The PB4Y-2 Privateer was the final version of the B-24 Liberator with a single tall tail and lengthened forward fuselage. After WWII, Privateers continued to serve the Navy until 1954 and US Coast Guard until 1958. The PBY-2M was a specially modified Privateer as a hurricane hunter but it retained its armament for patrol duty. In 1952 better radar was added for ASW duty and redesignated PB4Y-2S until the more capable ASW P2V Neptunes were available.

During the very active 1949 hurricane season, VP-23 flew 33 missions into the hurricane eyes, a record at that time.  

This model represents a PB4Y-2M that served as a hurricane/submarine hunter with VP-23 based at NAS Miami-Master Field from 1948-1952. I lived a mile east of the base and remember seeing them fly over and at times all 9 of them lined up on the ramp as we drove by the base. I remember one time when my dad took me to the base to visit a friend we walked through a hanger where one was being worked on. It was huge and with its tall tail and lumps and bumps of radar and antennas it reminded me, a young boy of an ominous flying dragon!

 The kit was originally released in 1980 by Matchbox and by Revell in 2009. It is the only Privateer kit in 1:72 scale and the Koster vacuform kit in 1:48.

The kit consists of 5 sprues of well molded parts. There was a 12- page instruction manual with excellent illustrations and 4-view drawings for the option of 3 aircraft. There was a fuselage plug I used to delete the rear dorsal turret as per VP-23 Privateers. There are 5 crew figures that I did not use. There were excellent color callouts, unbelievably in 9 languages!

There are many parts for a 1:72 model and care should be taken to use the correct parts for the version to be built.

 I began by filling the RCAF version fuselage windows with the clear parts, putty and lots of sanding to blend them in. The 5 gun turrets were assembled and the barrels drilled out. When the fuselage halves were joined, I remembered to install the recommended 40 grams (1.5 ounces) of weight as instructed behind the cockpit bulkhead to avoid a tail sitter.

The prop blades were sanded less pointed and thinner. The canopy was carefully masked with Tamiya tape and installed with white glue.

The fit of parts was very good for such an old kit and very little putty was needed. Two nylon thread antenna wires were installed from the tail to mid-upper fuselage as per instructions.

The entire cockpit and visible turret areas were painted interior green. The model was cleaned and then airbrushed with Model Master FS 15042 Gloss Sea Blue. The kit decals were used, and I applied the red stripe 1947 era national insignias from the decal scrap box. The tail EH modex and #5s also came from the decal bin. Eight fuel tank caps were cut from red decal material with a punch and die.