Detail & Scale’s original volume on the B-24 Liberator and its variants was published in 2000. Since the first volume was published, more information regarding the B-24 and its variants has become available and more photographs of the B-24 in service have surfaced. In addition, the authors were granted access to the interiors of the B-24D preserved at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and the PB4Y-2 Privateer preserved at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, to take reference photographs.

The book is primarily a visual reference book, so there is just a brief overview of the B-24 and its many users around the word. The history section includes a nice table explaining the two letter suffixes used to designate where a particular aircraft was built. As explained later in the book, the suffixes can be very useful in narrowing down some of the details of a particular aircraft due production differences between the various manufacturers/plants.

In the next section, each version of the B-24, from the XB-24 through the B-24M and the PB4Y-1 (including transport and fuel carrier versions), is discussed, focusing on the differences between that version and the previous (and sometimes subsequent) versions. These descriptions also look at variations between the different manufacturing plants and often include a side view drawing of that particular version, highlighting some of the major changes made in that version. The descriptions are accompanied by both color and black and white photographs of the aircraft, many of them depicted the changes discussing the text. The photographs are very well produced, and the color photographs offer some interesting views of the colors used.

Following the descriptions of the various versions of the B-24 are several sections of detail photographs of different parts of the Liberator, such as the interior areas, defensive weapons, canopy details, landing gear and external details.

The most radical revision to the basic Liberator airframe was the PB4Y-2 Privateer, developed for the U.S. Navy for long over-water patrol duties. While the most readily visible change to the basic B-24 Liberator layout was the replacement of its trademark twin tails with a large single vertical tail, in fact multiple other changes were made as well, such as the replacement of the side gunnery hatches with large blister turrets on the aft fuselage and the addition of a second top turret. The book has a separate section on the Privateer with a corresponding section of detail photographs of the Privateer. I was glad to see a couple of photographs of fire-fighting Privateers as many of them ended up in this role after they were retired from active military service.

The final section of the book is the traditional Modelers Section where the authors discuss the kits of the Liberator and Privateer that have been released over the years accompanied by pictures of builds of some of these kits by the authors and others. As the book was published this year it includes the 1/32 B-24 kits from Hobby Boss.

I really enjoyed this volume, and I learned a lot about the variations not only between the different versions of the B-24, but also the differences between the same versions produced by different manufacturers. As many of these differences are plant specific, it emphasizes how important it is to gather as much information as possible about the particular aircraft you are building, including the plant it was manufactured in.

If you are planning to build a B-24 or have at least one B-24 kit in your stash, I highly recommend that you pick up this book.

Thank you to Detail & Scale for the review sample and to IPMS USA for letting me review it.