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Eduard (Hasegawa) 1/72 B-26 Marauder "Hangover Hut"


elger

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My next project involves building Eduard's reboxing of the Hasegawa 1/72 B-26, to be built as "Hangover Hut".

 

During the Second World War, the airfield at Leeuwarden (the city where I work) was an important, strategically located Luftwaffe fighter base from the very start of the occupation during the Second World War. It received only minor attention from the Allied air forces until Thursday February 24th, 1944 - when B-26 Marauders of the 556th Bomb Squadron paid the airfield a visit. This photo was featured in the New York Times a few days later.

 

asyYspW.jpg

 

The bombardment was part of "Big Week". Summed up by Wikipedia, "Big Week or Operation Argument was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the European strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. The planners intended to attack the German aircraft industry to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle where the Luftwaffe could be damaged so badly that the Allies would achieve air superiority which would ensure success of the invasion of continental Europe."

 

V3FX4z9.png

 

Overall, the attack was deemed a success. Many buildings were destroyed, at least 4 aircraft parked on the ground were destroyed, runways were damaged, and 10 military personnel were killed. Using forced labor (1500 local civilians), the airfield was operational again after about 2 weeks, but never went back to full strength.

 

On September 11th, 1944 the airfield was bombed by B-26 Marauders again, and on September 16th 5 Mosquitos and 21 Lancasters of the RAF bombed the airfield a third time. For a short while it seemed the Germans had lost interest in the airfield, but after the Allied failure of operation Market Garden there was renewed interest, and by the end of 1944 the airfield had been repaired once again including a new runway. The airfield was bombed again on November 21st, 1944, but again attempts at repair were made. The Luftwaffe continued to make use of the airfield until almost the very end of the occupation, it being referred to as "noch unzerstört" (not yet destroyed) in official documents by March 30 1945. The Luftwaffe finally abandoned the airfield and destroying its main features on April 9th, 1945.

But the bombardment of February 1944 signaled the beginning of the end. There was some "collateral damage" as it would be called today; not all bombs hit the military target but destroyed surrounding houses. Six civilians were killed in nearby Beetgum: Tjeerd Dijkstra (71); Janke Hovinga-Douma (63); Antje Faber (1); Rinske Faber-de Haan (31); Sjuk de Vries (76) and Hendrik Wolfslag (57).

 

D77Zqcw.jpg

 

After emailing with some of the folks of the website B26.com, I learned that the aircraft featured most prominently in these photos is B-26 41-31694 "Hangover Hut"

 

I4MCBn7.jpg

 

During the mission to Leeuwarden, the aircraft was most likely flown by its regular crew:

Pilot 1st Lt. William H Sanders; Co-pilot 2nd Lt Edwin J. Anderson; Bombardier/Navigator 2nd Lt. Carl M. Caudill; Engineer S/Sgt Raymond E. Vogel; Radio Operator T/Sgt. Benjamin Costello, Jr.; Gunner PFC Joseph A. Alfree; tail gunner T/Sgt. Thomas F. Coughlin

 

As mentioned at the opening, I'm going to be building Eduard's reboxing of the excellent Hasegawa kit. Hasegawa's B-26 kit came out in the 2000s but has been out of production since and has been very hard to obtain. So I was happy that Eduard came out with this in 2020- featuring some photoetch and resin tires. It also comes with a big decal sheet - that I won't be using.

k3R6MVo.jpg

 

4d7n1eG.jpg

 

Unusual for my projects but a decal set for "Hangover Hut" exists - this old Super Scale sheet was kindly sold to me for a reasonable price by a member of this forum.

 

nCRA93w.jpg

 

I treated myself to a Scale Aircraft Conversions white metal landing gear set mainly to get the cockpit floor and rear bulkhead so that I won't have to add so much weight. I also had the CMK B-26 detail set, which comes in handy because I think that the seats and especially the yokes from that set are more accurate than what comes in the kit.

