B-26 Marauder in 1/48 - Revellogram still the only game in town?

[lesthegringo]

I built one of these back in my teens, can't remember too much about it, but seeing one of the real aircraft in a news article made me wonder if it is still available. It is, obviously, but I was surprised to see that no one else has ever seemed to produce one.

I know it isn't a mainstream subject, but given the schemes available and the fact that over 5000 of them were built, I imagined that there would have been some interest in it

Cheers

Les

[Marcel]

Hi Les,

1/48 is not my cup of tea but a friend of mine used to have an Esci/Ertl one.

There is an interesting article here: http://www.swannysmodels.com/B26B.html

[lesthegringo]

Thanks, never hear of the Esci kit - in fact, never built one!

Les

[Fea]

Ayup..,

I have one 3/4 built from 2 years ago now. I've been trying to find an authentic D-Day scheme decal sheet but alas, no cigar... Fit such a popular aircraft there just doesn't seem to be anything for it in 48th... 😱

[Mike]

Still the only game in town at 1:48, but for its age, it's a pretty good kit. Getting pricey in the UK now, but there's a fair quantity of aftermarket for it still, although nothing major that I can remember. Must be due a release soon, or if we're very lucky some kind soul will retool it in 1:48 and possibly 1:32... in fact, the latter sounds somewhat familiar.

[bentwaters81tfw]

One sits by my bench at present. Have an 8th airforce event coming up in a few weeks and muggins is slaving over that, a B-17, B-24 and P-47, all in 1/48 to be ready for June 18th.

[Heraldcoupe]

It's a long time since I've seen the ESCI/ERTL kit, but if you could find one then it might be worth cross-kitting with the Monogram as it has much better detail, particularly internally. On it's own though, it suffers from massively oversized engine nacelles, they really let it down.

It's surprising there's not been a new Marauder, both of the existing options coming from the same era.

Cheers,

Bill.

[JohnT]

Still the only game in town at 1:48, but for its age, it's a pretty good kit. Getting pricey in the UK now, but there's a fair quantity of aftermarket for it still, although nothing major that I can remember. Must be due a release soon, or if we're very lucky some kind soul will retool it in 1:48 and possibly 1:32... in fact, the latter sounds somewhat familiar.

Mike

Somewhere on here a guy back (about 2 years ago?) said he might do one in 1/32 and I think he did some basic CAD drawings but heard no more

I think it's a natural for 1/32 given the amount you can pack into the half pint Fortress.

The 1/48 Monogram kit was quite decent and typical of their run of B-17, B-24, B-29 and Mitchell offerings, pretty good models for their day and still worth considering. Indeed in some cases still the only game in town.

[tonyot]

The old Esci kit does look a bit chunky compared to the Revell/Monogram kit. I built one years ago.

[lesthegringo]

Being a Monogram kit, I would expect raised panel lines, not my fave when it comes to sanding seams!

Les

[jpk]

I'm pretty sure the old ERTL/ESCI Marauder is the old AMT kit from the early 1970's. Stick with the Monogram kit.

[Heraldcoupe]

I'm pretty sure the old ERTL/ESCI Marauder is the old AMT kit from the early 1970's.

The other kit did appear in an AMT box, but I'm uncertain whose moulds they were. I believe the Monogram kit was released in 1978, this one appeared at around the same time.

Cheers,

Bill.

[tempestfan]

It was an original AMT kit, and both it and the Mono came out nearly concurrently, but I think a couple of years earlier than 78 (75 ?). It was boxed as an Esci kit after Ertl also had bought Esci, having swallowed AMT before. There were a couple more AMTs reboxed by Esci, like the superdreadful Tempest, P-36, Staggerwing, Reliant and Vega. But as has been said, the Mono kit is far superior. (There may have been something by Aurora in The Dark Age, too).

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

I've been rescribing my Monogram/Revell kit, off and one for the last few years. I have some etch and resin bits for it too, plus replacement vac canopy.

However as i really want to convert into an early RAF version - Its need some serious conversion work - or the short wing early tail Lonsestar conversion which is now OOP.

