don f

Nicely done! And the addition of pilot figures in the cockpits, a hint that you are preparing to display the models on a flight deck? Don

@brewerjerry Hi Jerry, I made an error stating that the rear turret was the A-6. After looking more closely at the photos in your first post, the turret is clearly an A-6B with the side fairings removed exposing the guns. The give aways are the small concave plexiglass windows above the guns and the curved bullet resistant glass in front of the gunner. This glass was flat on the A-6. The Eduard 2123 kit contains a monograph titled, "Riders in the Sky 1945: Liberator GR Mk. VI and GR Mk. VIII in Service RAF Coastal Command" by Pavel Turk and Pavel Vancata. I re-read this monograph to confirm the installation of the A-6B as a replacement for the BP Type E rear turret. Carl Vincent's "Canada's Wings 2: The Liberator and Fortress" has a photo on page 91, taken from about the 4 o'clock position, showing more of the rear fuselage. The A-6B turret with the side fairings removed is clearly visible. I have revised my previous posts to correct my error. As you have purchased Tree A from the 2123X set, you have the clear parts to make the A-6B with the side fairings removed. See below. Perhaps you can use kit parts, Q9 (turret base ring), Q16 (gun spacer) and N3 X 2 (guns) as a start for the exposed interior and guns. My apologies for the error. I should not have made a such a quick look at the photo of the rear turret and been so hasty to trust what I facetiously call my memory. Don

@brewerjerry Hi Jerry, Looks like you made a good purchase. I do not have this release of the Hasegawa B-24J. I've looked at "what's in the box" trees and appears that all the parts for a ball turret are in the box. You will need the following kit parts to make the ball turret: A4, D5, F1, F19, F20, Q13 X 2, Q14 X 2, Q21 X 2, R29, R30 The kit instruction sheet may not show you how to assemble the ball turret. The new parts in your kit appear to be the belly radome. Save it for another project. Download a copy of the instruction sheet for the Hasegawa B-24J from the web. If I am mistaken and the parts are not in the box, the early release of the Hasegawa B-24D kit provides all of the parts above, but uses only A4 and Q13 X 2. All the other parts are extra. The B-24D kit provides a blanking plate to cover the belly turret opening. The A-6B rear turret with exposed guns can be obtained from the Eduard 2123 kit or the Overtrees 2123X. Perhaps you can swap, buy or receive the required parts from someone who built the Eduard kit and doesn't need the A-6B turret parts. Here's what you will need: Post your progress. I am very interested in seeing your construction of this model. Don

@brewerjerry You are fortunate to have a good photo of your subject aircraft. The photo shows many features of a Consolidated Fort Worth (CF) manufactured B-24J, a B-24J-50-CF as Graham stated. This is an interesting subject. Nose turret - A-15 Ball turret Top turret - A-3C likely Rear turret - A6B (appears that side fairings removed to expose guns) edit - not A-6 turret Waist guns - open Pitot - G-2 on lower left nose (mast-type on nose deleted) Nose gear doors - open inward Fuel vents - post-type on top of wing Wing tip lights - single unit at tip (upper and lower wing tip on each wing deleted) Rudder trim tabs - extended length No left aileron trim tab Rear fuselage scanning windows No additional bombardier windows Small rectangular navigator window I've likely overlooked a few other external features of the -50-CF. One photo above, of the rear fuselage, shows the oval shaped bomb release lights fairing replaced with a single, tear-drop shaped, white (?) light. Academy/ Minicraft With this list of features, I believe that your least expensive option, OOB, is the Academy B-24H kit. This kit, despite its title as a B-24H, is actually a Consolidated manufactured (no Ford "S" shaped nose) B-24J. I don't recall if the Academy/Minicraft B-24J kit has the A-15 front turret. If it does, then this kit could also be used. If you are willing to accept having the wrong rear turret, seams in the turret clear parts and a few other boo-boo's, then it is Academy all the way. Airfix The ancient Airfix B-24J could be used. The new Airfix B-24H is not a good match OOB for your subject having the wrong nose and wrong tail turret. But, with some filling, filing and using the kit supplied rear turret, this kit could be used. I haven't seen this kit yet. So I don't how much work to remove the Ford nose. Cost is increasing. Hasegawa The Hasegawa B-24 kits are the current gold standard for 1/72 B-24 kits in opinion. The Hasegawa B-24J kit is good match OOB. However, you will have settle for the wrong tail turret. The clear turrets parts in the Hasegawa kit are molded seamless. Cost is increasing. Eduard The Eduard "Riders in the Sky 1945" kit, 2123, has everything you need OOB, including the correct rear turret. And many more extras that you not find in any other kit. The Hasegawa B-24J kit is in the box. Now, the cost has really increased. If you can find it, the Eduard white box of trees, 2123X, has the correct rear turret and many extras very useful for B-24 builders. Inexpensive when released by Eduard, now OOP. With some creative cross-kitting, swapping or buying parts from other builders, you can get better turrets for the Academy kit. Same getting the correct rear turret from the Eduard kit. How much of an effort are you willing to expend in making and detailing your model once you pick a kit? Don

