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

[elger]

As much as I enjoyed my sanity build of the Hasegawa 1/48 Focke-Wulf 190A-4 (https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235071920-148-hasegawa-fw-190-a-4-white-10/) the build was so straightforward that I was missing solving problems. So I've decided to build a B-24H next - the variant that has never properly been kitted and the only way you can get to a reasonable representation is to use parts of the Minicraft B-24M kit. The issue is discussed on this forum here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235035723-minicraft-b-24m-nose-on-hasegawa-b-24/

 

I had the Hasegawa B-24D in my stash for a while, but it wasn't until I came across a copy of the Minicraft kit in my LHS that building a B-24H became a possibility. I was very happy to learn that for once kit bashing is indeed easy: the Minicraft nose does fit the Hasegawa kit almost perfectly (just a little bit of filing on the inside is necessary to make space for the horizontal bar across the front of the Hasegawa fuselage bulkhead).

 

 

 

It was November 13th, 1943 when the American 8th Air Force launched an attack on the harbor installations of Bremen. Among the formation was the crew of pilot LeRoy Hansen and his co-pilot John Hanson. Hansen was 26 and from Washington; Hanson was 27 and from Minnesota. The rest of the crew were William Haydn Topping (not in this photo; he was the bomb aimer on this flight. He was 22 and from Virginia), Wilbur J. Pecka (Navigator, 25, from Illinois); Joseph J. Suzdak (left waist gunner, the youngest of the crew at 21, from New York), Dan S. Henderson (ball turret gunner, 24, from South Carolina), James W. Norton (right waist gunner, 22, from Pennsylvania), Wilbert C. Schatte (radio operator, the oldest of the crew at 29, from Illinois), Boyd B. Baker (tail gunner, 22, from Texas), and Charles G. Spearman (the engineer and top-turret gunner, 22, from Georgia).

 

On their way to the target, the US formation was attacked by German fighters. One of Hansen and Hansen's aircraft's engines was taken out, but they persisted to the target. On their way home, however, the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire, which took out two more engines.

 

Over The Netherlands, it became clear to Hansen and Hanson and their crew that on a single engine, they would not make it back to their base in England. They were unable to maintain altitude and were running out of fuel. Rather than abandoning the aircraft they decided to make an emergency landing.

 

Hansen & Hanson pulled off an amazing bit of flying when they crash landed. One of the landing gear legs was down and would retract anymore which would be very dangerous: when it touched the ground and would dug into the soil the aircraft could swing violently tearing it to pieces. Hansen & Hanson flew the gear leg that was sticking out into a little mound, causing it to snap off, ensuring that a belly landing would be possible. While applying maximum rudder to keep the aircraft straight - the only engine that was still running was the outer left engine - the aircraft came down in a field just outside of Lemmer. As they skidded through the meadow they hit several cows - three cows were killed as the left engine tore into them. The aircraft broke in two just in front of the cockpit, but when it had come to a halt it was clear that the 10-man crew had survived.

 

 

 

The crew were taken prisoner immediately, as the aircraft landed very near a German observation post where a small garrison of soldiers were stationed. They remained POWs until the end of the war.

 

The first problem to solve with this build was getting the H-nose configuration as right as possible. 42-7650 was a very early Ford-built B-24H with the D-style side windows.

 

 

This was my first idea and this would have been the best solution I think if these parts were normal styrene but the parts are made of clear plastic, which means they are very brittle, and I wanted to avoid long cuts.

 

 

After some deliberation (with clear parts you only get one shot really) this was the plan I eventually executed. I was going to cut out the relevant clear sections from each kits nose parts and simply swap these around.

 

 

Drilling holes

 

 

Cutting out the incorrect window

 

 

Filing it to size

 

 

And gluing in the Hasegawa early style window.

 

 

And "tada" - Minicraft's nose section with the Hasegawa side windows attached to the Hasegawa fuselage. Note that I'm also using the Hasegawa windscreen because it's clearer than the Minicraft parts and it comes with the flat side windows.

 

Based on some scale drawings I made a template to scribe the infamous S-curve. I gave it a very quick coat of black primer to check for flaws. It's not perfect but I'm rather pleased. I might go back and fill the S-curve with some Mr Surfacer to clean it up a bit.

 

I've also mounted the front turret - this is from Hasegawa. It sticks out a bit too high and I'm not quite sure yet if this problem can be solved.

