Douglas A-26 Invader 1/72 (05011)

[klr]

Now here's a kit I never built in my youth. I first bought it in the late 1980s, but the kit I am building is a later boxing with better quality decals:

 

A version of the Roy Cross artwork, which alas I never got a hold of:

 

My two kits:

 

First issued in 1971, time was when this was the only A-26 kit in town (to my knowledge), but now of course we have the Italeri kit, of which I have 3, including a B-26K Counter Invader. Should ICM get around to scaling down it's 1/48 family, then that will move the goalposts again.

 

 

 

My initial thought was to build the Korean War A-26C "Monie", but research on this aircraft is giving me second thoughts. It's not that Korean War A-26s were painted gloss black instead of matt as per the instructions, nor that this aircraft had the upper remote controlled turret. No, it's that the under-wing stores were usually (always) two banks of 7 HVARs. 14 spare HVARs, all the exact same? Maybe when I've bought enough of the new Eduard P-51, which generously includes 10 per kit.

[AdrianMF]

I've never seen this kit, so I'm looking forward to your build.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TheyJammedKenny!]

It's not a bad kit, but you really need to give it concerted effort to make look right.  Some have considered the fuselage cross section too boxy, with more roundedness needed at the edges.  The main landing gear are extremely crude, with solid triangles in place of sway-braces at the top of the leg, highly visible to the discerning.  The "working" ailerons, rudder, and elevators are a distraction and require extra sanding (especially the ailerons) to fit.  Best to get rid of the toy-like aspects and simply cut them/assemble in place so that each wing or elevator half is a unified whole.  The engines look ok, and you can improve them with a bit of sprue.  The flight crew, with the exception of the bombardier, simply do not belong in a postwar aircraft.  Canopy is thick and requires substantial polishing.  On the plus side, the kit offers plugs that fit over the turret locations if you want to make this aircraft clean--let's say, to emulate a Bay of Pigs or French Air Force example.

[Richard Humm]

19 hours ago, klr said:

First issued in 1971, time was when this was the only A-26 kit in town (to my knowledge), but now of course we have the Italeri kit, of which I have 3, including a B-26K Counter Invader. Should ICM get around to scaling down it's 1/48 family, then that will move the goalposts again.

 

 

 

There was the ancient Monogram kit in a box scale slightly larger than 1/72, which was one of the first aircraft they did, but it wasn't often seen over here despite being in production from 1955 to 1981.

[tempestfan]

3 minutes ago, Richard Humm said:

There was the ancient Monogram kit in a box scale slightly larger than 1/72, which was one of the first aircraft they did, but it wasn't often seen over here despite being in production from 1955 to 1981.

I'm a great admirer of Monogram, but their A-26 is just as dreadful as their B-25. But admittedly they had a rather steep learning curve, obviously.

[John]

I got one of these as a birthday present the year it was released. I've built it a couple of times since. It's a kit I've always had a soft spot for. 

John 

[klr]

I've made a start on this, and it's a bit two steps forward, one step back, and another in no direction in particular.

 

First up, the crew figures. The pilot, co-pilot and rear gunner are all "large" size figures, but the bombardier is noticeably smaller. This may not be so obvious once the figures are in place.

 

The uinder-wing tanks and bombs have attachment points that are spaced differently:

 

... whereas both sets under-wing attachment points have the same separation. The bombs will fit (more or less), the tanks are too big. Not really a problem, and anyway there is the question of what ordnance to fit for a Korean War subject.

 

I have pressed on with the engine/undercarriage assemblies:

 

Now to the real conundrum: Neither the canopy nor pilot figures will fit "as is". Look at the cutouts on the outside of each seat. The canopy would overhang these, but it would then be obstructed by the outside of the port seat.

 

To fix this, I had to shave off part of the offending seat:

 

... but now it seems the pilots won't fit, not on either side:

 

I don't want to do surgery on these figures, and I don't want to replace them with smaller versions. I don't know how other people have dealt with this. The option of last resort is to omit the crew figures.

