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


Homebee

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1 hour ago, Bozothenutter said:

Really, REALLY not able to find info on the nose being short.

Some mentions of the cockpit being in the wrong place, but no pics, drawings compares or such.

 

Saw your reply late, I have first B boxing, and from the outset sonething looked wrong nose wise, compared to Promodeler kit its almost 6 mm short, now some did mention that Promodeler kit has too long gun nose, compared to what sources I have  ( Squadron Signal in Action as well as few online souces without confirmed provenance)

all mentioned above show discrepancy of 4-5mm, when comparing real aircraft pics to ICM kit- in my view it screams out.

Edited by Thomas V.
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1 hour ago, Thomas V. said:

Saw your reply late, I have first B boxing, and from the outset something looked wrong nose wise, compared to Promodeler kit its almost 6 mm short, now some did mention that Promodeler kit has too long gun nose, compared to what sources I have  ( Squadron Signal in Action as well as few online sources without confirmed provenance)

all mentioned above show discrepancy of 4-5mm, when comparing real aircraft pics to ICM kit- in my view it screams out.

I guess that like many things in modelling these days, this is yet another case of 'you pays your money, etc.'. I'd have to admit to not being an expert on the topic, but I've read in quite a few places over the years that the Monogram/Revell/Promodeler A-26 has its own issues, so it seems to me that modellers have to decide for themselves which manufacturer's shortcomings they can personally best live with. Speaking just for myself, I'll take the ICM kit any day over the Monogram/Revell/Promodeler ones, I had three of them and they've all long since gone to the local charity shop.....

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I bought it today and here was many new tooled parts. Cockpit have twin yokes, new instrument panel, fuselage is new, wing parts are new with reinforcement, bomb bay doors,fuel tanks,tail,cuffed propellers,  cowling and probably a wheels too. And naturally, are here a pylons and newly tooled cold war/vietnam weapons set... Simple a 50%-75% of kit is newly tooled. I only missing a CIA scheme with gloss green/white... It looks very attractive, but in kit is a Vietnam SEAC scheme only.  

 

And i don´t found any info a Counter Invader was longer as early variants a gun nose was the same as in WW II/Korean war variants no ? Wings was different (and in kit is different) and tail fin... I think it is a good choice to have an "Counter Invader".  ICM make me happy with their news ´Nam stuffs (Huey Cobras in big scale and now Counter Invader and probably soon a  Bronco too.)

  

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1 hour ago, Homebee said:

- ref. 48280 - Douglas B-26K with USAF Pilots & Ground Personnel NEW - IV quarter

Box art

Source: https://vk.com/icmofficial?z=photo-162484410_457244640%2Falbum-162484410_281167585

 

LJVR0q-Xtp-Pc.jpg

 

V.P.

I would say these are the figures they released already in this set

 

 

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As a now non aviation modeller, the A26K in 1/48 was the holy grail to get conversions for. I had both Paragon and Cutting Edge and neither got all the specifics of the cockpit right, so disappointing that ICM have missed this as there is plenty of references out there. Hopefully a nice cockpit set and a set of props will follow soon from AM producers.

Neil

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7 hours ago, junco said:

As a now non aviation modeller, the A26K in 1/48 was the holy grail to get conversions for. I had both Paragon and Cutting Edge and neither got all the specifics of the cockpit right, so disappointing that ICM have missed this as there is plenty of references out there. Hopefully a nice cockpit set and a set of props will follow soon from AM producers.

Neil

Here with you as well..did gave em enough info regarding the cockpit and they thanked me for it!

Didn’t do a thing with it 😕

So despite al things missing( like the padded cockpit walls, extra jumpseat, still a wrong propellor shape and yoke, it also is missing the armor plating on the sides which has been discussed on the earlyer variant) it can be a nice base.
Still can’t understand why so much details are still wrong on this kit when they had a lot of things redone!

Still mis a glass recce nose as they did flew with them in the Canal Zone .

I was always waiting for an up to date Counter Invader and this comes close but still not close enough to let me throw away my conversions I have and go on with that B variant from them and scratch the cockpit.

But this of course is my two cents from a K lunatic😉

 

cheers, Jan

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16 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Are the new extra propellors the wrong shape?

https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.php?aircraft_id=406
 

To me it looks like these props are too narrow and they are tapering too early ..
In real life these were cut down DC6 blades.

picture from the inbox review of Julien.

 

k4.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, janneman36 said:

Still can’t understand why so much details are still wrong on this kit when they had a lot of things redone!

