Liberator B-24D, Fly Model Nr 21

Leif Oh

Member
I bought this kit on E-bay, Germany, from what since has become my regular supplier, a Polish gentleman (Slawomir Wojcik, Modelservice) operating out of Germany.

The Liberator was one of the first plastic models I got as a kid; must have been already in the late 50s. Unfortunately it never got built, since there was something wrong with the kit and it was exchanged for another model, but now I suddenly got the longing to finish it in paper!

LibCover.jpg


The scale is 1/33 and the format large - roughly A3. It comes with a large pencil sketch (artwork) of a B-24D, suitable for framing, if you are into that.

The kit is not modern, in the sense that it is handdrawn (by Tadeusz Grzelczak, one of the Polish masters of the art, as I understand from the seller). As such, it is a work of art, not least the handdrawn instructions sketches (in pencil, I think). They are beautiful, and I can spend hours contemplating how to realize the intentions of the designer.

Libinstr.jpg


I am still reluctant, however, to put a knife into (my scanned version of) the kit, since the colouring and line drawings of the plane itself are kind of coarse. The colour is very much monochromatic, and the panel lines are way too obtrusive, and there are sometimes mismatches in the colour (typical of earlier colour separation and printing methods, I believe).

LibPrint.jpg


So I have put the kit on the backburner, a project for scaling (to 1/25), recolouring (and perhaps even redesigning).

What I'd really like to do, if and when I ever get that advanced, is to convert it to the transport version LB30, and try to make a complete interior (perhaps even cut-away). There are a lot of "walk-around" pictures of the surviving "Diamond Lil" available on the web to make that possible - if I ever get up to it. The effort gone into the original design certainly would make it possible.

Meanwhile, I'll treasure the kit as such. I cannot imagine what effort has gone into preparing this by hand and trial & error, no computer help at all, as I understand it - and it's only one in a long row from the same designer, who I understand is still active, although threatening to retire (the latest of his models, I think, are the Boulton Paul Defiant, and the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, both recently published by Orlik).

I also understand that this version of the B-24D recently has been republished with computer enhanced graphics, which is what you would get if you buy this kit from a retailer today. It would be interesting to make a comparison. Does anybody have access to that new, enhanced version? I would very much like to see a small sample of the quality of colouring in such a kit.

Leif Oh.
 
Top