1/48 Monogram B-26 Marauder

[ghodges]

With the news of a new 1/48 B-26 Marauder on the horizon (now just released), I decided I'd build my old Monogram kit that had been languishing in my stash for many years. It's mostly OTB, except for some resin replacement engine cowlings I had in the box' as well as adding some MV lenses for the wing lights and IFF lights, adding clear colored plastic wing tip lights, and substituting some spare resin gun barrels for the kit ones. I also had an Eduard masking set which came in quite handy.

The interior is OOTB. The big silver thingy is a Terry Dean nose weight I bought years ago, designed specifically for the kit.

The entire model was rescribed using a razor saw for the fuselage and a UMM scriber for the wings and tailplanes. The shiny patches on the kit plastic are due to brushing some Testors liquid cement in the scribe lines to clean them out after the initial sanding. The kit has a bad rep for bad fit, but the only true problem were the extensions on the wing tops for the tops of the nacelles. Both of them simply needed to be gently bent downward (it did create stress marks in the plastic) and then they fit the nacelles quite well. The rest of the seams were average to good, but with no real fit problems, including all of the clear parts. I did, however, use UV cured clear resin for all of the fuselage windows except for the radio/navigator's right side window with the bubble. Also note the wire sticking out of the nose glazing. All of the kit guns were modified with either drilled holes or wire extensions so that the all of the gun barrels could be added at the end of the project. The pink stuff is Silly Putty being used to mask the exposed main gear, which have to be added before adding the underside wing nacelles. The 1-piece replacement resin cowls can also ne seen here. Everything else about the build was straightforward. Clear packing tape was used for the wing leading edges in place of the plastic kit parts.

On to the finished pics!

I used Alclad Gray Primer for the underside and Model Master 34086 Dark OD for the top, with 34087 OD used for some lighter panel variations. Tamiya brown panel line wash was used and some MIG powders brushed on for additional streaking and for the exhaust staining. The chipping was done with a small sponge and also with a silver colored pencil. I added D-Day stripes because I liked their look, though the decal sheet doesn't show them. The markings for Valkyrie were from Cutting Edge.

Got this one done just in time before the new kit is being built by everyone else! Questions, critiques, and comments welcome, as always.

 

Gil 

 

 

[wdedig]

Nicely Done Gil. Actually in Time for the 80th Day Anniversary . Challenging kit but a few swipes of the Sanding sticks.

😊

Cheers

Bill

[Ron Bell]

I like when the "old" kit is displayed next to a "new" one and the "old" one looks better and your's sure would. Excellent work, as usual.