A little Maraudering ... Introducing Sexy Betsy
Oct 10, 2017 20:37:21 GMT -6
BUCKY, JCON, and 2 more like this
Post by rick on Oct 10, 2017 20:37:21 GMT -6
First build since landing on site with a mighty thud. I've had Hasegawa's 1/72 B26 Marauder on my radar for a couple years since I saw it at Eagle Quest a couple years ago. Time to give it a go.
For a 1/72 kit, the interior is surprisingly complete even in areas not very visible. Details are very nicely molded with the cockpit and bomb bay really a nice touch. I didn't realize how much glass Martin put on this beast. IT must have been a manufacturing nightmare. Along the way, I added pilot harnesses and replace the 4 external blister .50 cals with resin. Starting with the instructions, marking for two planes are included, both from the same squadron. I'll decide later which plane to decorate. Decals for stripes are included, but definitely going to spray and weather these instead
Assembly and paint started with the cockpit followed by the bomb bay.
An outer row of bombs finish out the bomb bay, but those cannot be added until the fuselage comes together. A whole lot of dry fit occurred before any glue got sniff...uh, applied just to make sure the fuselage halves would come together. It was a tight fit with some persuasion along the way.
Once the crew stations were installed, I wanted to bypass the clear acrylic post included to prevent it from being a tail sitter. Pine Car Derby weights to the rescue! The radio/navigator station was the perfect place to stack a bomb load of weight. This was as far forward as any weight could go. Feels like there's plenty there.
Looks like a bit of black paint on the weights will be in order to block their visibility through the nav windows. It'll be dark in there anyway!
Ready to button up the fuselage now. With persuasion I managed to get a good fit. Before beginning to insert the interior, due to all the windows and openings to deal with, I thought it might be easier to do some panel line shading and outer coat in areas to prevent overspray. I haven't pre-painted exteriors since I was a kid and instead of doing only the areas around openings and the nacelles and under the wing and the fuselage under where the wing and nacelles will make it difficult to spray into. I ended up pretty much painting the entire fuselage and nacelles and lower wing surfaces. It was just too easy and the paint was flowing and I couldn't help myself...I'll touch up those seams later...Wish I hadn't been lazy and done that. I think I created more work later and now I have to blend the paint over the non painted surface area to not obliterate the pre-shading. Lesson re-learned! Pressing on!
Before interior work:
After assembly with wings dry fit to the fuselage:
And did I mention the entire horizontal tail assembly was done in clear acrylic???
That's now been primed and sits atop the back end where the nightmare of windows and glass of the tail gunner station awaits construction.
Definitely a ways to go. Next will be work on the fuselage seams followed with fuselage paint. (Thank me for creating extra work by getting carried away with the airbrush - Bonehead!) But, it is starting to look like a Marauder though. I'm thinking painting the invasion stripes is going to be a bit easier to do before joining the wings and tail. More to come. Thanks for stopping by.
For a 1/72 kit, the interior is surprisingly complete even in areas not very visible. Details are very nicely molded with the cockpit and bomb bay really a nice touch. I didn't realize how much glass Martin put on this beast. IT must have been a manufacturing nightmare. Along the way, I added pilot harnesses and replace the 4 external blister .50 cals with resin. Starting with the instructions, marking for two planes are included, both from the same squadron. I'll decide later which plane to decorate. Decals for stripes are included, but definitely going to spray and weather these instead
Assembly and paint started with the cockpit followed by the bomb bay.
An outer row of bombs finish out the bomb bay, but those cannot be added until the fuselage comes together. A whole lot of dry fit occurred before any glue got sniff...uh, applied just to make sure the fuselage halves would come together. It was a tight fit with some persuasion along the way.
Once the crew stations were installed, I wanted to bypass the clear acrylic post included to prevent it from being a tail sitter. Pine Car Derby weights to the rescue! The radio/navigator station was the perfect place to stack a bomb load of weight. This was as far forward as any weight could go. Feels like there's plenty there.
Looks like a bit of black paint on the weights will be in order to block their visibility through the nav windows. It'll be dark in there anyway!
Ready to button up the fuselage now. With persuasion I managed to get a good fit. Before beginning to insert the interior, due to all the windows and openings to deal with, I thought it might be easier to do some panel line shading and outer coat in areas to prevent overspray. I haven't pre-painted exteriors since I was a kid and instead of doing only the areas around openings and the nacelles and under the wing and the fuselage under where the wing and nacelles will make it difficult to spray into. I ended up pretty much painting the entire fuselage and nacelles and lower wing surfaces. It was just too easy and the paint was flowing and I couldn't help myself...I'll touch up those seams later...Wish I hadn't been lazy and done that. I think I created more work later and now I have to blend the paint over the non painted surface area to not obliterate the pre-shading. Lesson re-learned! Pressing on!
Before interior work:
After assembly with wings dry fit to the fuselage:
And did I mention the entire horizontal tail assembly was done in clear acrylic???
That's now been primed and sits atop the back end where the nightmare of windows and glass of the tail gunner station awaits construction.
Definitely a ways to go. Next will be work on the fuselage seams followed with fuselage paint. (Thank me for creating extra work by getting carried away with the airbrush - Bonehead!) But, it is starting to look like a Marauder though. I'm thinking painting the invasion stripes is going to be a bit easier to do before joining the wings and tail. More to come. Thanks for stopping by.
