Hasegawa B26 Marauder in 1/72 by Rick - Ready for Battle
Oct 20, 2017 22:13:02 GMT -5
dierk and thug626 like this
Post by Rick on Oct 20, 2017 22:13:02 GMT -5
Recently bypassed a bunch of shelf queens and started building Hasagawa's B26. I was really impressed with the detail included in the interior in this scale of kit. Many 1/48 kits don't offer the amount Hasagawa put into this one. They included a small PE fret which included the seat belts which always makes a difference in the end. The only aftermarket I elected to go with are the four external fuselage .50 cals. One of the first things that caught my eye was all the windows and openings on B26's. These had an ifluence on how I decided to assemble and paint. Here goes:
Kit decals are included with the kit but I'm planning to paint and weather them fairly heavily.
The interior offered some really well formed parts and detail is very good. First assembly was the forward flight deck and cockpit:
The bomb bay came next followed by interior bulkeads and interior green paint. Due to so many interior sections, I was concerned with how it would all fit so quite a few attempts to properly align and tweakaging the fuselage fit.
About this time, I got real concerned with all those openings and overspray. Also I was concerned with spraying the fuselage and nacelles with OD under the wings and sides without having a lot of overspray on the underside gray. So after over analyzing and analysis paralysis, I decided it would be easier to spray the exterior before assembling the fuselage.
The wings were assembled and the undersides were also painted gray and then masked to allow painting the nacelle sides with OD.
With the exterior completed, the interior was added then the fuselage closed up. Before closing, pine car weights were added to the only place they could go. Into the radio operator compartment which would not be visible through the side windows. The weights would be painted black.
All this pre-assembly exterior painting was done with the plan to touch up the seams once filler and sanding brought them together. Filling was minimal but still required sanding and about this time, I began to re-think why I pre-painted and didn't just go ahead with adding the windows and masking them before I picked up the paint jar.
Before doing the touch up painting, I wanted to get the tail added. Small curve ball, but Hasagawa decided to mold the entire tail in clear acrylic. Not sure why but i'm thinking because there are two very small windows right below the rudder that would have been extremely to accurately produce separately and get them to fit properly. I primered the tail section and will paint it later to match fuselage.
And here's the B26 with wings and tail test fitted. More touch up once assembled. Now I'm really regretting painting before assembly. That decision is creating a lot of extra steps. I spent most of an evening masking clear parts which was actually easier when done individually.
At this point, I also decided, invasion stripes will be a lot easier to handle before attaching wings and tail. We'll see. More to come.
Kit decals are included with the kit but I'm planning to paint and weather them fairly heavily.
The interior offered some really well formed parts and detail is very good. First assembly was the forward flight deck and cockpit:
The bomb bay came next followed by interior bulkeads and interior green paint. Due to so many interior sections, I was concerned with how it would all fit so quite a few attempts to properly align and tweakaging the fuselage fit.
About this time, I got real concerned with all those openings and overspray. Also I was concerned with spraying the fuselage and nacelles with OD under the wings and sides without having a lot of overspray on the underside gray. So after over analyzing and analysis paralysis, I decided it would be easier to spray the exterior before assembling the fuselage.
The wings were assembled and the undersides were also painted gray and then masked to allow painting the nacelle sides with OD.
With the exterior completed, the interior was added then the fuselage closed up. Before closing, pine car weights were added to the only place they could go. Into the radio operator compartment which would not be visible through the side windows. The weights would be painted black.
All this pre-assembly exterior painting was done with the plan to touch up the seams once filler and sanding brought them together. Filling was minimal but still required sanding and about this time, I began to re-think why I pre-painted and didn't just go ahead with adding the windows and masking them before I picked up the paint jar.
Before doing the touch up painting, I wanted to get the tail added. Small curve ball, but Hasagawa decided to mold the entire tail in clear acrylic. Not sure why but i'm thinking because there are two very small windows right below the rudder that would have been extremely to accurately produce separately and get them to fit properly. I primered the tail section and will paint it later to match fuselage.
And here's the B26 with wings and tail test fitted. More touch up once assembled. Now I'm really regretting painting before assembly. That decision is creating a lot of extra steps. I spent most of an evening masking clear parts which was actually easier when done individually.
At this point, I also decided, invasion stripes will be a lot easier to handle before attaching wings and tail. We'll see. More to come.
)
