Carrera Revell Consolidated B-24D Liberator (03831) 1:48

[Mike]

Consolidated B-24D Liberator (03831)

1:48 Carrera Revell

 

 

Consolidated's Liberator always seems to have flown in the shadow of the more popular B-17 Fortress in the media's eye even thought there were more of them, and in some aspects it was inferior, with its Davis Wing design offering poor low-speed handling and a lower maximum ceiling, but it saw more than its fair share of action in almost every theatre of WWII, both in US use and in the hands of the RAF.  It has a specification written around its main design traits, and had a long wingspan, twin bomb bays and four super-charged engines to provide motive power.  It was unusual in having a high wing placement, tricycle undercarriage, and tamboured bomb-bay doors that retracted up the side of the fuselage, and was fitted with a fully glazed nose cone with .30cal machine guns for protection from head-on attacks, which proved unsuitable for the task of defence.  This was later updated to a turret fitted with .50cal guns with a glazed lower for the bomb aimer's position that was the H variant, but many of the earlier D models were still in use concurrently, even with the later J models.

 

Taking a leaf from the B-17's defensive armament book it could be fitted with up to 10 .50cal M2 Browning machine guns, with the layout changing during production changes, when various options were found to be unsatisfactory, such as the poorly defended nose, offsetting the waist guns to give the crew more room, and the underside guns, which were eventually replaced with a Sperry ball turret that could be retracted into the fuselage to reduce drag, and must have been a relief for the crew if they had to make a belly landing.

 

The name "Liberator" was coined by the British, as they were early adopters of the type after the fall of France, serving with Coastal Command, and later with the RAF after the fuselage had been lengthened, the nickname soon spreading to other operators.   In US Service the Liberator flew alongside the B-17, and later superseded it when the shorter range of the B-17 began to be an issue, with the Ploiesti raid being one of the most notable operations that featured the B-24, which suffered heavy losses due to the low-level nature of the attack on such a heavily defended installaion.  After the J standardised the nose turret, the N was intended to be a major upgrade that incorporated a standard single tail fin to improve handling.  Due to the end of the war this was cancelled, although the tail was still seen in the PB4Y-2 Privateer operated by the US Navy until long after WWII.  After the huge success of the B-29 and the dawning of the jet age, the Liberator was drawn down with unseemly haste at the end of the war, with only the Privateer soldiering on.  A civilian airliner was prototyped as a potential offshoot, but that didn't proceed due to the same issues.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of the original Monogram kit of the type that has been around since the 70s, at which time it was the pinnacle of injection moulding technology, and must have been quite an impressive kit at the time.  To be fair, time has been incredibly kind to the moulds, particularly as some would have you believe they’ve been at the bottom of the sea at some point!  The rumours we hear on the internet, eh?  It has raised panel lines, includes a set of figures and a ground-handling tractor that would probably be considered gimmicks by today’s cynical modeller.  Those aspects aside, the detail is still pretty good for the age, and is a firm basis on which to improve if you’re interested in going the extra mile.  It’s a big model too, with the Davis wing making for a substantial wingspan of almost 70cm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the broad cockpit, which seats two pilots abreast on substantially framed seats, with steering yokes inserted into the wide instrument panel after applying the included decal for the instrument dials.  The seats have belts moulded-in, and the bomb aimer’s stool and sight is added to the lower forward section, before the fuselage halves are prepared with paint and side windows that are applied from inside.  There is plenty of ribbing moulded into the interior, plus some other details and oxygen hoses for good measure, but the prominent yellow oxygen tanks are absent from the kit.  The fuselage halves are further detailed with bomb bay ladders that are hung from the two bays and have a stick of two-part bombs attached to the rungs.  The waist gun windows can be posed open or closed by making them up with their central windows, and positioning them swung up into the roof for the open option.  The two gunner positions are situated in a section of floor with lower sidewalls moulded-in, and have the mounts for the .50cals glued into position on each side, trapping the pintle-mounts in place so that the gun can be moved after completion.  There is a moulded-in texture to the floor in this section too, and it is inserted into the starboard fuselage half, then the nose is detailed with equipment add-ons and the nose bay doors, which I’m sure were changed to open outward at some point, I just can’t remember when.  The cockpit and a rear bulkhead are fitted into the front of the starboard fuselage, as is the nose wheel on its short strut, attached to a short bulkhead by a V-shaped brace.  A small mudguard is applied over the top before it is glued under the cockpit floor, and another bulkhead is fixed at the back of the bomb bay to permit closure of the fuselage, which will need lots of tape, no doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

The four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-35 Twin Wasp engines are each depicted by a single insert that fits inside the nacelles with a drive-shaft slipped through the centre, trapping them in position by closing up each wing and adding the cowling to the front.  The gear bays are moulded into the lower wing halves, and do a decent job of depicting the interior, and shouldn’t need any additional work other than painting, unless you’re a detail hound.  The completed wings are slotted through the fuselage to interlink in a strong bond, thanks to the long tabs at the roots that project through the fuselage and into corresponding holes in the opposite wing root.  The three-bladed props are each a single part and glue straight onto the shafts at the centre of the engine inserts, but are probably best left off until later.  The prominent H-tail with big rounded rudders is made up from upper and lower halves that accept a two-part rudder at each end, the flying surfaces having a fabric texture engraved into the surface, which although a little over-scale should reduce under a few coats of paint.  It is glued to the rear of the fuselage over the rear turret, which is made from two clear halves that trap a twin Browning mount between them that rotates on a circular platform once installed.