 

8luxFuK.jpg

 

The Eduard kit comes with some lovely photoetch which I used to enhance the machine guns

 

hIjSnF0.jpg

 

I do think that Eduard's colour suggestion for the interior is entirely wrong; Eduard suggests interior green but based on discussions on various forums (including this one) and photos of the interior of "Flak Bait" I'm going to go for an olive drab front cockpit interior, black floor, and neutral metal rear section of the fuselage. Therefore I'm repainting some of the Eduard PE bits for the cockpit, and I added something to suggest the fabric padding made from wine bottle foil with added texture made by rolling the back of a knife holder on it.

 

HiXE0BG.jpg

 

I've added some primer to all the interior parts today, and hope to paint and finish the interior over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for looking - comments and feedback are always welcome.

 

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2 hours ago, elger said:

My next project involves building Eduard's reboxing of the Hasegawa 1/72 B-26, to be built as "Hangover Hut".

 

During the Second World War, the airfield at Leeuwarden (the city where I work) was an important, strategically located Luftwaffe fighter base from the very start of the occupation during the Second World War. It received only minor attention from the Allied air forces until Thursday February 24th, 1944 - when B-26 Marauders of the 556th Bomb Squadron paid the airfield a visit. This photo was featured in the New York Times a few days later.

 

asyYspW.jpg

 

The bombardment was part of "Big Week". Summed up by Wikipedia, "Big Week or Operation Argument was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the European strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. The planners intended to attack the German aircraft industry to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle where the Luftwaffe could be damaged so badly that the Allies would achieve air superiority which would ensure success of the invasion of continental Europe."

 

V3FX4z9.png

 

Overall, the attack was deemed a success. Many buildings were destroyed, at least 4 aircraft parked on the ground were destroyed, runways were damaged, and 10 military personnel were killed. Using forced labor (1500 local civilians), the airfield was operational again after about 2 weeks, but never went back to full strength.

 

On September 11th, 1944 the airfield was bombed by B-26 Marauders again, and on September 16th 5 Mosquitos and 21 Lancasters of the RAF bombed the airfield a third time. For a short while it seemed the Germans had lost interest in the airfield, but after the Allied failure of operation Market Garden there was renewed interest, and by the end of 1944 the airfield had been repaired once again including a new runway. The airfield was bombed again on November 21st, 1944, but again attempts at repair were made. The Luftwaffe continued to make use of the airfield until almost the very end of the occupation, it being referred to as "noch unzerstört" (not yet destroyed) in official documents by March 30 1945. The Luftwaffe finally abandoned the airfield and destroying its main features on April 9th, 1945.

But the bombardment of February 1944 signaled the beginning of the end. There was some "collateral damage" as it would be called today; not all bombs hit the military target but destroyed surrounding houses. Six civilians were killed in nearby Beetgum: Tjeerd Dijkstra (71); Janke Hovinga-Douma (63); Antje Faber (1); Rinske Faber-de Haan (31); Sjuk de Vries (76) and Hendrik Wolfslag (57).

 

D77Zqcw.jpg

 

After emailing with some of the folks of the website B26.com, I learned that the aircraft featured most prominently in these photos is B-26 41-31694 "Hangover Hut"

 

I4MCBn7.jpg

 

During the mission to Leeuwarden, the aircraft was most likely flown by its regular crew:

Pilot 1st Lt. William H Sanders; Co-pilot 2nd Lt Edwin J. Anderson; Bombardier/Navigator 2nd Lt. Carl M. Caudill; Engineer S/Sgt Raymond E. Vogel; Radio Operator T/Sgt. Benjamin Costello, Jr.; Gunner PFC Joseph A. Alfree; tail gunner T/Sgt. Thomas F. Coughlin

 

As mentioned at the opening, I'm going to be building Eduard's reboxing of the excellent Hasegawa kit. Hasegawa's B-26 kit came out in the 2000s but has been out of production since and has been very hard to obtain. So I was happy that Eduard came out with this in 2020- featuring some photoetch and resin tires. It also comes with a big decal sheet - that I won't be using.

k3R6MVo.jpg

 

4d7n1eG.jpg

 

Unusual for my projects but a decal set for "Hangover Hut" exists - this old Super Scale sheet was kindly sold to me for a reasonable price by a member of this forum.

