The Liberator

We always say that at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, we're raising more than cows, chickens and crops.  We're raising a family.  Today's posting isn't farm related, but was a fun project that Benjamin and I worked on over several months.  We finally completed it last night.

We built a model airplane - a B-24D Liberator to be specific.  This aircraft was an American heavy bomber used during WWII and was used by several Allied air forces.  There were 18,400 of them produced and it still holds the distinction of being the most produced American military aircraft.  It was noted for sinking 93 U boats.  It carried a crew of 11 (pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, radio operator, nose turret, top turret, two waist gunners, ball turret and tail gunner).  Of interesting note, Jimmy Stewart, (from Mr. Smith goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life) flew a B24 as a commanding officer.


This was quite a project!

It took a long time.  It required us to paint everything in intricate detail.  When we put the fuselage together, Benjamin said, "Why'd we have to paint the inside?  You can't even see it now."  Good question, Benjamin.

Fuselage together, wings and propellers on

We didn't get any glue on the carpet.  We were careful and used grocery store circulars to protect the carpet.  This came AFTER learning a tough lesson in Benjamin's room where we were painting.  Olive drab paint doesn't blend into oatmeal colored Berber carpet no matter how much you rub it. 

Gluing tiny parts of the turret together

I have to hand it to Revel, the maker of this model, as the directions were very clear. 


Affixing the landing gear

You can see the tail guns and the waist gunners from this angle.  There were 10 .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns on this bad boy.


Getting ready to start painting

We had originally glued the bomb bay doors shut, but then we removed them and glued them open where you could see the bombs.  For short range flights (< 400 miles) the Liberator could carry 8,000 pounds of bombs. 

A view of the bombs

Benjamin painted the underside of the Liberator a flat gray.  There were two style of paint and he selected the "Fightin' Sam" paint scheme.

Painting the Liberator

 Look at the detail.  The bombs have a yellow stripe painted on them.


Bombs away

The top of the B-24 was painted a camoflage green color.  

Starting to look good!

Roughly done, but there's still some detail left to paint.


The B24-D Liberator

Front view

You can see the detail of the Fightin' Sam nose art along with the emblems for major victories.
 

Fightin' Sam

Here is the model with all decals applied, a black strip painted on the leading edges of the wings, and yellow striped wing tips.  Nice! 

All "gussied" up.

More detail of the bombs - Benjamin's favorite part.


Bomb detail

At long last, we're done.  With mono filament fishing string, we hung the B24-D Liberator from the ceiling fan in Benjamin's bedroom in a dive bombing position.  What boy doesn't want a WWII bomber hanging from his ceiling?  It is facing his headboard.  As you lie in his bed, you can look up and if you use your imagination, you can almost hear "Fightin' Sam" coming in on a bombing run.  

The B24-D Liberator in all her glory

This was a pretty cool project.  This bomber was used in every combat theater in WWII and is now out of retirement and flying missions in Benjamin's room.