Consolidated’s B-24 Liberator had a lot of things: lots of
range, lots of payload, logs of guns, even lots of rudders. And there were a
lot of Liberators: More B-24s were produced than any other WWII American combat
aircraft. But the Liberator never gained much fame. It fought in every theatre
of the war, but was always in the shadow of its partner, Boeing’s B-17 Flying
Fortress.
Whether you’re a Liberator lover or a Fortress fanatic,
Minicraft/Academy’s B-24D is a winner. The fuselage separate nose section is an
accommodation for the B-24H and B-24J kits to come. Other features include full
armament, bomb racks and bombs, detailed landing gear, and well-molded
super-chargers. All panel lines are recessed and nicely engraved. The wheel
wells and landing gear are particularly well-done.
The decals provide markings for The Goon a 14th Air Force B-24D flying from
Kunming in China. Although the box art shows a ventral ball turret, the kit has
a clear plastic panel for a tunnel-gun-equipped B-24, correct for these
markings. No tunnel gun is included; however many aircraft in this squadron
apparently flew without them.
Be careful when removing small parts such as the waist guns
from the sprues; the thick sprue attachments make removing them without damage
tricky. The cockpit includes basic seats, a bombsight, and bombardier’s stool,
but the instrument panel has no detail, and no decal for it is provided – odd
for a kit of this quality. I painted instruments in before installing the
panel.
Both open and closed bomb bay doors are provided: I modeled
mine closed, but four racks with bombs are included in the kit should you
choose to expose them. Some of the bombs in my kit had broken or unmolded fins.
After installing all the interior details, I filled the space behind the
nosewheel with lead weights. It still wasn’t enough to hold the nose down –
this is one tail-heavy model! I’ll have to let it sit on it’s tail bumper.
I attached the lower panel (part No. 33) to one fuselage
half to keep it from falling into the fuselage after the halves were assembled.
There were a few minor sinkholes to fill on top of the fuselage where the
locator pins are placed. The tail turret ring needed trimming to allow the turret
to fit. The lower nose gun was too long to fit inside the nose without
trimming. These lessons learned, I just left off the top turret ring (No. 68)
and glued the guns directly to the turret.
The wing assembly is straightforward but there are deep
ejector-pin holes in the landing gear and sinkholes in each upper wing surface
that correspond to the main gear wheel wells Intermeshing spars molded into
each wing provide sturdy wing/fuselage joints. The engine/propeller assemblies
are adequately detailed, but the backsides of the propeller blades are poorly
defined. Except for more ejector-pin divots marring the inner surface of the
rudders, the tail group is well molded. Attaching the stabilizer to the
fuselage takes extra work because the fit is poor.
After painting with Gunze Sangyo colors, I applied the kit
decals. Take care here: The decals are fragile. My sample was printed out of
register, the colors didn’t jibe with the representation on the box art, and
the white and yellow were translucent.
Straight out of the box, Minicraft/Academy’s kit looks fine;
with cleanup, care, and a new set of decals, it can be impressive.
Congratulations to Minicraft/Academy’s choice of subject matter. I recommend
this kit to modelers who can correct minor fit problems. The finished model
looks right and its measurements correspond with the information in
Squadron/Signal’s B-24 Liberator in Action.