RCAF Liberator GR Mk VI

[BlrwestSiR]

Ernie, thanks for checking in. 

Doing an RCAF bird just made sense once I found out we used them. The Eduard Riders in the Sky 1/72 kit was the impetus for this and I almost bought one but then found the decals for this kit. 

The wing shape is a huge mistake on Hobby Boss' part and Iain is doing a great job fixing it. I probably have the skill to do what he's doing but I knew that if I tried, the motivation to finish would be a huge bear to maintain. I mean, I'm almost to the home stretch and I'm already looking at other kits to build and set this aside again. 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Know the feeling all too well but stick with the B-24 and get her across the line. HB's mistake isn close to unforgiveable as to what the kit costs.

 

[Clunkmeister]

13 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Ernie, thanks for checking in. 

Doing an RCAF bird just made sense once I found out we used them. The Eduard Riders in the Sky 1/72 kit was the impetus for this and I almost bought one but then found the decals for this kit. 

The wing shape is a huge mistake on Hobby Boss' part and Iain is doing a great job fixing it. I probably have the skill to do what he's doing but I knew that if I tried, the motivation to finish would be a huge bear to maintain. I mean, I'm almost to the home stretch and I'm already looking at other kits to build and set this aside again. 

Agreed Carl.  
When I’m ready for a modeling challenge like none before, I’m gonna try Iain’s trick.  But I’ll also understand that I may lose the build over it if I fubar the thing. 

[harv]

1 minute ago, Clunkmeister said:

Agreed Carl.  
When I’m ready for a modeling challenge like none before, I’m gonna try Iain’s trick.  But I’ll also understand that I may lose the build over it if I fubar the thing. 

Your the one to do it cupcake....harv

[BlrwestSiR]

Ok, as previously mentioned I've picked up and started working on the Lib again. I couldn't remember where I left off but I did have the superchargers sitting on the bench so I started with painting and installing those. 

Then, while going over the turret interiors, I found the misplaced Quickboost prop blade so I did those next. 

[BlrwestSiR]

I figured it was best to see how the shark mouth fit and worked. Good thing too as the decal requires you to mask and spray the black background. There's no template provided so I tried to make one. I stuck a piece of Japanese style masking tape on the decal sheet and traced out the shark mouth.

Well, when I removed it, something interesting happened. The tape pulled the decal right off the carrier film! You can see the round circle is mostly gone. The ink came right off the sheet. 

Time for Plan B. Which may have been more what I would have done anyways. I laid out the shark mouth on the nose using masking tape. 

I then filled in the centre just leaving the edge.

Now it's ready for some paint. 

[BlrwestSiR]

At this point, I decided to mask off the roundels and the tailplane fin flashes too.

The problem here is I didn't have a dedicated set of roundels for the Lib so I hunted around in my stash. I thought Lancaster ones might work but they're much larger. I then found the correct diameter ones in a Tempest kit. But they were old and a bit warped. Not wanting to wait, I used them anyways. This is not something I recommend unless you have patience and experience using masks. They have to be carefully re-aligned and it still won't be 100% perfect fit. 

To remedy this I sealed the masks between elements so any possible gaps were covered and I sprayed them out of order. I started with the red centre, then the yellow border, then masked the red and white and sprayed the blue last. 

The wing roundels were easier as they were just two colours. These I cut by hand to the correct diameter from frisket. 

Lastly, the fin flashes were done just using plain tape to mark them out. 

After all that here's what I ended up with. 

The shark mouth still needs more done but the red outline worked out. 

[belugawhaleman]

There's been a lot of talk about the wing profile but I understand that the actual wing shape was a bit different. It was called a Davis wing if I remember correctly. Anyway,

nice work Carl. I'd like to tackle that beast......if I had a spare bedroom to put it in...that is!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_wing

 

[BlrwestSiR]

1 hour ago, belugawhaleman said:

There's been a lot of talk about the wing profile but I understand that the actual wing shape was a bit different. It was called a Davis wing if I remember correctly. Anyway,

nice work Carl. I'd like to tackle that beast......if I had a spare bedroom to put it in...that is!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_wing

 

The wing profile on the kit is definitely off. The work to fix is way more than I wanted to do so I'm living with it as is. 

