C-87 Liberator Express question

[CarLos]

In the sequence of this thread (and I thank again all the contributors for the very good information) I started the work on the Airfix kit in order to convert it to a civil aircraft. It will be, most probably, either G-AGZI in Scotish Airlines livery or the same airframe in Greek colours.

As discussed previously, the airframe was an LD-30 converted to the C-87 configuration, with a belly structure in place of the bomb bay. The photo bellow is from the warbird tech book:

The bomb bay in Granger's plans:

May I assume that the new belly profile is a straight line from E to G? It is what it seems to be on the photo above and, of course, it's a simpler structure than a gentle curve shown on some C-87 technical drawings.

By the way, I also assume that this is the very same structure used on C-87's, not only one converted LB-30's.

Is that correct? May I go ahead?

(As a side note, the Academy bomb bay profile is wrong, being a straight line from E to G; As you may see from the plans and from many photos, [EF] is not in line with [FG]. They probably used Diamond Lil as reference, that was backdated from a C-87)

I already took out the engine nacelles from the wings - will modify the kit rear nacelles and use the Revell PBY fronts as a model to make my own (the Academy Catalina engines are under scale). The wing profile also will look much more like the Davis airfoil of the prototype. The too small fins and rudders were enlarged with plastic card but must be finished, namely in the airfoil. Both Airfix and Academy made the sides uncorrectly parallel. The wing root was relocated 8mm to the back and the fuselage was extended by the amount needed to conform to the plans, as is was not tall enough. Still must cut it at the back, where a new tail cone must be scratched. The rear art of the fuselage was also thinned and must do the same to the nose. I have lots of in progress photos but no time at the moment to publish them.

[mhaselden]

I'm no expert but it looks to me like E to G is, indeed, a gentle curve. That said, I suspect the effect in 1/72 would be invisible (indeed, the curve could easily be removed in error by over-sanding of the fuselage join line).

[Graham Boak]

I suspect that, although it might be simpler in production terms to produce a parallel section, they would be more likely to maintain the external lines of the aircraft. So I'd expect a slight curve, if that's the way the bomber was.

[CarLos]

Thank you both.

Looking for "Liberator Express" in google image search, in some photos it seems to be curved and in others flat. I'll move to work on the engines waiting for a definitive answer.

Carlos

[caszerino]

Interesting timing on this. I am planning to begin construction of several 1/72 B-24D's in the near future (my grandfather was ground crew for "Hail Columbia" among others) and in my research I first heard about the C-87 version today!

Please do a Work In Progress thread for your build if you have time, I would be very, very interested.

Thanks, and looking forward to seeing the end result if not the construction!

Edited January 11, 2015 by caszerino

[CarLos]

Interesting timing on this. I am planning to begin construction of several 1/72 B-24D's in the near future (my grandfather was ground crew for "Hail Columbia" among others) and in my research I first heard about the C-87 version today!

Please do a Work In Progress thread for your build if you have time, I would be very, very interested.

Thanks, and looking forward to seeing the end result if not the construction!

I have photos of most steps, but I still must do some editing before upload them. I will do that soon, I hope.

[caszerino]

I have photos of most steps, but I still must do some editing before upload them. I will do that soon, I hope.

Looking forward to it!