Airfix Consolidated B-24H Liberator (A09010) 1:72

[Mike]

Consolidated B-24H Liberator (A09010)

1:72 Airfix

 

 

Consolidated's Liberator always seems to have flown in the shadow of the more popular B-17 Fortress in the media's eye even though they were more numerous, and in some aspects it was inferior, with poor low-speed handling and a lower 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 was 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.  This was later updated to a front turret fitted with .50cal guns and a glazed lower for the bomb aimer's position, but many of the earlier D models were still in use concurrently.

 

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 amended during production changes, when various options were found to be unsatisfactory, such as the poorly defended nose, 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 pleased the crew (especially the gunner) no-end if they had to make a belly landing.

 

The name "Liberator" was coined by the British, and soon spread to other operators, 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.   In US Service the Liberator flew with the B-17, and later superseded it when the shorter range of the B-17 began to be an issue, with the Ploiesti raid being one of the most notable operations that featured the B-24, suffering heavy losses due to the low-level nature of the attack.  After the H introduced the nose turret and the J perpetuated the design despite shortages of the Emerson-made mechanism, 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 on 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 at the end of the war, with only the Privateer carrying on, as mentioned.  A civilian airliner derivative was prototyped as a potential offshoot, but that didn't proceed due to the same issues.

 

 

The Kit

This is the first boxing of a new tooling from Airfix, and will no doubt be welcome by many of our bomber fans that model in that scale, and a lot that don’t yet.  The kit arrives in a large top-opening red-themed box, and inside are three bags containing six sprues of dark grey styrene, a bagged pair of clear sprues that are separated by a heat-sealed line to reduce the likelihood of damage during shipping and handling.  The large decal sheet is slipped inside the instruction booklet that is printed in spot colour on matt paper in A4 portrait format, with an A3 painting and decaling guide printed in colour on both sides and folded in half so that it can fit between the pages of the instructions.  Detail is good including crisp engraved panel lines, with many raised and recessed features that will give the model extra visual interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the instrument panel with centre console that is glued over the top, and has a pair of control yokes fitted over the dial decals that are provided, with another on the centre console.  It is glued to the cockpit floor, which has rudder pedals moulded-in, and the two-part crew seats are installed behind their respective controls, adding the stepped bulkhead behind on a large tab.  The nose section of the fuselage is a separate assembly, made from two halves that have sidewall details fitted to both sides, a section of floor, the Norden bomb sight at the front, and a U-shaped moulding that comprises ammo boxes and twin feeds that converge at the front under the nose turret.  It slots in under the cockpit in the starboard side, adding 25g of nose weight between the front bulkhead and the instrument panel before mating the two halves.  The next compartment back begins by adding an instrument panel to a stepped bulkhead, fitting a box under the floor that should contain another 30g of nose weight, closing the open end when it is mated to the bulkhead.  A crew seat and radio gear are added to the interior, plus two oxygen bottles for the crewmen, fitting racks of two on each side of the main fuselage while drilling out two flashed-over holes in front of the waist gunner windows, preparing the fuselage interior with a mixture of zinc chromate and unpainted aluminium, following the notes printed at the top of the page.  If the crew access door under the belly is to be fitted in the open position, two tabs around the perimeter should be filed away, then the bomb bay roof has a pair of spars glued to its top-side and threaded through the holes in the sides of the fuselage until the roof touches the fuselage side.  A tapering centre support has a canister added before it is fixed in the centre of the bomb bay under the bay divider moulded into the belly.  A rear bulkhead is assembled with another cylinder, fitting a tapering floor section with a hole for the belly turret surrounded by another section of ribbed floor, inserting the bulkhead, then the floor into the port side of the fuselage, installing a waist gunner hatch with a clear window if you are posing it opened inwards, but leaving it off if you are closing it.  Another insert with another O₂ bottle is fixed under the window and to the side of the gun mount, a simplified version of which is moulded into the bottom of the .50cal that is fed from an ammo box and feeder chute to the front.  If the waist hatch is to be closed, the chute is left off, and the gun is positioned facing aft.  A pair of crescent ribs with a strut between them are installed in the roof above the lower turret, and a small bulkhead is linked to a narrow walkway that has a toilet (Elsan or equivalent) attached to an offshoot to one side, terminating just behind the rear turret.  A baffle is attached to the inner rear frame of the waist hatch, then the same process of creating the opposite waist position is carried out in mirror image, adding the rear belly hatch before joining the two fuselage halves together, sliding the port side over the other end of the spars.  When the glue has cured, the nose can be joined to the fuselage, and under the rear are two fairing parts behind the belly turret.  Outside the waist gunner hatches are wind deflectors, using different parts to depict them extended while the hatches are open, and flush(ish) with the hatches closed.  Eight bombs are included on the sprues, each one made from two halves plus a square fin that attaches to the rear, fitting two to each bomb ladder that installs on two holes in the roof and on the centreline at the bottom, including a pair of supports near the centre divide in each bay compartment.  If you went the trouble of installing all the bombs, you’ll want to display them, which will also show off the unusual tamboured bay doors that slide up the sides of the fuselage on tracks, reducing wind resistance of bay doors hanging into the air stream.  If you decided against opening the bays, there are four alternative bay doors that drop into position, flush with the rest of the skin.

