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Hasegawa (and Minicraft) B-24H - Hansen & Hanson's 42-7650 lost November 13th, 1943


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Wonderful build Elger,

 

I really like that you build models of aircraft that came down in your area. One of my pet projects is to build the Liberator that was recovered from the IJsselmeer during 1975.

That one got me interested into aircraft archaeology as a boy and later joining ARG 1940-1945.

 

Really like the olive drab livery with large white circles.

Cheers

Cees

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1 hour ago, Cees Broere said:

Wonderful build Elger,

 

I really like that you build models of aircraft that came down in your area. One of my pet projects is to build the Liberator that was recovered from the IJsselmeer during 1975.

That one got me interested into aircraft archaeology as a boy and later joining ARG 1940-1945.

 

Really like the olive drab livery with large white circles.

Cheers

Cees

Yes that sounds very familiar! I grew up near Stavoren, and hearing the stories that the old folks were telling, then reading books and looking for remnants here and there myself.

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I just might finish it before the end of my vacation :)

 

2CasyZE.jpg

 

Sorting out details:

 

AsQxjUl.jpg

 

Zcyygx6.jpg

 

52VesP4.jpg

 

I added the blue recognition lights on top of the rear fuselage

 

P8BvCAX.jpg

 

Ready for finishing...

 

qjqJrXy.jpg

 

Thanks for looking!

 

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This is really drop-dead gorgeous!  I presume you've built one of these before, and the wing-body join is practically seamless?  Having the wings off for painting/detailing makes a huge amount of sense if that's the case.  Rigging the landing gear requires that the wings be on the aircraft, though, I should think--or am I wrong here?  I think the toned-down paint is absolutely perfect for this scale.  Excellent work on masking/painting those turrets, by the way.

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41 minutes ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

This is really drop-dead gorgeous!  I presume you've built one of these before, and the wing-body join is practically seamless?  Having the wings off for painting/detailing makes a huge amount of sense if that's the case.  Rigging the landing gear requires that the wings be on the aircraft, though, I should think--or am I wrong here?  I think the toned-down paint is absolutely perfect for this scale.  Excellent work on masking/painting those turrets, by the way.

Thanks! No it's the first time I'm building either a Hasegawa or a Minicraft B-24. Can't speak for the Minicraft kit but the Hasegawa wings fit the fuselage indeed seemlessly. You can leave them off for as long as you like. I have glued them on earlier today in preparation for fixing the landing gear in place. The wheels are weighted so it's important to make sure they set in the right position.

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On 5/24/2020 at 2:41 PM, elger said:

A second problem I had to solve at this stage was the weight distribution.

Just got back to re-reading your WIP and had a thought (Always dangerous in my case!) regarding nose weight. Back when the earth was still cooling, I did  a B-24D conversion (The famous and often photographed 'Teggie Ann') by crosskitting the nose from a Revell B-24D with an Airfix B-24J (I told you it was a LONG time ago!) I also opened up the bomb bay and scratchbuilt an open bomb bay. To make a long and sad story short, cutting out the bomb bay are and putting in  enough nose weight to make the model sit correctly, there was no strength left in the upper fuselage join, so the weight of the model on its undercart kept opening up the upper fuselage seam! Finally gave up and stripped it of useful parts. I had vacformed all transparencies and made a new cockpit canopy with side blisters and opened up the cowl flaps- had the  model painted and awaiting decals and the little bits when I gave up trying to fix/fill/repaint the seam!) Bottom line- if you haven't already done so,. I would suggest you put several tabs in the fuselage halves to give you a better gluing surface- even though your build might have a closed bomb bay.

Mike

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29 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

Just got back to re-reading your WIP and had a thought (Always dangerous in my case!) regarding nose weight. Back when the earth was still cooling, I did  a B-24D conversion (The famous and often photographed 'Teggie Ann') by crosskitting the nose from a Revell B-24D with an Airfix B-24J (I told you it was a LONG time ago!) I also opened up the bomb bay and scratchbuilt an open bomb bay. To make a long and sad story short, cutting out the bomb bay are and putting in  enough nose weight to make the model sit correctly, there was no strength left in the upper fuselage join, so the weight of the model on its undercart kept opening up the upper fuselage seam! Finally gave up and stripped it of useful parts. I had vacformed all transparencies and made a new cockpit canopy with side blisters and opened up the cowl flaps- had the  model painted and awaiting decals and the little bits when I gave up trying to fix/fill/repaint the seam!) Bottom line- if you haven't already done so,. I would suggest you put several tabs in the fuselage halves to give you a better gluing surface- even though your build might have a closed bomb bay.

Mike

 

Thanks for the suggestion Mike. It's resting on its undercarriage for the first time at the moment and I was happy to see that it is correctly on all three wheels. And the seams are holding! I might have needed a bit less weight even but at least it's not a tail-sitter. While the thing is %$%$ heavy as it is, I still used considerably less weight than Hasegawa suggested. As I may have mentioned I got some lead strips at the local pet store and was able to fold these along the nose on the inside all the way to the front of the nose, underneath the turret curving along the sides. And I also used these strips to create a false wall for the forward bulkhead. The interior of a turreted nose is less visible than an earlier D nose. So I was able to put a relatively large amount of weight fairly far forward - which is my main theory why I didn't need the amount that Hasegawa suggested in the instructions.

 

When building a D where you have to worry about hiding the weight a lot more, first and foremost I would recommend getting the Scale Aircraft Conversions white metal parts - these replace the bulkhead parts of the nose and the floor and add up to quite a bit of weight. In front of the bomb bay (and behind the bulkhead that the front gear leg attaches to) there quite a lot of space that you can fill up with lead completely, and perhaps if you line the sides of the radio compartment you will have enough weight to hold down the nose and not ruin the interior of the much more visible D nose interior. I've also read someone creating a false floor in the radio compartment as well, filling that up with lead.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

She's looking good, elger.  I have yet to work up the nerve to tackle a Hasegawa Liberator.

It's a great kit with only a few minor accuracy issues. Goes together very well - great engineering. The instructions are a bit vague but other than that and the few minor accuracy issues (pointed out in the build) I can only highly recommend it.

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19 hours ago, elger said:

It's a great kit with only a few minor accuracy issues. Goes together very well - great engineering.

Indeed it is!  The issue is that minor accuracy issues are the whole bloody point and most of the fun of building Liberators!  I want to do them right and I've got a copy of Alan Griffith's book and others besides and fistfuls of AM bits and two Hasegawa one Airfix one Revell three Minicraft... (deep breath)... the thing I'm afraid of is going off the deep end.  

 

 

😬

 

I have no fear of assembling any Hasegawa kit.  It's building a proper model (or three) that's got me wrapped around the axle.

 

I quite like yours.  You did a brilliant job with the rhinoplasty.

 

 

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On 8/20/2020 at 9:59 AM, Josip said:

Simply gorgeous! 

However, you may have to remove the paint from the dorsal turret. It was just a perspex dome from several overlapping parts. 

 

Josip

Good point! I'll get on that before I take the RFI pictures.

 

As an accessory I've built the Academy Dodge ambulance - a fun little kit:

 

FXloH9q.jpg

 

And I did my best with the old Airfix USAAF figures:

 

u4f1tl6.jpg

 

Hope to get some RFI shots this weekend!

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27 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

So what are you doing with all the bits left over? Is there enough for another aircraft?

 

Gondor

No not quite - I destroyed the D-type nose parts in the process, so I only had parts for a completely nose-less aircraft. Useful parts went into the spares box, the rest have been discarded.

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