any B-24 correctly.  (This is, of course, ignoring the wing shape and other form issues.)  My primary criteria in my search were the nose window and turret configurations, and nothing I could find quite matched the layout of this kit.  Either a ship would have the right window layout with the wrong turret, or vice versa.

 

So, we're going to grit our teeth and do the best we can with what we've got.

 

Here's the subject ship.  She's B-24J-55-CO s/n 42-99949, nicknamed Naughty Nan.  On the right side of the nose, there's a Vargas pinup girl whose head has been chopped off in favor of ad hoc armor plating (See here).  She was lost in a mid-air collision with another B-24 on September 21st, 1944 over Belgium.  According to the Missing Air Crew Report, 5 of the 9 crew went down with the ship.

 

The most glaring issues between this a/c and the kit are the facts that the kit calls for an Emerson forward turret and also has side windows next to the bombardier's windows.  The latter are easy enough to smooth over.  The former, however, is a bit of a twist... but I think I have a halfway acceptable plan.

 

Here's what I'm working with so far.

 

Obviously, I haven't done a whole lot yet, but the build has been pain free.  It's a huge, chunky kit, but it seems to be going together fairly well.

 

As you can see, I have oodles of aftermarket to lipstick up this pig, including both an Emerson nose turret and a A6C turret from Cold War Studios.  Our subject ship has an A6C in the nose as well as the tail.  Technically, I have two A6Cs if I include the split-down-the-middle tail turret from the kit.  So, in an effort not to spend more money on more lipstick, I'm going to try to use the kit turret for the tail and the CWS A6C for the nose.  Crossing my fingers here that everything works out because I'm not yet sure if the guts of the Emerson turret from the kit will fit the A6C turret.  (See here for a lengthy discussion.  Bonus points for my giddy naivete in the 3rd post)

 

For Naughty Nan, the window aft of the bombardier's sighting glass will need to go.

 

And so it shall be done.  Plated off with a little plastic card.

 

Rivets around the area are filled with liquid sprue.  Once that's cured, I'll fill the recesses for the windows inside and out with epoxy putty and sand them smooth.

 

So, that's where we're at.  Time to finally get this going.  As I'm not doing any figures or ground work, I expect this build to go pretty quickly, so stay tuned!

[MikeMaben]

Wow !!  

[ChuckD]

Today's update:

 

I decided to tackle a couple items today.  First, I wanted to fill the holes in the nose as mentioned yesterday.  I left plenty of extra material on the outside of the fuselage so I'd have plenty to sand and feather.  The inside of the fuselage will not be visible, so I wasn't as worried about getting that as smooth. 

 

 

 

While I was/am waiting for that epoxy putty to cure, I decided to start looking into the turret question.  As expected, the internal components for the A6C (of which this a/c has 2) are nothing like those in the Emerson front turret.  So, with no other options, I'm going to have to do my best to scratch build the internals for one of them. 

 

These are the parts in question.

 

To be fair, I did check eBay for a parted out kit, but alas no Z-sprue is available.  I don't have a 3d printer either, or I'd probably build these in there.  I had started the build expecting it to be a pretty simple, straightforward thing.  Surprisingly, it's already throwing up a challenge for my scratch building skills.

 

The good news is, I'm already making some pretty good progress.

The main armor plating/framework roughed in.

I recreated the bend by carefully cutting partway through the plastic sheet, then back-filling the new gap with stretched sprue.

A compass helped cutout the ring.

And here you can see the fit of the factory part vs the blank of the scratch part.  I will use the scratch parts in the tail turret along with the kit-supplied split turret.  The factory turret innards will go in the CWS single-piece turret.  I've got the other side plate started, but it's very rough at this point.  Still, it's off to a good start.  I'll add details like the control boxes and wiring after I get the rest of the main structures together, but I'm pretty sure that once the turret is closed up and painted, nothing will really be visible of the interior.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent problem-solving, Chuck!

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Great work!

[ChuckD]

Hello, all.  We're back with another update.

 

I spent the better part of the day buried in the turretry of this big dumb beast.  I finished the scratch building of the tail turret and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together. 

 

At this point, most stuff is just dry fit so I can break it all down and paint everything.  This shows my favorite .50 barrels on the market - Master Models.  They're turned brass and come in two parts with separate barrels and cooling jackets.  No resin or other aftermarket parts come close, in my opinion.

