Invader Ahoy! ICM B-26B-15 1/48

[AaronKSJ]

Ahoy. 

I've not posted anything for a good few months now. But have started slowly working away on the B-26B kit from ICM that winged its way to me at Christmas.

I've always been a fan of the twin engine WWII American planes and I have fond memories of the Monogram B-26C kit I made as a kit. So this one was a must for me. 

Bought some pre painted Eduard seat belts to spruce the interior up a tad and that'll be it for aftermarket goodies - unless I spot any decals for a nice NMF that change my mind. 
 

 

 

 

Fuselage was glued together last night, opted to glue the interior bulkhead bits into one side first and make sure everything lined up. The nose wheel doors were a little faffy. I decided it was best to glue them to the underside of the pilots floor rather than the fuselage sides as ICM suggests. Seams look reasonable with no big steps / gaps. 

But did dry fit the nose section and the join there looks like it's going to be right pain with some steps either side. 

Also just realised I've forgotten to add the decal to instrument panel 🤦‍♂️
Note sure if I'll try and squeeze that in now or just leave it. 

Thanks for looking.

 

Aaron
 

Edited March 17, 2020 by AaronKSJ

[Markh-75]

Sorry, but i cant get your pictures to open.

[GRIM REAPER]

Just a heads up. The engine nacelles are tricky. I had a huge gap and a decent step to deal with. Ultimately, that's what stalled my build. However, the wings go together wonderfully!

[Markh-75]

Strangely enough I can see the pictures on my phone; some cracking work there; I recently built an A-26B in 1:72 but there is only so much detail I can do in 1:72. I’ll keep an eye on this build!👍

[Shorty84]

The ICM Invader is a kit I'm quite interested in so I will follow your efforts.

 

Cheers

Markus

[AaronKSJ]

17 hours ago, Markh-75 said:

Sorry, but i cant get your pictures to open.

Might be worth trying a different internet browser on your computer if you can see them on the phone? 
 

 

15 hours ago, Markh-75 said:

cracking work there

Thank you kindly!

 

 

16 hours ago, GRIM REAPER said:

Just a heads up. The engine nacelles are tricky.

Thanks for the heads up! I got the wings glued together last night (which was all I manged! ) And did a dry fit with the nacelles and yes, did look a little iffy.

 

 

15 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

The ICM Invader is a kit I'm quite interested in so I will follow your efforts.

Welcome along.

This is the first ICM kit I've built. Reminds in terms of quality / fitting to the few Hobby Boss kits I built last year (F4F & P-38) The plastic is fairly flexible. And it could do with some more locating pegs in some areas. 
But that's me being overly critical and a result of building to many Tamiya and Eduard kits. 

I'm not entirely sure how I'll deal with the nose fitment issue - will post a picture tonight if I get a chance. In hindsight it looks like I maybe should have thinned down the width of the cockpit floor / rear wall to allow the fuselage to be a tad narrower. 

I was going through my modelling suppliers last night and ordered some more black primer so that should see me through for a while. (admittedly I was at first just looking at model kits before realising I should check my basic stock of glue / paint / etc as I have enough kits to see me through 12 months! ) 
Has anyone else starting checking to see what essential supplies they need? 

Aaron

 

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by AaronKSJ

[Markh-75]

The phone uses the same browser.

 

note to self; need liquid poly soon.

[AaronKSJ]

Afternoon All.

Hope everyone is keeping well.

I've been working slowly but surely on the B-26 (and a 1/35 Churchill...) so thought I'd post a brief update and some snaps.
 

 

 

 

The nose seems to be a bit warped as it was too narrow horizontally and wider than it should have been vertically. Pinching it while gluing in place sorted out a lot of the issue but there was still a step on the underside and needed blending in and a tad of filler all the way around the join. 

Fit was a bit iffy around the rear of the nacelles and the ventral turret.

I've been trying to sort out all the seams as it's going to be a NMF but still think there's a lot of imperfections that are going to show up.

Speaking of NMF - I've got a bare metal silver Tamiya rattle can to use. I don't have anything else suitable really (aside from some XF-16) 
Will be interesting to see how that sprays.  

The engines in this kit are lovely. Includes a jig to properly align the exhausts which is nice. But the whole construction is fairly delicate! 

At the moment everything is ready for some black primer (Vallejo Mecha) which should go down tonight with a bit of luck.

Gun barrels have been drilled out. Canopy has been masked with Tamiya tape and a fresh #11 Xacto 
And tried my best to rescribe some detail back in to the tyres. 