 

nCRA93w.jpg

 

I treated myself to a Scale Aircraft Conversions white metal landing gear set mainly to get the cockpit floor and rear bulkhead so that I won't have to add so much weight. I also had the CMK B-26 detail set, which comes in handy because I think that the seats and especially the yokes from that set are more accurate than what comes in the kit.

 

8luxFuK.jpg

 

The Eduard kit comes with some lovely photoetch which I used to enhance the machine guns

 

hIjSnF0.jpg

 

I do think that Eduard's colour suggestion for the interior is entirely wrong; Eduard suggests interior green but based on discussions on various forums (including this one) and photos of the interior of "Flak Bait" I'm going to go for an olive drab front cockpit interior, black floor, and neutral metal rear section of the fuselage. Therefore I'm repainting some of the Eduard PE bits for the cockpit, and I added something to suggest the fabric padding made from wine bottle foil with added texture made by rolling the back of a knife holder on it.

 

HiXE0BG.jpg

 

I've added some primer to all the interior parts today, and hope to paint and finish the interior over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for looking - comments and feedback are always welcome.

 

 

Excellent presentation

well done

PM

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Nice project with a Wespennest Leeuwarden background Elger,

The museum I work for (ARG1940-1945.nl) covers the North Holland area and many investigations we have done have that Leeuwarden link too as

the nightfighters were based at Leeuwarden and their sattelite airfield Bergen.

Following this one for sure.

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Finished the interior.

 

10qNbs2.jpg

 

Cockpit floor and rear bulkhead are white metal pieces from Scale Aircraft Conversions. The seats, the yokes, and the centre console are from the CMK detail set. The rest is from Eduard/Hasegawa.

 

uz6hrxq.jpg

 

Apparently the cockpit bulkheads of Flak Bait are partly metallic blue - blue tinted Lionoil so I tried to replicate that. I mixed my own metallic blue with Vallejo clear gloss, Vallejo metal medium, and a tiny drop of Vallejo blue, misted on in thin coats over the aluminium base coat. Weathering included using oil paints.

 

hk0N4Ka.jpg

 

The other colours are Mig Ammo, Vallejo, and Games Workshop. I used a mix of Future, water, and a drop of Vallejo black for the shadows. Finished with a coat of clear flat, but drops of clear gloss over the instrument faces.

 

AQsPm1X.jpg

 

PfuuMmi.jpg

 

WsOnmgw.jpg

 

Now I'm going to figure out if the Scale Aircraft Conversions white metal parts are enough weight to keep the nose down or if some more should be added. If it's necessary it's going to go in the radio operator's compartment - plenty of room there and all but invisible in the end.

 

Thanks for looking! Comments & feedback is always welcome of course.

 

 

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That instrument panel is gorgeous.  😍

 

The blue Lionoil initially seemed off-putting, but that's probably more my ignorance than the metallic blue being out of place.  I've stuck my head in Flak Bait's cockpit at NASM before, but there was no way for random visitors to see the bulkhead.  At that time I was unaware of Dana Bell's research and the modelling community in general was still deeply mired in the "American WWII aircraft were painted Zinc Chromate Interior Green on the inside" mindset; the various colours present on an unrestored survivor shook me out of that bit of lazy complacency.  

 

Your effort is probably as good as could ever be appreciated on a completed 1/72 Marauder.

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One snapshot of the rear fuselage interior from before I closed up the fuselage. I'm going to close it up and little of this will be seen.

 

o5992fK.jpg

 

Enhancing the landing gear bays with Eduard PE from their separate set.

