Pavla 1/72 Liberator GR Mk. V Conversion

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

Academy managed to produce several Liberator variants in 1/72, but there is still room for conversion sets to cover some of the lesser known Liberator aircraft. Just such a Liberator variant is the GR Mk. V, flown by the British during WWII. This variant was used for long range ASW work, and featured a wing searchlight and a couple radomes.

This conversion set is a very simple one, as all of the changes are external. The set is split between clear vacuformed parts and resin details. The tail turret is all new, with a resin base fitting into the vacuformed turret. Resin guns fit onto the turret piece to form the distinctive quad mount. Moving forward a bit, the rear under-fuselage radome is resin.

Going up front, the nose gets the majority of the conversion pieces, with all of them vacuformed. A new windscreen, fuselage windows, upper turret, and nose glazing are provided. The chin bulge is also vacuformed and separate. To finish this conversion, the searchlight for the starboard wing has a main body in resin, with separate struts and a separate clear front.

This is a simple conversion for a 1/72 Liberator kit, and one that opens up some great marking potential. If you have a spare B-24 kit lying around and do not want to finish it in olive drab or natural metal, this conversion will allow you to build it up and paint it white. My thanks to Pavla for the review sample.