 

 

The H-tail is based upon the elevator panel, which is made from upper and lower surfaces, with a large lozenge-shaped fin and rudder panel made from two halves each and fitted perpendicular to the elevators at each end, then lowered into position over the rear fuselage, the fairing smoothing the airflow around the tail.  The B-24 used the high-aspect Davis Wing, which was fuel efficient and low drag that gave it a good top speed, as well as giving it an individual look in the sky.  Each wing is in halves, with the top surface having part of the engine nacelles moulded-in.  The lower wing has the gear bay cut-out, over which a framework of ribbing and a retraction jack are placed before the two wing halves are mated, taking care that the upper wing remains straight, as per the accompanying scrap diagram.  The lower nacelles glue under the wings, adding the superchargers from two parts each into depressions in each one, and a small flat slab in the rear of each nacelle.  You have a choice of posing the cooling gills open or closed on the nacelles, layering the two cylinder banks and fitting your choice of gills to the rear, then slotting the cowling over the assembly, times four.  Each engine has a pin inserted through the bell housing before it is glued in place at the front, fixing them in position, two per wing.  Ailerons are separate two-part assemblies, and can be inserted deflected if you wish, and the long flap sections can be posed flush with the wing for normal flight, or deployed for landing/take-off by using different parts with the actuators moulded-in.  This will expose the nicely moulded flap bays that are present under the upper wing, and add plenty of visual interest there.  The wings plug into the fuselage on two spars, at which point you realise what a large wingspan this aircraft has.

 

For an in-flight model the wheels are made from three parts, and are placed in the wheel bays after installing the combined strut/door part, covering the nose gear bay with a single rectangular panel.  To depict your model ground-side, the main gear legs are made from two parts plus a small angled door that is shown from the side in scrap diagrams, with more diagrams showing how they should appear once installed.  The wheel hubs are each two parts, as are the tyres, sliding the hub inside the tyres evenly, as the scrap diagram shows, sliding them over the axles of the main gear legs.  The nose gear leg is a complex shape made from two halves, installing it in the bay, and fitting the four-part wheel, plus two side-opening doors to edges.

 

The Liberator was well-defended, building up the various turret from bases, mechanism and glazing, not forgetting the guns with breeches, barrels and ammo boxes that are all depicted, the complex belly turret suspended by a Y-shaped support, the length of which differs between the retracted and exposed options, both gluing into a socket in the roof.  The tail, upper and nose turrets are all placed in their locations, adding small windows and the two ‘whisker’ pitot probes to the sides of the nose, plus the canopy and astrodome, then more rectangular windows down the sides of the fuselage and under the tail, remembering to add the windows to the waist gunner hatches if you posed them closed.  The four props are moulded as single parts with their spinners moulded-in, sliding over the shafts, followed by an aerial and faired-in D/F loop on the fuselage spine, the open waist gunner weapons in the deployed position, and a ladder into the rear hatch under the tail if you left it open, which can double as a prop to prevent a tail-sitter if you didn’t include enough nose weight.

 

 

Markings

There are two decal options included on the sheet, both wearing Olive Drab over grey camouflage, and differentiated by their nose art, group and unit markings.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• B-24H-10-FO, 42-52234 ‘Corky Burgundy Bombers’, 733rd Bomb Sqn., 453rd Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, USAAF, RAF Old Buckenham Airfield, Norfolk, England, 1944
• B-24H-15-FO, 42-52699 ‘Valiant Lady’, 831st Bomb Sqn., 485th Bomb Group, Fifteenth Air Force, USAAF, Venosa, Italy, 1944

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

Airfix’s designers have managed to cram a substantial amount of detail into this new tooling, and even at 1:72 it’s a substantial kit that should keep you busy modelling for a while.  There are some ejector-pin marks here and there, but they shouldn't take too long to resolve if you think they'll be seen.  The Olive Drab colour schemes also make for a nice easy paint job without any tricky natural metal needed.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of