Another page from the CAC manual, something to think about. Perhaps this explains the B-24 flying with its tail up. Here’s some interesting comments from William Carigan’s book, AD LIB: Flying the B-24 Liberator in World War II. Assigned to the 15th AF, Carigan flew 50 missions in the B-24. After returning to the ZI, he was, for a short time, a B-24 instructor pilot and then a B-17 instructor pilot. He retired from the USAF as a Lt. Colonel in 1965. Sadly, he passed in 1988. “Don’t fly contact: the pilot’s manual quips: the only reason they put windows in the aircraft is so you can see other aircraft and mountains and tell whether or not the sun is shining. Fly this instrument airplane by instruments; day or night; fair weather or foul. But keep a sharp lookout. Nose hunt: what the publicitiy (sic) troops fail to mention is that the nose of the B-24 hunts, within limits, in all directions, when cruising. Work as you will to trim out all nose hunt, you’ll never succeed. It hunts in slow arcs, up and down, side to side. When the mighty Liberator is well trimmed, it holds course, altitude and attitude, on average. It climbs twenty feet, descends twenty feet. It turns a couple of degrees left, turns three degrees back right. It combines these moves and arcs, sometimes limiting the deviations to a degree or to ten feet. It just hunts. But don’t let it get you; irritating as it may be at first, learn to accept it or spend the rest of your life trimming back and forth. Mention nose hunt to an old B-24 pilot and he’ll likely have forgotten about it. He simply learned to accept it. I perhaps remember it because I tried for perfection too long before I accepted the condition.”

The CAC "Service and Instruction Manual, Airplane General, B-24D Airplane" shows a 2 1/2 degree angle of incidence for the horizontal stabilizer. Don

Your Phantom is an amazing model. I especially appreciate your effort and determination to finish an abandoned project. Congratulations!

ZOOM............ A bit more progress on this model. Minus the wheels and tires, the landing gear is now complete. The crew painted and ready to install in the cockpit. The seats and crew installed in the cockpit. The interior parts of the canopy assembled and ready for exterior primer coat. Test fit of canopy to the fuselage shows the parts mate up very well. The canopy does have a noticeable mold ridge running down the center, right along the top. I'll leave the decision to sand it out up to Mike. I've a few more parts, tires and wheels, belly tank and exhaust nozzles to finish and paint. Then, on to putty, sanding and priming. My part of this project is almost complete. With lessons learned from this project, I've been inspired to finish my Christmas present of a Tamiya 1/48 Phantom as a QF-4B in flight. With wheels up, no pylons, no ordnance, no crew or seats, few modifications and Caracal decals, it should be a quick build. Don

Ha, ha. Nope, not water in Texas. Concocted in Hawaii, finished on the mainland. Must have been the result of living on a remote, some say most remote, archipelago on earth.

@AlxBNE I'll check with Doug and see if he can provide a photo showing what he did with model. And it is a big model. I usually work in 1/72. Handling that model required some care on my part. Fortunately for me, filling and sanding involved large surfaces with no concern for preserving surface detail. I did use the better part of a tube of Tamiya white putty, a fair amount of Apoxy Sculpt as well as CA mixed with that pink dental repair resin. Don

This model was intended as a model suitable for long distance viewing, hung from the ceiling. Three model builders worked on the model. Mike provided inspiration, hacked up 1/48 AMT S-3A and Kinetics C-2A kits to produce the shape of the fictitious C-3 "Super COD" . I then took over the project to produce a model primed and ready to paint and finish. The model was then shipped to Doug for final assembly, painting and decaling. The WIP link is below. Here's the finished model. The model did not land in its intended location. So, it will grace Doug's man cave. Hope you enjoy the pictures. This was a fun project.