 

Leaving aside the issue of dimensional errors, which can happen anywhere (and are often announced prematurely), the profitability of any model has to do with the number of moulds.

If many new moulds are needed to make another version, then either the company abandons that version, or reduces the level of detail so that it fits on two moulds instead of three, or on one mould instead of two.

 

For 99% of buyers these details don't matter in the slightest, so from a manufacturer's perspective it's a fairly simple calculation. Of course, many modelers complain about it, but the truth is that it is easier to make missing details than to make a conversion from scratch for another version of the plane.

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1 hour ago, janneman36 said:

https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.php?aircraft_id=406
 

To me it looks like these props are too narrow and they are tapering too early ..
In real life these were cut down DC6 blades.

picture from the inbox review of Julien.

 

k4.jpg

 

 

Yes they are. But I would think someone like Quick Boost will come to the rescue.

 

 

 

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Really good shots here at the USAFM. Especially of the cockpit. Available for Hi-Res download.
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196070/douglas-b-26k-a-26-counter-invader/

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On 28/09/2021 at 22:56, Piotr Mikolajski said:

 

Leaving aside the issue of dimensional errors, which can happen anywhere (and are often announced prematurely), the profitability of any model has to do with the number of moulds.

If many new moulds are needed to make another version, then either the company abandons that version, or reduces the level of detail so that it fits on two moulds instead of three, or on one mould instead of two.

 

For 99% of buyers these details don't matter in the slightest, so from a manufacturer's perspective it's a fairly simple calculation. Of course, many modelers complain about it, but the truth is that it is easier to make missing details than to make a conversion from scratch for another version of the plane.

Your story makes sense on a kit that they don’t want to alter too much  but in this case they made the new fuselage, wings and cockpit parts and props and they still made them wrong !
The did wanted to do a right one as more than half the kit was redone compared to the B and C variants and that is a lot of effort to produce a particular variant.

So in this case it isn’t an easy calculation of leaving parts off to cut costs they just did not want to redo them after they discovered that these parts wich they newly designed were wrong and just send it out as is as it was going to cost them a lot more to correct the mistakes.

I won’t say it is a bad kit and it is still is a nice basis too start one if you do not have an counter invader and you are also right that people would not mind the errors.

 

cheers, Jan

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5 hours ago, janneman36 said:

So in this case it isn’t an easy calculation (...)

 

On the contrary. The process of designing a model for cost effectiveness is a separate thing from designing a model for the faithfulness of the factory documentation (if available) and with the original aircraft.

 

If you are designing a multi-variant kit, you need to make some assumptions at the outset, and you start with economic assumptions, because these are what allow you to calculate how much the project will cost. The cost is calculated according to the number of moulds needed to make the whole project. The more moulds, the higher the cost, so by knowing the size of the plane, the number of versions and the differences between them, you can estimate how many moulds it will take.

 

If the cost is high, here is the first stage of cutting costs by reducing versions. Those versions that cost a lot to make and are not as popular and will not make as much profit are dropped. This is why there are no parts for agricultural or firefighting aircraft in the injection-moulded bomber models.

 

The next stage of cost-cutting is giving up some details. If an aircraft has three wings that are identical in shape and panel but each with a different rivet pattern, we either make three different wings with full riveting or we make one wing without riveting. A lower design cost means a lower kit price, but the model will not have full riveting.

 

This applies not only to such large parts, but also to small parts. If the plane had 5 different tyre designs, then of course you can add them, but this will raise the cost of the model. That's why one version is given - whoever wants to have a different one will improve it themselves or replace it with an aftermarket kit, but most modellers won't have a clue about that.

 

The next stage of reduction can take place after the whole kit has been designed. If some of the small parts don't fit on the moulds when laying on the frames, you can decide to make another mould or give up some of the secondary optional details - a few types of bombs, seat cushions and so on.

 

And all this still has nothing to do with historical accuracy. The designed model can be perfect, it can also be full of errors, the procedures described above have no relation to accuracy at all.

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On 9/28/2021 at 1:21 PM, chrisov said:

Interesting thats the one Iam waiting for.

The figures released already look more 'fast jet' to me and are different to the ones on the 48280 B-26 box top.

Heres hoping.

 

I think they may be similar, but black suits for the Counter-Invader aircrew.

https://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/a-26-invader-association-2/night-flight-s-elmo-flying-a-26-invader-vietnam.html

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/505529126896487641/

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49 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Thanks James.

Happy the wait to see what come in the 48280 boxing, hopefully early next month🤞

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