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1/48 - Douglas B-26K Counter Invader by ICM - released


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3 hours ago, Scimitar F1 said:

I think they had the same wheels as the KC-135. Reskit to the rescue I hope

The new kit seems to have the correct wheels and as far as I know these wheels are late C119 sets ( so not the early ones) according to one of the men highly involved in restoring Special Kay says it has C119 reference partnumbers....
They also measured the real C-135 wheel/tyre combination and that would not fit their Counter Invader
So we/they don’t know were the reference come from that they should be C-135 Wheels.

The only thing that could have happened is that those wheels/rims albeit with a different type of rubber tyre are the same as on the C-135 but that doesn’t explain why the have C-119 reference partnumbers.
Cutting edge made them once for the Counter Invader and they where also marketed as 1/48 C135 wheels but that wasn’t correct , I have one of those wheelsets and they are Counter Invader wheels ..The rubber tyre should have had a way bigger tire around the and they should not fit the wheel wells on the Counter Invader..

 

cheers, Jan

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1 hour ago, janneman36 said:

The new kit seems to have the correct wheels and as far as I know these wheels are late C119 sets ( so not the early ones) according to one of the men highly involved in restoring Special Kay says it has C119 reference partnumbers....
They also measured the real C-135 wheel/tyre combination and that would not fit their Counter Invader
So we/they don’t know were the reference come from that they should be C-135 Wheels.

The only that could have happened is that those wheels/rims albeit with a different type of rubber tyre are the same as on the C-135 but that doesn’t explain why the have C-119 reference partnumbers.
Cutting edge made them once for the Counter Invader and they where also marketed as 1/48 C135 wheels but that wasn’t correct , I have one of those wheelsets and they are Counter Invader wheels ..The rubber tyre should have had a way bigger tire around the and they should not fit the wheel wells on the Counter Invader..

 

cheers, Jan

Thank you for clearing that up. Very good to hear. What do you think of the intakes?

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3 hours ago, Scimitar F1 said:

Thank you for clearing that up. Very good to hear. What do you think of the intakes?

The intakes are okay I think as the rest of the exterior...only I hope that they address the control yokes as they are incorrect..but that’s it I think.

I would certainly buy it and build it out of the box when looking at those cad’s

 

extra news when I opened my Facebook as I mentioned this at ICM and the below was their reply!!

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ICM plastic model kits

Hi Jan! Thank you for your appreciation and mentioned corrections with materials. I will send this information to our design department. 

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 


 

cheers, Jan

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On 4/16/2021 at 1:54 PM, janneman36 said:

The intakes are okay I think as the rest of the exterior...only I hope that they address the control yokes as they are incorrect..but that’s it I think.

I would certainly buy it and build it out of the box when looking at those cad’s

 

extra news when I opened my Facebook as I mentioned this at ICM and the below was their reply!!

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

ICM plastic model kits

Hi Jan! Thank you for your appreciation and mentioned corrections with materials. I will send this information to our design department. 

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 


 

cheers, Jan

Now if they, like Kinetic recently take notice then it will do them a lot of good. Remember the nose guys. Hopefully someone can run a tape measure over one to be sure.

 

My friends father worked on the Counter-Invader in Vietnam. When I built one bodging from the Airfix kit he was quite diplomatic. The tyres being C-119 seems right as they had to fly to another base to get spares and could usually get an overnight 'in relative civilisation' with his old unit. He joked that he'd started on B-52, gone to C-119, then B-26K when most went the other way. Served him well after the service though as he was never looking for a job.

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38 minutes ago, SleeperService said:

Now if they, like Kinetic recently take notice then it will do them a lot of good. Remember the nose guys. Hopefully someone can run a tape measure over one to be sure.

 

My friends father worked on the Counter-Invader in Vietnam. When I built one bodging from the Airfix kit he was quite diplomatic. The tyres being C-119 seems right as they had to fly to another base to get spares and could usually get an overnight 'in relative civilisation' with his old unit. He joked that he'd started on B-52, gone to C-119, then B-26K when most went the other way. Served him well after the service though as he was never looking for a job.

Nice story.. by the way on a further note regarding these tyres and rims I certainly do have another hypothesis and that is the following..

1: the aircraft was indeed redesigned as told with C135 rims and brakeset and delivered with such but still with those C-119 tyres.

2: the Special Kay Counter Invader did flew a period after it’s USAF service with an airtanker operator but just for fun, that given the DC-4’s from aero Union had on their last days with that  company a wheel type that looked exactly the same as those on the last type C-119’s so a retrofit with that type of brakeset wouldn’t be that strange I think as parts were fairly ease to get for this type...

But this is all hypothetical of course but not unrealistic given what I have seen being installed on warbirds and airtankers..

 

cheers, Jan

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I don't know enough about mods. and variants but the C-119 and C-135 wheels looks quite similar to each other, and I would say the the K's are the same.