 

Moving forward, you have a choice of modelling the bomb bay doors in the closed position by using one set of parts, or rolled up the side of the fuselage using another set.  Behind the bay is an insert that covers the location of the belly turret, which was often either absent or retracted on many Liberators.  Behind that is a bumper to protect the tail against over-exuberant take-offs, and behind that is a crew access hatch that can be posed closed by inserting the door, or open with the access ladder and cutting off the tabs that hold the door flush with the rest of the fuselage.  Going back to the wings, you have a choice of building your model gear up or down, each option starting by making up two sets of gear from four parts each, comprising the strut, captive bay door and two-part wheel with flat-spot moulded in.  The instructions show the flat-spot uppermost for the retracted option, so that it will be hidden by the bay door, but fails to note that for the gear down option, the flat-spots should be inverted.  Each leg is supported by a retraction jack, giving the leg three points of contact within the bay.

 

The canopy is built from three parts, adding bulged side windows and gluing the finished assembly over the cockpit with a clear astrodome in front over the bomb-aimer’s position.  Behind the cockpit is an upper turret that traps the twin guns between the top and bottom of the turret ring before putting the clear dome over it and snapping it into position.  Either side of the nose is a whisker-like probe and four Browning machine guns are pushed, one through the side of the nose and three through the clear bomb-aimer’s window before it is glued in place, with each of the waist gunners also getting a Browning for their pintle-mounts.  The last parts of the model are a pair of probes that sit on the wing behind the inner engine nacelles, a faired D/F loop and an aerial just behind it, which has two wires (from your own stock) fixed to it and the top of each of the rudders, as per the picture of the finished model on the cover of the instructions.

 

As mentioned earlier, there is a tracked ground-handling tractor that is made from thirteen parts, including a pair of crew seats for two seated crew members, who are accompanied by a guy with a spanner, another wearing headphones and pointing up at something, and finally a gentleman in a parachute harness with headphones that could be a representative of the crew.  If you are using the tractor, there is a towing bar included that fits into a recess in the yoke of the nose wheel and hooks over the towing hitch on the tractor.  The colour call-outs for the tractor are shown during the build process, with more diagrams showing the correct colours for the included figures.

 

 

Markings

There are two decal options on the large sheet that are substantially different from each other, and have a good range of decals to add some detail and realism to the paintjob.   From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• B-24D-25-CO ‘Flak Alley’, 44th Bomber Group, 68th Bomber Sqn., Shipdham, England, October 1943
• B-24D-20-CO 98th Bomber Group, 343rd Bomber Sqn., Brindisi, Italy and ‘Bond Tour’ in USA, Winter 1943

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The instrument panel decal is a realistic-looking depiction of the real thing, with two cut-outs for the yokes.

 

Conclusion

The Liberator was an important, if slightly overlooked part of the US bombing offensive during WWII, and until someone releases a new tooling with engraved panel lines, this is the only game in town in 1:48 scale, and because of the size of it, shouldn’t be too hard to re-scribe if you prefer recessed panel lines.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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[Alan P]

This would be worth getting just for the decals 😂 another one of those kits everyone seems to have but not many build.

 

I remember I ended up building mine in flight because the amount of noseweight required was scary!

[Mike]

21 minutes ago, Alan P said:

I remember I ended up building mine in flight because the amount of noseweight required was scary!

Just get a Peter Griffin figure in the cockpit and you'll be golden

[John_W]

42 minutes ago, Alan P said:

This would be worth getting just for the decals 😂 another one of those kits everyone seems to have but not many build.

 

I remember I ended up building mine in flight because the amount of noseweight required was scary!

The Liberator was so perfectly balanced on the main wheels that ground crew would place an empty .50 Cal ammo box under the tail bumper for support.

I recall in their B25 kit they provided a step ladder for a tail prop.

[PolarisPrime]

I built this kit a few years ago in the markings of an aircraft that a friends dad flew in WWII.  It was a beast to build, correct and update with detail sets and scratch building.   The results were pretty good, but if there is ever a new tool kit out I am going to do it again.  I have the 1/32 Hobby Boss kit on the shelf which is both awesome and crappy.  It's like Hobby Boss started with good intentions and then got bored.  

 

Anyway, here is a link to my web site and some pics.  Don't laugh at the web site, I only threw it together so I could show my brother in Canada my work. 

 

http://bruce.smart-site.net/Models/B-24J/index.htm

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by PolarisPrime
Language edits

[bentwaters81tfw]

Very nice job there Bruce. A few hours work in that one. I like the guy with the hose.

[PolarisPrime]

Quote

I like the guy with the hose

Thanks, I like him too.  You can't see it in the pictures but I left the port vertical stabilizer glossy like he had just washed it.  The markings looked too nice to dirty up. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by PolarisPrime

[James S.]

When this kit came out in 1976, I was 9 years old. I built this kit for the first time back then. I had already built the Monogram B-17G already, probably not the best looking considering I was around 9 years old. I  still LOVE the old Monogram bomber kits. Their big bombers are still the best, in my opinion. Been way leery of getting the Hobby Boss B-24J or the HK B-17 in 1/48. 

 

James

[bootneck]

That is a lovely kit and I just wish I had the room to build and display one.

 

Mike