Aaron 

 

[AaronKSJ]

I have  spent a lot of time over the past 2 weeks spraying paint and then sanding it off again 🤬

After doing various primes and re sanding had a bash with a rattle can of Tamiya AS-12. I really should have decanted the paint first. At one point the can spluttered and left a mess across the top wings. 

Left to dry and sanded back. Decided I needed something else to use after that. Opted for AK Xtreme and ordered a few shades of aluminium and the thinner / cleaner.

Got the first coat of Xtreme on this afternoon. Sorry not the best picture!
 

Pleased with how it's looking so far. 

If anyone has used Xtreme before - can you tell me if it will be ok to use an oil wash (artist odourless spirits) Or will it need sealing first? 

 

 

[BKirwan]

That thing is a monster. The Invader is big in 1:72 but in 1:48 thats gonna take up a lot of shelf space. 

 

Looking forward to seeing how this develops. Its looking pretty good. 

[SAT69]

For all the problems the kit is giving you, the photos show you're overcoming the difficulties very well. That's going to be a beauty when it's finished.

[AaronKSJ]

11 hours ago, BKirwan said:

That thing is a monster

Oh yes. But it's going to look great next to my 1/48 Black Widow 😁

 

 

6 hours ago, SAT69 said:

you're overcoming the difficulties very well

Thanks I also do have a tendency to moan. 


Got a second layer of aluminium AK Xtreme on yesterday and then sealed with a coat of Future.
 

Now that the aluminium is on, I'm starting to really enjoy this model again. While that was drying did a little work on the undercarriage and props. 

I have been trying to track down a photo of the actual plane I'll be doing (3rd option that comes with the kit - from 47th Bomb Group Italy) But no such look.

Did come across a small image that I think came from a Squadron book on the A-26. If anyone happens to have a copy and could take a picture of it that would be great - as it looks like there's something written above the nose art that isn't on the decals with the kit and also curious about the olive drab anti glare panels on the engine cowlings.
Looks like they varied in between being 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and even 3/4 painted in some of the pictures. 

Doesn't help that the painting instructions show 1/4, and the box artwork show 1/3. 
If anyone can give me a definitive answer that would be great Otherwise I'll go with 1/4. 


Aaron

 

[Markh-75]

If you look up Kermit Weeks on YouTube he goes to see an A-26 restoration that has the periscope and has a choice of three different noses! He has an original B-24 in his museum with the original turrets, there is a walk around video of that too. Take a look.

[AaronKSJ]

@Markh-75 Thanks for the tip - had a quick flick through his channel - I'll be sure to watch through the A-26 ones at some point (I'm pretty sure I'll build the A-26C version that ICM are releasing at some point too) 

Last night after I stopped getting distracted by my Spitfire build I got on with masking the anti-glare panels
 

This was my first attempt at salt chipping. Found that I ended up with a few big clumps of salt grains so stabbed at them a bit with a paint brush.

Here's the result
 

A little overdone for my liking but at least I've actually tried the technique now! And think it looks better than my paint brush chipping would have done. 

After this pic was taken, added a few more scratches with a tooth pick to a few areas that looked a bit bare. 

This mornings job is to get the decals on and another squirt of clear coat. 

Aaron 

[Markh-75]

Good paint effect! Gotta admit that the most I do for effect is black trails from the guns and exhausts, but that’s the thing about modelling, each to their own , for taste and looks! 😀

Edited April 16, 2020 by Markh-75

[Markh-75]

Weeks has an impressive collection of older and vintage aircraft and I watched him fly a Grumman Duck which is a model I made recently! I didn’t know there were any still flying! He took from the airstrip, landed and took off from water and back to the airstrip. Unusual looking aircraft but I’m glad they still fly them. (I’ll end here, turn the spotlight back to your A-26). 😂 

[AaronKSJ]

On 16/04/2020 at 09:10, Markh-75 said:

Weeks has an impressive collection of older and vintage aircraft and I watched him fly a Grumman Duck which is a model I made recently!

Ooo I do like the Duck. How was the model? 
 

Got all of the Decals on yesterday. It required a bit of detective work as ICM provide a bunch of the smaller stencils but then the instructions tell you where they should go. 
Helpful. 

So I grabbed a copy of the Revell A-26 1/48 kit instructions from Scalemates and then found a large good quality photo of the Revell decals from a review site so I could figure it out from there.

With nearly all of the decal on, gave it another coat of Klear / Pledge stuff. This morning while I've been able to grab a few minutes between work have painted the machine guns (all 18!) and the antenna (realised this morning I've attached the wrong one for my scheme, but oh well) 

I'm going to hold off on weathering until tomorrow to give the Klear coat plenty of time to cure. 

