a20havoc

Paul, these are great. Thanks for schooling us. Do you have any details on the buffing wheel type and speeds? When I use buffing wheels in my dremel, I usually end up melting plastic vs polishing. Does the polishing compound work on PET-G or vivak as well as styrene? Thanks again

You done a fabulous job on a tough kit. I have this kit on the bench now and know the challenges it presents. What paint did you use on the stacks and rear rims? I attempted a Pete 352 back when I was a young pup. Needless to say it beat me. It resembled a Pete, but the multi-part frame and tilt hinges did not come out well. Amt instructions are also a bit vague.

Nice work Ivy. Did you modify the kit glass nose piece to fit the modified gun nose? Which plans are you using? Will you vac new transparencies? Do you have a straight on pic from the front or looking down straight on? The nose definitely looks sleeker. It's kind of hard to tell if it has the "look" till you get the whole kit together. Any thoughts on tackling the tail? James

I just scaled up drawings from the in action book. Compared to Sergey drawings the tail is slightly smaller, especially the vertical stabilizer and rudder. I can see the slight twist when the kit is compared to the in action drawing. I realize trusting plans is always arguable. Of course I could have introduced some error printing or scaling but I try to be methodical in my approach. Is there a gold standard invader plan? Also does anyone have better data on the tail dimensions and fuselage? I found another rudder height dimension listed 113" or 59.79mm. This matches the kit as well as

I am not sure about the tail. I plan to play with the side profile of the lower tail. I will also try to shape a rounder rear fuselage profile. I have thought about belt sanding each fuselage 1mm. Then razor saw the clear pieces down the centers or on a frame line. Then also split the internal bulkheads removing 2mm. I think the "shoulder" shapes are ok. I don't know if I will go that far though. The gun nose was the biggest issue for me. I can live with it if it stays in proportion. James

It is the Hawk kit. It is pretty simple. Pylons are molded to the wings. You glue the spine on to make a razorback or bubble top. The cowling is a bit odd. It has no interior. It's ok for a 3 footer. The monogram kits are much better for about the same money. I guess it depends what you want out of it.

One option is to build up your own. Start with thin sheet and drill holes. Then wrap fine wire around your drill bit and cut to a ring for a bezel. Glue the ring on with future or white glue. You could also use 5 thou sheet for small raised squares for bezels. You could laminate the inst decal in, or punch them out and apply on the front. Use solvaset to get them to settle down. The zoom photo etch sets are also pretty nice.

Here are is a look at the gun nose version after some quick work with the razor saw. You can see how wrong the kit nose was. To me this already looks much more invader like. I have removed 7mm length. I still plan to build up a little more curve on the top front of the nose. Successful rookie rhino-plasty. We no longer have an ardvark nose. The kit nose was just split down the center. I have not adjusted the fuselage width. It looks ok to my eye as long as things are in proportion in the nose dimensions. I can live with it being slightly over scale. James

Here is a link on hyperscale that illustrates the problem with the kit gun nose. http://www.network54.com/Forum/47751/thread/1280774387/1280870148/A26+gun+nose+tribulations I think based on station data that the kit gun nose is around 7mm to long. James

Guys, Here are a few items to note. The gun nose side view drawing Sergey posted is over length. It looks to me like 4mm length was added to the rear fuselage. I believe the B-26k additional length was in the wider rudder and extended tail cone only. The glass nose drawing to my eye, matches very closely. I think the monogram glass nose fuselage with nose perspex is pretty accurate in length at around 49'11" or 325mm in scale. The nose perspex is also pretty close. I don't see the length being very far off. The extra 2mm width may be what spoils the look the most. So I will use the glas

That is good info Don, Thanks. Here is a link I found to some dimensions on the K model. http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id404.html B-26K maint manual 1 page 18 has a station drawing that mostly agrees with the above drawings. Differences would be the extended tail cone and rudder. Maybe the monogram length error was introduced as Don mentioned in the cannon/ gun length. Can anyone confirm the overall width number? James

This is a good thread. My squadron a-26 book lists the B model length at 50'8" and the C model at 51'3". The length of the B- gun nose from the above drawings do not match 50'8". The drawing would be 49.9ft Perhaps there is a typo on the nose pack length. I know it may not be the best to compare against other kits, but how do the italeri or airfix kits look if you traced outlines and scaled them to 1/48th scale. I think such comparisons help when trying to spot shape issues. I don't have either of the 72nd scale kits.

How is the quality of the clear pieces? I have some of Kosters b-24 sets and they are excellent. The pics posted here look a little bit hazy. Has anyone given them a dip in future?

I would guess the ship would have the early standard large fuselage insignias with no bars. The wing insignias did not change size. The stars could have been grayed down. Here are a couple of links from similar time frame. http://www.b24bestweb.com/suzyq1.htm http://www.b24bestweb.com/jerksnatural1.htm http://www.b24bestweb.com/margaretann.htm http://www.b24bestweb.com/avenger2.htm http://www.b24bestweb.com/avenger1.htm

There is a slot where the rear gear brace goes into the nacelle that is not covered by the gear door. The monogram door covers the correct areas.