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1/72nd Minicraft B-24M Liberator Mk.VIII, Glamour Girl, 356 Sqn India 1945....FINISHED


tonyot

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Hiya Folks,

                 The later Liberator`s had larger windows in the navigators station along with larger bomb aimer`s windowsM enclosed, glazed waist gun positions and later style simplified bulged cockpit side windows, plus some had a light weight rear turret and the only kit available is the Academy B-24M which is as rare as ricking horse manure,....... so I`ve been looking for some for some time. One of the aircraft I want to replicate is Glamour Girl of 356 Sqn in India in 1945. Unlike earlier Mk.VIII`s to arrive,.... which had SEAC style roundels applied, this aircraft along with other later arrivals retained its standard RAF markings, but still had the squadron ID markings applied to the rudders, plus nose art, making it a `different' looking subject. Here is the real thing;

 

Glamour-Girl2.jpg

B-23.jpg

Glamour-Girl1.jpg

EDIT,......Just realised that Glamour Girl has earlier style waist windows with opening panels and not the later squared off all glazed units,....good job I have not joined the fuselage halves yet!! Also note the silver X on the fin, which was also white or light blue on camouflaged aircraft.

 

And some similar aircraft, wearing standard RAF markings;

b24-silver.jpg

159-sqn-india-2.jpg

 159-sqn-india.jpg

 

And more Mk.VIII`s, but wearing SEAC markings, they were used for bombing raids as far as Malaya and French Indo China, but were often used to drop supplies to agents and later still to POW camps;

355-Sqn-Liberator-F-bar-maybe-356-Sqn-Pe

This aircraft KL654-R-Robert was found crashed in the jungle quite recently?

29541013-10204419887052773-6942963745857

Here is the some of the wreckage,.....RIP;

liberator-kl654-sign.jpgLiberator-kl654-r-Snake-R.jpgwreak-fuselage-remains-transformed.jpgliberator-kl654-rear-fuselage.jpg

 

3518235730-e999c677b7-1.jpg

29511709-10204419889412832-3809119683585

29542052-10204419840011597-8860973772054

29542335-10204419888252803-3896419216200

Liberator-interior-dropping-supplies-to-

liberator-air-drop.jpg

liberator-p.jpg

liberator-seac-upper-wing-roundel.jpg

Post-war shot of 160 Sqn KN777 BS-A

Post-war-shot-of-160-Sqn-KN777-BS-A.jpg

 

And last of all,.....the ex 99 Sqn Liberator Mk.VIII donated to the RAF Museum by the Indian Air Force;

consolidated-b-24-liberator-large-1.jpg

 

Another update soon! 

Edited by tonyot
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1 minute ago, 72modeler said:

@tonyot,

 

Didn't Falcon or Squadron do a set of vacform transparencies for the 1/72 B-24M?

Mike

 

http://www.falconmodels.co.nz/clearvax/set46.html

 

 

I was going through my `stuff' the other night Mike because I thought I had a suitable set,...... but didn`t have one. I`m currently checking Falcon for the cockpit side windows,...... the link you sent isn`t working for some reason! I`ll have a trawl through Hannants site,....see if they have any Falcon stuff in stock,

Cheers

          Tony

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Right,.... onto the kit!

                         The box art;

images-18.jpg

 

The contents;

72-academy-minicraft-24m-liberator-1-f5e

 

As many will know,.... the entire nose is glazed on this kit, unlike Academy`s other B-24 variants.

 

I shall be using DK Decals again;

dk-decals-B24-RAF-navod-2.jpg

 

 

Construction started with the fuselage halves,...... additional seat covers were added to the cockpit using masking tape to cover a mould mark and the spares box was used to go to town in the waist gun area which looks very bare,.... especially against the bare metal silver interior colour!

DSCF7005.jpg

A bit blurry sorry,..... the light today was terrible!

DSCF7006.jpg

 

And the wings and tail constructed and ready too;

DSCF7007.jpg

 

Cheers for now,

                        Tony

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Another quick update,.... the fuselage together with the clear nose painted and attached. The panel detal on the engine cowlings is pretty poor and almost non existent in places,..... so they have been re scribed;

 

DSCF7010.jpg

 

Cheers for now,

                         Tony

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4 hours ago, stevehnz said:

A nice introduction there Tony, I'll be looking forward to seeing this one come together. :)

Steve.

Cheers Steve,...... once it is sanded it should start to speed up.

 

4 hours ago, andyf117 said:

I've one of these in the stash, with a set of Ventura decals - the intention was to do a RAAF aircraft...

....but, along with my other half-dozen or so Academy B-24 kits, it'll probably never actually happen...

It might be worth flogging it on E Bay,.... they are quite rare now these B-24M kits. 

