'Altair' 614 Pathfinder Squadron - Hasegawa 1:72 RAF Liberator B MkVIII (B-24J)

[Dances With Wolves]

Hi folks:

Now that this show is back on the road after a two and a half year 'pause', it's time for a short update.

I regret that I can't find my original post, so I'll briefly mention that 'Altair' was piloted by Tom Scotland, an Australian who wrote "Voice From The Stars - A Pathfinder's Story", still available I understand. My brother Nick was researching an uncle of ours, Ted Budd, who died very near to the end of WWII. The trail had gone cold and without any sense of real hope put out a plea on an RAF forum for information.

To his great surprise, someone answered and directed him to Tom's book, adding that he believed Ted was mentioned in one of the chapter titles. Nick bought the book and sure enough, Ted was mentioned, so Nick e-mailed Tom in Oz who has since backfilled important parts of the picture. Ted flew with Tom five or six times, in order for Tom's bomb aimer, Ed Riley, to train him. Declared fully operational, Ted was transferred to another 614 aircraft and crew. I think it was only his second op with the new crew when the Libby iced up badly in February 1945, so much so, that lift fell away and the aircraft fell out of the sky.

The pilot gave the 'bail out' order and while the Libby was apparently a bit of a 'mare to get out of in a tearing hurry, Ted and one other were quickly at a hatch and jumped. Shortly after they departed the ice broke free of the flying surfaces and the pilot regained control, telling the remaining crew to stay put. Ted and the other poor soul floated down on their parachutes into the Adriatic. Their survival time in winter sea water would have been minutes and Ted lost his life just inches from making it over the line.

Ted's time on 'Altair' included quite a remarkable incident when the aircraft was peppered with incendiaries, during a raid on Carsarsa, from an over flying Libby. Numerous holes appeared in the wings and fuselage and the crew kicked some incendiaries free, while others stayed lodged. The crew elected not to bail out, despite it looking like an in flight break up was dangerously likely and the crippled airframe was successfully brought back to Amandola air base in central Italy by Tom.

The interior, apart from the basic floor and bulkheads that are provided by Hasegawa, are really quite featureless, especially where the bomb bay and waist gunner positions are concerned. The gunner doors will be displayed in the open and stowed position, which really meant that detailing the interior becomes absolutely necessary, as even in 172 scale, quite a lot can still be seen through the open apertures.

Two sizes of plastic strip we used to provide ribs and stringers. Amazing how even this simple stage can still rack up the additional part numbers - 130+ already.

References I found on the web indicated that a plywood panel was fitted where each waist gun was situated. Some photographs indicated this was half length while others seem to suggest it was all the way to the floor. Obviously here I went for the full-length version.

As the aircraft was a pathfinder, the ball turret was removed and replaced with an H2S radar unit. The gantry for deploying and retracting the unit is yet to be scratched.

The lower edge sill, extended by the panelling, is visible here.

The port side ribs and stringers, without the floor unit in place. Each additional piece was test fitted with the floor and bulkheads in place to ensure a snug join with its neighbour.

Each .50 cal was served by its own ammunition bin. Photos of these were used to estimate the dimensions. Construction was based around a solid core of square plastic, to which small panels of .25 card were attached. Cut oversize, these were trimmed and sanded in line with advice previously garnered from Verlinden years ago. This method makes your construction look neater and more precise. The core around which all this sits was deliberately made smaller than the height of the box, in order that this section would be suitably hollow - ready to accommodate some etched ammunition that I hope I can source from somewhere.

Happy days.

Steve

[woody37]

Don't see many B-24's being made, so gonna be watching this. Sad story about your uncle Ted, a tragic inspiration none the less to see your build materialize

[Dances With Wolves]

Don't see many B-24's being made, so gonna be watching this. Sad story about your uncle Ted, a tragic inspiration none the less to see your build materialize

Hi Woody:

This one's being knocked up for my brother Nick who, as the preamble mentioned, has been uncovering the wartime experiences of Ted. In point of fact, he previously flew in Wellingtons and was involved in an action on the Danube mine laying, when they were required to return after a previous mission and discovered the Germans had multiplied the number of flak batteries.

My brother Nick wrote this elsewhere -

"Ted's first operational posting was 150 Squadron, part of 205 Group, 330 Wing RAF, based in Italy in March 1944. They were the only operational RAF units not under British command, falling under the USAF OOB. Here he flew in Wellingtons as a bomb-aimer and its with this sq that he achieved his "Mentioned in Despatches" (MID) as a result of a "gardening" (mine-laying) op on the Danube, the night of 1 July 1944.

We know about the detail of this op from a letter that PO JFC Stoneham (the pilot of Ted's Wellington) wrote to Ted's mother (our great aunt) in April 1945, after he had heard of Ted's MIA. Essentially, they dropped their mines at a height of 200 feet and at 180mph, but were hit at least seven times by light flak ( presumably 20 & 37mm) and heavy mg. The pilot (Stoneham), navigator (Taft) and wireless operator (Nixon) were all wounded, pretty seriously with leg, arm and head wounds. Taft (who subsequently died the next day of his wounds) collapsed on top of Ted whilst on the bomb run, but they successfully deployed the mines.

The "Wimpey" was badly damaged with many mechanical failures ensuing. Stoneham, with a head wound managed to get them over the mountains, where he handed over control to Ted (who had originally received modest training as a pilot at the start of his RAF service), whilst over the Adriatic. Stoneham then went back to the nav position to plot their way back. Whilst he was there the starboard engine cut out and Ted "calmly" asked Stoneham to initiate the manual auxiliary fuel line to the engine, which proved successful. They belly-landed back at their base (Regina from recollection) and the plane appears to have caught fire. Ted helped get the wounded out and as Steve said. appeared responsible for providing the de-brief. Stoneham and Nixon's rehab took some time (given their wounds), Taft died, and am unsure what happened to the AG, Heathcote, but seem to recall he was placed on reserve. Stoneham and Nixon received the DFC and DFM respectively, but Stoneham's attempt to get Ted a DFM failed. Stoneham puts this down to the fact that the squadron was disbanded within 8 weeks of this op, and Ted played down his own role in the events that took place between 21.01 and 02.15 on the night of 1/2 July 1944. He was MID though, gazetted July 1945, as, I believe, in recognition of his actions."

Thanks again.

Steve