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New Hobby Boss 1/32 B-24 Liberator Kit Review

Heavens Eagle

Well-known member
Good-Heavens_b-24.jpg


A Little History on the B-24

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was a 4-engine, twin-tail heavy bomber designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego. Its first flight of the XB-24 was on December 29, 1939, and it began service in 1941.

The B-24 was a more modern design than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, with a higher top speed, greater range, higher ceiling, and a heavier bomb load. But the B-24 was more difficult to fly, with heavy control forces and poor formation-flying characteristics. The positioning of the fuel tanks also made the plane prone to fire. The high fuselage-mounted wings also made it more difficult to survive crash landings on land or water.

The B-24's spacious, slab-sided fuselage was built around a central bomb bay with two compartments that could accommodate up to 8,000 pounds of ordnance each. The B-24 provided excellent service in a variety of roles due to its large payload and long range. It was used by the British as a long range maritime sub hunter and had extensive deployment in the Pacific theater as well as the European.

A total of 18,493 Liberators were built, more than any other aircraft in World War II. Several factories produced the Liberator:

- The original Consolidated plant in San Diego
- A second Consolidated plant in Fort Worth
- Ford Motor Co. at Willow Run, Michigan
- North American Aviation in Dallas
- Douglas Aircraft Co. in Tulsa


Crew: 11 (pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, radio operator, nose turret, top turret, 2 waist gunners, ball turret, tail gunner)
Length: 67 ft 8 in
Wingspan: 110 ft 0 in
Height: 18 ft 0 in
Wing area: 1,048 ft²
Empty weight: 36,500 lb
Loaded weight: 55,000 lb
Max. takeoff weight: 65,000 lb
Powerplant: 4 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830-35 or -41 turbosupercharged radial engines, 1,200 hp each
Performance Maximum speed: 290 mph
Cruise speed: 215 mph
Range: 2,100 mi
Ferry range: 3,700 mi
Service ceiling: 28,000 ft
Rate of climb: 1,025 ft/min
Guns: 10 × .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns in 4 turrets and two waist position
Bombs:
- Short range (˜400 mi): 8,000 lb
- Long range (˜800 mi): 5,000 lb
- Very long range (˜1,200 mi): 2,700 lb


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For myself I am going to wait until some of the aftermarket photo etch and resin parts appear for this kit. I am sure that Eduard will have a Big Ed set eventually. In addition there are many other marking and nose art options that I would find much more interesting than the few in the kit. The decal sheet has me a little leary due to how thick they seem to be. I am also not a fan of vinyl tires and the landing gear really need to be beefed up quite a bit. In addition there isn't anything in the instruction sheet about adding nose weight. With all the plastic in the tail feathers it will be a tail sitter for sure without something to counter balance that.

It would also be nice if there was an alternate Consolidated nose turret available as not all the J models had the Emerson Turret. The alternate low dome top turret would be another item that could be included in an upgrade kit.

For myself I would love to be able to obtain or borrow a copy of the "Consolidated Mess" book. I am not a big fan of Kindle but would be grateful for an opportunity of peruse a copy.
 
Good review. (y)


AWESOME looking kit!!!!!!!!


:hmmm

Now how much space with it take to do Ford's production line......................
 
You'll never finish it Paul! Yeah those motors should be chunked. Some Vectors would be great in there, but then you have to fabricate firewalls and motor mounts.

Looks like it would be good start for a highly detailed build. We do you start? :popcorn
 
Nice review Paul ! (y) A lot of buzz on other blogs about the front turret, seems that the clear areas have a frosted or pebbly surface like they do sometimes to show the painted areas only in this case they got it backwards. The rivet counters also say the Davis airfoil is wrong and have posted some photos to back it up (no, not from the red line guy). Probably won't bother most and certainly not me as I have no inclination to get this one.
 
an impressive kit!

it looks like a common theme with Trumpeter/Hobby Boss that they mold some really good parts and others are just crap. i found that with my Be-6
 
Nice review Paul ! (y) A lot of buzz on other blogs about the front turret, seems that the clear areas have a frosted or pebbly surface like they do sometimes to show the painted areas only in this case they got it backwards. The rivet counters also say the Davis airfoil is wrong and have posted some photos to back it up (no, not from the red line guy). Probably won't bother most and certainly not me as I have no inclination to get this one.

You are absolutely correct about the Emerson turret having the wrong finish. They gave a frosted finish to the whole turret. In addition the turrets are done so that the split lines are right through the window areas. HK did a much better job with their B-17 on the turrets. You are also correct in that Trumpeter has some of the worst research people for a company that does the type of kits they do. I fully expect to find all kinds of garbage when I finally dig into the research on this.

In addition a lot of "J"'s had the Consolidated turret on the front. (very similar to the one on the back end) I expect that if someone really wanted to do a super nice build there will have to be some Vac formed glass done for the turrets.

I did a little more digging and it appears there is also going to be a "D" version available soon.

Warren, I agree about T-HB. My Ju87A kit is so horribly incorrect that my build has stalled out. It isn't an easy plane to research and some has to be extrapolated backwards from a B version, but to correct it requires a whole cockpit revision. Eduard even messed up with their PE on the instrument panel. If I can find this info out from just trolling around on the internet fishing for clues, why cannot the companies do the same?
 
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