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Why can't I build a 1/72 B-24 without remortgaging the house?


TonyOD

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1 minute ago, Paul821 said:

Just looked on Amazon UK  for 1/72 Liberator and this came up

 

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY... oh...

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...and if Airfix did actually do a new-tool Liberator, which version would they do? Betting it wouldn't be a B-24D- most likely a B-24J because that's what their original one was, and there are a lot more color scheme/markings choices. (I have two of that kit, and they still have better shaped cowlings than either the Hasegawa or Minicraft kits,, in my opinion- Minicraft and Airfix  did  miss getting the positive angle of incidence of the stabilizers, which even the old Revell kit got right!. Many, many years ago I crosskitted the Airfix J and the Revell D to Build 'Teggie Ann' the Ploesti lead ship.- thought I was being clever and opened up and detailed the bomb bay, but didn't think about reinforcing the fuselage halves with tabs- with the bomb bay cut open and all the nose weight, the upper fuselage seam kept popping, and I had to scrap her for parts. (Me, I'd much rather see a PB4Y-2 Privateer from either Airfix, Hasegawa, or even Valom-  only because I already have a Hasegawa B-24D and J, as well as five different Minicraft/Academy B-24/PB4Y-1 kits- almost as many as @tonyot still has squirreled away, I bet!)

Mike

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7 hours ago, TonyOD said:

Surely if Airfix or whoever did a new tool of this, the world's most produced bomber (18,000+ manufactured), they'd make money hand over fist?

Nah- if they really wanted a license to print money, they would release a new-tool B-24 as a Dogfight Double with a narrow chord, slatted wing F-86E/F Sabre! :giggle: (Could I get an amen?)

Mike

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5 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

You and me both.

 

I thought I'd try going to source... maybe I should snap up a B-24J while they still have one in stock.

 

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Tony - these prices are in Yen, only the currency symbol is wrong. And  Y 4250 is just £ 28, and Y 6160 is £ 41. 

These are exactly the same prices that these kits fetch on Polish Allegro auction portal.

That's where I bought the E29 "Cocktail Hour" in February for less than £ 40.

Cheers

Michael

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I get all my kits from eBay. In my mind very few kits are worth more than £30, so apart from the Airfix 1/48 Javelin and 1/72 Victor B2 where there’s no choice I’ve never gone over that. You just need to keep looking and most kits will come up for an ok price at some point. Except 1/48 Italeri Wessex which I get outbid on every time. 
 

Just check eBay daily for a B-24 and I’m sure you’ll eventually get one for an ok price.

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12 minutes ago, KRK4m said:

these prices are in Yen, only the currency symbol is wrong.

You're not wrong! Plus £14 shipping by cheapest means (and maybe import duty) gets it to a shade over 40 quid? Still, I'm kind of with @Lord Riot on this, I usually balk at paying more than £30 for a 1/72 kit. I paid over 40 for the Pe-8 I'm building at the moment but that's a monster and I could only find it in the Ukraine. I'm in the process of thinning the stash a bit and once the dust has settled on that I'll see where I am with funds.

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I very rarely buy Airfix kits produced after the Seventies but I buy a lot of Sixties and Seventies boxings of Airfix kits so that I can make them again. I have only ever built one Liberator and that was the Airfix Sixties boxing with the Olive-Drab box-art but I am currently building my second ever Airfix B-24.

 

As others have said, prices have gone a bit silly for the old Airfix B-24, especially the original boxing and I had been putting off buying another. However, the pull was too great and in the end I paid around £25 for a year ago. As I was prepared to pay that amount then I would say it is worth it even though it is almost the price of a possible new-tool release. To put things in perspective, I paid over £105 for the Airfix 1/24 James Bond Aston Martin last year.

 

Dave

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3 hours ago, Paul821 said:

Just looked on Amazon UK  for 1/72 Liberator and this came up

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlantis-AMCH218-Consolidated-B-24-J-Bomber-Buffalo/dp/B07MZM87C4/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3ROW8UAML165Y&dchild=1&keywords=b-24+liberator+1%2F72&qid=1620325050&sprefix=b-24%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-3

 

Then I noticed it is a 60 piece puzzle (sic) in 1:92 scale!!!

 

But you can get it by Saturday

A reissue of the 1955 Revell kit. You do get the original poseable stand with it.

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20 minutes ago, davecov said:

As others have said, prices have gone a bit silly for the old Airfix B-24, especially the original boxing and I had been putting off buying another.

 

I quite like the modern red boxing with the SEAC roundels, it's a bit different in that respect, but as you say they go for at least the kind of money I'd expect to pay for, say, a new-tool B-25. Just can't justify it.

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There is a massive gap in the market for a new kit of a Ford-built B-24H/J. Nearly half the B-24s built came from Ford, but every kit is of the Consolidated version. The 2 are quite different: Consolidated redesigned the entire front end to mount the nose turret, whereas Ford grafted a turret on to a B-24D, much like the original conversions made by the Hawaiian Air Depot. Basically, everything forward of the cockpit is different. Half the decals produced are for Ford planes, with no kit you can use them on. A Ford-built B-24 to the same standard as their B-17G and B-25s would be great - how about it, Airfix ?