[stevehnz]

Cripes, the mad riveter at his zenith. I'll be keen to see how this goes after my experiences with the Italeri one early in the year. Like you, I'd love to see ICM do theirs in 1/72. The Revell P-47D kit has a fair slew of HVARs in it, I think they are anyway.

Steve.

[jean]

Hi klr,

 

seeing all those rivets is giving me goose bumps! Could they be contagious?

Are you going to live with them or eradicate them mercilessly?

Whatever you decide, the Invader is a real icon, so it will look scrumptious.

Enjoy.

 

JR

[klr]

15 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Cripes, the mad riveter at his zenith. I'll be keen to see how this goes after my experiences with the Italeri one early in the year. Like you, I'd love to see ICM do theirs in 1/72. The Revell P-47D kit has a fair slew of HVARs in it, I think they are anyway.

Steve.

Yes, the rivets put me off building this for literally decades. There was a time when I would have sanded them all off, but that would also obliterate the fine raised panel lines. I don't have the stomach for the re-scribing that would then follow. Hopefully, they will be less noticeable under a couple of coats of paint.

 

It's the Revell P-47M kit that has the set of 10 HVARs, not the D, which has always struck me as odd. And yes, I have three of them in the stash. And the rockets were removed from one kit years ago and put in the spares, for reasons which completely escape me. The problem is, I also have an Italeri kit of a Korean War subject, and it too lacks the rockets.

 

I have found a picture of a Korean War aircraft dropping apparently dropping more bombs than it could hold internally, and the spread of the falling bombs suggests some of them were under the wings. Could those be bomb pylons under the starboard wing, and if so, how many? The research never ends.

 

[klr]

... here's another picture which shows bombs being carried, with the HVAR launch stubs still in place. Methinks I have a plan:

 

 

Edited October 2 by klr

[klr]

12 minutes ago, jean said:

Hi klr,

 

seeing all those rivets is giving me goose bumps! Could they be contagious?

Are you going to live with them or eradicate them mercilessly?

Whatever you decide, the Invader is a real icon, so it will look scrumptious.

Enjoy.

 

JR

As I just suggested, I might leave them be and hope the paint obscures them. Or maybe I'll just go completely nuts and wipe out everything bar some of the smaller details.

[stevehnz]

3 minutes ago, klr said:

It's the Revell P-47M kit that has the set of 10 HVARs

Damn, I had a 50% chance of getting that right, & probably a 100% chance of getting it wrong, anyway, you knew what I meant .

20 minutes ago, klr said:

... here's another picture which shows bomb being carried, with the HVAR launch stubs still in place.

What a cracking photo, that is brilliant. Fwiw, in the previous photo, I reckon 3 on the underwing carriers, the lower one of the 5 under the aircraft is a little bigger than the other four so possibly off one of the wing hard points.

Steve.

[klr]

1 hour ago, stevehnz said:

Damn, I had a 50% chance of getting that right, & probably a 100% chance of getting it wrong, anyway, you knew what I meant .

What a cracking photo, that is brilliant. Fwiw, in the previous photo, I reckon 3 on the underwing carriers, the lower one of the 5 under the aircraft is a little bigger than the other four so possibly off one of the wing hard points.

Steve.

I initially thought there might be three under each wing as well. But the second picture is good enough for me to stay with the two each side, as per the kit. Just as in the kit, the integral wing guns are right between the two hard points.

[klr]

After some thought, I've resolved to "de-rivet" this kit. Naturally, that will take time. I'll start this work in another few days, once I've made sufficient progress one my other 5 builds (or even finished some of them).

[klr]

... well, that didn't work out as planned. To de-rivet an airframe that size would have taken all the available time I had over the last month, which was in turn much less time than I thought I would have. When I will find the time to work on it again isn't clear, but it's unlikely to be until the forthcoming Heller GB has finished. There are only so many old kits I can work on at once, as this GB has proven.