1:72 Revell Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer

[Navy Bird]

On 01/06/2021 at 12:18, Max Headroom said:

I can tell that you are like a coiled spring waiting to unleash yourself on the unsuspecting kit and to produce another masterpiece.

 

At my age, I don't spring at anything.    

 

On 01/06/2021 at 14:57, Fukuryu said:

BTW, Bill, the site that left you hanging with your book order is this one, by venture? 

 

That's the one.

 

On 02/06/2021 at 04:24, Fritag said:

Me too.  The I like the play on words/archaic association between Blunderbuss and Privateer.  But are they Snow Whites (9?) Dwarfs wielding the blunderbuss?  Not so sure about that! Still it take all sorts....Dwarf Blunderbus-wielders 

 

I hadn't thought of that association, but you're right it's a good one. I like it!

 

I had a look at the artwork under a magnifier and none of the characters is identifiable as one of the classic Disney dwarfs. The long pointed beards on most of them bear a strong resemblance, but I think that's about it. That said, I have yet to find an actual photo of this aircraft and its artwork so I could be wrong. Does anyone have photos? It served with VPB-121.

 

I like the figures at that link. Thank goodness I'm out of money.

 

*****

 

Some lousy news on the medical front yesterday. As many of you know I've had nine back surgeries, seven lumbar and two cervical. Of course, I have a lot of chronic lower back pain which has gotten a lot worse lately. An MRI showed that I have retrolesthesis, which is when one vertebrae is offset from an adjacent one front to back. In my case T12 is off by over a centimeter relative to L1. I just completed eight weeks of physio to try and avoid what would be my tenth surgery. No luck, and the condition has worsened. I'm now told that I need to have T10 through L2 fused - that's four vertebrae! Levels L2 through S1 (bottom of spine) are already fused. I don't have a date yet for the surgery, but probably in July. Total recovery time is estimated at 6-9 months. Some guys just get all the fun!   

 

Wish me luck! Maybe I can get Ol' Blunderbuss finished by then.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Fukuryu]

So sorry to read that, Bill. I sincerely wish you the best for the trying  times ahead. 

[Heather Kay]

Best of luck with the surgery, Bill. We all suffer back problems of one kind or another, so I’m sure most of us can empathise to a degree. My osteopath agreed with me when I said Homo sapiens really hasn’t evolved enough to walk upright yet.

[Edge]

Sorry to hear your news Bill. Hope the surgery and recovery both go well. 

 

Edge

 

[Max Headroom]

Just read your last post and all I can say is the best of luck for the op and recuperation and if you need us, we’re here to help and support.

 

As an aside, a friend of mine was convinced that a good single malt was the cure for everything. Worth a go I’d say.

 

Trevor

[Navy Bird]

3 hours ago, Fukuryu said:

So sorry to read that, Bill. I sincerely wish you the best for the trying  times ahead. 

 

Thanks. At least it's not my first rodeo, so I pretty much know what to expect.     🏇    Ugh!   

 

3 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Best of luck with the surgery, Bill. We all suffer back problems of one kind or another, so I’m sure most of us can empathise to a degree. My osteopath agreed with me when I said Homo sapiens really hasn’t evolved enough to walk upright yet.

 

You osteopath is absolutely correct. Bipedalism created a lot of problems which evolution hasn't sorted out yet. But we'll get there, we just need a few more million years.   

 

2 hours ago, Edge said:

Sorry to hear your news Bill. Hope the surgery and recovery both go well.

 

Me too! Back surgeries always create additional problems, from scar tissue etc., but hopefully it won't be too bad. This time there will be quite a bit of hardware - screws, rods, plates, etc. - and they tend to upset whatever previously occupied that space. Fun, fun, fun.

 

49 minutes ago, Max Headroom said:

As an aside, a friend of mine was convinced that a good single malt was the cure for everything. Worth a go I’d say.

 

Well, all right then. It may not put my bones back in line, but I may not care! Where's my 16 year old Aberlour?   🍾

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Nose gear being scratched. Stay tuned. Pics soon.    📸

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Only just found this one, Bill - and very sorry to read the medical stuff at the end.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Best wishes to you on a quicker-than-projected recovery.  It sounds quite miserable and frustrating, and I totally empathize if you need to put this project on "pause."

[Hamden]

 

Sorry to hear about your back Bill hope all goes well and best wishes for a speedy recovery

 

  Stay safe                 Roger

[ruudster]

Dang Bill, shouldn't there be a maximum number of surgeries in this Life Regulations book?  I hope it goes well!

 

I like the Blunder too.  Those little guys around one large weapon = those crewmembers in one large weapon.

[Fukuryu]

1 hour ago, ruudster said:

I like the Blunder too.  Those little guys around one large weapon = those crewmembers in one large weapon.

 

Now that you mention it, is so obvious, but it wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years.

 

@Navy Bird: Bill, if it is of any help to you, I have this:

 

 

Is a digital copy so just ask and is yours.

[Navy Bird]

42 minutes ago, Fukuryu said:

Is a digital copy so just ask and is yours.

