Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

[michael luther]

gary,

We have B-24 bomb racks and bomb bay doors if needed.

[retroaviation]

I'll PM you on that one Michael.

Gary

[Django]

Thanks for the Mac friendly slide show.

Looks killer so far Gary. As the owner of a hot rod shop that builds cars with alot of aircraft influence, I really did the in-progress pics!!!

I was bummed too when CF went to Witchcraft, but I have changed my mind. I like, and I agree with changing them every so often. It keeps it exciting. With an aircraft like Diamond Lil, that had to be a tough decision. Not positive, but I think she's been Diamond Lil my entire life. Not sure when the CAF got her, but I was born in '70.

[retroaviation]

Someone had asked me to post some of the progress pictures of the work on the B-24A. What I worked on today was starting to fabricate the tail gunner's section. The first photo is what I'm going after. The following photos are from today's work of about 14 hours or so.








I didn't want to bore y'all with too many photos, but those should give you an idea what got done today.
Gary

[Mike]

Great work Gary.

Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

[Elroy13]

Looking good!!!
Thanks for the update Gary!

[Django]

Not boring at all! Keep em coming.

[ww2John]

AH-MAZE-ING!

Thanks, Gary...we are a l-o-n-g way from being bored...

And, thanks for the great work on Lil & FiFi. As some one who has absolutely no metal working skills, I sincerely appreciate watching an excellent craftsperson at work and seeing the intricate fitting required for this reverse engineering project.

Did all your report cards say "Plays Well With Others"??

[Shay]

Gary

Great work. I tip my hat to quite the craftsman.

Besides the picture above, what other reference material are you using to replicate the tail gunner position?

How faithful to the original will your turret be?

Thanks

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[Randy Wilson]

Shay et al:

I'm not answering for Gary but am helping to try and find more photos and other research material for him on the mods to Lil. I can tell you from my contact with Gary over many years that he would like to make it just like it rolled off the assembly line, right down to the rivets - that exact and no less. The problem is getting good info and especially pictures or drawings of the early B-24A structures he needs to build from scratch.

I know he is in contact with some folks who are rummaging thru old Consolidated files but that more info is needed. If anyone has a relative or other contact that can provide copies of photos or drawings of B-24As, you need to contact Gary. I'm sure, from what I've seen Gary do on other projects, that whatever he creates on Lil will be as close as possible to correct as the information he has allows. My 2 cents. Now, who can help?

Randy

[Steve Corbett]

Gary

Great work. I tip my hat to quite the craftsman.

Besides the picture above, what other reference material are you using to replicate the tail gunner position?

How faithful to the original will your turret be?
What turret position are you inquiring about? All gun positions were hand held from a swivel. One neat bit of trivia was the rear upper turret. It originally was a door that slid back, the gunner placed the gun on a mount that turned on a ring (Yes "Lil" still has the original ring installed.) It had a small deflector to help direct the wind up and over the gunners head. Reminds me of a WW I a/c. Steve

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[bdk]

This would make a far better reality show than all those crappy motorcycle shows combined!

[retroaviation]

This would make a far better reality show than all those crappy motorcycle shows combined!

It's funny you say that BDK. Back when all of the drama and long hours started with FIFI after the '04 Airsho, I tried in vain to get our Discovery Channel contacts out here to film a show similar to what you just described. We could have called it "Monster Hangar" or something corny like that.

Anyway, they said that it was difficult for them to do a show without "seemingly impossible deadlines that somehow always get met." Well, we all know I've yet to meet a deadline on my projects, so that idea was out the door. They also said that those shows were highly scripted and I wasn't too sure I could deal with that. However, I did say that I'd throw a chair across the hangar occasionally for entertainment value.

So for now, the Warbird junkies on this site are pretty much the only ones who will see the "daily drama" from the fat little grumpy guy in Midland working on old airplanes.

Gary

[B-29 Super Fort]

Thanks for the photos Gary, good luck with Lil.

[bomberflight]

This would make a far better reality show than all those crappy motorcycle shows combined!

And we could call it .... Pimp my Liberator

Seriously Gary ~ thanks for taking the time and trouble to share the amazing work you are doing !

Wouldn't this would make a great feature series of articles in Warbirds Digest .........