I picked up a kit of the Revell 1/48 A-26B Invader this evening, to hold me over until my Signifier Goose shows up from France. I haven’t built a model airplane since I was about 20 (which was about 22 years ago). I can’t seem to find any info on here regarding anyone building that kit. I’m kind of torn between building the firefighter version
Either way, I’d like to put some more detail into this kit. I’m beginning my search but does anyone know of 1/48 Pratt & Whitney R2800 Double Wasp aftermarket engines? Maybe something in a resin part? Any suggestions on similar detailing for landing gear and cockpit? How about pilot figures? Is there a one-stop-shop for all these super-detailing parts? While I’m thinking of it, does anyone have a good source for 1/48 scale figures? I’m specifically looking for male and female figures and dogs.
Verlinden Productions make a very nice set. You get one complete engine and two fronts. That’s the front bank of cylinders and the tansfer case. I paid under $20… think I got it from Scale Hobbyist. Use Google images for pics of the B 26.
Boy, I sure would like to see the B-26K being built! As for non-standard figs, check out the German Preiser company - they have a lot of civilians in 1:50, close enough. Hope it helps, have a nice day
One of my favorite planes and kits. Last one I did was the fire bomber from the movie “Always” but all the pics were lost when the photo server I was using expired. I’ll snap a couple tonight if you’d like to see it. Might do my next build as a “K” version. Looking forward to your build. Chris
Quickboost (I think) has a set of full engines in resin. You can get them from Sprue Bros. or on Ebay. I think they go for about $16-18 plus shipping. I’ve been very pleased with every Quickboost product I’ve used.
@Chris - I’d definitely like to see pics of your build since I’m leaning heavily towards the water bomber version and have even sent an email requesting some info and photos to Air Spray in Canada. They’re the company whose plane is depicted on the box art for the Revell kit. There are a few b&w photos on their website showing some of their A-26 fleet but I am curious as to whether they still fly them or if they’ve all been replaced by newer aircraft. That was one question I asked them. Did you depict your A-26 with the bomb bay doors open and if so, what exactly does the water carrier device look like or did you depict that? That was also a question I asked - ie. what does the water carrying device look like? Of course I remembered ‘Always’ when I was looking at the kit box at the hobby shop, but I couldn’t remember what kinds of planes they were in the movie.
I’m building this kit (for the Korean War group build) and the Quickboost engines are beauties! I also picked up the Quickboost corrected cowlings which are very nice as well. You can also pick up the B-26K conversion kit which has the solid gun nose, squared off prop blades, and wing tip tanks produced by OzMods. Here’s a link to their site: http://www.layuqwam.com.au/Ozmods/Home.html. Here are a few pics of my work in progress. The cockpit is the Eduard interior set.
I’m almost ready to spray a primer coat on and will post some pics when I get this done. Thanks!
I’m pretty much sold on the Quickboost engines as the kit engines just don’t have enough detail. Even though the engines are awfully small and so little will be visible inside the cowls I still think it’s worthwhile to put the better engines in just because they will look so much better from what you’ll be able to see. The interior is a different story though. In comparing your cockpit to the factory cockpit, I can only see a few differences. Is the aftermarket cockpit detail set really that much better? Do you think you’ll be able to see all that extra detail through the canopy? I’m just trying to figure out how much detail I want to try adding in, especially since this is my first plane kit in 20+ years.
One more thing - what’s the deal with the Quickboost cowls? What is wrong with the ones that come with the model? I can see where the little intake on the top of the cowl could be drilled out some but other than that, what’s missing? The one deficiency I see is that the ends of the cowls are not flared enough like they appear to be on the real plane as shown in these two photos:
Here you go Matt, here’s my fire bomber. Only thing I didn’t do that I wanted to was reshape the leading edge of the wings out past the engines. This is the only one I’ve seen like this. Also, if you want to research fire bombers, visit this site:
Thanks for posting your photos and for the two links. There looks to be a lot of good info on those two sites. Who would’ve thought there’d be that much interest in fire bombers, but then again that’s the nature of the 'net. Everybody has a chance to have a page dedicated to their interest however obscure. A couple models depicted in flight dropping retardant have got me thinking… Although that would be quite a large diorama to build for a 1/48 kit.
The kit cockpit is very nice on it’s own but the Eduard cockpit is really nice - the pics don’t do it justice. The canopy is quite large and a lot of the cockpit will be visible - especially if you open the canopies. I’m planning on cutting the clamshell canopies so that they will be in the open position.
The Quickboost cowlings are not a whole lot different from the kit cowlings (to my eye) - they are a bit thinner. I only bought them because I got them for a good price. I have another one of these kits in the stash - I’ll upgrade the engines but probably not the cowlings. Hope this helps!
I’ve decided to do this build as the A-26A (B-26K Counter Invader). So, I just might go ahead and get the Eduard cockpit set since I think I’ll be doing an on the ground, so I may want the canopy open.
