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A-26 Invader (83213) 1:32


Mike

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A-26 Invader (83213)

1:32 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd

 

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The A-26 Invader underwent a confusing change of designation to B-26 Invader after 1948 by the US Air Force to confuse us (mainly me), and later on back to the A-26 just to complete my befuddlement.  It was developed a little later than the Marauder and despite using the same engines it was designed totally separately from its more rotund colleague.  It was designed to replace the A-20 Havoc, but it was initially less than popular in the Pacific theatre where its poor cockpit visibility due to the canopy and engine position rendered it unloved by the first users.  It was more popular in the European theatre and was accepted as replacement for the Havoc fairly quickly.

 

Two types were designed, The C with a glass-clad bomber nose and the B with a full metal nose filled with either 6 or 8 .50cal machine guns, which coupled with the three in each wing gave it quite a punch, deserving of the Strafer title.  It also had a pair of turrets on the fuselage mid-upper and dorsal positions, which were both operated by a single gunner using a complex remote mechanism that flipped between the upper and lower turrets depending on where the gunner was looking through his binocular sights.  This trained the guns accordingly and also calculated the correct offset for parallax and lead, but was very complex and caused some delays to it entering service, and even more issues with maintenance in the field.

 

After the war it served in Korea, early Vietnam engagements and other conflicts, ending its days in US service with the Air National Guard in the early 70s.  It continued in civilian service as a fire bomber and in other roles, such as actor in the film Always with Richard Dreyfuss playing its brave but ill-fated pilot.

 

 

The Kit

The Invader has been the subject of a few new kits recently, with this being a new addition that will please the 1:32 modeller, as it is the first in this scale, so it’s already the best injection moulded kit of the type in this scale!  This twin-engined aircraft is quite sizeable, but my 60cm photoboth can just about accommodate the largest sprues, which came in very handy.  The kit arrives in a large sturdy box with an internal divider keeping some of the smaller sprues safe from the weight of the other larger sprues during transit.  There are thirteen sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE), three black flexible tyres, two decal sheets, the instruction booklet and separate colour painting guide.  The sprues are individually bagged, and some of them have additional foam wrapping to protect either the parts under the wrapping, or the sprues that rest against them.  The clear parts and engine nacelle parts are bagged in bubble-wrap to keep them safe from harm, which although trivial from a modeller’s point of view is worth noting because it should result in fewer damaged of chaffed parts when they reach you.

 

The detail is good throughout, with engraved panel lines, small recessed rivets, raised parts where appropriate, and good detail within the fuselage halves where there are crew areas, all of which adds to realism and visual detail.  The bomb bay, cockpit, rear compartment, and three gear bays are all well-detailed from the box, and the clear parts will allow the modeller to show off their work thanks to impressive clarity of those parts.

 

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Construction begins with the nose gear bay, which begins with the roof and is boxed-in with the nose gear leg added along with the retraction jack that rests against a short cross-rib.  The cockpit is a separate area that sits above the nose bay, but has a gap between those two areas that could be stuffed with nose weight to prevent a tail-sitter.  The cockpit floor is filled with a centre console, a pair of multi-part seats with PE stiffener struts, twin control columns with separate yokes, a well-moulded instrument panel with decals included for the dials, rudder pedals, rear bulkhead and coaming over the panel.  The turret was operated remotely from within the airframe, and the gunner’s station is next to be built, having a good number of parts and a seat for the operator, then all sub-assemblies are put to one side while the bomb bay is made.  The bay walls are separate, and have bomb shackles added and five bombs per wall fitted (or otherwise) along with an insert within the fuselage, a couple of clear windows, the front bulkhead to the bay, and the nose gear bay.  More bulkheads and the cockpit are installed within the starboard side next, then with the fuselage inverted, another pair of bulkheads are installed, with a clear window in the nearest angled one to the gunner, so he can survey the bay after the bombing run to ensure all bombs really did leave together.  The turret mechanism, mount and ammo boxes are also inserted, plus a front bay lip to match the rear one, both having door opening mechanism fitted.  The port fuselage has a large insert fitted within the nose, then another bomb bay wall and windows are added in the same manner, allowing the closure of the fuselage.  After the glue is set up and the seams dealt with, the bomb bay and nose gear doors are able to be fitted, as is the rear glass for the gunner’s compartment, some small lights and various small intakes, aerials etc.  The glazing at the front encloses the cockpit, with no option of leaving the canopy open, then aft is the remote turret that has two .50cal machine guns and their ammo feeds fitted to the floor under its domed cowling, and a two-part cowled D/F loop behind the aft glazing.  The nose cone is a single part with eight holes that allow the nose gun muzzles to poke through from their bulkhead mounts, which isn’t accurate to the real thing, but is simply an expedient method of correctly aligning the gun muzzles.

