Jump to content

1:72 Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator


Navy Bird

Recommended Posts

Hi mates,

My entry in the Obsolete Kit Group Build is the Revell USA kit of the PB4Y-1 Liberator in 1:72 scale. This kit originates from 1965, and has been released many times, most often as the B-24D. First, the box art:

 

100_1947

 

I purchased this kit at a meeting of our local club, way back in 2012, for the princely sum of one US dollar. So what's in the box? Well, surprisingly it was all there, although a couple of prop blades had broken off. The transfer sheet is unusable, but we'll be using an aftermarket sheet so it's not an issue. Here are all the parts:

 

100_4004

 

Gotta love the blue plastic - I won't have to paint it!   :)

 

I compared this to an Academy B-24 kit that I have in my stash, and they are quite close. Despite the "Authentic 1/72 Scale" on the box, I had worried that this might be one of those odd-ball scale Revell kits but it doesn't seem to be the case.

 

The surface detailing consists of recessed panel lines (I kid you not!) and about seven million raised rivets.

 

100_4005

 

Here is a closer look at one of the fuselage halves, and I think you can see how the panel lines are engraved, and not raised.

 

100_4006

 

Whether the panel lines are in the right place is another matter. For this build, I am not going to fret over it. The panel lines stay where they are. Now those rivets...I hate raised rivets. One can make the argument that they should be there, but in 1:72 scale they would be quite insignificant indeed. My plan is to sand off all of the rivets, and just have the panel lines. The Academy kit is designed that way, for what it's worth.

 

As I've demonstrated repeatedly, I seem to be incapable of building a kit OOB. Not wanting to tempt fate, I went out and got some aftermarket. Now I know what you're thinking - there is no aftermarket for a 1965 Revell kit of the B-24! True, but there is a lot of stuff for the Hasegawa, Airfix, and Academy kits. If this stuff doesn't fit, why, we'll make it fit! I got some nice resin for the cockpit (the kit is beyond basic in this area), some nice new resin wheels for the main landing gear, a vacuform canopy set, and a really nice decal sheet. These address the biggest problems that I see in updating the kit. I may end up getting replacement props, too, we'll see if I can get SWMBO to increase my allowance.

 

100_4007

 

The decal sheet is from Iliad Designs in Ottawa, Canada and has markings for several PB4Y-1 and B-24D Sub-Hunters. I received this about two days after I ordered it, really nice service from the folks at Iliad!

 

100_4008

 

I'll most likely use one of the top two schemes, both in the tri-colour camouflage of Non-Specular Sea Blue, Intermediate Blue, and White. These planes have some nice nose art, "Galloping Ghost" and "Subduer," and represent aircraft that were based in Brazil during the war.

 

The fourth scheme from the top is one I've not seen before, being Olive Drab and Neutral Gray over White. This is described as an experimental scheme, based at Langley Field, and it may have never gone any further than that.

 

I won't be starting on this until I finish the Supermarine Scimitar that I'm building for the FAA Group Build. So check back in a week or so, and I should be off and running with this one!

 

Cheers,

Bill

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll most likely use one of the top two schemes, both in the tri-colour camouflage of Non-Specular Sea Blue, Intermediate Blue, and White. These planes have some nice nose art, "Galloping Ghost" and "Subduer," and represent aircraft that were based in Brazil during the war.

Evening Bill

Have to agree with Simon about your workspace, puts our living room to shame !

It must have been a hellish posting to Brazil for those guys, I hope all that sand, sea and "salsa" with the locals wasn't too stressful !

Cheers Pat

Ps out of curiosity what colour blue was the kit supposed to be painted, and do you think you have enough time to remove all those rivets ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gotta love the blue plastic - I won't have to paint it! :)

Cheers,

Bill

Thats how I started modelling, why put green paint on the bits that were already green & pale blue/grey undersides didn't need painting if that was the colour of the plastic. Happily I've moved on from there. I'll be keen to see this progress. I like Libs & love to see an old kit like this made to look special as I'm sure you will. 7 million rivets, nothing that 10 minutes with some 600 wet & dry won't sort. :)

Steve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/20/2013 at 17:34, JOCKNEY said:
Have to agree with Simon about your workspace, puts our living room to shame !

It must have been a hellish posting to Brazil for those guys, I hope all that sand, sea and "salsa" with the locals wasn't too stressful !

Cheers Pat

Ps out of curiosity what colour blue was the kit supposed to be painted, and do you think you have enough time to remove all those rivets ?

 

Wifey cleans up the bench before I take the introductory shot!