 

The kits looks superb to me, and is a must have!

Edited by 71chally
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13 hours ago, janneman36 said:

Nice story.. by the way on a further note regarding these tyres and rims I certainly do have another hypothesis and that is the following..

1: the aircraft was indeed redesigned as told with C135 rims and brakeset and delivered with such but still with those C-119 tyres.

cheers, Jan

 

He never mentioned anything other than tyres, he was usually quite exact in what he said. I'm still in touch with his son who has his photo album, he's going to see if there's anything helpful in there. Most of his pictures have notes on the back so fingers crossed.

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33 minutes ago, SleeperService said:

 

He never mentioned anything other than tyres, he was usually quite exact in what he said. I'm still in touch with his son who has his photo album, he's going to see if there's anything helpful in there. Most of his pictures have notes on the back so fingers crossed.

Thank you for that, it would be nice if you could find out something.

As I once wrote the guys at the Special Kay organisation and they told that every part was C -119 and therefore a came up wit the hypothesis of being those parts being replaced by an easier to get set (C119) in the late seventies  as the firebomber company’s flew several C-119’s at Greybull Wyoming were also the former owner of Special Kay had it its Counter invader based.
This can be a logical thing as it didn’t carried the bomp loads that it used too in Congo and Vietnam.
The man at the Special Kay also mentioned that the story about these being C-135 wheels is not true! And I am being little sceptic about that unless every part matches that of the A26K parts number list.

I am really curious if those wheel rims are indeed C-135 or just looks like them ...

That being said if you have some extra info that would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for chiming in on this and I hope it sheds a light..

 

Cheers, Jan

 

 

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On 4/16/2021 at 9:22 AM, dragonlanceHR said:

Except that the Monogram B nose is too long?

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/264086-monogram-148-a-26-issues/

 

"Metal nose is way too long (should be 63 inches long or 33.3mm in 48-th, Monogram - 40mm)."

 

That is the problem with those "nostalgia kits" - their accuracy is taken as granted.

Thank for the info👍, but promodeler aside, compared to pictures of the real planes in both B and now K from ICM the nose is far too short, 

cannot say how short because dont have proper drawings- but more than a small and acceptable omission.

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  • Homebee changed the title to 1/48 - Douglas B-26K Counter Invader by ICM - box art+3D renders - release September 2021
  • 1 month later...
On 4/16/2021 at 2:54 PM, janneman36 said:

The intakes are okay I think as the rest of the exterior...only I hope that they address the control yokes as they are incorrect..but that’s it I think.

I would certainly buy it and build it out of the box when looking at those cad’s

 

extra news when I opened my Facebook as I mentioned this at ICM and the below was their reply!!

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

ICM plastic model kits

Hi Jan! Thank you for your appreciation and mentioned corrections with materials. I will send this information to our design department. 

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 


 

cheers, Jan

Wow, how different from Eduards general reactions....😊

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4 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

WooooHoooooo !!!! Ive been wanting one of these for 30 years. :yahoo: Happy Dance Time now. 

Me too haha, got all the conversion sets but couldn’t get started as the interior was always sketchy regarding the info..

But thanks the resurrection of the B-26K “Special Kay” there is a ton of info out there👌
 

cheers, Jan

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

You can find the instructions at scalemates...

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/5/6/7/1325567-24-instructions.pdf


sprueshots here⬇️

 

https://www.hobby.dn.ua/en/product_info.php?products_id=102994&utm_source=scalemates&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=scalemates-marketplace&currency=EUR

 


 

It does look like a very nice rendition , still a pity to see they left out the cockpit jumpseat behind the copilot and even in Vietnam wartime they had an insulating padding on the cockpit sidewalls and rear bulkhead.

Looking at the sprueshots I have seen and the instruction I start to fear that they didn’t changed the control yokes.

Propellor blades do have the wrong shape as the chord is wrong.

These things are pretty easy to solve for an experienced modeller.

Nice to see that they included the Special Kay nose art ( they mention it was based in the late sixties in that color scheme but the plane never wore the name in that period as it is only the name given after it’s restoration) 😉 

 

 

 

cheers, Jan

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2 hours ago, Bozothenutter said:

So any aftermarket in the pipeline?

Or will we have to mix'n match from current sets (which would need some serious expertise)

Given that the kit has only been out for a matter of days in Europe and less than one in the UK , I suspect that we might have to wait for the aftermarket guys to actually get their hands on the plastic before we see anything.

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ICM certainly seems to have made a more than decent effort to cover all of the necessary changes - going on the instructions anyway. I'll definitely have to get at least one, though I'm wondering (given that ICM seems to have left pretty much all of the parts from the original A-26B/C kits in the box) if it might be worth getting a second one as it might be a very good starting point for a 'fire bomber'? I think a lot of those had a 'two pilot cockpit' like the B-26K.....

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