Oh my God, another one! Some Special K, Monogram A-26A/B converted to an A-26K SEAC Counter Invader

[LorenSharp]

Here we go 4th time to the well as it seems. If I finish this it'll be a new personal record for builds finished in 1 GB. What am I presenting for your amusment today you may ask? Welllllll, How about taking Monograms A-26A/B and converting it to an A-26K SEAC Counter Invader. 

In addition the kit I've added SAC metal landing gear a. OzMod's A-26K resin set annd

Eduard's A-26 P/E set, Squdron's vac  canopy set and Aeromaster's "Air War Over Vietnam Pt VII A/B-26K Invaders 2. Anything else I'll scratch build or 3D print as needed, which will probably be a lot.

I hope I can get this done in time and if there is STILL time left, maybe I'll "Shudder" try for 5 builds completed. But in any event, all comments, ideas, and suggestions are always welcome. So let's start engines and hit the taxi way.

[Col.]

You keep pulling great subject choices out for this GB Loren

[stevehnz]

I'll keep an eye on this & hope for some trickle down I could apply to 1/72. It is a subject I'd love to be able to do. 

Steve.

[LorenSharp]

11 hours ago, Col. said:

You keep pulling great subject choices out for this GB Loren

Thanks Col. I try to come up with "and now for something completely different" just to shake up things a bit.

 

9 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I'll keep an eye on this & hope for some trickle down I could apply to 1/72. It is a subject I'd love to be able to do. 

Steve.

Thanks Steve, I have a feeling you may end up with a book of ideas as I think there is going to be major surgery on this shortly. 

[LorenSharp]

Speaking of surgery, as all good surgeons like to do, I've marked where bits will have to be cut-a-way. Don't want to cut away something important. Why I wasn't sure if I could get this done in the allotted time left is all the addition detail I want to try and add to this build. Beyond the cutting the nose off and sticking the resin nose. Thing that I want to add/modify in no particular order are:

1. Remove glass nose and replace with solid gun and close up old turret(s) nose.(naturally that's a given)

2. Add detail to the cockpit area, i.e.  correct the pilot and navigators seats

3. Remove the rudder and increase the size.

4. Detail the bomb bay as much as possible

5. Same for the gear bays.

6. Correct the engine cowlings and update the PW 2800 engines to the -52W standard(or there abouts because of printing limitations)

7 Showing the invader's unique double slotted flap assembly.

So here are all the bits to be removed shown in the white dotted lines.

The nose I want to core out so I can add additional nose weight. I don't think the resin nose will be heavy enough on its own. So this is for lack of a better reason, A just in case.

'"Scuze me while I break out my saw and commence to a sawin'." Talk amongst yourselves ,I'll be back in a flash.

[desert falcon]

You are a busy man! 

[Col.]

Seems a solid plan to me. Best of good luck.

[LorenSharp]

11 hours ago, desert falcon said:

You are a busy man! 

This is true. Some days I feel like a one-armed paper hanger.

 

1 hour ago, Col. said:

Seems a solid plan to me. Best of good luck.

Thanks Col. I'll be needing it.

[81-er]

That's quite some work ahead, but I think you've got the time to do it judging from the speeds of your other builds.

 

James

[LorenSharp]

Speed... Hah! I feel like I'm working a world of semi set glue. But I HAVE made progress.! Huzzah! Between a shiny Fishbed, , a slippery flying banana peel and a contrary 3dPrinter I have a progress report from the front.

Even though the Monogram A-26 has a decently outfitted interior relief I got the wild hairbrained idea that it should be "enhanced" Of course that meant that the interior need to be wiped clean. not to mention the area where the wings are attached need to

be filled in. SO I broke out the Dremel and proceeded to grind all the raised panel lines down then sanding smooth, Then made a couple of plugs from card stock  to cover before adding a thin coat of filler to smooth everything out.

A coat of primer to even everything out.

 

[LorenSharp]

That was the easy part.  I went in ad made new parts in the computer and prepped them for printing. It was at this point the printer wasn't having none of it. print failures abounded. Part of it I discovered was the printer got bumped and wasn't level.

