**** DONE: 1/72 B-24H “Booby Trap” - Heavy Hitters II GB

[T Bolt]

User Name: T Bolt
Name: Glenn
Category: Advanced
Kit: Academy B-24H
Scale: 1/72nd.
Accessories: True Details resin wheels. Homemade decals. Crystal Clear turret glassing. Various scratch building.

My first entry in this group build is an aircraft I heard about from my father over 25 years ago. He was a gunner/armorer with the 490th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force based at Eye Suffolk England from June to September 1944 and one day 25 some years ago he was reminiscing about his war time experiences and "Booby Trap" came into the conversation. He couldn't remember the name or art work on the B-24 he flew, but he described the art work on this one in detail. Recognizing the description, I went to one of my books and found a picture of it and he confirmed it was the aircraft he remembered. It was one of the B-24's in his bomb group. Late in 1944 he was transferred to the 484th Bomb Group, 15th Air Force in Italy and was surprised one day to see miss "Booby Trap" sitting on the ramp.
Not a great story, but one of my father's stories that stayed with me over the years so I thought it would be nice to model this aircraft in his honor.

Below is all the photos I could find of Booby Trap

 

[N4521U]

This is gonna be a very in-teresting GB me thinks.
Good one Glenn.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

NICE!

 

[Airframes]

Looking forward to this one Glenn.

 

[rochie]

good stuff Glenn, had a look through my stuff for you but could not find anything you don already have.

 

[meatloaf109]

Right on!

 

[T Bolt]

I've done some work on the nose art decal since if I couldn't pull this off there was no point in starting the project. I took the best photo of the nose art and used Gimp to add color and isolate the image. Most of the colors were educated guesses with the hair color coming as a suggestion from Paul (Meatloaf109).
I later found that the guesses were pretty good when I found this picture of a leather jacket – obviously from one of the crew members – that confirmed the color of the hair and dress.
After I finished the art work I inserted it into a word document and through trial and error, resized it to the proper size and printed it on normal paper as a test. You can see the comparison below.

 

[Wurger]

Great...

 

[Catch22]

TUrned out well Glenn!

 

[destrozas]

glenn extraordinary job, great history, is great to have those memories and stories.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work on the decal design Glenn - should look great as a decal on the model.

 

[A4K]

Great choice Glenn!

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff Glenn. Hope you get decent saturation when printing onto decal paper. Never quite get that to work to my liking unless printing on white.

 

[Airframes]

I agree there. Better to print on white decal paper, and trim close if required. Even then, some colours may need a little 'help' with paint.

 

[T Bolt]

Good stuff Glenn. Hope you get decent saturation when printing onto decal paper. Never quite get that to work to my liking unless printing on white.

I agree there. Better to print on white decal paper, and trim close if required. Even then, some colours may need a little 'help' with paint.

That's what I'm planning except for the serial's on the tail. I thought I'd try printing 2 or 3 for each and laying them on top of one another.

 

[T Bolt]

Here's the kit and accessories. It's the 1/72nd scale Academy/Minicraft B-24H. I've made the B-24D version of this kit before and it is very nice although I've heard that the Hasegawa kit is better, but at $75 I'll take a pass. I picked this one up on eBay for like $15. I think I'll have to use after-market decals for the stars and bars because the ones with the kit look black. They're too dark anyway. I'll also be using True Detail resin wheels and masks, and Crystal Clear parts for the turrets although probably not for the cockpit canopy. I used both these items when I made the B-24D and it made a big difference.

 

[N4521U]

I've got stars-n-bars from my Sleepy Time Gal 24-J that Isn't getting any markings you can have if you like!!!! The photo I have of it it sans markings as it was stripped and flew a mission before they were repainted. No prob if you like.

 

[T Bolt]

That would be wonderful Bill. I'm going to do a search through my spare decals to see if I have anything the right size, I don't believe I do though. If I come up empty I'll PM you, Thanks.

 

[Airframes]

Looks like a nice kit Glenn. Printing the yellow numbers will need at least two sets overlaid - the yellow virtually disappears when applied to a darkish colour.
Might be better to use proper yellow serial number decals. If you're stuck, Hannant's have them, and I'll be placing an order in about three weeks, so can get them and send them on - save you having to place any minimum order.