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Yann Bertholet
14 articles

B-24 J, ‘Cocktail Hour’, 43rd Bomb Group 64th Bomb Squadron

July 21, 2021 · in Aviation · · 23 · 3.9K

Hi everybody,

This time I would like to present my latest build: J ‘Cocktail Hour'.

The kit is the B-24J build straight from the box.

Regarding the kit (the full review is available on this link:

https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/hasegawa-1-72-b-24j-liberator/

I found it difficult to make. Especially for the ballasting of the nose, I added as much as I could fishing sinkers to make sure she will be standing on her legs and not on her…tail…I found very poor details inside the fuselage, cockpit, gunners positions, bombs bay; hopefully those cannot be seen when assembled.

For the fitting, no surprise! It's a Hasegawa, every piece assembled smoothly except the nose section which is completely separated from the rest of the aircraft. Thanks to this lady painted on it, it's hard to see the seams.

About the paint, it was as usual enamel paint from Revell (R90), Humbrol for the anti-shading (H155), and Humbrol 226 for the interior.

Concerning the decal I was really amazed by their quality since it's not a brand new kit. All of them slipped smoothly on the kit without breaking.

About the plane:

I unfortunately couldn't find a lot of information. The nose art was painted by S/Sgt Sarkis E. BARTIGIAN (creator from: ‘The Dragon and his Tail) based on Le Shima during WWII.

During the build, I could make out that the kit had a lot of discrepancies with the real plane. The biggest one was the ball turret which was not present in 1945 but single gun was used instead on the ‘flat' belly of the aircraft. The windows were not corresponding as well: the tunnel accessing the tail gunner position was way ahead of the actual kit.

For the crew, I could only find the pilot of this Lady: Lt. Raymond Plank the famous businessman.

Conclusion:

I really enjoy building this model although she made me sweat at some point. And I learned a lot about the B-24; for instance, I didn't know that the ball turret was retractable, did you? That the B-24 had much higher performance comparing to my favourite airplane, the B-17. That this plane was the most built bomber during WWII…

Hope you enjoy and don't hesitate to leave comment.

Reader reactions:
11  Awesome

19 additional images. Click to enlarge.


23 responses

  1. A fantastic build, Yann @yann
    The paintwork is beautifully done, like the rest of the build as well.
    So much glass to be masked on all those turrets.
    It always surorises me that the B17 is more well known than the B24, because it was produced in larger number and more intensively used, if I'm correct.
    Thanks a lot for sharing the progress in your build thread.
    It was a pleasure to follow it.
    Well done.

    • Thanks a lot John @johnb. I really appreciate your kind words during the build. Ho yes there is a lot of plexi to cover. My Maskol is almost gone (especially when you are clumsy like me and you try to protect the dining table...). Regarding the number of B-17 vs B-24 I found on wikipedia that the liberator was outnumbering the B-17 (by about 5000 untis).

  2. I enjoyed following your build Yann, @yann, and the end result is a very nice looking kit. The markings you selected are great and turned out slick! The B-24 is my favorite, ugly as it is, in many ways it was a better plane than the B-17, just not at pretty and didn't get the press the B-17 did.

  3. A wonderful build, Yann! No seams are visible, the sparsity of the interior not apparent.
    Painting and recalling are super!
    The build thread was great, too, a joy to follow.
    Congratulations, my friend!

  4. Very nice result - looks great all the way around. Well done.

  5. Great looking B-24, nice nose art! I think the B-24 had larger payload than the B-17.A child hood friend of mines father was a gunner on the Liberator, I think he was in Europe.

  6. Nice work on this Yann. Great result with a less-than-great kit.

    The B-24 did have better load-carrying and range (why it took over in the Pacific), but as a B-24 navigator who did his missions in the VIII Air Force once told me, the B-17 had the better altitude performance, which meant they were flying above the flak while the B-24s were flying in the flak. That does make a difference!

    • Thanks a lot Tom @tcinla for this nice comment. And one more think I learn by reading your comment: The B-17 has better performance in high altitude. We learn every day!
      And you are totally right it was, according to me, a very difficult kit. But the joy was there while building it, so I believe that’s what we are looking for it when doing this hobby.

  7. Nice work! 5th AF B-24s had their ball turrets removed and replaced with a pair of .50 cal “strafing guns” on a ring mount in their place. Extra windows were cut out alongside the position for better visibility.
    (This is from an IPMS Stockholm article)
    https://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2008/05/images/b24j-c4.jpg

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

    • Thanks a lot Andrew @vacrat. I found this review as well and learned a lot from it. But I don't have the skill to transform it like it should be. And I really tought it was a single .50 thanks for the info

  8. Great job on your build, you have a pretty nice looking B-24.

  9. Definitely liked, and not just because of the nose art... I really enjoyed reading your build article as well.

  10. Great build! What brand of masks did you use? Eduard?

  11. Hi Lis @lis, thanks for the nice comment, but as far as I remembered it was home made masking. Revell masking tape all over the clear parts and cut with an hobby knife.Hope this can help. Altough I purschase not so long a masking tape which adapts to the curves and I was very pleased with (ref: MODELCRAFT PMA3002 Masquage Flexible - Flexible Masking Tape 2mm x 18 m x2)

  12. Did You have any problems with montage nose turret in fuselage?

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