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Yes,KL854R wreck was found several years ago south of Kuala Lumpur.The crew remains were buried at the Cheras Road Cemetary Kuala Lumpur on 18th.October 2012.The wreck is still there deep in the jungle of Mount Telapak Forest Reserve.Hopefully your model will turn out well.Good luck.

 

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8 hours ago, Kampartiger said:

Yes,KL854R wreck was found several years ago south of Kuala Lumpur.The crew remains were buried at the Cheras Road Cemetary Kuala Lumpur on 18th.October 2012.The wreck is still there deep in the jungle of Mount Telapak Forest Reserve.Hopefully your model will turn out well.Good luck.

 

Glad to hear that they were interned properly,.....I was under the impression that they wee buried at the crash site. Thank you for the good wishes,

Cheers

           Tony

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12 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Tony

Some great photos and a nice introduction. Great work so far as usual fella. Will watch with interest.

All the best

Chris

Thanks Chris,...... been laid low with Man Flu over the weekend,.....hope to start on it again and get it painted soon.

 

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9 minutes ago, tonyot said:

Thanks Chris,...... been laid low with Man Flu over the weekend,.....hope to start on it again and get it painted soon.

 

 

Oh mate I hope you are recovering now Tony. Man flu is a serious condition fella. 

 

I am off work tomorrow on a day's A/L and as I have been working hard on the house every weekend I am doing a day of modelling, wahoo!!!

 

All the best

Chris

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Man Flue gone now,...... on with the project!!,......... 

 

I filled in the belly gun position with a blanking plate cut from plasticard and some filler,....... although some of the silver Liberators in SEAC had H2S fitted in a rectractable fairing,..... many appear to have nothing fitted at all and this one is one of them. I dare say a photo will surface proving me wrong as soon as I`ve posted this,.... but hey!

 DSCF7011.jpg

 

The basic airframe all sanded apart from a few panel lines along the nose which appear to differ from the real aircraft,.... and with the wings test fitted;

DSCF7012.jpg

 

Onto painting,..... good old Tamiya Rattle Can Bare Metal Silver;

DSCF7013.jpg

 

So onward`s and upwards...... the wings are such a good fit that they don`t need to be glued. As the squadon i/d marking on the rudder appears to be silver rather than white,...... I intend to mask them off and then apply the darker colour over the top,..... I cannot decide whether it should be black as prescribed,..... or Olive Drab?

 

Cheers

          Tony

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hiya Folks,

                 Well the main paintwork is finished,...... I opted for black for the anti glare panel,..... I couldn`t decide between black or dark Olive Drab! The rudder markings have also been painted on, retaining silver for the cross;

DSCF7056-NEW.jpg

 

Cheers

           Tony

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Tony,

 

Just now re-visited your WIP- wow! She's looking great so far! Were you able to find a Falcon set that had the transparencies you needed? You must have quite a Lib collection at this point. (Like others, I never thought to get the Academy M when it was available...20-20 hindsight strikes again! Maybe it will be one of the B-24's they are re-releasing, as I sure don't want to pay the asking price I see on the auction sites.) Hmmm...with the IPMS USA Nationals being only 35 miles from my home next year, that's one I'm going to look for at the vendors' tables!

Mike

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1 hour ago, 72modeler said:

Tony,

 

Just now re-visited your WIP- wow! She's looking great so far! Were you able to find a Falcon set that had the transparencies you needed? You must have quite a Lib collection at this point. (Like others, I never thought to get the Academy M when it was available...20-20 hindsight strikes again! Maybe it will be one of the B-24's they are re-releasing, as I sure don't want to pay the asking price I see on the auction sites.) Hmmm...with the IPMS USA Nationals being only 35 miles from my home next year, that's one I'm going to look for at the vendors' tables!

Mike

Cheers Mike,..... I think I`m OK for transparencies for this one,.....it seems to be am early M with early style waist window doors and cockpit bubbles,..... so mainly just the nose windows and bomb aimer glazing. I have a late style Martin turret somewhere so will use that. 

I missed out on the M`s the first time around,...... I managed to pick up a couple cheap on e bay,..... the othe is going to be a South African one most likely? 

Good luck finding one,..... they do come up now and again at decent prices,

All the best mate,

                            Tony

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1 hour ago, woody37 said:

Lovely progress mate. Although I’m a fan of the B17, the B24 is my preferred choice so enjoy seeing your steady stream of them here on  :)

 

Cheers Neil,...... hope you are keeping well bud?

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1 minute ago, tonyot said:

Cheers Neil,...... hope you are keeping well bud?

Yes mate, trying to keep the lurgy at bay, it keeps gripping but letting go!

 

How about you? I can see the elves are on full chat again!!

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