B-24J "The Dragon and His Tail"

[Swampfox]

Nose Turret shell rolled and glued into cylinder. Click to enlarge

Nose Turret Top, with Micro-Mark mini-clip holding together to dry.

Completed Nose Turret outer shell.



Nose Gun Mounts glued in place. Tissue was suggested to keep the mounts parallel to each other. I didn't see the suggestion until after I'd built the turret;-(


I used a small piece of balsa to keep them apart.



The Astro-dome.
Actually, there were 2 different astro-domes included in my kit. I built both and used the one with the hole in the top.

[rjm]

Re: history in #5 message. That should be Ie Shima, not Le Shima.
Looks like an impressive build.

[Swampfox]

Originally Posted by rjm

Re: history in #5 message. That should be Ie Shima, not Le Shima.
Looks like an impressive build.

Thank you, I meant to check my source on the spelling and I just spaced it out.

I hope you stick around and watch the whole build.

Thanks again,
SFX

[Swampfox]

Some of the pieces of the nose.Click to enlarge

I built this model as a typical FG style build. No internal formers, joining bands etc.. I left the tabs in place. Added nothing that was not provided in the kit.

This is nose section 2 after I glued it and shaped it with a couple of wooden dowels. Keeping the slab sided shape of the Liberator was a little tricky, but after a couple of tries, I got the hang of it.

Section 1 glued together

Section 1a and 1b glued to section 1

Nose Turret glued in place.

Nose Turret fairings and paper handles to place fairings into nose, behind turret.

Make sure to glue in the Turret fairings into the nose section before you add too many fuselage sections. It gets difficult to reach too far into the back end of the nose section.

The completed nose section minus the windshield

[deckape]

Swampfox
A hardy well done Is your liberator 1/33 scale like my Flymodel B-24?. you have a good start on yours, I always like the J version apposed to the D model. carry on i will be atchin you turn two on this wondeful bomber.



Boats

[Ron40]

Boats I think the scale is 1:48. Looking at your avatar the
sabbatical you took from here seems to have really aged you.
Ron

[-Jim G]

I am also watching this thread. Thank you for doing a thorough build thread. Looks great so far. I am always impressed with John's graphics but the Dragon is extra special.

[Swampfox]

Boats, thanks. Ron is correct, it is 1:48 scale. I agree with you, I've always liked the J model more than the D.

What the heck happened to you, your avatar looks like you've been road hard and put up wet;-)

Jim, thanks for your comments. I really thought long and hard about making this a detailed build. Some people are turned off by this approach, but others seem to like it. I agree with you about John's graphics. They are a style that I really like and his weathering is way ahead of the rest of the pack.

SFX

[Swampfox]

I've heard different words used to refer to an aircraft windshield. Call it what ever you think is right......

I just thought I'd mention that as I build each piece/subassembly I paint the white edges of the card stock and do any other touch-up that is necessary. This is a picture of my color mixing palette at the end of the project. Kinda messy, but it works for me.

Onwards.....

This is the windshield, cut out and shaped.

Glued, with diluted white glue and clipped to dry.

Front view glue dried for about 30 minutes before I remove clips.

Using Blue painters tape (low tack), I apply white glue to the inside/hidden edges of the windshield and tape it into place.

Let the glue dry for about an hour and carefully remove the painters tape.

[deckape]

Originally Posted by Ron40

Boats I think the scale is 1:48. Looking at your avatar the
sabbatical you took from here seems to have really aged you.
Ron

Ron
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLlllllllllllllll Oh heck I,m fixin to enter a Beauty contest. Thanks ron for the info great to be back here again.