 

I thought the same thing about being based in Brazil. I wasn't even aware that unterseeboots went that far south. Maybe they were checking out property for their post-war retirement home. :)

 

The scheme included with the kit appears to be an Atlantic scheme of blue grey over white. But it's probably fictitious, as the markings are minimal. The three-view layout in the instructions was drawn by "LSJ." I think that's Lloyd S. Jones, who wrote some nice books back in the day.

 

On 9/20/2013 at 19:49, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Nice looking kit, but my god that's a lot of rivets! :shutup:

 

I did a quick recount, there's only six million. I think back then you were "top of the pops" if your models were covered in rivets. Kind of like including resin and PE today. To be state of the art, one needed rivets.

 

On 9/20/2013 at 20:22, stevehnz said:

Thats how I started modelling, why put green paint on the bits that were already green & pale blue/grey undersides didn't need painting if that was the colour of the plastic. Happily I've moved on from there. I'll be keen to see this progress. I like Libs & love to see an old kit like this made to look special as I'm sure you will. 7 million rivets, nothing that 10 minutes with some 600 wet & dry won't sort. :)

Steve.

 

I was thinking that my Dremel tool with the grinding wheel would work rather nicely!

 

I remember the first time I sprayed a matt varnish (from a rattle can) over a model that I had not painted. Suddenly, the shiny olive green plastic looked like it had been painted in a nice shade of flat O.D.! And the decals seemed to look "painted on." It was an epiphany! Come on, you know you all did the same thing too!

 

Cheers,

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another project that has grabbed my attention :popcorn:

I bought the USAAF release of this kit and built it as an RAF Coastal Command plane.

Had to fill in hole for belly turret as not fitted to my particular plane.

Came out rather nice, far closer shape to the Academy model than Airfix - I've built both.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/20/2013 at 22:59, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Personally I've always liked playing with paint.....Even as a nipper I painted all my models, I even had a go at 'Ermintrude', our Tortoise (who doubled up as a heavy tank in my wargames). :whistle:

 

You painted your tortoise? Seriously? I only painted my brother...

 

On 9/22/2013 at 14:55, theplasticsurgeon said:

Another project that has grabbed my attention :popcorn:

I bought the USAAF release of this kit and built it as an RAF Coastal Command plane.

Had to fill in hole for belly turret as not fitted to my particular plane.

Came out rather nice, far closer shape to the Academy model than Airfix - I've built both.

 

I thought the same thing - it matches the Academy kit closely. Seeing as the Academy kit came out a couple of decades after this Revell kit, perhaps it's the other way around! :)

 

Hmmm, the Coastal Command livery sounds nice, too. Why didn't I think of that? But I've just purchased that decal sheet from Iliad...oh well, maybe next time.

 

On 9/22/2013 at 15:42, Jon.M said:

I've not seen one of these before. look forward to following the build.

Jon

 

I never even knew this kit existed until a club member brought it to a meeting, along with a box-full of other old kits. For a buck, I couldn't refuse. Although I do remember my oldest brother building a B-24 back in the 60s...maybe that was this kit. The only thing I remember about that model was that he blew it up. OK, you can now all admit to that behaviour! :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You painted your tortoise? Seriously? I only painted my brother...

Yup.....I was quite hard work back then too! :wicked:

Another of my escapades came about upon reading of the Battle of Stalingrad.....I proceeded to secure every bottle of talcum powder, athlete's foot medication, vim or other suitable snow substitute in the entire building and then refought it on my bedroom floor.....Our house still smelled vaguely of lavender when we moved out over a decade later! :whistle:

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, here we go!

 

Let's see what shall we do first? Maybe we should sand off some of these rivets and see just how long this project may take. My tools - well, them's purty big rivets. I figured some nice 220 grit sandpaper should level them off quickly. Then we'll move up to some 400 grit, then some 600 grit and see where we are. This will be finished in flat paints, so a super smooth polished surface won't be necessary. I tried out my theory on the back half of the port fuselage half - here it is with the starboard half so you can get a before and after view:

 

100_4018

 

And a couple of closer looks:

 

100_4020

 

100_4019

 

Short story - I think this might just work out OK. This only took about 15 minutes, so doing the entire fuselage shouldn't take too long. One concern is that in my zealous rivet removing frenzy I also removed some raised panels. If I determine that they were there for a reason, I'll use some sheet styrene to add them back on.

 

Cheers,

Bill

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi mates,

 

I was worried that I didn't have the mojo to finish this project. The kit is pretty basic, you know? But then this package magically appeared in my stash:

 

100_4075

 

Where the <snip> did this come from? One of you guys sneaking around in my loft when I'm not looking? Check out the cool stuff inside:

 

100_4074

 

Holy frijole! I guess I get to cross off a lot of the scratchbuilding that was on the list. Methinks it's easier to make this stuff work than have to scratch it all! I'm not Nobby, eh? And it has all the PE parts for the wheel wells! :)

 

Plus, it may let me save the resin cockpit for a kit that deserves it.

