"The Blue Streak" Monogram B-24D 1/48 Scale Kit.

“The Blue Streak”, B-24D, 41-11613 originally named “Florine JuJu” it was one of the original 23 B-24's of the Halverson Project, more commonly known as Halpro. This group of planes were originally built for the British under contract but taken over by the US. Sources agree about the top color being Olive Drab, which when delivered would have had the Earth Brown added to for the British two-tone scheme. There is disagreement on the bottom color though. Some say it was Neutral Gray and others say it was a US interpretation of RAF Sky (Blue), called Deep Sky Blue. Dana Bell describes it as a “light pastel blue”, which he states is “reasonably” similar to the 1930's temporary Light Blue camouflage color. That color is listed as FS-35109. On my monitor the blue does not look very pastel, but more in the Blue-gray range.

Color issues aside, this group of planes was supposed to fly from the US to China by routing through South America and Africa so that it could bomb Japan. Prior to shipping out some modifications were made. The pitot tubes were moved from their high mount to the earlier lower side mount. The waist gun positions had twin 50 caliber machine guns installed, and two machine 50 caliber machine guns mounted in the floor of the nose section. These two guns fired through the glazing near the bottom. They were controlled by the pilot.

The initial mission was canceled and when the Japanese Army over ran the bases the B-24's would have launched from. Instead, the Halpro B-24's ended up in North Africa and became the foundation of the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group. “Florine JuJu” was later renamed “Teggie Ann” but another “Teggie Ann” showed up in the group and a new name was assigned “The Blue Streak”. This name may in part be explained by the blue colored bottom of the plane.

It is that final name and eventual markings is what I am planning on building. This plane had an incredible story and record. In short it flew 110 missions without losing a crew member in combat. During it's time in service it was credited with:

• 1 Destroyer

• 1 Merchant Ship

• 1 Oil Tanker

• 23 Enemy Fighters

• 110 Missions (297 Tons of Bombs)

During that time, it required 19 engine replacement and due to damage had two new wings and one new rudder.

The one good thing about such a famous plane is that there are lots of pictures showing this plane in various stages of its life in the US Army Air Corps. I know from my research that the national markings started as the simple blue circle and white star. Later a yellow outer boundary was added then white bars and a red surround and finally the red was overpainted in blue. I have a picture showing the damaged wing presumably about to be replaced with the yellow surround. All this means that the possibilities are endless for markings, and painting will be very subjective. Did the new wings get painted blue on the bottom or were they Neutral Gray because that's what they were painted from the plane they were pulled off. If they painted it blue, I am sure it didn't match exactly. This is a chance to have fun with painting and colors and get away with a lot on a truly war warn plane in a very harsh environment.

It was with this history and outlook that I set out on the journey to build “The Blues Streak”. This is a model as a kid was my first real build I built the Revell, 1/72 scale rivet heavy kit of this plane, I was pretty proud of it. I presented it to an adult friend of my dad who gave me a fair evaluation of my build. He praised what was good and kindly pointed out easy flaws for me to fix, like gloss black tires. Hey, I was in the 5th grade.

This is the Monogram B-24D vintage kit, and I poured a lot of work into it. I scribed all the existing panel lines and added some missing ones. Then after that work, I riveted the entire plane using plans that I had for the layout. I made some mistakes and I know it is not 100% correct but I like the way it turned out. I also used Vector Resin Engine Nacelles and Main Gear Bay upgrades, along with Resin to Detail pilot seats, my own printed resin details along with some scratch building.

In order to actually build “The Blue Streak” in 1/48th Scale, I needed decals. Surprisingly there were none available commercially for that scale. It was a great side diversion in this project and a story (maybe saga) in itself. In the end I worked in Adobe Illustrator to create a decal sheet, and after months of work with Microscale I got them printed. The only issue is I had to purchase 250 copies of the decals. So if any of you are motivated by this build I am selling the decals on eBay and they can be found here there with a quick search of “B-24 Decals 1/48 Blue Streak”.

I hope you enjoy my build of this remarkable aircraft. After 14 months, I am both satisfied and glad it is done. Thank you for taking the time to look.

22 additional images. Click to enlarge.