Easy enough fix But I was still missing detail that should have printed. That caused me more than a few days lost down in the rabbit hole. After running many calibration tests (that I've been putting off) I got everything dialed in. Funnily, not far from wat I had. Then going back ad re-adjusting some of the models to correct the finer details so they would finally show up printed. I strayed from my cardinal rule of staying away from any detail smaller than 150um(microns) That would have required even more fine tuning that I had neither the patience , time, or resin to deal with. Mainly with getting rivets to show up. What I had though correct for the scale  would either not print, partially print or worse, print but be wiped off in the wash process. So in the interest of expediency and getting this done in the time left( I hope) I scaled up the rivets. 

All the parts getting  changed and a few new parts.

The rivet detail trying to recreate.

Better bulkheads

Improved the bomb bay doors to include the Photo recon and flare chute openings and their covers. And a new larger rudder

 

 

 

 

[LorenSharp]

The new parts.

Upper turret plug

Bomb bay fuel bladder. This I am going back to redo as it's somewhat smaller than should be. Not surprised at this as I eyeballed what the size and shape should be. but not an issue as I 'll have more printing to do for the wings and engines.

Bomb bay framing and supports.

[81-er]

That's an impressive set of new parts, even if they turned out to be more effort than expected. I hope the printer woes are sorted now?

 

James

[LorenSharp]

First thing completed the nose gear bay.

Some bits of rod stock, wire and The P/E parts. I didn't add all them in yet. I'll leaves the finer parts and the nose gear doors until the end so I don't knock them off.

 

[LorenSharp]

4 minutes ago, 81-er said:

That's an impressive set of new parts, even if they turned out to be more effort than expected. I hope the printer woes are sorted now?

 

James

Thanks James. So far they have. But I have more resin on order so when that arrives that could change the settings some because I ordered white, as the grey I usually get was out of stock and the resin was about to go off sale.

[LorenSharp]

Getting to the cockpit first thing to make a new instrument panel for the P/E I extended the instrument panel across the width as the "K" version had a pilot and co-pilot with dual controls.

The cockpit section had some support damage issues but as these weren't going to be see, I'm not stressing it. won't be seen. I did make a second control column and added the P/E wheel and plastic rod for framing. I'll add further boxes and wiring after painting and before sticking the cockpit glass on.

 

[LorenSharp]

Moving from there to the bomb bay, which s far, is getting the bulk of the extra detail.

With the ribbing , the turret plug and the bulkheads in place I took some .3mm beading wire and threaded along both sides of the fuselage for control wires. . I can't all of them in,  but this will give me some "busyness".

 

 

[LorenSharp]

 

I painted the cockpit and bomb bay weathered black then dry brushed some Tamiya aluminum to bring out the details and stuck the halves together.

Some thin strip to the outside of the bomb bay.

The old gunners station/ photo op station I painted light gray along with the nose bay.

I may add more wiring/plumbing to both if time allows.

[LorenSharp]

so far this was the messiest part, grinding out the solid resin nose so I can add bb's to to weight the front end further as I don't think the nose, though solid will be heavy enough once everything gets added to the back side of the wings plus

what has been added in "extras"

I poured some CA over the bb's to set them in place. Then just a matter of attaching the nose and hope it stays stuck.

[LorenSharp]

I'll have to add a small corner to the top of the instrument panel but otherwise came out ok and everything fit together without any issues for once.

Now to add filler to the main seam on the fuselage getting that sanded down and starting the wings, flaps, main gear bays, and powerplants and cowlings. I'm hoping I can have that sorted out by this weekend so I can begin the process of paint the exterior next week. So until then, stay tuned for more excitement same abt time, same bat channel.

[Col.]

Nice upgrades on this one Loren. You're certainly achieving great results with your printing process.

[LorenSharp]

1 minute ago, Col. said:

Nice upgrades on this one Loren. You're certainly achieving great results with your printing process.

Thanks Col. Not perfect but getting there. Now for trying to make  for lost time

[81-er]

It's look better and better with each update, nice work indeed.

 

James

[LorenSharp]

Thanks James

[LorenSharp]

Time now for another fine installment  of Invader conversions. After getting the sides joined I took some making tape and applied to the edges of the seams  in preparation of applying filler along the join .This for me is twofold. 1 it keeps my enthusiastic filler

slathering to a minimum and 2 helps protect my raised panel lines as much as possible.

I let this dry and get good and hard before sanding down.