 

A second problem I had to solve at this stage was the weight distribution. The B-24 in 1/72 requires a lot of weight in order to stay properly balanced. I went to a local pet store and bought fishing lead. Usually this comes in the form of little lead balls, but the only lead that the shop had were strips of lead - which were actually a bit better for this. I lined the whole interior of the nose section with these strips - assuming that despite the windows very little can be seen of the interior. But just lining the interior wasn't enough; I also had to fill almost the entire front wheel bay with lead. So one problem created a second problem, namely, what can I do with this ugly weight that will be visible with the open front wheel bay.

 

 

I pondered this problem for a while as well, but then as I was going through my reference material for no specific reason I came across a photo of the front wheel bay that showed that the landing gear leg and wheel bay were shielded by a big canvas cover. This was the solution to my problem. I made a frame for the outline of the landing gear bay from a paper clip - cutting it and bending it to shape - and then I used a piece of wine bottle foil to make a screen.

 

 

I'm going to be painting this a nice canvas color (a nice khaki I think) and place it inside the nose landing gear well. It will effectively hide the ballast needed, and it might be actually somewhat historically accurate.

 

 

The third problem I had to tackle before I could start actually building this model was that, although it is a very nice kit overall, Hasegawa did take a few shortcuts. The Hasegawa kit gives you a solid bulkhead to separate the flightdeck from the radio operator's room directly behind this. In reality, the two compartments were separated only by two pieces of plywood on either side mounted on a frame, and the door and the top part were clear. I marked on the kit piece where it should be open.

 

 

Here's the bulkhead fitted into the model. I added two thin strips of styrene to represent the metal frame.

 

 

And this is where we are after about a week of tinkering - taping some of the main pieces together to get a sense of how it will look when finished.

 

There are a few specific details about the H that I am unsure of. Most of the variables I've got figured out (I think):

 

Colours:

It's a Ford-built aircraft so it will have the wavy demarcation between the upper and lower camouflage. For the interior, I'm going for bronze green for the front sections, and neutral metal for the rear section. The bomb bay, and the wing gear bays will be neutral grey. If anyone has any concrete information regarding the interior colors of Ford-built B-24Hs contradicting this I'm all ears

 

The wing tip navigation lights changed during the production run of the B-24H, but since this is an early one I'm going with the small navigation lights on the top and bottom of the wing tip, like the B-24D.

 

I'm also going to assume that this early H would have the earlier "round" yokes also commonly fitted to production Ds - but again if anyone has any contradicting information I'd be happy to hear it

 

Anyway - thanks for looking and comments and feedback is always welcome of course.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by elger
forgot one photo

[woody37]

Hi Elger,

 

a very comprehensive guide and great start, I’ll be following as a big fan of both the b24 and your work

 

[dogsbody]

Chair pulled up to watch the show.

 

 

 

Chris

[elger]

I didn't sit still but I can't seem to get any momentum with this build. The kit is great (although the instructions are a little confusing sometimes) but progress is just a bit slow. I've added photoetch to the bomb bay, and I've gone ahead and painted the propellers. There was a bit of a sink mark on the back of each blade, which I filled first:

 

 

Painted:

 

 

I'm also adding bombs - these are the kit items with Eduard PE added to them:

 

 

Today I finished detailing and painting the turrets - here is the top turret with ammo belts added, and I also replaced the barrels with brass items from Master:

 

I'm going to be putting the cockpit together next, and then I can start painting the interior. Maybe it'll pick up some momentum then. Thanks for looking!

[Cees Broere]

Another wonderful project by the master, schitterend!

Gr

Cees

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Following this build with great interest!

[Thom216]

Good looking progress. Gotta love it when another company's kit fits so well.

As for progress, each little step such as with the props is a step forward. Looking good!

Edited June 14, 2020 by Thom216

[elger]

Slowly getting ready to start some painting. Adding photoetch detail to the gear bays:

 

 

And this phase of the construction of the interior is mostly done:

 

 

Looking forward to putting some paint on it!

[elger]

Interior painting is done.

 

 

The cockpit is a combination of the Hasegawa and Minicraft kit parts, and PE from the Eduard set for the B-24D and B-24J.

 

Painted wine bottle foil masquerading for canvas lining hides the lead for the nose weight:

 

 

Doesn't look too bad!

 

 

 

I opted for the D-style yokes - these are from the Eduard detail set for the Hasegawa kit. The instruments panel is from Eduard's detail set for the Academy J and comes with a lovely old fashioned bit of film with instruments.

 

 

On the front bulkhead I painted shadows in an attempt to create an optical illusion of the piece not being solid.

 

 

I am betting however little if anything can be seen in the nose compartment.

 

 

Ready to assemble the fuselage!

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[elger]

What is this... progress?