 

Cheers,

Bill (back to rivet removal class - taking much longer than I thought!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd blame your postie Bill, bet it was his fault, although who took the money out your bank account is another story...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Things look a whole lot better once the rivets are gone. Of course you will complete this build, look at the piles of poo :shit: some of the rest of us are having to struggle with!

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/3/2013 at 07:03, Col. said:

I'd blame your postie Bill, bet it was his fault, although who took the money out your bank account is another story...

 

Well here's the scary thing about getting old. This Big Ed set was in my stash, neatly filed in the same drawer as a whole bunch of other Big Ed sets that *had* to be purchased at the time. I seem to have remembered about them all, *except* for this B-24 set.

 

So I bought it for some reason, but I don't know why. It surely wasn't for this project, and I have no other B-24D kits hanging around. The Academy kit I have is a J model. The last B-24 I built was the old Monogram 1:48 kit with the ever-so-stylish Dragon decals. But that was in the 80s sometime, back when I was just learning how to curse about natural metal finishes that weren't applied with a rattle can.

 

I can only assume that my wife bought it because she had a coupon.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about a quick update? First, I have officially sanded my fingerprints off whilst removing the rivets. Seriously. I feel like Ringo - "I got blisters on me fingers!!"

 

Before sanding the rest of the fuselage, I wanted to protect the "garage doors."

 

100_4073

 

After sanding, I ended up with this:

 

100_4076

 

It looks a bit rough, but I think it will be OK. I'll use Alclad grey primer once we get to the painting stage, and after sanding that will smooth things out nicely. But before I can get the fuselage assembled, it will be necessary to remove all of the moulded on attachment points for the cockpit. This has to be done in order to make the resin fit. So all of this stuff has to be ground/sanded off:

 

100_4077

 

In order for all of this cool stuff to fit:

 

100_4078

 

Check out the kit cockpit in blue on the left. Ha! Looks like the interior from a Trabant!

 

Once I get the resin in, I'll have to scratchbuild the nose wheel and well. The parts in the kit are designed to "work" - the landing gear retracts, the belly turret moves, etc. Most of these parts can be used, except for the nose wheel. It bears no resemblance at all to the real thing.

 

The Eduard set has some nice detail that will be visible through the nose, so cleaning up the interior walls on the forward fuselage is a must. My next mission is to find my B-24 reference books (I know I have the Detail & Scale book somewhere...) so I can see just what it looks like inside. I suspect there will be some structural members that will have to be added.

 

Stay tuned while I rummage through my library. :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking nice and sexy so far Bill.

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, mates! I finished sanding off the original attachments to make room for the resin cockpit. I needed to use some filler to cover up some of the more "zealous" grinding marks that were left behind. Comparing the two fuselage halves gives a good idea of what was done.

 

100_4081

 

Next, it was time to see how close the resin bulkhead fits. Remember, it was designed for the Hasegawa kit, and this ain't no Hasegawa kit. Naturally, it doesn't fit. Careful filing and constant checking allows us to alter the bulkhead's shape so that it fits. Luckily, the bulkhead was slightly too large, meaning we can file it to fit. I just did the starboard side, and you can see the difference from one side to the other.

 

100_4083

 

Here the bulkhead is taped into the fuselage. The tape doesn't hold it tightly against the fuselage, but you get the idea. One thing I was extra careful with was to make sure the doorway will be centered in the fuselage once things are assembled.

 

100_4082

 

So now we get to do the other side. To get it close, I made a simple template in cardboard, tracing the outline of the side I sanded to fit. Like so:

 

100_4084

 

Placing it over the side remaining to be sanded, we can see just how much needs to be removed. I've rotated the pieces so you can see a clean view without any shadows.

 

100_4086

 

My intention is to get the other close in shape now when it's a bit easier to do it. The final "fitting" will happen once I have the port fuselage ready. The template trick can work if both fuselage sides are the same, but they may not be.

 

I found my reference books, so I'm also preparing my plan for what I need to add in terms of interior details. I won't be doing a lot in the radio compartment, but I do need to add some detail to the waist gun positions. Fun!

 

Cheers for now,

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Bill, I think your a bit of a trojan with this GB thing and another one you're stabbing at. However I do like the Liberator and the look once the rivets are sanded off, sprt of brings the kit more up to date-ish. However, the resin cockpit, I'm not too sure about, I think maybe you should have built the kit OOB as you may have done in the early days but it is your decission and I'll follow you build thread with interest. Thanks for posting the pics.

Best of luck.

Colin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

See, you're having fun now Bill! I like the plan of seeing how far you can tart this oldie up. It should be very interesting.

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...