• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

PTO Navy Liberators

UncleTgt

UncleTgt

SOH-CM-2025
I'm currently creating a set of PTO repaints for the OH B24D & Allen's B24J & PB4Y Liberators.

Here are some WIP screenies

First in theatre was VP51/VB101. They flew standard B24D's. I've changed payloads in the dp file & added Gavin C's ASV radar aerials to match the patrol mission. These are the guys that got caught in the FEB'43 "St Valentine's Day Massacre".
 
Next in theatre was VB102. THis unit flew PB4Y Liberators fitted with Consolidated nose turrets. Allen's B24J fits the bill nicely...
 
Glad to see more paint options for the PB4Y! Also was the radar aerials only added to a small number of aircraft?
 
Hi Allen,

I think the radar aerials mirror the progression you see with ASV radar - the ASV MkII required large arrays, then millimetre wave radar was developed, & the external aerials were replaced by and large with radomes (ASV MKIII+).

I've only ever seen a couple of photos from the early squadrons (VB101, VB102) & their time flying out of Carney (Guadacanal). Later on the vets talk about belly turrets being removed & replaced with a retractable radome, but that seems to have been around the autumn of 44 (in the PTO).
 
Last edited:
I only asked to know if I needed to make a decated PB4Y model with radar aerials.
 
Back to this project, VB106 arrived on Midway during September 1943... then moved towards operations in PNG.:engel016:
 
In the last few days of 1943, attention switched towards the Central Pacific & the Marshall & Gilbert Islands. VB108 was the first squadron to permanently deploy to this area...
 
Having fun researching serials & nose art.:kilroy: I guess I'll need to upload them in a series, otherwise this project is growing like Topsy!:pirate: :biggrin-new:
 
...finally... some Blue Liberators...

Easter 1944 & VB115 deploy alongside VB106 working north from Papua New Guinea.
 
UT, if you can find a copy of "I Took the Sky Road" By Cmdr. Norman Miller and Hugh Cave you will find a terrific story of VP-109 in the South/Central Pacific where Lt.Cdr. Miller and His PB4Y the best strike record of the Navy patrol bomber squadrons of WWII. His plane was "Thunder Mug" . It's available through Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9781587154300

and you can preview it on Google at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=v...A#v=onepage&q=Norman miller hugh Cave&f=false.
[h=1]I Took the Sky Road[/h]By Hugh B. Cave, Norman M. Miller
 
Wow. I should have put some more time into making the engines look better....
 
Wayland said:
UT, if you can find a copy of "I Took the Sky Road" By Cmdr. Norman Miller and Hugh Cave you will find a terrific story of VP-109 in the South/Central Pacific where Lt.Cdr. Miller and His PB4Y the best strike record of the Navy patrol bomber squadrons of WWII. His plane was "Thunder Mug" . It's available through Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9781587154300

and you can preview it on Google at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=v...A#v=onepage&q=Norman miller hugh Cave&f=false.
I Took the Sky Road

By Hugh B. Cave, Norman M. Miller
Click to expand...

Yes Steve, thanks for the links, it is on my wish list for future purchase. It's also the reason I had to do "Thunder Mug" as one of the repaint options:playful:.
At the moment most of my inspiration for this project comes from Alan Carey's "We Flew Alone".
 
Allen said:
Wow. I should have put some more time into making the engines look better....
Click to expand...

Allen, don't beat yourself up - you did a great job morphing the OH stocker into the -J then the PB4Y, a great balance of detail & acceptable framerates in groups, together with breaking parts. A tough balance to get right, but you always nail it...:encouragement:
 
UT You're welcome. I originally ran into Cdr. Miller's story in a compilation of stories "The US Navy in WWII" By S. E. Smith. The section "Thunder Mug at Apamama" was included, and I couldn't rest till I conned the local public librarian into finding a copy of the whole book. I think I was about 13 at the time. One of the best memoirs out of WWII, right up there with "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser.


Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top