Sebastian Haff Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Looking for your thoughts on 1/72 B-24 Kit options. I have a few Minicraft kits in my stash, and they looks fine to me, in the box anyway. I know next to nothing about WWII bombers, so before I get too involved, how does the Hasegawa Kit measure up? I'm not looking to build any specific variant, just something fairly accurate and painless..Yes, I know those two words don't usually go hand in hand in our hobby. Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Overall the Hasegawa kit is a little better, but not by much. The MC kits' biggest problem is that the nacelles are too small. They look okay when built though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Paul Boyer Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Hasegawa's kits have better detail and better shapes, but Minicraft's are easier to build and less expensive. In other words, you get what you pay for. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve N Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) Can't add a whole lot, although I would respectfully disagree with Paul in the area of buildability. The Hasegawa B-24s have much better fit than the Minicraft kits. As the others say, the Hasegawa kits are more accurate in shape. Getting into nitpicking: the Minicraft Liberators have noticeably undersized and inaccurate engine cowls, and the rear fuselage is a bit skinny. The turrets are also oversimplified, and split into front and back halves, leaving an impossible-to-eliminate seam down the middle (which isn't there on the real thing.) The cockpit side windows are molded with solid blobs in the middle, that are supposed to represent the "bubble" windows on the real aircraft. The small scanning windows on the lower rear fuselage are molded as rectangular depressions, and need to be opened up. These are all fairly minor criticisms though. They're still decent kits, and build up into nice models. When introduced in 1991, they were a quantum improvement over the ancient Revell and Airfix B-24s. The Hasegawa B-24s are very nice, but also very expensive (I've got several, but managed to find them on sale here and there.) They are very much 21st century kits, but also have a few faults of their own. The D-model is the worst offender, with an incorrect late-model tail turret, and the "cheek" gun window molded on both sides, when it should only be on the left. The right window is easily removed..just fill the frame lines and paint over it. But the tail turret is much trickier, requiring extensive modification and/or scratchbuilding. All the Hasegawa Libs also have windows under the horizontal stabilizer on both sides, when it should only be on one..an easy fix. There are also some issues regarding aileron trim tabs, but I don't recall the specifics offhand. Overall, the Hasegawa kits are superior..it's up to you to decide if they're better enough to justify spending the extra cash. Cheers! Steve P.S. One thing Academy does offer is the only kit of a "Ford Nose" Liberator in any scale: their B-24M. I really wish Hasegawa would do a Ford Nose B-24H, probably the variant most widely used by the 8th AF..but I doubt it'll ever happen. Edited March 15, 2016 by Steve N Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastian Haff Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 Thanks for the replies. I'm sold on the Hasegawa. I have AMS...don't we all...and all of the detail sets I've seen are for the Hasegawa. Having said that, I'll bet with some tweaking I could coax the sets into the MC kit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ikar Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Whose markings are you going to put on? If you want something different, have you considered making it a transport aircraft? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K5054NZ Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 ^ That's a cool idea. Without trying to indulge in peer pressure, if you've not made a decision please do look into that! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastian Haff Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 I've been perusing eBay trying to decide on this. I was wanting to do a BMF with nose art, and there are lots of options for that. I don't remember seeing any transport decals while I was looking. It is a cool idea. What's available for this? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Murph Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 On 3/14/2016 at 10:24 PM, Steve N said: I really wish Hasegawa would do a Ford Nose B-24H, probably the variant most widely used by the 8th AF..but I doubt it'll ever happen. Looks like Airfix may be taking care of it. Regards, Murph Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Robertson Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 The Hasegawa B-24s are incredibly good. The B-24 has extremely difficult shapes to get right, particularly the canopy, and they knocked it out of the park. The only obvious flaw, apart some variant features that depend heavily on production blocks, is that there is an extra tiny window under the right tail plane that should not be there. The windows are on both sides under the tail, and there should be only one on the left side. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve N Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 (edited) On 1/10/2024 at 5:57 PM, Murph said: Looks like Airfix may be taking care of it. Yep, that announcement really knocked my socks off! And the photos I've seen of built-up test shots look nearly as good as Hasegawa, and with far more interior detail. It also looks like they've molded the nose section separately, which bodes well for future releases of other variants. I'll definitely be adding (at least) a couple to my ever-increasing pile of 1/72 B-24s. On 1/30/2024 at 12:48 PM, Robertson said: The Hasegawa B-24s are incredibly good. The B-24 has extremely difficult shapes to get right, particularly the canopy, and they knocked it out of the park. Indeed. So far, Hasegawa are the only one to even try to get the complex shape of the cowling right. Every prior B-24 kit just did them as "oval with a little half-moon intake on each side," when the real thing has some really complex contours. I just watched and unboxing video of the new HobbyBoss 1/48 B-24, and the cowls are just atrociously misshaped and simplified. The cowls on the forthcoming Airfix B-24H look pretty good too, although like Hasegawa they didn't add the horizontal "splitters" that bisect the intakes. A forgivable omission in 1/72, fixable with a few bits of styrene sheet if one so desires. Here's a photo I took many years ago comparing the Hasegawa and undersized, misshapen Academy/Minicraft cowls. SN Edited February 5 by Steve N Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve N Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Here's a CAD rendering of the upcoming Airfix B-24H. The cowls don't look quite as refined as Hasegawa, but the shapes are still better than any of the other B-24s (in any scale.) SN Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Illu Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 The cowlings are the worst part of the Hasegawa kit. The intakes on either side are far too small. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve N Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 They look pretty darned close to me..certainly any dimensional difference is negligible. Granted, the side intakes aren't as deep as the real thing, but that can be chalked up to the limitations of the molding process. They're still by far the most accurate cowls of any B-24 kit in any scale (except maybe the upcoming Airfix kit..we haven't really gotten a good detailed look at it yet.) SN Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Robertson Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Aside the missing splitter, extremely close. Maybe a minuscule amount of inner intake scraping to widen/sharpen the outer intake lips would be useful, but barely. Not what I would consider a problem, although adding the splitter will require care. I think the scraping would help, as some light cowl front colours will add thickness to the lips just to get a fully opaque coverage in that complex compound curve area, and some light colours will worsen the very slight "impression" that the intakes are small. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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