 

The rear doors took a little finagling to get sitting flush, but they are nice and snug now.

 

Here's the rough breakdown.  It's not a perfect recreation of the turret interior, but in all I'm pretty happy with how it looks when bundled up into the turret shell.  The arm for the gunsight can be snuggled nicely into place once the other half is put together.

 

Here's the Cold War Studio solid turret.  I had to scratch the rear doors, naturally.  When dry fit, they're a little loose, but a small bit of superglue ought to tack it in place without much trouble.

 

I also got the ball turret assembly around as well.  It will no doubt be a delight to mask and paint, but at least the assembly was very straight forward.

 

 

I know I said I didn't want to more lipstick on this pig, but I decided to break down and order another tail turret shell from CWS.  Their page says it's out of stock and "pre-order."  That's what their site said when I ordered the turrets that I have now, and they arrived within a few weeks.  So, we'll see.  Worst case, I can dispute things with paypal and get a refund. 

 

All that said, now that I'm through with the major scratch building part of this project, I think the rest of it will start to pick up speed.  I can tell you that I'm going to be burning a boatload of paint on the interior. 

[MikeMaben]

Yeah wow , nice work Chuck 

[ChuckD]

Slowly but surely making progress.  I couldn't stand the framework in the upper turret, so I spent some time sanding and polishing it.

 

The start... Completely inaccurate as it should have no framing at all.

 

220 grit to knock it down.

 

This is about 800 or 1000...

 

I finished at 4000 grit, then brushed on a coat of future floor polish. Much better.

 

A quick and dirty dry fit shows it's looking good!

 

Not surprisingly, there is a lot of crap to paint on this beast.

 

I spent today base coating the interior.  Nothing too exciting, so I didn't take many pictures, but I'll post a few once I get it washed and dirtied up a bit.  Next step is to build the Eduard cockpit bits.  More pics soon!

Edited April 8 by ChuckD

[Maxim61]

looking really good.

[MikeMaben]

Take yer sweet time Chuck 

[ChuckD]

Back with an update.  Progress has been slow but steady.

 

After hosing the interior down with a broad brush, I spent some time getting the Eduard cockpit and HGW seatbelts around.

 

I added just a little weight to the cockpit section with lead sheet.  This is something like a pound of weight.

 

The interior... given the size, this thing is difficult to photograph.

 

Ammo boxes-o-plenty.

 

A rough fitting of the fuse halves.  The fit wasn't great.  There's enough openings in the fuse to verify that all internal bulkheads were located correctly, but still there was a decent gap between the halves in the upper spine above the ball turret and another on the bottom between the bomb bay and nose wheel well.  Break out the super glue.

 

The canopy actually fits nicely.

 

The aforementioned upper gap.

 

The also aforementioned lower gap.

 

Glue applied!

 

Channeling my P-38G conversion from a year ago, it's time to slather on the super glue and sand things down.  Fortunately, Trumpeter's lackadaisical approach to panel lines means that there was not a ton of detail to worry about having to restore afterwards.

 

While the glue was curing, I moved on to the wings.  The gear bays are monstrous things.

 

Starting to look like a Liberator.

 

Here's something I'm not too thrilled about.  The instructions call for sandwiching the wing halves over the heavy spar piece then... I dunno... it looks like you're supposed to screw them together, but there's just so much wrong with that idea.  There are no screws included with the kit and assembling the wings in that manner would leave you no option than to try to paint this monster as a single, complete unit.  That ain't happening as there's no way to maneuver it around my paint bench when fully assembled.  Sooooo, these 4 studs gotta go.

 

Easy peasy... the wings now slide on without trouble.

 

The wings with control surfaces.  I had to sand down the hinges for all the control surfaces because they were too wide and interfered with the control surfaces themselves.  Annoying, but not a show stopper.

 

Once nacelle installed before running out of steam today.  The fuse halves are filled and looking good, now I just need to do a bit of rescribing.

 

This thing is a monster.  I gotta say though, aside from its overall size, it's not a very inspiring kit.  Everything is big, chunky, and heavy.  There's very little in the way of small details - everything is big and chunky.  Ah well, there's no other show in town, so we'll make the best of what we've got. 

[denders]

That's looking really nice! I never knew there was a mud guard in the nose wheel compartment. 

[Shoggz]

Well, you're making the very most of a mediocre kit - great work.

[blackbetty]

cool build!

[Martinnfb]

labour of love