 

Thanks, but I have a copy of that which I had downloaded from Aviation Archives. I assume it's the same one - 95 pages? There are eleven crew members on the Privateer, but only nine little people with the blunderbuss. The other two were probably the guys flying the aircraft, and not manning the weapons.

 

@ruudster I agree, the maximum allowed operations should be ZERO. I always tell people to avoid back surgeries like the plague. They're like Doritos, you can't just have one.    

 

@TheyJammedKenny! Hopefully, any pause will be short-lived. I should be able to spend time at the workbench whilst my vertebrae are merging. Hmm, I didn't ask the doctor whether the discs will be replaced with bone from my hip or from the cadaver bank. The first hurts like heck, but fuses faster because it's live bone.

 

*****

 

OK, the nose gear. Here is what Revell/Matchbox give you (the tyre is from the Cobra resin set):

 

 

That little bugger pops into this receptacle:

 

 

State of the art detailing, but I think we can do better. Here is what the B-24 and PB4Y nose gear actually looks like:

 

 

Which always amazes me as it looks a bit spindly for a big four-engine heavy bomber. Triangulation is a wonderful thing, so it must be strong. I think we can make this. Let's start with some bits from the spares box. Remember, always save everything.

 

 

We have the kit part, a cylinder from who knows where, and a portion of the nose gear from a 1:48 F-14 Tomcat (in white). After pinning two of the parts together, and drilling out the True Details wheel, we have this:

 

 

I also sanded away as much of the bulging tyre bulges that I could - still need to fine tune that. Now, I'm off to measure the space I have to work with, so I can cut some plastic rod to make the triangulated structure. The portion of the kit where the nose gear strut was designed to attach will need to be ground away. We have no further use for it!

 

Hopefully I'll have the structure finished tomorrow.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Fukuryu]

11 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

Thanks, but I have a copy of that which I had downloaded from Aviation Archives. I assume it's the same one - 95 pages? 

 

It's the same, or at least the same number of pages. I supposed you already had it but better safe than sorry. Good detail in there.

[72modeler]

8 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

As an aside, a friend of mine was convinced that a good single malt was the cure for everything. Worth a go I’d say.

Won't kill the pain, but enough malts and you won't care! So sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery and rehab, Bill, but will keep you in my thoughts and hope you make a complete recovery. You might want to lay off of the multi-engined kits for a while, as they are probably too heavy for your back. 

Mike

[Fritag]

 

14 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

An MRI showed that I have retrolesthesis

 

Sad to hear that the physio couldn’t sort it Bill; that’s quite a spinal surgery back catalogue you’ve got going there.  You’ve obviously got a spine of distinction - retrolosthesis - not the more common or garden spondylolisthesis.  🤞 it all goes well.

 

 

[Learstang]

10 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

You osteopath is absolutely correct. Bipedalism created a lot of problems which evolution hasn't sorted out yet. But we'll get there, we just need a few more million years.   

We're basicallly just an upright-walking big-brained chimpanzee. We still don't have all the kinks straightened out with this upright business, and for that matter I don't think we have this big-brain thing figured out yet either. At any rate, Bill, I do hope things turn out well for you!

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Learstang
Small change.

[AdrianMF]

Your Privateer kit is probably saying to its friends in the stash: “Apparently my plastic is all out of shape, so they are going to cut it away and replace it with resin”.

 

Hope it goes well and delivers the anticipated improvement. Surgery and modelling both!

Regards,

Adrian

 

[stevehnz]

Late to the party again, so its all been said, nonetheless, all the best for the rebuild Bill, hoping & trusting it'll do the job. Following this in the meantime & thinking of you along the way. Take care mate.

Steve.

[roginoz]

Bloody Hell, Bill, and there was I thinking I was a bit special having had four spinal ops ! 

I reckon you should consult the Guiness Book of Records to see if you rate an entry. My last one involved all the screws, plates and bolts and, you're right, they only serve to aggravate the adjoining vertebrae while, admittedly, holding you upright.

 

Nevertheless, I have good days & bad days, the latter generally depending on what I did the day before - like overdoing it, so I'm slowly learning to listen to my body.

 

From a fellow sufferer,  I wish you every success with the outcome, when it eventuates, and I will continue to follow your build and look forward to the day when I can lay my hands on a Privateer of my own.

All the best,

Rog

[perdu]

Not as if you needed all that extra angst is it Bill, sorry to read of your ongoing bloody troubles, not envious.

 

On with the motley, so we should assume that Matchbox's delightfully miss-engineered bit of something odd is on its way to the under-desk bin should we?

 

I ask because my mania for saving even oddball pieces would have had the two pieces of bracket littering my work surface for months until SHE surreptitiously loses them some day.

 

I love that nose gear diagram, rather like following the oddball mechanism for retracting Sea King wheels.

 

Nothing looks exactly like what I would expect to pull or push at the right moments, who'd be an aeroplane architect huh?

 

 

Aberlour?

 

Sounds like a seriously good idea.

