Steve N

I've never heard of the tailplane being moved forward, but I believe it was extended in span by a couple of feet between the I and II. Could this be where the confusion is coming in? SN

This clip has actually been sped up by about 30%. Still some fantastic footage though. SN

I was referring to stock plastic kits. Those do look great though. SN

As for fixing the nose, I suppose you could build up and reshape the area ahead of the windscreen, but I'm not sure how you would fix the canopy. the biggest issue there is that the side windows are taller at the front edge than they are at the back, when the height was constant on the real thing (necessary, and the opening panels on the sides slid back over the rear panels.) I supposed you could sand the lower edge to get the shape correct, then build up the cockpit sill to compensate, although I don't know how that would effect the windscreen. Like others have said, it may not be a big deal to some, and that's fine..I simply think they could have done a better job considering the resources available in this day and age. Some years ago I was chatting with a fellow modeler who was building an Academy/Minicraft B-24, and I commented on the undersized and poorly shaped engine cowls, and he said they looked fine to him, as the Liberator isn't a subject he knew a lot about. I mentioned that the Tamiya 1/72 Spitfire looked just fine to me, to which he replied it was "all wrong" and talked about the planform of the elliptical wing and fuselage dimensions. We both just had a good laugh, and agreed that at the end of the day they're just bits of plastic, and if you're happy with it, then that's all that counts. I'll temper my criticism of the HB cowls somewhat, as looking at the buildup it appears that Part #10 on the sprue is a backing plates that provides the insides of the "cheek" intakes. However the exterior contours are still incorrect and simplified. I suppose it's one of those things that either bugs you or doesn't. I first started looking at B-24 cowls when the Academy/Minicraft kits came out in the early 90s. The cowls on that kit are significantly undersized and poorly shaped, and I studied the contours of the real ones in an effort to modify Airfix cowls to fit. Here is the new HB kit. The cowls look "OK-ish," but the contours aren't very accurate. Here's a real B-24 cowl for comparison. The "cheek" intakes are actually angled inwards, and the inner edge set back from the rim of the engine opening. Not entirely germane to this thread, but here's a photo I made years ago comparing the 1/72 Hasegawa and Academy/Minicraft cowls. So far, Hasegawa are the only ones to come close to capturing the complex shape of the real thing (although as I mentioned above, the upcoming Airfix B-24H looks very promising in that regard.) Anyway, just some random musings from somebody who obviously has way too much time on his hands. Steve

I'm not quite as picky as Wrath/Tlavok/Gaston. I tend not to quibble over a millimeter here or there, as long as the kit captures the lines of the subject reasonably well, and the quality is decent. That said, the canopy and fuselage top in front of the cockpit are just glaringly obvious errors. One thing I haven't seen mentioned on this thread are the engine cowls, which are absolutely awful. Pretty much every B-24 kit ever just portrays them with a flat front and crescent-shaped inlets on either side of the engine and calls it a day. The contours of the real cowl are much more complex. If you take a look at a real one and compare it with the new HB kit, they're not even on the same planet. So far, the Hasegawa 1/72 kit is the only one to get them right (although the forthcoming Airfix B-24H looks promising as well.) Steve

Classic short-shot. You might be able to find an original Hasegawa boxing cheap on the second-hand market (it's the same kit.) SN

Emerson. Always has been. Steve

This was a scene from a wartime romance movie, (I forget the title.) The footage is actually sped up by about 30%. SN

I built the LS Rufe some years ago. Fun little kit, although I added a simple cockpit, vac canopy, and engine from the spares bin. SN

The question is: which Airfix B-17? They've produced to vastly different kits of their own, as well as re-boxing the Academy kits under the Airfix label. SN

The Academy B-24M has fully-enclosed waist gun windows, although they're the single-pane with staggered guns (forward lower corner on one side, aft on the other) rather than framed type with centered guns seen on Kentucky Belle. SN

I watched it a couple nights ago. Some personal observations: I haven't read the book since I was a kid, probably 50 years ago, but from what I remember the film follows the story pretty well. The film is a bit hampered by the short running time..character development is nearly non-existent, and the drama playing out in the vampire cockpit seems quite rushed. I think it would have been better to spend longer building up the tension and the pilot's increasing desperation. Special effects were so-so. Mostly CGI, and not all that believable in spots. I presume this was shot on a fairly limited TV budget. The Vampire appears to be seen taxiing under its own power, and I think there are a few flying shots that used an actual flying aircraft, albeit darkened down with night backgrounds added in with CGI. The flying shots of the Mosquito are all CGI, but the closeups of Travolta in the cockpit are obviously a real aircraft. For being lost at night over the North Sea, the cockpit of the Vampire is very well-lit. The obvious soundstage lighting seemed really jarring to me. One thing that I was dreading was if Travolta would attempt a British accent. Fortunately he doesn't..there's a throwaway line about his character being Canadian (I don't recall if that's from the book or not.) I do think he should have shaved..I don't think an oxygen mask would work over a beard. Anyway, overall pretty good. Us rivet counters can find plenty to nitpick, but it captures the story pretty well. Definitely worth a watch. SN

I just stumbled across the Sword C6N dirt cheap from an estate sale last month. It indeed looks very nice on the sprues. Vastly superior to Fujimi (which I also have.) However, I haven't built it, and Sword kits have a reputation of not being the easiest kits to build. SN

The problem is that Rising sheet has been out of production for many years, and is pretty much impossible to find. SN

Biggest difference is that in the movie the name was painted in large, cursive letters, while on the actual Belle it was fairly small, simple block-style lettering. I don't know if the movie version correctly displayed the mission tallies and other personal markings either. SN

