B-24D "The Blue Streak", Bond Tour Veteran, Monogram 1/48th

Started by Walt · 221 · 2 months ago · 376th Bomb Group, 41-11613, B-24, Florine JuJu, Halpro, Halverson Project, Monogram, Ploesti, Teggie Ann, The Blue Streak
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    Walt said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    I made a little more progress this weekend. I drilled out the ring for the the spark plug leads. In the past I used nylon thread, but when gluing it in always had problems with the threads pulling out of the #80 holes I drilled. The wire while thicker at least is snug in the hole, and I am hoping will not pull out when I start to glue it too the cylinder heads. Prior to gluing it I heated it red hot and let it cool down, annealing it and really making it dead soft and easy to bend.

    I also did a little rework in the bombardiers compartment moving the floor closeout forward a bit since it was too far back here I had it. One of the Halpro modifications to the B-24 was the placement of two 50 caliber machine guns under the floor in the nose that were fired by the pilot. They were largely ineffectual but one pilot did chase down a German plane and shoot it down.

    I drilled holes in the nose glazing and slipped a couple barrels in to see how they would look. Nothing is glued in the pictures, but even so line up pretty nice. The starboard barrel will be shortened when I glue it in, I just wanted to make sure I got the holes in the glazing in the right spot and also the right size.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Reaaly good work on the engines, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
    Also the lower guns look great, no idea either what those bags could be.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    FANTASTIC job so far, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman! The bags might hold jackets, goggles, maps, you name it...

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    capt. R said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    It looks like in nose is sth like gun pack with 50 cal machine guns?

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    Walt said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Yes Lis, @Lis, the Halpro B-24's had two 50 Caliber machine guns put under the floor of the nose compartment and fired by the Pilot. Not necessarily effective, but it does take away some of the feeling of helplessness that a Bomber Pilot might have.

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    capt. R said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    @luftwaffe-birdman Interesting! Usually in nose there was two 50 cal movable machine guns for bombardier.

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    Walt said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    I have been working with Microscale for the past two months and have finalized the artwork for the decals . They have put up with my mistakes and been very helpful. I didn't know that they are only about 45 minutes away from where I live. When I got the file for final approval I realized that I was out of scale. I resized the items that were oversized and have sent the file back to them. The problem with reducing the size is the ability to print legible words on some of the decals. Because certain colors like yellow do not cover well over dark colors, they print a white base first, and at the smaller lettering the white doesn't work as well. It has something to do with the pigments being larger than in the other colors. If the pricing is right, I will be ready to go print this month, which means they may be available for Christmas! We will have to wait and see.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    Looking forward to them, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    Walt B (@luftwaffe-birdman)
    This is excellent news. I'll bet you were surprised to find they were so close to your home. That makes things even better. Please keep us posted with the outcome.

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    Walt said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    I am pretty excited, Spiros and Louis, @fiveten, @lgardner. Here is the Artwork as it will be printed. The Magenta areas are the decal carrier film. I have had them printed by two different train decal makers. They print on a full decal sheet and require trimming to get the decal off the sheet. With Microscale the film is printed with the decals. I don't know how it all works, but it is better than printing on the film. The train decal printers did okay. One laid down very nice but I don't like seeing the printing dots, the other did a better job of printing but his decals resisted all forms of decal setting solutions.

    You will notice I have the billboards on the starboard side of the aircraft printed twice. I have them printed on a green background and with no background, giving the modeler the option of painting his/her own if they don't like the color I used with Microscale. I also give you two different color Teggie Ann decals, and the maintenance crew list changed, with the yellow list on the lower left corner of the page replacing the white list in the middle under the white Teggie Ann.

    After all this work I am just waiting for Microscale to give me the price per print on a 250 print minimum. Cartograph had a 300 minimum. In the end, if I have them printed I will have to sell a lot just to get my money back, because costing is over a $1200.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    Excellent job on the artwork, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman!

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    Walt said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    Thanks, Spiros @fiveten, truth is I purchased most of it, just had to do some rework, add some items remove some, and definitely resize most of the items on the sheet. On the original sheet, I think all the national insignias were wrong. These match the kit decals for size. Most of the artwork was also out of scale. It was closer to 1/53 or 1/54 scale, which doesn't seem like much but they wouldn't have fit where they were supposed to. It was roughly a 10% reduction in size, which again doesn't seem like a lot, and on some it wasn't much different. On the larger markings it made almost a quarter inch difference. This was a good starter project. I plan on doing a set for a B-26, also. That one will be ALL me, I have learned a lot making changes, corrections and moving things around, adding items. Wish me luck on the B-26!

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    Good luck on the B-26 set, my friend @luftwaffe-birdman! I am sure you will do an excellent job!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    That is some very nice work on those decals, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman

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    capt. R said 1 year, 1 month ago:

    Decals looks perfect!