Revell's Liberator

It's a great kit, either the J or the D. Has raised panel lines but then the real thing had huge overlaping panels anyway so is fairly accurate. Is a fun build right out of the box or is a suitable base for many different conversion sets. There are lots of aftermarket decals out there and plenty of color schemes to keep you entertained. I have three Js and a D and of course, the PB4Y-1.

Yes!
The D and the J are good kits.
And the only games in town in 1/48.
It's really Monogram, though. I'll never call it Revell, no matter what the box says!

I'll deffinately build the J one day. Hmmmm... I wonder which nose art scheme I'll go with? (Rhetorical)

I had built one using the Super Scale 'The Dragon and his tail' decals, it was sharp looking. I have a D sitting in the box just waiting to be built some day?

Working on the "D" right now & I've been really impressed with the kit so far.

Got the base color for the interior painted and working on assembly and detailing of the cockpit. Also working on the tail section and the front gear section. One nice thing about this kit is that you can build continuously for a long time. There are so many sub-assemblies that it's like building 5 kits at once. When one section is drying or curing - you can jump to another section.

The hardest decision I'll have to make is how I'm going to finish it. I have seen a few completed models that look kinda bland (just an opinion). It's a huge kit and alot of these planes didn't have a whole lot of artwork on them. The decal option that came with the kit is "Moby Dick" of the Jolly Rogers. It's definitely not bland - it's ugly - but not bland. I really need to look into those aftermarket decals. I'm thinking of doing it in a "desert pink" Ploesti Raider version. We'll see, I've got alot of time. At the rate I work this thing will probably be done in '05.

Working on my second D. The kit is really nice, not too many fit problems and loads of super-detailing possiblities. Mine will be kinda bland like Bossman said. I'm painting her up as "Southern Comfort" a plane my grandfather flew to Ploesti. The nose art was kinda small on her but hey, it's to remember gramps.

I've built that kit about 3 times and really enjoy it, the only pronlems I encountered was the Greenhouse really didn't line up with the nose of the fuselage, but the one I'm currently on I think I'll have her as a late D model with the Ball turret in the belly, I have one from an old J model so now I can't figure out which unit to do, a 8th unit out of England or 9th unit out of Italy?, decisions, decisions, decisions

I built a 1/48 D and J model long ago when I was 12 or so. I was looking at the J the other day and noticed the ball turret mount was inserted after the fuselage halves were joined. I know some Liberators didnt carry a ball turret but instead had a tunnel gun or no gun at all in this position. So my question is, did monogram provide an option for the tunnel gun or no gun in place of the ball turret?? Its been so long I cant remember but it seems like it could be very possible for an extra plate to be included for those options... am I right?

Hey Dave;
for the Revellograms D no there isn't any tunnel guns but what I did for a Build for a customer I used the twin .50's from an old Revellograms B-26 optional tail piece and it's mount and made the twin tunnel guns with the armour plating at the rear enterance hatch between the Waist gun positions and it came out better then expected

Hey Cuda, You got a pic of that tunnel gun you built? I need to do the same for gramp's plane and would like to see how yours turned out.

hey sahickerson;
Sorry I've did that build about 10 years ago and lost contact with the owner of the kit,, but I'll get you the info on the mod when I get home

Great kit, I've built two of them. I too can never call them Revell, to me thay will always be Monogram.

sahhickerson,

I also have the D model and I plan to model it after the 'Suzy Q' from the Ploesti raid. Since you have family that was there and I assume you've done a bit of research yourself, I have a question to ask. Did the 24-D's for Operation Tidal wave have the ventral ball turrets? The shots I've seen taken durring the raid don't seem to show any.

The only thing I can think of that could be fixed on the Monogram model is that the canopy windows should go a bit further down the fuselage on the sides rahter than be flush with the forward wind screen. I got hold of a Squadron vacuform canopy for mine.

hey sahickerson;
well here is the info, first off do you have an old Monogram B-26 Marauder?, if you do the spare tail cone with the manual twin .50's are what is required for this mod,
1.) first cut the gun mount off at the junction of the cone to the mount,
2.) then with .020 styrene cut 2 45 dergree peices at 1x 1
3.) now take the mount and glue the mount to the 2 styrene pieces
4.) trim the styrene flush with the aft side of the mount but the ball will protrude more aft then the styrene
5.)now glue the mount centered on the aft side of the waist gunners platform
6.)now cut 2 peices of .010 styrene at .20 x .40 inches and 2 .010 45 dergrees at .20 x .20 inches
7.)with the twin .50 cal guns glue the 2 45 dergree pieces to the bottoms of the guns with angle pointing away from the guns
8.)now glue the .20 x .40 pieces to the 2 45 dergree pieces so they look like the armour plating
9.)now paint the 2 assemblies as required, the guns are gun metal with Interior Green mounts and O.D. (or fuselage color) armour plating and the mount is O.D. (or fuselage color) with Interior Green sides
10.) mount the guns to the mount and install the gun platform as required by the instructions
this is the way I did the Tunnel Guns on the customers B-24D Operation Tidal Wave raider, and this was the best way it came out for me but if you need to modify the parts to suit your needs there is no problem what will look good for your Libby will look good for everyone else

Aurora7: I am not sure of all the aircraft on the raid but I do know that the 44th Bomb Group, 509 BS did not have ball turrets on their AC. The tunnel gun was in use. Also not all sircraft were painted in desert pink as some "Tidal Wave Experts" have told me. Not sure if you have heard the same. Southern Comfort was in fact still sporting OD green over grey.
72 Cuda: Thanks for the info, will definatly try that. Sounds good to me.

sahickerson,

I did hear the same about not all Libs being desert pink. In fact, my Squadron 'B-24 in Action' has an olive drab and a desert pink Lib on the cover. I states that on the the 24-Ds they went from tunnel guns to Bendix turrets, back to tunnel guns and then to Sperry ball turrets. I'm guessing it was a mixed bag of tunnel guns and ball turrets but figuring what particular aircraft had will be tough.