Biggest issue with the Academy B-17s are the wings. The cowl openings are undersized (easily fixed with a bit of judicious carving to open them up a bit) and the engines themselves are terrible. The wings have too much dihedral. This can be remedied with some shimming at the top of the wing root to reduce the angle, although you'll then have to adjust the angle of the landing gear to compensate. The supercharger intakes (the big rectangular intakes next to the fuselage and outboard engine nacelles) are molded as simply shallow depressions, and need to be cut open to look even remotely realistic. The oil cooler intakes on the leading edge between the engines are completely missing. There's also a blob molded on the bottom of the inboard nacelles that's supposed to represent the external oil cooler intake from the B-17B/C/D, but needs to be removed for the E/F/G. The outboard turbosuperchargers have an odd wedge-shaped "hood" molded on them, which was an experimental modification that was only briefly tried out on one of the prototypes. All of these are fairly straightforward issues to fix, except the engines..but there are aftermarket resin ones available. There are a couple of other little issues: the plexiglass nose cap is rather thick, and represents the longer, more pointed nose of the B-17F. And the tail gun station is split in half vertically, leaving a nasty seam through the middle of the glass which wasn't there on the real thing. There are aftermarket vacuform transparency sets to address both these issues if you're so inclined. One nice thing about the Airfix reboxings of the Academy B-17G is that I believe they give you both the early "stinger" style tail gun and the later "Cheyenne" type. You can also build it with either the original waist window setup (straight across from each other) or the later staggered windows. I wish Airfix had given us those options on their otherwise magnificent B-17G from a few years ago. Unfortunately the kit only allows one to build a late G-model, and they don't seem inclined to do any other variants. SN

Decals Carpena made a set that included decals for the wartime Belle, but I don't know if it's still available anywhere. The best ones I've found were from the old Zotz "Heavenly Bodies" B-17 set. But I think those are long out of production. They were pricey when new..I don't want to think what they go for now. SN

I don't know if these are any better than the references you already have, but here are some pics I took of the rear turret on the restored Halifax in the RCAF Museum in Trenton, Ontario. Cheers! Steve

From the research I've done of the years, it seems all P-47 cockpits were Dull Dark Green, EXCEPT the ones built by Curtiss in Evansville, Indiana, which were "Interior Green" (Tinted Zinc Chromate.) But all the Curtiss-built aircraft went to Stateside training units, so basically any combat Thunderbolt would have a Dull Dark Green cockpit. The P-43 is another kettle of fish. Dull Dark Green was introduced in Sept. 1942, long after the P-43 was out of production. However, they could have used Bronze Green, which was used in the cockpits of a number of pre-war USAAF aircraft, including the B-18. I would simply study whatever photos you can find, and make your best guess. The cockpit could be Tinted Zinc Chromate, Bronze Green, or even Aluminum Lacquer. Hopefully I didn't just muddy the waters ever further Steve

I think the Academy/Minicraft B-24D kits all have the blanking plate and no turret. All their turret-nose kits (B-24J/H/M) have come with the Sperry ball turret. I have the original "Goon" and "Blonde Bomber" boxings of the D-model, and neither has the turret. Neither does the Italeri formation ship release. The only release of the Academy/Minicraft B-24D kit I can find that includes the Sperry ball turret is the Eduard "Mission Centenarians" special edition release from 2011, but it's long out of production (and was seriously expensive.) SN

I wouldn't trust box art for an accurate reference. 😁 This photo shows The Goon with no belly turret. Can't really tell if she has the tunnel gun or not. http://www.b24bestweb.com/goon7.htm SN

Ah, I see where the confusion is. The "tunnel gun" is actually mounted in the aft belly hatch. The kit comes with a clear part (#112) with a hole for mounting the gun, and the internal framework molded on. I'm at work right now, but I'll try to post a pic later. SN

If it's the Dragon And His Tail B-24J, it should include the ball turret. However I believe the real aircraft had the ball turret removed, and replaced with a pair of hand-held guns to reduce weight, a common modification on Pacific-based B-24s. SN

I'm not sure about Revell, but Italeri has definitely reboxed the Academy/Minicraft kit. Eduard is a bit more complicated, as they've reboxed both the Acedamy/Minicraft AND Hasegawa kits with extra goodies as "special editions." They released the Hasegawa B-24D kit as an RAF Coastal Command Liberator in their "Riders Of The Storm" boxing, which it great because it comes with extra sprues giving you the correct rear turret for the D-model (which Hasegawa didn't) as well as just about every other turret ever used on the 24 and a bunch of other extras like narrow-cord propellers. The boxing is quite expensive, but they released the extra sprues separately as "overtrees" sets (I bought three!) Eduard also released the Academy/Minicraft B-24D in a special Ploesti Raiders boxing with extra photo-etch and decals. To reiterate what I said above: Hasegawa is the cream of the crop, but very expensive. Academy/Minicraft is decent..not quite as accurate or detailed as Hasegawa, but much more affordable, The old Airfix B-24J and Revell B-24D are best left for nostalgia, The Airfix kit could still be a contender, but it let down by absolutely horrible clear parts, particularly the cockpit canopy, which is a thick squared-off block that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the actual shape of a B-24 canopy (an replacing it would require you to do some major reshaping of the fuselage around the cockpit.) Cheers! Steve

The waist window was covered by a solid hatch with a small window, which swung upwards to allow the gun to be deployed. Here's a photo I took of the waist guns on the B-24D at the USAF Museum, with the hatches open. Note also the retractable wind deflector in front of the hatch. SN