Thanks for stopping by


Aaron

[Markh-75]

Ah! Remember my Douglas A-20 Havoc build? These are the same Decals for your A-26 (only bit bigger), 38th Sqdn! It’s coming on now! Excellent job.👍

[Markh-75]

The Duck model was a tad fidgety once it was time to fit the lower wings, as I had to make sure it sat level and then set the wings level so I could glue them It was my first biplane and as I have big tree trunk fingers and the model being 1:72 kinda made it a challenge but I just relaxed and took my time and it came out very nice; despite having to cut back the wing struts for the upper wing by about 4mm go get the height correct, also, one of the big N outer wing struts was broken and had be glued before it could be fitted. It’s a nice little kit, you can find my build for it and my A-20 in RFI! I built the duck while I waited for the paint to arrive for the A-20.

[AaronKSJ]

@Markh-75 I did track down the models in RFI

Do love a A-20! (I recently tracked down an original AMT boxing of their A-20J at the IMPS show in Halifax) 



I've managed to get a lot done on the A-26 over the last few days.

After letting the Klear coat dry - attacked the panel lines with a mix of Winsor & Newton Payne's Grey and black as I found the grey on it's own when thinned turns fairly blue-ish. 

Undercarriage was a little bit a pain to fit as the wheel struts need a bit of twisting and a shove to get them into place. 
This did result in me breaking off one of the doors. There was a lot of swearing. But it's fine now! 

I'd say be careful with the nacelle doors as the doors are moulded as one piece connected to a bit of internal framework which also includes the locating parts for the undercarriage struts. There are not any locating pins for getting the placement of the doors/frame into place within the nacelles. I opted for gluing the front and rear bulkheads into place first which helped. 

Anyhow I started the exhaust staining. First off was a layer of Tamiya smoke X-19 sprayed in wide streaks. Then mixed up some Tamiay rubber black and black and tried to spray some finer more controlled lines. Emphasis on "tried". And then dabbed a bit of dark brown pastel chalk near the exhausts. 
As usually I think I was a little heavy handed, but still pretty please with the effect. 

Scrubbed a bit of black pastel chalk into the wing route area and around the nose guns. 

It's then been sealed a coat of Mr Hobby flat. Was really umming and ahhing about doing this given the NMF but the Tamiya smoke is a gloss finish. 
I think in future NMF builds I'll have to avoid the smoke paint - unless mixing it with Tamiya flat vanish works. 

Props had their decals added this morning and they'll get a flat coat later today

Pictures! 

  

And look! It's not a tail-sitter. Huzzah.
 

Canopy masking removed. A few small spots of paint bleed, sorted out with a wooden toothpick. 

So yeah, that's it near enough done. 

I'm not sure if I should try any more weathering as not really sure what to do. 

I'll post some more pictures once the props are in place. 

Thanks for stopping by

Aaron

[hopkp]

1 hour ago, AaronKSJ said:

I'm not sure if I should try any more weathering as not really sure what to do. 
 

Really nice job, weathering looks fine to me - if it was mine I'd put it on the shelf and leave it alone!

[Tzulscha]

Looks good!

So much nicer than the old Monogram kit.

[AaronKSJ]

Added a few more tiny touches and calling it done! I'll get some photos of it tomorrow when it's not blowing a gale outside.

For now it's been added it to shelf of twin engines American beasties

Got an Accurate Miniatures B-25 and AMT A-20 to add to that shelve at some point. I do keep on putting off the B-25 as it's such a nice kit and I don't want to make a mess of it. 
 

Thanks for looking

Aaron

[Markh-75]

Splendid work 👍 I think it looks perfick the way it is, don’t wanna overdo it, overkill it. Looks good next to the P-61! Got a P-61 to make myself. I'll also be looking for a B-25 in the not too distant; i have a die-cast B-26 on order but might make a model of one to tide me over before that.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Markh-75

[hopkp]

2 hours ago, AaronKSJ said:

Added a few more tiny touches and calling it done! I'll get some photos of it tomorrow when it's not blowing a gale outside.

For now it's been added it to shelf of twin engines American beasties

Got an Accurate Miniatures B-25 and AMT A-20 to add to that shelve at some point. I do keep on putting off the B-25 as it's such a nice kit and I don't want to make a mess of it. 
 

Thanks for looking

Aaron

Nice looking shelf! Is the P-61 the Great Wall Hobby kit or the old Revell/Monogram one?