@Retired Bob My notes have this aircraft struck off charge at NAF China Lake on May 17, 1974. Perhaps this photo is of its last flight. I should have posted my inquiry in Cold War. I'll reshape the kit fin cap. I am trying to limit aftermarket purchases. After taking inventory of my aftermarket collection, I was taken aback by the number of items hiding in the big boxes in the closet, never to used. Thanks for the heads up regarding the Eduard fin cap. Don

Update with many images. Doug received the the model damaged. This required some repairs. Image below shows the repair to the wing and the putty work to fair the wing to fuselage. On to masking and painting: Engines Fuselage The wavy line was not to his liking, so repainted. Decals Done! I'll post the final images Ready for Inspection. Don

In April of 2023, my friend Mike asked me to once again participate in one of his team builds. This proposal became the fourth team build with Mike. First was a 1/72 F-4 project, F-4B, F-4J, F-4N and F-4S, that was actually completed. Second is a still on-going project in 1/72 to build a collection of the USN first aces by aircraft type. Third was this C-3 project that was completed. Fourth is a WIP in-flight Tamiya F-4B. The Super COD project involved three model builders, Mike, myself and Doug. Mike started this project as a kind of jab at the USN for phasing out the C-2 in favor of the Osprey. Doug flew C-2A's with VCR-30. The photos of the build progress are not the best. None of us intended to document the project. So we just took snap shots to pass around. Mike dropped off this model soon after I arrived for extended stay on his home island of Kauai. He said he was sick of looking at the model and asked me to finish the build up to the point of having it primed and ready to hand off to Doug on the mainland. Once again I had only rudimentary modeling tools and supplies. So, I received two boxes with the remains of an AMT 1/48 S-3 and a Kinetics(?) C-2 together with the assembled fuselage, wings and vertical stabilizer. The photos below are poor. But, I thought some here might enjoy seeing the results. For me, a what-if was a pleasant diversion from "serious modelling", freed from the restraints of building a replica of something. Here's the pieces: Fuselage with the S-3 nose grafted to the C-2 fuselage. C-2 wing was cut up and glued together for a swept wing. Fuselage was reinforced and sculpted to accept the modified wing. The photo below shows the wing with flaps that I had installed on the left side. Mike was fond of using red Bondo as a filler. The mount for the horizontal stabilizer had been removed from the rear fuselage. The horizontal stabilizers had been cut to give them a positive dihedral. This required that a new mount. I called this mount for the horizontal stabilizer assembly the canoe. The horizontal stab tested fitted to the canoe. Ribs were made to shape the desired profile of the front and rear of the canoe. After making a good fit with horizontal stab, the forward and aft sections of the canoe were filled with epoxy putty and shaped to fit and match the profile of the ribs. The model had to survive being shipped via the Postal Service. So Mike asked if the wing could be made removable for shipment, as well as easy to reattach by Doug. I added a structure in the fuselage to accept a screw inserted into the wing. Once secured, the opening in the wing could closed with a small plug. Doug could then secure the wing and fair in with putty to finish. Preliminary mock-up after the engines were assembled and mounting points in the wings located and drilled. The beginnings of the MLG sponsons on the lower fuselage can just be seen. These were later filled over and shaped with epoxy putty. After looking at the mock-up, Mike and I decided to omit the middle vertical stabilizer. We thought that it looked better that way. One of the many rounds of filling, sanding, repeat. Oh, joy. Looking kind of like a winter camo job. Primed. And here she is in all of her primed, baggy eyed, corpulent, swept wing, jet propelled glory. I departed. Mike boxed and shipped the model to Doug. Photos of Doug's completion of the model in a day or so. Don

Thank you all for your replies. @e8n2 I noticed the configuration of the radome. This should be easy to incorporate. @petetasker I'll take a look at Johnsen's book when published. I'm trying to keep my library from further expansion. If the book has good info the QF-4's, I'll purchase a copy. @Bozothenutter Thanks for pointing me to Tommy's blog. I had not read the F-4 posts. @Sabrejet Saves me the trouble of building seats. This aircraft was written off at China Lake a long time ago. My effort to build this kit has now been significantly reduced. No landing gear, crew, ejection seats, pylons, missiles or other ordnance to make. The aircraft appears to have slotted stabilators. I have a copy of the preliminary NATOPS for the QF-4B to guide me in making the changes to the cockpit. I'll use the Tamiya kit, that I received as a gift, for the model. Only changes that I see are to the vertical stabilizer cap, radome, cockpit and external antennas. Caracals for the decals and no other aftermarket will be used for this plane on a stick display model. This should be a fun and relatively easy project. Don

My plan is to build an in-flight display model of this QF-4B. The aircraft appears to have the ejection seats removed. When flown NOLO were the QF-4B's routinely operated with one or both seats removed? Thanks! Don

