I have embarked upon my next builds, Consolidated’s venerable B-24J Liberator. It will be a comparison of the only two kits in 48th scale (to my knowledge). First up is Monogram’s 1976 boxing.
I first got this kit as a child for Christmas in 1976. I probably built it by the end of that Christmas Day, in an era before I had discovered hobby paints - although that discovery was right around the corner. The kit contained the Shep Paine diorama booklet. I acquired this original boxing in the last couple of years, but it didn’t come with the booklet (nor decals as evidenced by the writing on the box). I do actually have most of those booklets, acquired via eBay over the years, so that wasn’t really a factor in my decision to grab this kit.
Next up is Hobby Boss’ new kit.
The comparison I will make is not really a fair one. While the Monogram kit does contain a fair amount of detail inside that big fuselage, it pales against the detail in the Hobby Boss kit. One difference I’ve already noted is the inclusion of grab bars inside the rear of the Hobby Boss kit. While this detail won’t be visible once the build is done, there simply is nothing comparable in the old Monogram kit. It is not a deal breaker, though. The Monogram kit is a good one.
My plan is to build one PTO Liberator and one ETO Liberator. As noted, the Monogram kit did not come with decals. I acquired a set of US insignia and the colorful and perhaps R-rated “The Dragon and His Tail” decal set, which I will use on the Hobby Boss kit. The Hobby Boss kit comes with three options, so I will use one of those on the Monogram kit. The one I initially chose was “Over Exposed”, but upon further research, that nose art belonged to an F7-A, the photo reconn version of the B-24. That would have required a bit of scratch work to effect the cameras and windows for the lenses - nah, I want a heavy bomber. So scratch “Over Exposed” for “Witchcraft”.
There will be some minor differences in interior painting. “The Dragon and His Tail” was an actual Consolidated build, either Ft. Worth, Texas or San Diego, California. Consolidated tended to coat wheel wells in yellow zinc chromate, so that’s what I’ll go with. For “Witchcraft”, a B-24 produced by Ford at the Willow Run factory, they tended to coat the wheel wells with interior green or leave them unpainted aluminum. So that will explain the difference once I get to that part of the builds.
My progress is going to be slower on these builds. I mean, they are big models. While the Monogram has roughly 6 sprues, the Hobby Boss more than doubles that count. With previous experience building Monogram’s Liberator, I know to expect fit issues around the nacelles. But today I discovered another one.
All of the parts were still on the sprues. When I took the fuselage halves off the sprue and dry fit them, this is what I discovered.
The halves are clearly warped. The front of the nose turret does not want to meet naturally. This is going to require some careful assembly to get the parts as closely connected as I can, but I am expecting significant work to fill seams.
This is what I have done to see if I can force the parts to conform better to each other.
I aligned the parts as best I could then slapped the architectural rules around the parts and rubber banded them as tightly as I could. I know that I can use hot water to effect the plastic, but I’ll only use that as a method of last resort.
And this is what awaits me on the inside of the fuselage halves.
While the Monogram fuselage sits for a while under that rubber-band/architectural rule pressure, I’ll be spending much of my time on the Hobby Boss. Like the Monogram, the Hobby Boss displays a lot of mold release points in the fuselage. Visible or not, they have to go.
I spent the bulk of today’s football game between Oklahoma and Mississippi working on just the port half of the fuselage. First I got rid of all those mold release points. Then I installed the vast majority of the detail pieces on that side of the fuselage.
I added the one window located in the back of the fuselage because an axe (or something) fits right over it, meaning it would be impossible to install after the fact. Otherwise, I left off all the clear parts. I also need to add the waist gun mount and the window covering for that gun location. I will likely add the mount tomorrow, but the door will wait until after I’ve painted the interior.
Interior painting will follow Hobby Boss over Monogram, which suggests the interior should be fully interior green. That may have been accurate in 1976, but not so much now if my research is anywhere near correct. The rear of the fuselage and the radio operator/upper turret section will indeed be interior green, while the bomb bay will be neutral gray. The cockpit and bombardier sections will be dull dark green. The nose gear well will vary between interior green (Hobby Boss) and yellow zinc chromate (Monogram).
I’ve actually done a more ambitious project, roughly 6 years ago, in doing two Monogram B-29 Superfortresses, including one as the Enola Gay. Of course, that necessitated cutting away the molded in turret fairings to smooth out those openings as that aircraft, a “Silverplate” -29, had a flush surface.
Finally got some bench time today, but didn’t get much accomplished. I put together a few more interior parts (attaching tables to bulk heads, installing railing in the bomb bay) on the Hobby Boss. Also verified that my rubber banding tactic on the Monogram fuselage did make a slight impact on its fit, for the better. Dealt with a couple of mold injection points in the bomb bay on those parts.
I made some progress over the weekend. Nothing too impressive, just a bunch of interior paint work. And to be honest, I haven’t felt terribly motivated to get to the bench in the last several days. I do hope to complete both of these big bombers this year but sit here knowing it’s possible that won’t happen. But the good Lord willing, they’ll get finished at some point in the near future.
I planned these out per who actually manufactured the bombers that I’m building. The Dragon and His Tail was a Consolidated build, while the Witchcraft was a Ford build. I believe I already mentioned the painting research I’ve done on these two. Between the two plants, there were some differences, which I believe I’ve captured with this paint work.
The Hobby Boss is definitely a busy kit, to the point that it is almost intimidating just in the number of sprues and parts. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t been motivated to get to my bench much lately. I typically like to have what I call a “to-build” stash, which as opposed to my regular stash, is what I have “on deck” (baseball terminology). Rarely do I pick a random kit out of the stash to just build. I’ll spend time considering what I want to build over the next x number of kits. This year was always going to close out like this, with a couple of B-24s and with Eduard’s new B-17F Flying Fortress. I’m not expecting to get to the Flying Fort this year, and now I’m thinking that I should re-evaluate my to-build stash. That to-build stash currently includes the Flying Fort, as well as HK Model’s 1/48 Avro Lancaster and Italeri’s 1/72 Short Stirling. I’ll keep those in the to-build stash, but just push them out to later in the coming year. I need some quicker, simpler builds after I ultimately put the finishing touches on these Liberators.
I can see why you’ve lost motivation. The Hobby Boss itself is a max-out of parts! Maybe you should just concentrate on one and put the other aside until you get the first to a point with which you are comfortable (such as ready for painting). I’m currently doing two Corsairs, which with the similarity of parts is confusing enough. I can’t imagine doing two B-24s!