Ah well, one day.....

Jonners

[Troy Smith]

It was an original AMT kit, and both it and the Mono came out nearly concurrently, but I think a couple of years earlier than 78 (75 ?). It was boxed as an Esci kit after Ertl also had bought Esci, having swallowed AMT before. There were a couple more AMTs reboxed by Esci, like the superdreadful Tempest, P-36, Staggerwing, Reliant and Vega. But as has been said, the Mono kit is far superior. (There may have been something by Aurora in The Dark Age, too).

both the Monogram and AMT kit came out in 1978, I still have the Scale Models which reviewed both kit, which pointed out then that the Mono cowlings would fit into the AMT ones!

It also noted the AMT fuselage was fatter as well, but had a better interior.

I part did the Mono kit back then, and it required a lot of filling, wing to fuse and nacelles to wing, but these days I think much of that could be reduced do some careful assembly and scraping, I'd suggest not gluing the inner wing leading edge to allow it to line up on the upper surface, and fill the leading edge gap, rather than having to deal with the step if done the usual way.

HTH

T

[tempestfan]

It was exactly that review in SMI (by Jerry Scutts ?) I had in mind, but could have sworn it was earlier than '78. Apologies for thinking and being wrong with it... If I am right this time, I think the plastic in the Mono kit has rather thin sections, which may make them prone to warping especially if the injection and cooling parameters are not quite right. I recently received a 1/48 Revell F-16C (that dreadful Monogram "easy assembly" kit), and the large parts were banana-shaped, but not the smaller ones adjecent, so it can't have been heat exposition in storage (I think...again).

[bentwaters81tfw]

The only thin parts I have found are the props. One blade is a bit bent, and will need some warm water. Apart from that, it looks OK.

[Caerbannog]

The Monogram is one of the many on my shelf of doom. I fully recribed it and started to add Eduard PE stuff. I forgot why I stopped building it but it was nothing with the kit (I seem to remember now that I thought about adding an interior between the cockpit and the front bomb bay and in the second bombay but was fighting for reference and not sure if it really makes sense to add detail there...).

The only "bigger" issue are the cowlings - or IIRC the two intakes on the cowling which are a bit flat. There is/was a replacement set from Loon Models for these but I guess I can beef them up easily enough to avoid further investments in aftermarket stuff. Apart from the Eduard sets I invested in Quickboost engines and decals.

René

[Don McIntyre]

Yes Aurora did a 1/48 B-26. Definitely nothing to write home about, but for a lot of years it was the only game in town for a 1/48 B-26.

If you want something a little different, Lonestar Models has some conversion sets.

http://www.lonestarmodels.com/conversions-1-48.html

[Davidf66]

The Monogram B-26 is a nice kit, I made one years ago, didn't do anything special or add any aftermarket bits to it but I did rescribe the panel lines. I remember it being a fairly easy build as long as everything was test fitted. I believe it was also released by Revell a few years back. If you can still find them, Meteor Productions did a couple of sets of decals in their 'Pick Your Nose Art' series and I believe there may have been some done by Superscale or Xtradecal. Monogram also released the kit in a limited edition which actually had a bag of resin updates and some very nice decal options but this is super hard to find nowadays.

The 1/32nd model that was mentioned was supposed to have been produced by Wingscale but I believe that there were some problems between the owner of Wingscale and the Chinese company that was going to be tooling the moulds and producing the kits, I'm fairly certain that their first kit, which was going to be a B-25 Mitchell, was later released by Hong Kong Models.

Either way, I think we're long overdue a decent, modern tooling of the B-26 in both 1/48th and 1/32nd.

[pacificmustang]

Ayup..,

I have one 3/4 built from 2 years ago now. I've been trying to find an authentic D-Day scheme decal sheet but alas, no cigar... Fit such a popular aircraft there just doesn't seem to be anything for it in 48th...

Pretty sure I have some sitting in my decal drawer. let me have a look when I get home tomorrow

Bruce