Hasegawa

1/72 B-24J Liberator

Kit Number: HAS00559

Reviewed by  Bob Ulrich, IPMS# 35901

MSRP: $82.99 (B-24J kit), $10.95 (Eduard B-24J Express Mask) Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com (kit), www.eduard.cz (express mask) If the B-17 was a finely-shaped rapier, the B-24 was more of a blunt instrument. The Liberator was not a ‘pretty’ airplane. But its broad, flat sides made a great canvas for nose art and its crews took full advantage -- especially in the PTO. Some of the most colorful and gaudy nose art of the war graced the flanks of B-24s, which makes it a modeler’s favorite despite its dowdy shape. Following its initial release of the B-24D in 1/72 scale (previously reviewed here) Hasegawa now offers the later, upgraded B-24J. An abundance of schemes exists for the –J and the later –M versions, in both painted and bare metal finish. The B-24D kit sprues provided parts for both the –D and –J versions, including the various gun turret variations, antennas and pitot probes. This allows robbing unused parts from one for the other if you suffer an attack from the carpet monster, which I did – twice. The aft fuselage, wings and tail surfaces are directly carried over, with only the forward fuselage section being completely different to capture the B-24J nose configuration. As with the earlier kit, the nose sections are molded entirely in clear plastic so that you only have to mask off the window sections, not fit separate clear pieces in place. All exterior surfaces feature fine recessed detail and some rivet detail. Interior floors and bulkheads are provided from the front fuselage split to aft of the side gunner stations, all of which fit together and to the fuselage halves without problems. This assembly includes the bomb bay, and bomb racks with bombs are provided, as well as open bay doors. A separate set of doors for a closed bomb bay is also included. There is no molded detail on the inside of the fuselage aft of the bomb bay, but if you close the side gunner’s hatches you will literally not be able to see a thing back there. Even if you open the hatches you won’t see much. I painted the floors and bulkheads interior green and the fuselage inner surfaces bare metal. A colleague from work, now retired, crewed Liberators with the 43rd Bomb Group and told me firmly that the inner aft fuselage was unpainted on aircraft he personally saw. He even remembered seeing remnants of the Alcoa stenciling on the inner walls. The radio compartment forward of the bomb bay is also not detailed, but you can see even less of that than in the aft section. This makes the radio compartment a good place to stuff weight, which you will need a lot of.

The nose section includes the cockpit and bombardier/navigator station. Little can be seen in the latter, but the cockpit is fairly visible through the greenhouse. I added a few items to the sidewalls there, and some Eduard colored seat belts. I used the kit instrument panel decal, which is a bit over simplified, but it’s almost invisible. The assembled nose section mates to the aft fuselage assembly directly on a panel line, and fit is good, but I was a little nervous about the strength of the join. I added some strips of styrene to the aft mating surface, securely glued in place and painted to match (interior green), to increase the gluing surface. This is as good a time as any to talk about weight. Hasegawa advises 90 grams of weight to be placed in the nose gear well. Easier said than done. I ended up with weight in the gear well, in the radio compartment (under a false floor), and in the bombardier/navigator compartment, and I just did get the model balanced. At times I longed for access to depleted uranium. This is one of the most difficult models I have ever built to get balanced out, and time will tell how the landing gear holds up. Before buttoning up the fuselage assembly, be sure to get all the little windows installed, install the nose gear strut, and double check your nose weight! Wing assembly is straightforward, but take care that you get the correct engine nacelle extension pieces (parts Q4/N7 and Q5/N6) on the correct nacelles – the inner and outer nacelles are not identical. The actual engine cowlings are all identical, though. The wings mount to the fuselage on sturdy spars and fit into recesses on the fuselage sides. Fit here is perfect, and you can leave the wings off until final assembly. This makes painting and decaling much easier. Add the tail pieces and you’re ready to paint. The kit includes markings for a natural metal bird, ‘Cocktail Hour’ of the 43rd Bomb Group, and a 22nd Bomb Group bird in OD over gray. I chose to do a B-24J from Zotz 72004 "Libby Gals I’, ‘Queen Mae’ of the 90th BG, in bare metal finish. The decals performed flawlessly, but be aware that they are sized for the Academy kit and the tail decorations will require trimming to fit properly. Dave Morrissette took pity on me and included the Eduard mask set with this kit, and I highly recommend you pick one up if you plan to build a Liberator. The masking set was perfect and saved me more than enough time to justify its cost. There are a lot of tiny windows on a B-24, and when you include masking the turrets, you’d be a fool to spend hours of modeling time cutting and trimming miniscule pieces of tape. Masking complete, I applied a coat of Floquil Gloss Black as a base for the Alclad finish. I used five different shades of Alclad, and finished the control surfaces with Scalecote Aluminum, a tough, flat silver that looks right to me for a doped fabric. Final assembly was straightforward but if you open the bomb bay, take care with the location of the bomb racks. The racks are of different lengths in the forward and aft sections of the bay and if you get them mixed up they won’t fit correctly (I know this from experience). As this as written, Hasegawa has announced a re-release with decals for the famous and spectacular ‘Dragon and His Tail’. Looks like I’ll have to get another one. My thanks to Hasegawa, Eduard and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review these products.