Building models for others is quite rewarding as the models are usually a tribute to someone who was involved with the full-sized subject.

I volunteer at my local library, and recently discovered that one of the librarians, Paul, had a father who was a navigator on B-24s with the 8th Air Force during WWII. Paul has a few photos of his Dad, and one is of the entire crew standing by the nose of # 028 all dressed in similar new leather flight jackets. The photo was probably taken where they trained to learn to fly and fight as a crew in a B-24J bomber. In a short time after this photo was taken, they would be based at Tibenham airbase with the 445th Bomb Group flying in a B-24J in the cold flak filled skies over occupied Europe to defeat Nazi Germany.

THE KIT

A desk model of a B-24J in flight would be a fitting tribute to Paul’s Dad. So, after searching available B-24J models, I settled on the Atlantis Models 2019 re-release of the old 1:92 Revell kit originally released in 1954. This would be a nostalgic build since I built this model when I was a young boy. I wondered how many dads who flew in the B-24 ten years earlier might have built this model with their son or daughter?

Building this kit reminded me of how modeling has evolved since these very early kits became available. This one is not too bad but did have the extremely non-scale rivets that hours of wet sanding with 400 grit paper removed. The cockpit greenhouse was slightly too small and the clear gun turrets a bit crude, but as is the case with these vintage models that I enjoy building, hopefully a presentable model would result.

CONSTRUCTION

The model was built out-of-the-box with the addition of waist guns and black decal windows for the radio operator’s station. The natural metal finish is Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf lacquer with semi-gloss black de-icer boots and olive drab anti-glare panel on the nose. Atlantis Models vintage kits provide new high-quality decals. The B-24 was completed in a short 16 hours, much longer I’m sure than the one I built as a young boy! The novel “Revelling display stand” as it was referred to, displays the model nicely and is a cool trip to modeling past.

So, here’s my tribute to Paul’s Dad and 8th Air Force, 445th Bomb Group navigator, John C. Fahle.

CONCLUSIONS

This kit would be a good build for a beginner or a modeler like me who built it 70 years ago!

Reference: Squadron Signal #80-B-24 Liberator in Action