 

The Hasegawa engines were fitted with an ignition harness from the Eduard set. They were painted, and fitted to the engine nacelles:

 

 

 

 

These items from Quickboost are sold as "B-24 radiators" which is nonsense of course. I had some trouble finding out what they are, but in a B-24 flight manual I finally discovered they are Alternate Air Intake Filter Boxes for the turbo super chargers.

 

 

In the canopy I installed some boxes - overhead parts are from Eduard's J detail set and the box with the four switches to feather the engines was scratchbuilt

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

[Josip]

Man, I have nothing but praise regarding your effort here and I don't doubt that the finished model will be a very special and unique B-24.

I would suggest that you keep following the "all or nothing" policy. Detail as much as you can where it will be visible and paint black the invisible. 

Also, I'm very anxious to see how you are going to recreate the ribbing and detail the waist gunners compartment. 

 

Cheers! 

 

Josip

[elger]

29 minutes ago, Josip said:

Man, I have nothing but praise regarding your effort here and I don't doubt that the finished model will be a very special and unique B-24.

I would suggest that you keep following the "all or nothing" policy. Detail as much as you can where it will be visible and paint black the invisible. 

Also, I'm very anxious to see how you are going to recreate the ribbing and detail the waist gunners compartment. 

 

Cheers! 

 

Josip

That's a good tip! I have been thinking along these lines, which is why I won't be adding any detail to the rear section. The windows are so small that virtually nothing can be seen.

[Josip]

Butt (and that's a big butt) it would be a shame not to open at least one waist window and detail just the opposite side. Just enough to add more interest. 

[elger]

1 hour ago, Josip said:

Butt (and that's a big butt) it would be a shame not to open at least one waist window and detail just the opposite side. Just enough to add more interest. 

I thought about that but decided against it for a few reasons. One reason is that it already requires a lot of weight to keep the nose down and adding more things at the back might make that even more difficult. But my main reason is that it would mean that it would take a lot longer to finish - not that I'm lazy, but there are so many more models to build

[woody37]

Nice progress mate. I’ve been tempted to do a b24 next, can’t decide between that and the airfix b17g. 

[tonyot]

What a cracking kit bash so far,...... brilliant work. Looking forward to seeing the finished model,

Cheers

         Tony

[elger]

7 hours ago, woody37 said:

Nice progress mate. I’ve been tempted to do a b24 next, can’t decide between that and the airfix b17g. 

I'm very tempted to build that one next... definitely a contender!

[neil5208]

15 hours ago, elger said:

- not that I'm lazy, but there are so many more models to build

Agree with that, I could spend ages detailing a lot more than I do but the next kit is always waiting to start.

[elger]

The Hasegawa kit is pretty great overall but they did take a few short cuts. Apart from the solid bulkhead behind the flight deck, another slightly sloppy issue is that the fuselage was designed to be symmetrical. This means that the window on the starboard side at the back of the fuselage should be filled:

 

 

Minicraft actually gets this right - and there are more little things where they're more right than Hasegawa. Overall I would say the Hasegawa kit is better, but if I were building another B-24 I'd seriously consider a Minicraft kit because while compared to Hasegawa it's definitely a bit more crude, the price difference doesn't justify the difference in quality in my opinion.

 

While I was at it, I also filled the aileron trim tab on the port side - most types of B-24 only had trim tabs on the starboard aileron trim tab.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[Josip]

Ah yes. The Japanese shortcuts. There was the time when I thought they were plastic Gods and everything that they made was pure gold. But luckily others have progressed too and at normal prices too. 

Hasegawa Libs are shamefully overpriced considering that there are so many omissions and shortcuts. Just take a look at the wheels! And  the total lack of detail in the waist area. And on the D model they also made symmetrical arrangement on the cheek windows. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Josip

[SAT69]

I'm blown away by the detail. Such incredible work!

[elger]

Did most of the painting last week, before our area was hit by a heatwave, and applied the decals last weekend.

 

 

The group markings are from the Hasegawa kit's decals, national insignia from the Minicraft kit's decals, the serial number I made from a Techmod USAAF numbers sheet (and modified a large 9 and a 1 to make the and the J & Bar), and stencils are from Aveaology.

 

When it cools down I can think about finishing it.

 

Thanks for looking!

[woody37]

Beautiful mate

 

[Bell209]

On 8/10/2020 at 7:06 PM, elger said:

Did most of the painting last week, before our area was hit by a heatwave

Ah, the European heatwave - if we worried about that here we'd never paint anything! Ik maak natuurlijk een grapje  Mooie werk, meneer.

[Thom216]

Lovely looking plane!