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

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Thanks Evan.

The starboard wing is now done, and has been cleaned up, and I'll post a pic or two shortly.
Meanwhile, I'm now looking at what's needed (or not) on the interior, and planning how to go about things and where to start.
I don't intend to go "overboard" on interior detail, as most areas won't be visible once the model is on the diorama base, and those areas where the interior can be seen will have limited visibility anyway.
However, obvious locations such as the cockpit, waist windows, bombardier / navigator station, and at least part of the radio room (viewed through the opened upper escape hatch) will be visible, and other areas at least partly visible deeper into the interior from certain angles, and therefore varying "degrees" of detail will be added as required, ranging from detailed items to vague representations of structure or equipment.
Although the doors will be open on the bomb bays, only the extreme lower section of the bay interior will be visible, so the only detail to be added here will be main structural members.

Back when there's more to show .............................
 
Thanks chaps !

I've posted this as a question in the Technical section and no results so far :-

Does anyone have the basic dimensions of the Sperry S-1 bombsight ?
This was the sight mounted in the B-24, not the Norden as supplied in the kit. (pics below show S-1 at right, and the S1 with M-2 upgrade at left.).


 
I've sent an e-mail to the Parham Airfield Museum (Framlingham) in Norfolk, asking if they can kindly provide approximate measurements of the S-1 bombsight they have on display there. Hopefully I'll get a reply if or when one of the volunteer staff has a chance to measure this bulky item.

And back to the build, with some initial work done on the fuselage.
The applique armour on the exterior cockpit sides has been replicated, with 10 thou (0.254mm) plastic card being cut to shape and attached using Tamiya extra thin liquid cement. The attachment brackets along the top edge of each panel have yet to made and fitted, and some clean-up of some of the engraved panel lines also needs to be done.

Next step involved planning and measuring for modifications to the waist gun area.
The kit-supplied "tub" is reasonable, but the sidewalls extend too far aft, and the floor includes two, open, ammo boxes on each side, and a chest-pack parachute on the floor (a 'chute would never be left in an aircraft).
The (plywood-covered) side frames should end just aft of the rear edge of the waist windows, and there were two, vertically stacked ammo boxes on the starboard side only, immediately aft of the window, each with a stainless steel, tubular-framed ammo chute leading to the rear turret feeds.
Consequently, part of the wall on each side needs to be removed, along with the moulded-in ammo boxes (and the parachute), the aft end of each wall needs framework added, and the resulting "missing" floor section will need to be rebuilt.
Once that's done, extra fuselage frames and stringers will be added to each side, and then the vertical ammo boxes and feed chutes will be fabricated and fitted.

The pics below give an idea of what's required, and where, and I hope to start work on this tomorrow (Sunday).
I need to provide Bill with some scale info and photos, as he's kindly preparing the artwork for the nose art and code letter decals, which he'll have printed for me, so I may not get much actual modelling done, but we'll see.


 
Made some progress, after a lot of slow cutting (and some hacking !), and removed the unwanted areas of the waist position "tub".
Removing the parachute pack left a small hole in the floor, so this was patched with plastic card on the underside, and then filled with "Milliput" and the corrugations inscribed. These will be tidied up once the putty has fully set.

The "missing" sections of the floor have been replicated, using plastic card, and thin plastic strips to represent the corrugations, and again, some blending-in and clean-up will be carried out when fully set.
A space has been left on the starboard side of the "new" floor, free from corrugation, so that the racking for the vertically stacked ammo boxes can be fitted here, once they, and the boxes, have been made.

The side walls have been "lined" with thin plastic card to represent the plywood covers, and edged with plastic strip representing the vertical retaining frames.

Next step is to plan the installation sequence for the tub, the gun mounts, waist gun ammo boxes and other fittings, in order to ascertain where extra fuselage frames and stringers will be needed. I also need to glaze the small scanning windows in the lower fuselage, which I think may be a bit fiddly.

Pics below show how things look so far, and I'll be back when there's more to show. Thanks again for the continued interest.


 

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