Monogram first issued the B-24 as the “J” model in 1976.  I built that kit as soon as it was available ... straight out of the box.  Not very long after, I did another ... backdating it to a B-24D in desert colors.  That model appeared in an old issue of “Scale Modeler” magazine.  By the time I did this model, I had a pretty good list of things that I felt needed to be corrected.  I also wanted to test the contest waters building wheel up.  To my surprise, that didn’t seemed to raise any eyebrows and the model did quite well.

The waist windows were enlarged and filled with acrylic sheet.  The gun mount was turned from a piece of styrene sprue, fig.1.  PVC was machined to form a more precise opening and lip surrounding the upper turret, fig.2.

A new nose turret was vacu-formed from acrylic sheet.  To improve the fit of the nose turret, it was covered with Bare Metal Foil and a mix of cyanoacrylate and dental resin powder was flowed into the space, fig.3.  The final replacement nose turret, fig.4.

The Monogram kit canopy appears a bit squashed.  To solve the problem, I removed the lower molded strip and replace the canopy sides with thin acrylic sheet, fig.6.  The completed nose section shows the result of the new turret and glazing along with the improved fit around the nose and upper turrets, fig.5.  To my eye, this appears much more prototypical.

The kit nacelles looked a little long and the cowl fronts were too squared off.  I shortened the nacelles a bit and squared them off.  A clear acrylic guide was used to accurately locate the engines, fig.7.  The cowl rings were fit with a PVC turning and the fronts rounded off, fig.8.

The empennage of the Monogram B-24’s all look like they droop ... angling at a downward angle.  To remedy this issue, I always change the angle of the horizontal stabilizer as shown in fig.9.  It is then necessary to add a riser at the base of the tail surface and do a bit of recontouring to blend it in.  In order to keep the wings, horizontal stabilizer, etc. aligned, I like to mount the fuselage so that it is level with the datum line, fig.10.

This model was completed prior to the advent of digital photography and before FineScale Modeler went to full color. It is presented in the original form as it appeared in the January 1992 issue of FineScale Modeler.