It's a huge kit, that's for sure. It dwarves the Lancaster. 

[BlrwestSiR]

The shark mouth was an interesting challenge. I decided to trace the decal onto some tracing paper. 

I then copied this onto some masking tape and cut it out by hand. 

 

This was repeated for the top and bottom and both sides. 

The teeth were then applied to the model, trying to line them up as best as possible with the red outline. 

A bit of black and a moment's hesitation, then I pulled the masks off.

A small bit of touch up is needed but it worked.

[Martinnfb]

Splendid ! 

[GazzaS]

Well done!

 

[Bomber_County]

Congrats Carl, great catch……

[Peterpools]

10 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

There's been a lot of talk about the wing profile but I understand that the actual wing shape was a bit different. It was called a Davis wing if I remember correctly. Anyway,

nice work Carl. I'd like to tackle that beast......if I had a spare bedroom to put it in...that is!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_wing

 

Paul

Thank you for the link, fascinating reading. 

 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Brilliant masking and paint work; looking awesome for sure. I'm still struggling on using masks and hopefully will get there.

Like most, I wish I had room for kits of this size but I'm limited to those that will fit in my display case: 47x19x 65.   

 

 

[DocRob]

Great work on the big bird, Carl, I just love these North Atlantic schemes and your mask and airbrush work is absolutely fantastic.

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

16 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

There's been a lot of talk about the wing profile but I understand that the actual wing shape was a bit different. It was called a Davis wing if I remember correctly. Anyway,

nice work Carl. I'd like to tackle that beast......if I had a spare bedroom to put it in...that is!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_wing

 

Not only is the kit’s wing profile off by a lot, but it’s also set at a wrong incidence … And yes it’s A LOT of work to put it right …

Nice work on the Lib’ , Carl 👍 !

Hubert

PS: in case you do not know the site, this is where you can plot any airfoil: just enter the basic data like chord, thickness/chord ratio, incidence (« pitch » on the calculation table), the wing profile, et voilà !

http://airfoiltools.com/plotter/index
 

Hubert

[belugawhaleman]

8 hours ago, HubertB said:

Not only is the kit’s wing profile off by a lot, but it’s also set at a wrong incidence … And yes it’s A LOT of work to put it right …

Nice work on the Lib’ , Carl 👍 !

Hubert

PS: in case you do not know the site, this is where you can plot any airfoil: just enter the basic data like chord, thickness/chord ratio, incidence (« pitch » on the calculation table), the wing profile, et voilà !

http://airfoiltools.com/plotter/index
 

Hubert

Glorioski! Hubert!  I never said it was right!

[Kaireckstadt]

Great masking and paintjob Carl! 

[BlrwestSiR]

A small update. I did some test fitting on the turrets, and got them to go together. So I will finish the assembly, paint the guns and install them. 

I also got the MLG legs together. I used the Aerocraft brass inserts on those. The inner part of the kit legs needs a bit of shaving to get a good fit but easy enough. 

[GazzaS]

Turrets look great!

 

[piet]

[Peterpools]

Carl

Some very work on the turrets. MLG looks good and the upgrade to the MGL with the Aerocraft brass inserts absolutely was the way to go. I can only imagine how heave the B-24 actually is.

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Good news. The legs are strong enough to hold the model up. 

Bad news, I threw the tailplane assembly on and she's still a tail sitter. 

Some quick messing about and it looks like I need about 60g more nose weight. No idea how I'll get that in at this point. Might just have to put a barrel under the fuselage...

[Peterpools]

Carl

She is looking so good up on her legs and that's a good question as to where to put the extra weight. "Might just have to put a barrel under the fuselage..." not a bad idea and negates adding more weight for the gear to hold up.