 

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The radial engine is depicted with cooling vanes on each cylinder, and is mated to a featureless rear bulkhead, then joined to the reduction gear bell-housing, which fits to the engine on keyed pegs so that the ancillaries line up correctly.  The completed engine is slid into the single-part cowling, which have the cooling flaps moulded in the open position, so you’ll need to cut them off and reposition them if you plan on having them closed on a parked-up machine.  The single-piece prop slips over the axle to finish off the assembly, and of course two are required unless you want to fly round in circles. In anticipation of making the nacelles, the main gear bays are built next, having two fictional ribbed halves that close around the gear legs, which have a tough upper section mated to a keyed lower section and separate retraction arm added before they go in.  There is an Eduard set available that adds the missing bay edges that is perforated with highly visible lightening holes to help with the look of this area if it concerns you, and it also includes some extras for the nose gear bay.  These assemblies are closed in with a front bulkhead and have the “rubber” tyres fitted to two-part hubs installed on the stub-axles.  The bays are trapped inside the two nacelle halves, and have their bay doors added to each side of the aperture, then these too are set aside for a while.

 

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The first act on the wings is to pierce the flashed over holes for the variety of underwing stores that are provided in the box.  With this done, the upper and lower wings are joined and have their two-part flaps and ailerons fitted to the trailing edge, a clear light at the tip, landing light and reflector under the wing, and a choice of small bombs or twin “stafer” gun pods each with twin barrels under each wing.  The engine nacelles are also glued into place on their deeply recessed positions, then the fronts of the nacelles are added and the engine cowling assemblies are fitted into the three holes in the front, ensuring that the intake is to the top.  They attach to the fuselage on three tabs, and the last task is to install the rudder and the elevators, which all have separate flying surfaces.  Check your references to set the dihedral of the elevators correctly, as it is quite pronounced on this type.

 

Markings

As usual for Hobby Boss, they don’t tell you the date or location that the three decal options came from, but as there are three, that’s one or two more than you usually get.  All three options are silver, and have one French and two American airframes depicted.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

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Decals are usual HB standard, with the national markings, a few stencils and walkways included, plus a nice rendition of the instrument panel included.  The second sheet is postage stamp sized, and has a lady flying a bomb for the “Mission Completed” option, printed separately because of its use of completely different colours than the main sheet.

 

 

Conclusion

A brand new tooling that seems to have been afforded plenty of detail inside and out with the exception of the main gear bays that have been tooled simply to fill the gap and not for accuracy.  You’ll possibly want a little more choice of decal options if you’re not a fan of silver too.  If this is going to be a project model for you, there’s plenty of aftermarket already available, but don’t forget that nose gear weight before you close the fuselage.

 

Recommended.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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  • 1 year later...

Just been poring over my kit of this... it's a genuine curate's egg. It has nice details and definitely looks like an A-26, but trying to find a suitable subject will be virtually impossible. Certainly none of the provided decal options match what's actually in the kit 🤔 And then there's the whole thing with the engines...

 

You have to scratch your head and wonder what the kit designers used as a prototype, because it looks like it was designed by a committee working off three totally different airframes from different timelines! Without going into the dimensional issues (if you can live with those) you really need to fix the engines (totally the wrong type, the A-20's 14-cyl Twin Cyclone engines instead of the A-26's 18-cyl Double Wasp)  :hmmm: - various costly replacement options are available. Then either:

 

  • Keep the basic airframe to build the postwar French option, or use aftermarket decals for a USAF Korean War machine...but then it needs the blown clamshell-style canopy to match the rest of the airframe OR...
  • Keep the existing canopy and source/scratchbuild a six-gun nose and ventral turret to suit the wartime decal options (but would need to delete the extra set of cockpit seats/controls and source/modify the instrument panel.)

 

It's a mess for all but the most tolerant modeller, despite looking very nice as a kit product.

 

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