 

bkZTmbd.jpg

 

Thanks for looking! Best wishes to everyone - specifically wishing you all a less weird 2021 :)

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Coming along nicely—like @Jackson Duvalier, I too did a double take when I saw your bulkheads, but then remembered the last time I saw the reassembly of Flack Bait from NAASM’s observation deck, I thought all the fuselage bulkheads ready for reassembly looked like darkened steel—your research and execution makes complete sense—Jackson Duvalier (awesome guy btw, he has helped me in the past) mentioned Dana Bell’s research—I am not familiar with Dana’s work on the B-26–any vectors?  Where did you find your info on the bulkheads— I would like to start building my bench of B-26 info & you clearly are on top of your game.  I can’t wait to see what you do with the wells!  Anyway, @elger, your build is awesome and I appreciate you sharing the info on the bulkhead—following with interest—best, Erwin 

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14 minutes ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Coming along nicely—like @Jackson Duvalier, I too did a double take when I saw your bulkheads, but then remembered the last time I saw the reassembly of Flack Bait from NAASM’s observation deck, I thought all the fuselage bulkheads ready for reassembly looked like darkened steel—your research and execution makes complete sense—Jackson Duvalier (awesome guy btw, he has helped me in the past) mentioned Dana Bell’s research—I am not familiar with Dana’s work on the B-26–any vectors?  Where did you find your info on the bulkheads— I would like to start building my bench of B-26 info & you clearly are on top of your game.  I can’t wait to see what you do with the wells!  Anyway, @elger, your build is awesome and I appreciate you sharing the info on the bulkhead—following with interest—best, Erwin 

 

The information was originally posted on Hyperscale. Here's a link in which Dana Bell's observations are quoted: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/correct-interior-colors-for-a-b-26-marauder-t161700.html

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Great stuff so far, my kind of build with a lot of historical context and attention to detail.  I don’t know a lot about the subject either, so looking forward to learning lots too.  

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I'm wondering about a few colour issues and I was hoping someone ( @Dana Bell perhaps?) could chip in. First a detail issue: what colour should the boarding ladder in the front wheel bay be? I'm going for aluminium overall in the wheel bays (maybe with a few zinc chromate elements), so would the ladder have been zinc chromate perhaps?

 

The other thing is the overall camouflage. I see that according to Eduard's instructions all the aircraft have medium green splotches of camouflage. Now the aircraft featured on Eduard's decal sheet are almost all from the 295 serial range, but Hangover Hut was an earlier model with a serial number starting with 131 (like Flak Bait). The question is simple: yes or no medium green splotches over the olive drab?

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Hello! 

 

I see that you have been up to some real good modelling. I've finished the Hasegawa kit last year and so far it's been the pride and joy of my modeling effort. 

Eduard boxing is definitely an improvement with resin tires and PE. 

I had a problem with dorsal turret base. The part of the decking towards the tail wasn't comforming to the fuselage, but had a 2mm gap that I had to prop up using a piece of plastic sprue. 

 

As far as interior painting goes I did the same thing only without the blue tinted metal. 

 

Josip

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I've finished my model as Valkyrie. According to my  research Marauders had nmf/silver painted undercarriage and wheel Wells, so I've painted my ladder accordingly. 

I don't know about your original aircraft, but I painted the wings and tails with medium green on the edges. 

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Hi Elger,

 

I never got a look at the boarding ladder, so I've no opinion on its color.  I had an invite to go document Flak Bait's colors back last January, but things got a bit crazy with the whole Covid thing and I haven't had a chance to get out to the Hazy Center.

 

B-26s were originally camouflaged with OD and Neutral Gray only; I'm not certain when the production orders added the Medium Green blotches.  Later camouflage (after OD was deleted from most other aircrafts' production lines) seemed to dispense with the Medium Green, and eventually the only factory-applied camouflage was OD on upper surfaces.  None of that is very helpful, but if you can see Medium Green on the vertical tail of the aircraft you're modeling, you can be certain it's also on the wings and stabilizers.

 

Good looking build so far!

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Dana

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