 

👍

 

[Brandy]

Sorry to hear about the upcoming back surgery, that sounds horrendous. I have back problems myself but fortunately all resolvable by a chiropractor. Nothing worse than not being able to move without screaming!

Nice work on the nose gear though!

 

Ian

[Lewis95]

Sorry to hear about the surgery. But the build looks good at least!

[Navy Bird]

On 02/06/2021 at 21:43, 72modeler said:

You might want to lay off of the multi-engined kits for a while, as they are probably too heavy for your back. 

 

Thanks Mike. The four-engine bombers aren't that heavy - this is 1:72 scale.   

 

20 hours ago, Fritag said:

Sad to hear that the physio couldn’t sort it Bill; that’s quite a spinal surgery back catalogue you’ve got going there.  You’ve obviously got a spine of distinction - retrolosthesis - not the more common or garden spondylolisthesis.  🤞 it all goes well.

 

Yeah, I don't fool around when it comes to my health. I go straight for the oddball stuff. They were hoping the physio would strengthen my core muscles enough to "pull" the errant vertebra back into place. Ha! It had other ideas. Plus, you actually need to have core muscles before you can strengthen them.    

 

20 hours ago, Learstang said:

We're basicallly just an upright-walking big-brained chimpanzee. We still don't have all the kinks straightened out with this upright business, and for that matter I don't think we have this big-brain thing figured out yet either. At any rate, Bill, I do hope things turn out well for you!

 

Can't argue with that!

 

18 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Your Privateer kit is probably saying to its friends in the stash: “Apparently my plastic is all out of shape, so they are going to cut it away and replace it with resin”.

Hope it goes well and delivers the anticipated improvement. Surgery and modelling both!

 

Thanks Adrian. There will be as much resin in this model as there are bone screws and plates in my spine.    

 

18 hours ago, roginoz said:

Nevertheless, I have good days & bad days, the latter generally depending on what I did the day before - like overdoing it, so I'm slowly learning to listen to my body.

 

From a fellow sufferer,  I wish you every success with the outcome, when it eventuates, and I will continue to follow your build and look forward to the day when I can lay my hands on a Privateer of my own.

 

Thanks Rog. I felt pretty good after surgery number 9, but it eventually deteriorated. That seems to be the playbook. I'm told my problems are due to degenerative causes, as opposed to an accident or something like that. In other words, I am old, my bones are tired, and they're not going to take it any more!!    

 

Keep looking for that Privateer - these Revell kits are pretty common on vendor tables at shows.

 

17 hours ago, perdu said:

Aberlour?

 

Sounds like a seriously good idea.

 

Beats a Bud Lite! But then, anything beats a Bud Lite. How they can market a "beer" whose primary ingredient is ammonia is beyond me.    

 

*****

 

Yes, always save the leftover bits because you never know when they might come in handy. Like this, for instance:

 

 

 

 

Four bits hacked off of leftover landing gear struts, one kit part, one resin wheel, a bunch of styrene rod, and some brass tubing. And, most surprising of all, this is actually quite solid. Once it is attached to the bulkhead (which I will have to create later) it should be fine.

 

As I look through both PB4Y and B-24 reference photos, it looks like there are no "sidewalls" in the nose gear bay. It looks like there are canvas dividers that separate the nose gear from the crawlspace for the bombardier. Interesting, and something I probably won't try to replicate.

 

D-day for hack 'n' slash number 10 is June 25.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Speaking of hack 'n' slash, I found a video of an actual retrolesthesis surgery online. Dear Gawd! I hate the Internet...

[Navy Bird]

Mates,

 

Just in case you wondered how that crazy nose gear worked, these photos should clear it up. First, the nose gear deployed (looking forward):

 

 

Next, nose gear retracted:

 

 

Simple, eh? And obvious, too. If you refer back to the drawing I posted above, the arm that goes from the top of the nose gear strut to the top of the actuator ram folds (bends, pivots) in the middle. The other pivot points are denoted by asterisks in the drawing. Once I realised what was going on, it all made sense. Also note how there is no "gear bay" per se - it's all pretty mush open space. These last two photos are from a B-24D but it is essentially the same for other variants such as the PB4Y.

 

And, there is no bulkhead behind the nose gear, at least not one that my little construction can attach to. I'll have to fake it. It looks like the nose gear is securely anchored to structural members on the bottom of the cockpit and also at the bottom of the fuselage. I assume there is a bulkhead between the nose gear area and the bomb bay, but it's behind the camera in the last two photos.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Resident B-24 Nose Gear Figure-Outer

[72modeler]

On 6/3/2021 at 3:56 PM, Navy Bird said:

As I look through both PB4Y and B-24 reference photos, it looks like there are no "sidewalls" in the nose gear bay.

That makes sense, as I  think I read that bailing out through the nose wheel well was one of the ways of exiting a Liberator/Privateer. BTW, you did an awesome job on the scratchbuilt nose gear strut, Bill- looks just like the factory drawing!

Mike

Edited June 5, 2021 by 72modeler
corrected spelling