Back to work on this project. The completed model will be displayed banking slightly to the right with the crew looking to the left. Also, I was asked to modify the stock kit crew so that they would be offering a salute, the "Hawaiian Good Luck Sign". Perhaps some remember the Pueblo Incident and the Blue House Raid. "Ride Captain ride, upon your mystery ship...." The crew figures were modified by rotating the heads to the left, changing the positions of the left arms and fingers of the left hands. Pilot RIO Crew primed and ready for painting. Now I get to be a figure painter! I am expecting kudos from the International Plastic Pilots Society (IPPS) for rescuing a pair of their brethren from the doom of the scrap box or worse the waste bin. The kit ejection seats are complete. Little time was spent trying to get colors close to the real seats, whatever paints in bottles at hand were used. With the crew nestled into the seats little of them will be seen. The interior of the fuselage was completed. Leading edge droops attached. I had much difficulty with the cure of the CA used to bond the resin parts to the wing. Perhaps this was the result working in a cold room. Wings and fuselage assembled. Drooped ailerons left off for now to allow for a little putty work. Details of the landing gear so far Many more details to add. Don

Not so rare. Here is a discussion with diagram from the IPC. Whatever may have been the problems with these early finger type exhaust stacks, they were solved as this style of exhaust was standard on the A-26 Invader. Hopefully some one will offer these exhausts in 1/72 and 1/48. Don

Agree that the Monogram kit can be made into nice model without major corrections. I remember one from a convention contest some years ago. A gent entered a beautifully built and finished WWII era A-26C in NMF. He had the model in a case. As I recall, the builder rescribed the Monogram kit with no major corrections. Wish I had kept a photo of it. If I were to make only two easy corrections to the kit, these would be: 1.) For a WWII era model, replace the kit MLG wheels with aftermarket B-25 wheels, or those from a Monogram B-25 kit. 2.) Fix the shape of the vertical stabilizer and rudder to eliminate the "scorpion" tail up tilted appearance of the kit. Leave the rest of the fuselage as is. If you consider the drawing in the image below as reasonably accurate, this comparison shows how the shape if the vertical stabilizer affects the appearance of the kit fuselage. From my long running A-26B project, the correction to the kit: Hopefully, one of these days, I'll return back to this project. Don

You have your work cut out for you bringing the Monogram kit up to speed. These are some images from a 24 Jan 1946 issue of the Dash-1. Close to the content of my copy of a 1944 issue. Don

I presume that you are going to detail the bombardier's compartment. Not much in there but detail helps in the very visible interior of the A-26C. Here's a little help. The rear bulkhead was all armor plate. The first image below shows of the rear bulkhead with the armor plate. The following image shows same with armor plate removed. A small transverse (edit - Changed from longitudinally to side-to-side, transverse) armor plate was installed just forward of the fuselage entry door. To use the bombsight, the bombardier knelt on the floor, on a cushion, and leaned over this armor plate. The .50 cal. MG's were sometimes removed and the openings for the gun muzzles faired over. Anecdotally, I was told that the bombardiers were very unhappy when the pilot discharged the guns next to their heads. Same for the similarly equipped B-25's. I'll post some more images of the nose compartment soon as I can find them. Don

In the B-25C1/D1 strafer aircraft, a gun, or guns were often installed in the rear of the aircraft after removing the observer's dome. Machine guns, .30 caliber, were often installed in the open windows in the side of the aft fuselage. I cannot remember where I obtained the images below. They show one type of installation of the cameras just aft of the crew boarding hatch. Don

Hi Neil, I've got some info, regretfully no dimensional info. According to Allan Blue in his book, "The B-24 Liberator", this type of fuel vent was added by Consolidated (CO) beginning with B-24J-75-CO, or Block 75. Consolidated Fort Worth (CF) did the same during J Block 20. The addition of the post type vent to North American Dallas (NT) B-24G's and J's is not discussed in the book. However, photographs show the vents on B-24G-15-NT. So, perhaps all subsequents had the post type vent. Ford made B-24H's do not seem to have had the post type vent, retaining the B-24D type vents. Fuel vents on Ford B-24J, L and M's likewise are not discussed. Nothing is simple with the B-24. Hopefully someone here with more detailed information will fill in the blanks and make corrections. In the photo below, if you zoom in on the upper wing you will see where these were located on the wing top. Note the vents angled upward to follow the air flow over the wing. The B-24D had the vents on both sides of the fuselage above the wing roots. Air entered via a small ram air scoop. A reverse outlet prevented excess pressure. In the photo below, the scoop and outlet can be seen on the fuselage side aft of the raft door and above the wing root. Not very important in 1/72 but visible in larger scales. Below is an image of the B-24D Strawberry B***ch. The fuel vent is visible just above the wing trailing edge. And here is another view of Kentucky Belle from below. The left side art work was not applied at the time of the photo. The bombardier's scanning window is clearly visible. The national insignia appear to have been grayed out. Don

Here ya go......

This may answer your question: http://www.b24bestweb.com/pisces1.htm Hopefully, Airfix has captured the "tacked on" shape of the Ford "S" nose characteristic of the B-24H. Minicraft tried and failed with their B-24M kit. Don