35: Consolidated B-24 J “Liberator”
LES Américains, qui avaient compris déjà bien avant la dernière guerre l’utilité des appareils de ” grosses charges “, possédaient en 1940 une certaine expérience de ce type d’avions. Mais à part quelques B-17, il y en avait fort peu en service. Aussi, dès 1939, les principales firmes américaines étudièrent-elles la construction de bombardiers lourds à grand rayon d’action. L’une d’elles, Consolidated Aircraft, présenta en 1940 son model 32, dont quelques exemplaires commencèrent à équiper l’U.S. Army Air Corps dès 1941, sous la dénomination B-24A. Cette version, commandée par la R.A.F., reçut le nom, qui devint célèbre, de Liberator. Cet avion ne fut toutefois que le deuxième bombardier américain, non en raison de ses imperfections, mais parce qu’il n’était guère possible d’en produire autant que de Boeing B-17, mis en chantier plus tôt. Plusieurs sous-traitants, tel Ford, construisirent des B-24.
Il était presque opérationnel lors de l’attaque japonaise contre Pearl Harbor. Les U.S.A. gardèrent alors une partie des appareils destinés à la R.A.F. et les mirent rapidement en service, puisque leur première opération eut lieu en janvier 1942 à partir de Java. Progressivement, les divers types de cet appareil équipèrent les formations de l’U.S. AIR ForCE et de la R.A.F. et participèrent, en compagnie des B-17, à de nombreuses expéditions sur tous les fronts. Une version spéciale C-87 assura de nombreux transports de personnels. Après la guerre, le Liberator, maintenu en activité quelque temps, dut s’effacer devant les avions à réaction.
Caractéristiques : Envergure : 33,5 m. – Longueur : 20,47 m. – 4 moteurs Pratt et Whitney T-1.830-65 de 1.200 C.V. – Puissance : 4.800 C.V. – Armement : 10 mitrailleuses de 12,7 mm. + 2.045 kg. de bombes. – Vitesse maximum : 480 km/h.
The finished model:
The kit:
The vision:
I really wanted to build a 4-engine WWII-era bomber. That’s it. That’s the vision statement. 😉
The build:
Since this is a newer boxing of a pretty old kit, I knew I’d be in for a bit of a ride. The first main challenge was getting 4 engines wired up. I’d done two engines before, but this was the first time I’d be trying to get four of them spinning at the same time and I was looking forward to the challenge. Luckily there was plenty of room in the wings to hide the wires, and truth be told, one, two, four engines… there’s not much too it as long as you can get all the wiring and resistors hidden away. That being said, the moment I got them all spinning (see Pic 9) felt like the first major victory.
After that, it was relatively straight-forward. I’ve got 1/144 pilot figures (complete with bomber pilot caps!) thanks to my 3D resin printer, so I spent a little time making sure the interior would be a bit visible. This meant drilling open the gun ports and removing the centre pegs from the clear bubbles. That resulted in a bit more sanding than I really wanted to do, but a bit of elbow grease and some Future seems to have done the trick. It was neat to see how these old bombers go together, with the nose/tail/top/bottom gunners they’re certainly a bit different that fighter planes.
Oh, I should perhaps mention that even though the box was for a B-24D, the chromo calls for a B-24J – the main difference being the all-glass nose. Luckily, this time I checked carefully to make sure all the parts were going to work before I bought the kit. It seems like the B-24J is the default kit shape as there are extra parts to make it a “D”, but if all you want is a “J” than… bonus!
The fit on the fuselage was a bit tricky, and I had a hard time getting rid of the seam shadow… but I think I won that battle eventually. I probably should’ve done some panel line scribing, because there’s really not that much detail, but I tried to make up for it by using some stronger undercoat shading.
All in all, I’d say this was a pretty successful for my first bomber. Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what you think.
