B-24J "The Dragon and His Tail"

[deckape]

Ahoy Swampfox

Look s like you ferring along very nicely, your doing a great job on the flying coffin. I love B24s too something about them i guess their long streamline Davis wing. i might do this kit someday your doing a bang up job keep up the good work camazeing model to behold LOLLLLLLLLllllllllllll I like your RDFfootball intenia, very clever a good tip

Boats

[Swampfox]

I made sure that the fuselage was held in place using shot filled leather bags used in the world of drafting(old school). Once in place I used a 45 degree triangle to make sure I had a vertical line. I applied a little glue to the tabs on the horizontal stab and aligned the rudder into place and clipped it with one of my many clips.


After the first rudder assembly dried,


I applied glue to the starboard rudder assembly, aligned it by eye and held it in place with a clip.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Very precise, like the whole enterprise. A pleasure to watch. - L.

[Don Boose]

Yes. You are definitely in the top ranks of master paper modelers, Francis Marion.

Don

[Swampfox]

Originally Posted by Leif Ohlsson

Very precise, like the whole enterprise. A pleasure to watch. - L.

Originally Posted by Don Boose

Yes. You are definitely in the top ranks of master paper modelers, Francis Marion.

Don

Thanks Leif and Don, just don't look too close;-)

I'm not finished yet. I'm not sure what I'm doing to deserve the praise...........but thanks again.

[Swampfox]

This is a diagram that will come with the kit.
Clear and easy to understand.

This photo shows the parts you'll have to construct. It shows the wooden handle off an old Q-Tip. Painted silver and flattened about 3mm up the shaft. I just took a pair of pliers, and gently compressed the end. This is so that it will fit into the Braces on the main landing gear strut.


With the wings temporally set into the Dihedral guides, I glued the right main landing gear and placed it into the larger holes that they set in under the wing. Using my B-B bags for support and aligned the parts by eyeball, with a drafting triangle to keep everything looking straight.


After it has dried for a bit, carefully turn the whole a/c over and dry-fit the 2 small wooden pieces, from the 2nd photo above. Once everything fits, glue into place.
It should look like this..LET IT DRY FOR A WHILE!!

This photo shows what the landing gear will look like once finished (Minus the doors)


The finished landing gear glued to the wing.
The cowlings and props are only dry-fit at this point.

Do the same thing for the other wing.

[John Dell]

It has been very interesting seeing some of the construction techniques Swampfox has come up with. It’s also fascinating to see how his interpretation of how some parts go together differ from what I originally had in mind. His technique is working very well as it is a nice, clean build.

There were some posts a few pages back about wings sagging. I’ve had this problem too after several years. I would suggest adding the bomb bay to the model even if you are not opening the bomb bay doors as this will give the wings and the wing spar more support. Laminating the spar parts to poster board is good too.

It has also been interesting hearing everyone’s opinion on the B-24 in general. I have always had a great interest in four engine bombers so I have always found the B-24 to be an interesting and handsome aircraft. But I have joked to Swampfox that I consider the B-24 models practice for the upcoming B-17s. The B-17 has been a favorite since I was a very small boy. In the ensuing years I have accumulated close to sixty books on the B-17. So I am really looking forward to doing more B-17s.

[Don Boose]

Swampfox - My assessment of your skill is based on previous models (especially the award-winning Sikorsky amphibian) and the precision and innovativeness with which you are building this one. It's a great pleasure for a perpetual beginner like me to watch you work.

John -The B-17 is most people's favorite, but the B-24 has been the plane for me for as long as I have had memories. I was born at the height of the Battle of Britain and was just short of my fifth birthday on V-J Day, so my very earliest memories are of the War. Sometime during those years (as I have previously mentioned) someone gave me three framed photos of airplanes in pre-war markings and natural metal finish: a B-24, a B-26, and a P-39. Those were the first airplanes I could identify, and I still love them, along with the Terry and the Pirates P-40. The wife of a Navy test pilot lived downstairs in our duplex and her husband, Bob Jaycox, sometimes flew over the house and wagged the wings of his F4U, so at an early age I knew it "looked like a Corsair." My love of the B-24 was cemented when, in the late 1940s, I built the Strombecker model. That deep fuselage, pugnacious radial engines, and long Davis wing meant "heavy bomber" to me. B-24 pilot Jim Inks (Eight Bailed Out) was one of our Civil Air Patrol leaders in Baltimore in the 1950s and his flying stories cemented my view that the B-24 was and always will be the heavy bomber. And, of course, there is a Kevin Stevens-built John Dell B-24 model signed by survivors of the 44th Bomb Group among the treasures of the Army Heritage and Education Center here in Carlisle. Sorry for the digression, but my mind just went way back.

Keep 'em flying!

Don

[airdave]

I can vouch for the Fox's skills too!
Some great work with my Airfield Diorama Models!

[TheSarge]

Originally Posted by John Dell

There were some posts a few pages back about wings sagging. I’ve had this problem too after several years. I would suggest adding the bomb bay to the model even if you are not opening the bomb bay doors as this will give the wings and the wing spar more support. Laminating the spar parts to poster board is good too.

John,

I had the pleasure of building "Strawberry Bitch" after it was released, and she hangs over my head at work to this day warding off evil spirits (and distracting those who wish to dump more work on me). Her wings sag when she's not suspended, but ironically rest in perfect dihedral when hanging from the ceiling. Needless to say, she stays up.

When I built the Thai Paperwork C-130H, I made a point to create a triple-laminated cereal-box structure vice the structure that was designed. It not only prevented sagging, but it allowed me to build a pair of sewing needles twisted into question marks into the spar (and a third in the tail) to serve as tie-off points for suspension. Now I don't have to wrap the fishing line around the engine nacelle, which I find unattractive and structurally unsettling to the model.

I recommend this affectation to anyone who wishes to suspend larger aircraft models without wrapping visible fishing line around them.