Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

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Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby RayS » Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:02 pm

This build is for a QANTAS 100 years club display at ScaleACT in November, so plenty of time to finish it (I hope).

Some background:
In June 1944 the British authorities released to Qantas two RAF Consolidated LB.30 Liberators then being operated by BOAC, to supplement the Catalinas on the Indian ocean route. G-AGKT and G-AGKU had overhauls by Qantas at Archerfield Aerodrome, Brisbane before being delivered to Perth on 18 October and 24 September 1944 respectively in Perth. They were based at the newly-built Guildford Aerodrome (now Perth Airport), using the Australian National Airways hangar just built for their DC-3 services from the Eastern States. The Liberators which refuelled at Exmouth WA to reduce the ocean crossing, brought an increased payload of 3,800 lbs which allowed 8 passengers in airline seats, plus baggage and the essential diplomatic and priority mail. Two more BOAC Liberators joined Qantas for the Indian Ocean service, G-AGTI and G-AGTJ, allowing the Catalinas to be retired. The final Catalina service landed on the Swan River at Perth on 18 July 1945, marking a total of 271 Qantas Catalina services across the Indian Ocean.

When Avro Lancastrians became available during 1945, the Liberators were retired and flown to Sydney. The original two were scrapped, but G-AGTI and G-ATGJ remained with Qantas as freighters VH-EAI and VH-EAJ, mostly used to carry engines to Qantas airliners across the growing postwar route network.


I will be building VH-EAJ and at some point a Lancastrian also in QANTAS colours

I am using an Academy B-24D kit that has been hiding in my stash for around 10 years, the Magna Model LB-30 conversion and decals from Hawkeye Models
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I had a good set of in work images until Microsoft Photo editing software decided I did not need them any more and over wrote 10 images with just one. EDIT: I just found a set of images on a thumbdrive that shows some of the early work, yippee!

So here is my progress so far. I had to remove the forward and rear turrets for the resin nose and tail pieces.
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Test fit after cutting
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The fuselage openings for various windows and the waist guns were filled with card and glue goo and sanded smooth. I will have scribe some missing details
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The kit was designed to have the bomb bay doors open, so the shape they are moulded in does not make it easy to fit them closed, I had to add a shim and then remove the extra overhanging door

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The cockpit was assembled and installed and given a splash of interior green
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Resin parts from the conversion including the wings (not shown here) were cleaned up and prepared fr assembly along with some of the few other pieces from the kit needed for this build
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A test fit of the parts so far, the wings are slightly warped and will need some hot/cold water treatment to straighten them out
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That's all for now
Last edited by RayS on Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lockheed LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby VH-WAL » Tue Feb 18, 2020 2:42 am

Hiya Ray, what an interesting subject, looking forward to seeing this one done, cheers wal
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby F-27pax » Sat Feb 22, 2020 3:10 pm

Ray, this is exciting and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished model. I was planning to make an LB30 in 1/144 using Roden C-47 engines to replace the Minicarft kit ones, also using Hawkeye decals but in 1/144. Did you replace the wings simply because of the different engines or is there some significant difference between a LB30 and a B-24 wing that I don't know about yet?
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby RayS » Sat Feb 22, 2020 4:31 pm

Thanks Wal and Leigh,

Leigh, the conversion set included the wings so I am using them. From the looks the rear of the engine nacelles have been reshaped after the different engines were fitted. That is all I noticed when comparing the kit and replacement wings.
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby RayS » Wed Feb 26, 2020 7:47 pm

Phew! Not a tail sitter
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round 3 of puttying on the underside
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and is will be time some more putty around the nose to fare it in, fortunately the resin sands easily and not much effort required to get surfaces matching
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby Uros » Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:08 am

Nice! Must be a heavy model with those resin wings and nosecone.
Cheers!
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby RayS » Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:35 pm

Yes there is some weight, I hope the nose wheel can handle it

Vertical stabs installed
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby Graeme H » Mon Mar 02, 2020 7:48 am

certainly coming along nicely, not sure about the resin wings though
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby RayS » Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:06 pm

I managed to do a little on this one today, clear parts prepped and attached to the cockpit.

The windscreen part had a sprue attachment point at the base of the centre windscreen panel which need filin, sanding and polishing
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The centre panel after polishing and futuring
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The conversion set includes an astrodome which is slight oversized in diameter for the supplied resin part.
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or I could use the kit supplied dome which fits the opening a lot better
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Re: Consolidated LB-30, QANTAS VH-EAJ

Postby Graeme H » Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:13 am

Great work going on Ray, it's really coming to life now
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