B-24 Liberator Diorama - 1/48th Scale.

I'll have one too!

What, just one ?!!

Yes he is cutting down. Look i have a picture.

Ah, it's a Euro half, one of the small measures drunk by wimps and vegans !

Are decals available for this monster!
BTW, this is quite an undertaking mate! Doing vurrry well.

Great work all around

Thanks all.

Bill, I can use various spare decals for the markings, along with some of the kit decals, but I'm hoping to be able to re-size the artwork you did for the nose art, and have it printed. I need to see if the potential printer can "drop out" the green background though.
Would you be able to re-draw it without the green background ?
If so, then if printing not possible, I could print onto clear decal sheet, and then overpaint if needed to get colour depth.

Airframes said:

Thanks all.

Bill, I can use various spare decals for the markings, along with some of the kit decals, but I'm hoping to be able to re-size the artwork you did for the nose art, and have it printed. I need to see if the potential printer can "drop out" the green background though.
Would you be able to re-draw it without the green background ?
If so, then if printing not possible, I could print onto clear decal sheet, and then overpaint if needed to get colour depth.

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The green background shows the White to be printed, there is no other way to present it!!!
If you send it as a pdf it will separate from the background to a printable image.
It is how I present all my decal artwork to my printer. The printer will take care of all that.
But can You print white???
For example this is the personal marking of Petach #47 P-40 before Smith got it.
This what I worked from, and this is what I will send to my printer in Queensland.

Thanks Bill, that's good to know.
The company I'm considering is a high-quality decal printer, although they mainly print for model railway manufacturers and enthusiasts, so shouldn't be a problem doing the separations and printing white.
I'm guessing the job is much easier and quicker since my days in the graphics industry, when separations and masks had to be done on separate sheets of film on a process camera !
If they're unable to do the job at a realistic price, then I'll mess around printing the basic outline myself, on the ink-jet printer, and then hand-paint any areas that need it.

And back to the Lib, with work on the port wing finally completed, at least as far as I can go before adding the engines, and the detail in the open cowling.
The cowling panel lines on all engines have been engraved, and the raised detail removed, and the edges of the open area thinned down.
As the underside of the wings won't be seen once the model is on the diorama base, I haven't bothered to remove the raised panel lines and re-engrave.
However, as there's a slim chance that the rear of the wheel bays might just be visible, when viewed from "table top eye level", I felt that at least a little effort should be made to add a couple of features clearly visible on the real aircraft.
The bulged fairing at the rear of the bay doesn't go all the way to the "roof" of the bay on the real thing, the top, inside edge being level with the outer surface of the wing, and the area above it open, revealing the framework, as is the rear of the gear leg bay.
This would entail a lot of time-consuming and tricky major surgery on the model, plus scratch-building the internal frames and stiffeners, something not really viable, given the limited visibility of this area.
Therefore, I only made a puny effort to at least create a gap, and wish I hadn't, as it took bl**dy ages !!
The stiffening grooves on the rear wall of the fairing, seen on the real aircraft, have been roughly represented by scraping, filing and sanding and, although they look a bit rough, once painted, and again with the limited view, they should look reasonably OK.

I now have to repeat everything on the starboard wing (with the exception of the open cowling panels), which I hope to complete over the weekend, and then concentrate on getting the resin engines sorted and installed, having already confirmed how they'll fit and be attached.

Pics show things to date, and I'll be back when there's more to show with the engines.
Thanks once again for the interest and all the "likes" and comments.

Your doing a lot of good things with this machine Terry.

Do you need anything else for this monster?

Looks great so far Terry!

Thanks chaps, still plodding on with the starboard wing.
I noticed that one of the panel lines on the outboard, port engine didn't look right, having engraved it following the kit moulded detail. Sure enough, it shouldn't be there, so I need to fill this and sand back.
I'm also less than happy with that gap I created in the wheel well, so this will be filled in, and I'll live with the not quite accurate well.
More up-dates and pics when there's something to show.

Bill, I should be fine - I have some 3D printed accessories, and a lot of scratch-building for the interior, although only visible areas will be detailed. One way or another, I should be able to sort the decals.

Pic below shows the panel line to be filled in.

I can appreciate the preservation of history that you modelers perform. Does any feedback about incorrect panel lines/rivets/etc. get back to the model manufacturers?

SaparotRob said:

I can appreciate the preservation of history that you modelers perform. Does any feedback about incorrect panel lines/rivets/etc. get back to the model manufacturers?

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Go to the forums section at Hyperscale.com. Those guys, right or wrong, are freak shows if one rivet is out of place. I have seen that info then quoted on other model sites and there are manufacturers that do comment on them

Yep.
Bear in mind that this Monogram kit was originally released in 1976, and this "error" may have been an accidental carry on of the panel line further aft. Note that the panel line is not on the inboard engine, on either side.

I've now got the starboard wing to the same stage as the port, with just a little clean-up to do to finish off.
So the next stage is to start some actual construction, with the preparation and painting of the resin engines, then add ignition wires, and mount them in the nacelles.
I'm anticipating a lot of fiddling around here, made worse by my stiff fingers, so I expect this will take some time.
I'll be starting with the partly exposed port outer engine and, when it's time to fix it in place, CA gel will be used, to allow some leeway for alignment.
Back with pics when I've got somewhere.

I'm afraid there's going to be a slight delay before I can start on the engines, for two reasons.

First, after hours of drilling, carving, and scribing yesterday, my right hand (mainly the fingers) is very stiff and tender, making it very uncomfortable to even try to grip anything, let alone do delicate work, but I'm hoping that this will ease off by tonight or tomorrow.
Second, I've been staring at the "Quickboost" resin engines, thinking that something didn't look quite right, but couldn't figure out what. Then, when checking reference photos, I realised that the resin castings lack the push rods, although the cylinder heads have the rod connecting sleeves moulded in.
This means that I'll need to make the rods, for the front bank of cylinders at least, which will total 56 rods for the four engines !
Hopefully I can make these from finely stretched sprue, and get them to sit in place, along with lead wire ignition leads, with only a few new swear words added to "The Modeller's Dictionary" !!

I'm partly tempted to use the kit engines after all, but nah, that's too easy !

Back when my hair grows back again ..........................

Airframes said:

I'm afraid there's going to be a slight delay before I can start on the engines, for two reasons.

First, after hours of drilling, carving, and scribing yesterday, my right hand (mainly the fingers) is very stiff and tender, making it very uncomfortable to even try to grip anything, let alone do delicate work, but I'm hoping that this will ease off by tonight or tomorrow.
Second, I've been staring at the "Quickboost" resin engines, thinking that something didn't look quite right, but couldn't figure out what. Then, when checking reference photos, I realised that the resin castings lack the push rods, although the cylinder heads have the rod connecting sleeves moulded in.
This means that I'll need to make the rods, for the front bank of cylinders at least, which will total 56 rods for the four engines !
Hopefully I can make these from finely stretched sprue, and get them to sit in place, along with lead wire ignition leads, with only a few new swear words added to "The Modeller's Dictionary" !!

I'm partly tempted to use the kit engines after all, but nah, that's too easy !

Back when my hair grows back again ..........................

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