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8 hours ago, Paul821 said:

Just looked on Amazon UK  for 1/72 Liberator and this came up

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlantis-AMCH218-Consolidated-B-24-J-Bomber-Buffalo/dp/B07MZM87C4/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3ROW8UAML165Y&dchild=1&keywords=b-24+liberator+1%2F72&qid=1620325050&sprefix=b-24%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-3

 

Then I noticed it is a 60 piece puzzle (sic) in 1:92 scale!!!

 

But you can get it by Saturday

I just looked at that link and now that kit is out of stock!

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Are the kits still produced? 

 

I notice a lot of kits from the mid 2000s are now fetching silly prices due the scarcity. This is a good example but look at the 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer for another. Even kits like the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire PR XIX are now very expensive because you just can't get 'em! 

 

 

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11 hours ago, 72modeler said:

...and if Airfix did actually do a new-tool Liberator, which version would they do?

Airfix have a habit of releasing kits with a British connection, so it's bound to be an LB-30/C.I/B.I/B.II !

Nobody's done the unsupercharged variants, there's several permutations for different noses/tails etc and different British marking schemes so plenty of room for several boxings - they'd be raking it in!

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10 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Airfix have a habit of releasing kits with a British connection, so it's bound to be an LB-30/C.I/B.I/B.II !

Nobody's done the unsupercharged variants, there's several permutations for different noses/tails etc and different British marking schemes so plenty of room for several boxings - they'd be raking it in!

A man can hope for a real LB-30, still enough options and if they do it right they can make the later B24 D’s as well!!

 

cheers, Jan

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I recently had a sudden resurgence of interest in WW2 USAAF aircraft and went delving into the relevant box in the garage to see what's left of the stash of kits that I amassed between about 1997 and 2010. Luckily there's plenty in this time capsule to keep me going, including an Academy B-24 that I remember buying at Donington and a Hasegawa P-38 with an ED Models price sticker. Still, as you do, I checked out what's on the market at the moment, primarily in 1/72. WW2 US aircraft are surely one of the most popular modelling subjects, it's not like I was looking for 1920s biplanes, so I was expecting that affordable kits of the major types used in NW Europe would be readily available. They weren't. Neither in my local model shops nor from the well-known online sources of new and secondhand kits. The B-24 was one that I looked for - just out of curiosity, I don't particularly need another one. I'ld have thought the ancient Airfix one would have been readily available on the secondhand market at a reasonable price, especially as it was on release as recently as 2015 but no. The only kit I've bought to supplement what I already had is a Revell B-17G, because it was available at a good price and I've got a specific subject in mind. I'm glad I'm not desperate for any more P-38s, as I see they're going for £25 upwards.

 

 

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1 hour ago, AWFK10 said:

I'ld have thought the ancient Airfix one would have been readily available on the secondhand market at a reasonable price, especially as it was on release as recently as 2015 but no.

You got that right. Maybe they just didn't mould many of them?

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14 hours ago, Paul821 said:

it is a 60 piece puzzle (sic) in 1:92 scale!

I've noticed "Large River" describing model kits as "puzzles" all over the place.

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A quick check on a certain online auction site shows that in my corner of the world I can get an Academy B-24 for €45-50 delivered.

In that same corner of the world I can get the recent Airfix B-17 for around €45 delivered... that is pretty much the same as the cheaper B-24 options.

Based on this I'd expect that a new B-24 from Airfix would not be any cheaper than the existing Academy B-24 kits, most likely it would be more expensive (IIRC the old B-24 was in a higher price series compared to the old B-17). Again all this applies in my corner of the world, other corners may see different prices....

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21 hours ago, ckw said:

Yes - but I had one on my Amazon 'wish list' for ages. One day it suddenly dropped in price by nearly 50% to £39. Not cheap, but the cheapest I've ever seen it, Yes I bought one.

 

Always good to use camelcamelcamel for things like this, it will track the prices on Amazon and send you alerts when they drop below the price point you set

 

So for this one - https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B00187MR78?context=search  shows £39 was a pretty good deal

 

Mark

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13 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

I get all my kits from eBay. In my mind very few kits are worth more than £30, so apart from the Airfix 1/48 Javelin and 1/72 Victor B2 where there’s no choice I’ve never gone over that. You just need to keep looking and most kits will come up for an ok price at some point. Except 1/48 Italeri Wessex which I get outbid on every time. 
 

Just check eBay daily for a B-24 and I’m sure you’ll eventually get one for an ok price.

Ah a like minded chap 👦 👍

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8 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

Nobody's done the unsupercharged variants,

That would be outstanding, but I don't think we will ever see them released- unless somebody around here does a conversion!

Mike

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I got a veritable boatload of the Hasegawa Liberators when they were released, even sold a few off at bargain prices 3-4 years ago when I realized I had more than I could reasonably  anticipate actually building; but yeah, a good kit (or three) with a Ford nose would be added to the stash in a heartbeat. I did start a ‘D’ with the intention of finishing it for the 75th Anniversary of Tidal Wave but it is still languishing in the pending pile, perhaps the 80th?

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