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

[RickH]

Anybody remember the kid's show The Friendly Giant ? He would sit down in his biiiggg rocking chair with his storybook and the he would reach down and flick a little bitty rocking chair with his finger. He would say, "and this little rocking chair is just for you" ! I can just picture Uncle Gary and his rocking chair now .

[retroaviation]

Holy smokes y'all........how much did everyone have to drink last night? Uncle Gary's Storytime? Too funny!

Gary

[Craig59]

Gary,

I don't know if this will help for future reference or not as I would suspect this is a 'D' model. Picture is from the 1943 U.S. Army Air Forces issue of FLYING.

[retroaviation]

Thanks for that photo, Craig. Unfortunately, the "A" model differs from all other models in dang near every detail (except that it still sort of looks somewhat like a B-24). Many times, that makes our airplane interesting and different, other times it becomes quite frustrating, because we can't just go look at another one to see how it's "supposed to be."

The floors in the "A" model (as best as I can tell) are actually a bit higher up than the rest of the B-24 models. The waistgunner's doors either hinged down or were pulled out all together. We have drawings and pictures that indicate both (it could've actually been both, as they were still developing different ideas). Nevertheless, we do know that the doors on all of the other models that had doors, hinged from the top...which is different from what our airplane would've had. That, in turn, meant that the swing arms for the gun mounts were different as well. Plus, from the best I can tell, the .50 caliber set up that we're putting in Ol' 927 would've had the little ammo cans attached directly to the gun, rather than the belt.

Make sense?

Again, thanks for the picture. I hadn't seen that one before and it is helpful. If you've got anymore, go ahead and post 'em!

I appreciate it.

Gary

[hahnej]

Just curious if it was the usual 1930's mixture of .30s and .50s

[Craig59]

Gary,

Makes perfect sense. I know you've been working from "watcha' got" and from mixed clues and photos - and you're doing a superb job!

In just looking again at the picture I posted...is that a hole in the vertical stab or was the photo tinter just having some fun?

[retroaviation]

hahnej...That's a good question. I have drawings and photos that show "A" models with all .30 caliber installations, .303 caliber installations, .30 AND .50 caliber installations, single .50's in the tail (like what we're doing), and dual .50's in the tail. This was an area where I couldn't really screw up too badly when I picked what guns 927 was going to have.

Craig59...looks to me like a glitch in the photo. It's amazing the detail in which the WIXers look at when checking out photos.

Gary

[Cripes]

Gary,

I don't know if this will help for future reference or not as I would suspect this is a 'D' model. Picture is from the 1943 U.S. Army Air Forces issue of FLYING.

That's interesting. Were all of the D model waist gun mounts yellow like that? And now I'm wondering if that's chromate yellow?

[Former Member]

Is it just me or does that guy/kid in the photo look like he's about 12 years old?

John

[Ztex]

12!? He looks every bit of 17.9 years old.

They all look very young in WWII. Just to think flying a fighter or bomber at the age of 20...in combat..very few of our 20 year olds of today would I trust with a 150 much less a Mustang of Liberator.

[Malo83]

Looks like he would have a hell of a time aiming with the gun belt running over the top of the gun

[Craig59]

That's interesting. Were all of the D model waist gun mounts yellow like that? And now I'm wondering if that's chromate yellow?

I'm not a photo expert but I believe there's some tinting involved in the picture so, the colors involved may not reflect reality.

[Cripes]

That's interesting. Were all of the D model waist gun mounts yellow like that? And now I'm wondering if that's chromate yellow?

I'm not a photo expert but I believe there's some tinting involved in the picture so, the colors involved may not reflect reality.

Yeah, that's a tough one. I think the printing technology back then made color photos look like they were tinted. But it could be. I see some green chromate in the foreground skin, then looks to be yellow chromate next to it. The window cutout looks a little ragged in places too.

[retroaviation]

It was a pretty useless day for me today. Didn't get much accomplished, other than a little work towards that second tailgunner's door. The majority of my work generally gets done in the God-awful hours of the morning, when nobody is here. That was pretty much the case today. Once 8:00 hit, I was essentially worthless to the project. Just lots of clerical work, along with hunting parts, driving all over town to get paint, t-shirt orders, and other non-Crew Chief related items (we just don't have any local Squadron members that help us with those things ).

I also spent a large portion of the morning helping Mark move airplanes around to make room for this weekend's hangar event. This time it's the Midland Symphony. They are great folks and all, but my work day tomorrow will be shut down from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. (for rehearsal) and then from 5 p.m. until whenever. I'm rarely here that late at night, but the volunteers (supposed to have 8 of them tomorrow driving in from out of town) were wanting to work late. It sucks when we actually get folks that want to help and I have to tell them they can't. But that's just how it goes. There are some great perks to being based at CAF HQ, but these events are certainly one of the drawbacks for me.

Anyway, enough whining. Here's what little bit I did manage to get done today........

The first part of the project for the doors was to cut some rollers off of the bomb doors. And yes, I still have to talk myself into actually cutting them off, but I do have some of the "unmolested" rollers set aside for duplication later............




The next step was to drill a hole in the center of the arm so that it can be tapped for the retaining screw. Note the tape on the drill bit. This is my "depth guage" so that all of the rollers are drilled and tapped to the same dimensions........






And then I just started tapping the holes for 10-32 threads. I personally don't care for the standard tap handles that most tap & die sets come with, so a long time ago, I purchased a special set of sockets that are made where their sole purpose in life is to hold a tap. Just one of those personal preferences. For me, it makes the process go quicker. It's also important to know that when tapping threads like this, you need to keep the tap lubricated and to only go a thread or two, then back the tap off, then go another thread or two, then back it off, and so on until you've gone as far as needed. It's really not rocket science..........




So that's it. I told you it was a pretty uneventful day. Jim Ballard was able to finish up all of the electrical issues that we had and is leaving tonight. I'll get here early and try to get something done with my door before we get shut down for "quiet time" tomorrow........again.

Gary

[peter]

Not only did you get some work done on the turrett doors, you waded through your emails especally from me!