Vingtor Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 My contribution to this GB is not a bomber, but a C-87 Liberator Express transport. The finished model will go into a theme display of aircraft that operated on the Stockholm Run during WWII, i.e. the service between Britain and Sweden that was operated by British, Norwegian, Swedish and American aircraft. So far I have built three British aircraft, a Whitley and two Mosquitos - all in BOAC markings - a Norwegian Lodestar - also in BOAC markings - and a Swedish B-17 converted to a civilian airliner. The C-87 will be the first American aircraft in this collection, operated by the American Air Transport Service (AATS), a "civilian" unit within the USAAF ATC. My donor kit is the Hasegawa B-24D. I will convert it to a C-87 by removing all armament, replace the bomb bay and fuselage gun installations with a cargo hull and install cabin windows and a cargo door. The decals will be simple, only black registration codes on the fins. The first step was to attach the glazed nose halves to the fuselage halves. Hasegawa suggests to build the nose and fuselage as separate sub-assemblies first, and then attach these later. But I think it is easier to get a smooth joint if the nose and fuselage halves are joined first. I then built up the (bomber) interior walls. Next I attached the bomb doors in the closed position and I filled the fuselage openings and windows, apart from the small window behind the cockpit on both sides. The bomb bay ceiling was modified, as this will now serve as the cargo/cabin ceiling. This stops right behind the wing spar so I had to cut away some of the wing attachment "well" and blank out the opening with sheet styrene. Nils 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planebuilder62 Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Good move on the nose there Nils. I followed the instructions when I built mine and had to take it off 3 times to make the nose level with the fuselage sides. Regards Toby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Hi Nils, Great start and welcome to the GB Nice conversion you have there. I will watch this one. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Very nice looking conversion should be a good build ,Nice one Nil`s Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vingtor Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Not much progress on the C-87 during the summer vacation, I'm afraid. The last couple of days I have made a replacement panel for the dorsal turret, and opened a hole for the navigator's astrodome. The astrodome itself was cut from the nose upper glazing, which was accordingly plugged with a sheet styrene disk. Nils 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Looking good Nils keep it going Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vingtor Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 The C-87 has of course many panel lines different from the B-24. Those to be removed were first filled with Milliput and sanded flush. Then new lines were scribed. Milliput is not the easiest filler to work with, but it gets just as hard as the plastic so it is much better for scribing. Next is to open holes for the windows and the cabin door. Nils 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Looking good Nils keep it going Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Hiya Nils, I could have sworn that I`d posted on this thread yesterday but it doesn`t appear to be here,....mmm? Anyway what I originally typed was that this is looking excellent and I`ll be following it closely as I have an RAF transport Lib planned for the future,....good luck with cutting out those windows, Cheers Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vingtor Posted August 8, 2015 Author Share Posted August 8, 2015 Cabin door and windows opened up. The apertures are larger than the actual window glazings. This will make it easier to make the transparent plastic insets blend flush with the fuselage as I can use filler and sand the joins. I used plastic strips for the door casing. Nils 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 Nice work Nils. Can't wait to see the next update. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Very interesting work. I have in my plans build of C-87 probably from Hump operation. I was thinking on cutting much larger areas for windows (covering two or three of them) and then glueing in transparent elements. It can be even a single element if the fuselage is flat. Then to obtain final windows just by proper masking. Have a good luck! Cheers J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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