B-24 D 1/72 Academy "The Squaw", Operation Tidal Wave.

This is my second attempt at the B-24 Liberator model from the Academy brand and I must say that it was one of the most pleasant builds I have had recently. Thanks to the experience from the previous construction, I was already allergic to any surprises during construction. In fact, I decided to paint the US Sand color of the 98th Bomb Group at the last minute, because initially I was planning something else, but when I found out that a completely new Liberator model from Airfix would be released in the near future, I chose the Pink=Sand painting from the series. Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. This time I will not write in detail about the construction of the model, as I included it in last year's article about the B-24 Academy. It can be added that the older the Academy model you get, the better the quality of the sprues - because they come from less used molds. This time I decided to experiment with resin engines. As it turned out, it was a successful experiment and the engines fit very well. Additionally, it is worth purchasing dedicated, resin barrels for machine guns. In my project, I decided to add an additional machine gun under the fuselage and a right side one in the glass of the aircraft's nose. For this I used a set of brass Browning machine guns from the MiniWorld brand and resin ones from the Gaspatch brand (they turned out to be very delicate and quickly lost their barrels, but thanks to this I could add even better ones dedicated to the Academy set with Quickboost. For the first time I also used Hataka paints from the C series. After a few painting attempts, I found that they work perfectly well, although they may be slightly less resistant than Mr Color paints. But for the final analysis, it requires more tests with other colors. A few words about the history August 1, 1943. Five bomber groups using B-24 aircraft take off from the airport. These are the 98th and 376th Groups from the 9th Air Army and the 44th, 93rd, and 389th Groups from the 8th Air Army ceiling and an attack on the Romanian Oil Fields. However, the Germans were informed by spies from Benghazi about the planned operation and strengthened their anti-aircraft and air defenses. The raid took place in three waves. However, despite some successes, many machines were lost during the raid. Only 88 B-24s returned to Libya. Of these, 55 were damaged. As a result of enemy counteraction, 44 planes were lost, and others landed in random places, such as Neutral Turkey or Cyprus.
For the Americans, 310 air crewmen were killed or missing, 108 were captured by the Axis, 78 were interned in Turkey, and four were taken in by Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia.  Three of the five Medals of Honor (the most for any single air action in history) were awarded posthumously.  Additionally, 56 Distinguished Service Crosses and 41 Silver Stars for valor were awarded. The Allies estimated a loss of 40% of the refining capacity at the Ploiești refineries,  although some refineries were largely untouched. Most of the damage was repaired within weeks, after which the net output of fuel was greater than before the raid. Out of all the bombed refineries, only the Creditul Minier refinery and the Columbia Aquila restarted production in late 1944, while Steaua Română partially restarted production from January 1944.
Given the large and unbalanced loss of aircraft and the limited damage to the targets, Operation Tidal Wave is considered a strategic failure by the Allies.
The history of the plane itself is extremely interesting. Liberator B-24 D 41-11761, nicknamed "Sleepy" / "The Squaw", belonged to the 343rd bomb squadron called "The Pyramiders", which were decorated with drawings of characters from the fairy tale about Snow White.
The Squaw, was flown on the Ploesti mission by Lt. LeBrecht, and returned safely to Nicosia, Cyprus, providing armed escort cover for a small group of the 98th Bomb Group's flak damaged stragglers, Hail Columbia, and Gilbert,"Gib", Hadley's plane, Hadley's Harem, which was running so short of fuel and engine oil that Hadley had to turn back from following the group of stragglers all the way to Cyprus. Approaching the Turkish coast, the last of his three running engines seized up, and he crashed just off the southern coast as he was descending to ditch his plane in the ocean, killing Hadley and all but two of his crew. Aug 1, 1943. The Squaw, flown by Lt. LeBrecht and his crew, with, The Blue Streak, and, Bomerang, flown respectively, by Lt. John Young, and Lt. Walter Stewart, all flew from the U.K back to Fort Worth, Texas, a few months after the Ploesti mission for a nation wide war bond tour to the Consolidated factories. 1944.
Capt. R will return with next project in close future.
PS.
I can't imagine it in a real Liberator with a glass nose, but after assembling three 50 cal Brownings with ammunition belts that were in aftermarket kits, I don't know where there was room for the service since there is already such a tangle of components. Anybody was in Liberator and has some photos?

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