Matt B

I checked Hannants last night and see they now list several Eduard sets due to be released in June. So far it looks like a few mask sets, a Space set which I assume is for the cockpit, a PE nose and cockpit interior set, a seatbelt set and another PE set that I can't tell what its for. I would assume at some point we'll see PE for the bomb bay and waist and probably some Brassin engines and wheels. https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=&product_type_id=&code=&scale_id=955&keyword_search=B-26+marauder&setPerPage=25&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search=

And another photo showing the waist gun ammo belts going upward.

Detail for the top turret and tail guns is very well done, save for the absence of the ammo belts. Looking at photos of both, I'm not sure much can be improved upon the kit besides the ammo. In terms of aftermarket sets, it might take a little bit for the usual companies to catch up. I remember when HK released their 1/48 B-17 and all that was out there at the time for AM was for the Monogram kit, but now there's ton's of various sets geared toward the HK kits. I expect we'll have plenty of aftermarket for ICM's B-26 but who knows when we'll see it. For the tail guns, the boxes won't be visible unless you choose to cut open the door in bulkhead C2. Starting with block B-45 the secondary bomb bay was sealed shut and used for ammo storage. So while on the kit it looks like the ammo rails stop at that bulkhead, in real life they went through the bulkhead to the ammo boxes that would've been found in what was previously the secondary bomb bay. What they looked like, I dont know. Ammo for the waist guns was housed in boxes mounted at the top of the fuselage above the sliding doors. Although not visible in this photo, you can see ammo belts heading upward. For the flexible nose gun, the ammo box was on the right side of the nose and almost appears to be bolted to the plexiglass in this photo. But it could very well be attached some other way. As for the package guns, I'm not entirely sure on those yet. Best I've seen so far is a cutaway drawing that makes it look like there were ammo boxes underneath tables in the navigator/radio operator compartment behind the cockpit.

Nice to see how this goes together. The main area I was interested in was the multipiece cowling and I'm glad to see there's no major issues with it. Good call on the wheel bay interior color. Color photos do not show any interior green in there, especially on the gear bay doors. Another callout that appears to be incorrect (at least for camouflaged aircraft) is natural steel for the landing gear legs. On OD/NG aircraft they were neutral gray, like on camouflaged B-17s. I'm not sure if this changed once camouflage was dropped in production. There's a very good chance they stopped painting gear legs when they stopped painting the exterior of the aircraft. In the case of B-26B-55s, camo was deleted in the factory starting with serial number 42-96219. All aircraft with a serial lower than that that are seen without camo in photographs would've been delivered in OD/NG but then stripped per a USAAF directive. So even if a plane dropped its camo, it could've still had painted gear legs. Not every group closely followed that directive though, which led to the numerous interesting camo schemes seen on B-26s.

As @Wez said, it depends, but almost all photos of E's I've seen don"t have them. Personally, I'd probably leave them off, but its up to you. Two modified F-84Es were the first aircraft to test in flight refueling, but I don't think that practice was really utilized a ton in Korea. Some Es did get fitted for probes, but the probes were removable so even if a plane was fitted for them, they wouldn't have them attached all the time. From what I've read, it seems in flight refueling was more common with Gs since that variant had provisions for refueling built into the airframe from the get go (receptacle in the left wing to accept the "boom" system).

A small L-shaped one was added to the bottom of the nose just forward of the nose gear doors. ICM has molded this to the left fuselage half, so @Tokyo Raider I forgot to mention you'll want to clip that off for Flak Bait.

The left wingtip is out of view, but you can clearly make out the pitot tube on the right wing of Flak Bait in this photo. The plane in the background is a G-5, so it lacks a pitot tube in the right wing.

If you're building Flak Bait, leave them on. She was a B-26B-25-MA and photos of other planes in that block show the pitot tubes present. ICM's kit represents the last B production block (B-55) and judging from photos, it appears this was the first B block to drop the pitot tubes as I found photos of B-50s with them. The B-55s lacked them as well as the Fs, but then production of the G brought back one in the left wing. Also note that from the factory, Flak Bait would have had the fixed .50 cal in the right side of the nose, but this was removed at some point during her career as it is not present in any photos I've found. This was removed from production midway through the B-45 block and many planes that were fitted with them had them removed. So if you were building Flak Bait early in her career, you'd probably want the gun installed, but my guess is you'll be doing her in her full regalia of mission markers, so building the nose per the instructions is the way to go. Same goes for the add on armor on the left side of the nose. This was not factory fitted until the B-30 block, but Flak Bait clearly had it added at some point.

Worry not! Bs and Cs were virtually identical. Bs were built at the main Martin facility in Baltimore, Maryland while the C designation was given to aircraft built at Martin’s new plant in Omaha, Nebraska that was built at the onset of the war. While some early Bs had the shorter wingspan from earlier models, all Cs were built with the longer 71 foot wingspan introduced in the B-26B-10-MA block. You’ll just want to be sure you build an aircraft that was Block 20 or higher. This was the block for both Bs and Cs that introduced the Bell power tail turret found in the ICM kit. From Block 20 on, the changes made to both Bs and Cs in subsequent blocks were mostly internal with no more major exterior visual differences (EDIT: except for the addition of the curved armor plating on the left side of the nose that is present on the kit. This was added in Block 30 on both models).

Having an issue trying to decide. Not pictured: two Monogram PBYs, a Hobby Boss TBF and a couple Eduard Wildcats. I think I want to do two….an F3F and either a yellow wing Vindicator or a pre Midway Devastator. Of course I need to finish an F-84 and two Mustangs first…

Revell's 1/48 B-17F had them. I still remember the finicky attachment of the bombs to them building it with my Dad as a kid.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/822-p-51-mustang-stgb-5/

Top of the main page right below the GB name. March 9th to June 9th.

Added a couple books to my collection recently. The Pioneer Mustang Group was larger than I realized as it’s nearly twice as thick as all my other Schiffer books, but is a good read so far. I haven’t really read much on the 9th Air Force before, so it’s quite interesting. And then Badger Aces, which is only available locally, has been fascinating and super helpful in my quest to learn more about the pilots from my home state. Although Wisconsin pilots account for only 3% of all US aces, they hold claim to the highest scoring in Richard Bong and the most recent and last active one in Jeffrey Feinstein. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I’ve been able to obtain decal markings for a decent number of pilots profiled in the book.

I'm in the US and preordered with Squadron. I havnt gotten a shipping notification yet, just the invoice. The website said expected release is the 31st.