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

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Had a short break from the repetitive and fiddly job of wiring the engines, and finished the ball turret aperture on the fuselage insert.
This was filled with "Milliput" over the plastic card blanking, and "wet moulded" to the basic contours. Once fully hardened, the putty was sanded smooth, and then given a rough coat of matt white enamel to seal the surface, and check for any dimples or lumps.
I wasn't too concerned about getting a perfect blend, like a single, smooth surface, as this has to represent plates riveted over the apertures, with the work done "in the field".
Once the paint has fully dried, it will be lightly sanded, and the shape of the circular "patch" will be very lightly engraved, to simulate the sheet-metal cover.


 
Thanks chaps.

Still slowly progressing with wiring the engines. I can only do a bit at a time, otherwise my hands stiffen and become too painful and swollen, due to lack of grip and most fingers being rigid.
But I'm getting there ....................
 
Thanks again all.

Just one more engine to do and paint, so I decided to have a change from the repetitive swearing, and start work on the installation of the port outer engine, which will be partly exposed with open cowlings.

Due to the construction design of the kit, and the replacement resin engines, the internal layout can not be even near to accurate, but if all goes to plan, it should look convincing enough once finished, especially with the ground crew figures in place.
The area aft of the engine itself needed some sort of additions, in order to create the illusion of the exhaust collector ring and the intake trunking leading to the oil cooler and supercharger.
Bearing in mind that this will hardly be seen once the wing and cowlings are joined, I felt it was pointless going "overboard" with scratch-built detail, but the area couldn't be left "empty". Consequently, a small amount of detail has been added, as shown below.

The exhaust ring was made from a piece of circular sprue, simply cut from the Tamiya re-fueller kit trees and cleaned up a little, before attaching to the rear of the resin engines' solid mounting block, using CA.
The intake trunking for the oil cooler and supercharger have been simulated by attaching pieces of "Evergreen " channel, and the resin engine fitted in place, using CA gel to allow time for adjustment. This area now awaits painting.
When the wing sections are joined, and the front cowling in place, cowling framework will be added in the appropriate places, with the hinged, open cowling panels to be added near the end of the build.

I hope to complete this stage in the next day or so, in between follow-up optician and hospital appointments.

Thanks again for the continued interest in this project.


 
Thanks, Evan and Rob, and thanks for the offer and photos Glenn.

I have a shed load of interior detail photos, both restored aircraft and period shots, but spent a lot of time trying to find a good shot of the Navigator's station.
I finally found a good, clear pic from the aircraft manual and, piecing this together with the video of the Kermit Weeks B-24 (ex RAF / Indian Air Force), I can now scratch-build a reasonable representation, possibly somewhat of a "mix-match", and allowing for the fact that only a small part of this might just be visible.
But this, and most of the interior, will be modelled around WW2 aircraft, not restored or museum examples, with a few small liberties taken to aid construction and fit, unavoidable due to the method of assembly etc.
I will certainly not be building a completely detailed interior, as it will never be seen once on the diorama base, and especially if/when in a display case at expected viewing distances and angles. However, some detail must be included, in some areas, even if just basic representations, as the lack of these would very probably be noticeable, even with the above mentioned restrictions.

The aim of this project is to produce a fairly detailed representative diorama of how this particular aircraft probably looked on its hardstand in spring/early summer, 1944, at Old Buckenham, rather than a "generic" display of an aircraft on the ground at an airfield "somewhere in England" and, allowing for a little "modellistic licence", I hope I can achieve this so that generations to come can see, and hopefully understand, how things would have looked.
As the project progresses, I'm slightly tempted to add further features over and above those shown in the original sketch plan of the diorama base, as there would be much more equipment around the hardstand area and, although I may add a few extra small details, I need to avoid "over crowding" the scene in such a relatively compact display, as this would detract from the effect and look artificial and would, of course, at least partly obscure the view of the aircraft itself.

I'm just about to get back to the bench and continue work on the port engines and wing, and may have some pics to show later tonight or maybe tomorrow.
 
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