I completed this build this morning about 0230. It it going to be presented to the sister of the flight engineer of Lonesome Polecat, hopefully on the 22nd of the month. The plane was lost 9 April 1944 with all crew presumed KIA. She recently foundout what had happened to her brother and wanted a model built of his plane. I was lucky enough to get the nod to do so. It is based on the Academy 1/72 kit. I scratched the nose "whiskers" and made my own decals for the nose art. The rest is OOB. Thanks for looking. Comments welcomed. "Q"

Looks great. I am sure she will appreciate the job you did.
Cheers

Hi Mathew,

That's a fantastic presentation piece, I'm sure that the lady in question will be delighted.

That's a wonderful looking B-24 I like the paint chips to the vert stabs and weathered paintwork

Thanks for the comments guys. Much apreciated. Trying to get the base for it completed this week. Hopefully there won't be any hiccups along the way. Thanks again. "Q"

Great job and story Matthew. I am sure she will be thrilled with your build. Personally, I really like the paint work - it looks really nice!
Allen

Brilliant job Matthew, well done!
Having recently completed a presentation build myself I know just how much pride and satisfaction your are going to feel when you hand it over.
Nige

Matthew,
Well done,a very nice build.
I must admit to having a soft spot for the Liberator...
Yet another kit to add to the stash.

What was your opinion of the kit???

Chris

I love the weathering, you are going to be very proud when you hand this over and rightly so

Mal

Thanks for the kudos. As to the kit.............
Well, Although the Academy kit is old, it actually went together pretty well. There were some serious mis-alignment issues on the spine. It looked like a brick mason had built it as not one of the panel lines matched up. That is no exaggeration either. I used dymo tape and carried the lines all the way across rather than deleting half of this and half of that. Once under some primer and painted, it didn't look too bad. The cockpit area forward is a challenge to align properly as there are no tabs to keep everything in place. I added my own and this greatly eased things. The cockpit is pretty barren, but one couldn't see much once the glass is installed anyway. With the new Hasegawa "D", its a different story. That greenhouse lets in a lot of light, but there are goodies to fill the space. Not so with the Academy kit. No mention is made of adding nose weight either. I forgot about this until after I had the halves glued together. I smashed a lot of fishing lead, coated them with 2 part epoxy and dropped them in place and let dry. Was easy enough to do, but it would have been easier with the fuselage apart. Given its age the Academy kit builds into a good looking representation of a Libby. I have two of the Hase' kits waiting in the wings. I'm anxious to see the forthcoming "J" as I have several sheets of after market decals for those, including "The Dragon and His Tail." If I find the Academy kits for say less than $20, I'll pick them up as they are easy to work with. Not the biggest and baddest, but I feel they are usable. Thanks again for the comments.
"Q"
ps. One thing I forgot to mention are the gun turrets. They are rather clunky, but if one takes their time they can be dressed up fairly nice. I just built and painted mine. Sort of wish I had taken a little more time, but.....

A really good looking Liberator. I am sure she will appreciate it.

Thanks for sharing