B-26K (A-26A) Counter Invader

My interest in the Invader as the basis for my subject stems from two areas. First, being able to build the terrific ProModeler A-26B Invader is a treat given the level of detail and fit. It is also unusual that an aircraft that was designed and built in the 1940’s, was still viable as an offensive weapon through 3 wars, which no other U.S. warplane was able to match.

The modified Invader for Vietnam was carried out by On Mark Engineering Company, whom had extensive experience with civilian built Invaders up to that point. The biggest changes in the A-26 were strengthened wing spars to carry additional weaponry, a larger rudder, wingtip fuel tanks, underwing pylons that were more robust, and 2,500 hp P & W R-2800-52W engines with larger clipped broad chord propellers for better performance. The nose was designed with the familiar 8 .50 cal. machine gun arrangement, or glass nose depending on the mission requirements. The only other obvious visual difference between the two versions was the elimination of both top and bottom gun turrets on the Counter Invader. No need to fend off pesky Migs when chasing troop transports on the Ho Chi Minh trail at night!!

Counter Invaders sported dual flight controls in an effort to appease the political process: because the Vietnam War was technically being fought by the Vietnamese (yeah, right), the pilot was supposed to be a RSVAF regular. In any event, a two person crew was all that was needed. The intended mission for the Invader was to fly night missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail and intercept truck traffic and troop movements by the NVA. The added wing tip fuel tanks allowed the A-26 to linger over targets longer, and it’s relatively slow speeds were an asset in finding the enemy. Unfortunately, that also made it more dangerous to fly those missions, and the A-26(K) sustained heavier than expected losses while on station. Most of the aircraft flew out of Thailand at Nakhon Phanom Air Base with few markings on them, so as to not bring attention to the fact that American aircraft were being flown out of Thailand. (Thailand did not permit basing of bombers on its territory in 1966!)

On to the kit! In addition to the Pro Modeler kit, I also obtained the OZ Mods resin transkit to convert the A-26B to the A-26A Counter Invader, and Eduard’s interior detail set to upgrade the cockpit and interior. The OZ kit includes a solid resin 8 gun nose, wingtip tanks, updated props, and resin gun barrels. Strangely enough (at least to me), they did not include any under wing weapons pylons, which is as important as the nose and propellers. So, we will have to raid the parts box for the pylons! Eduard’s photo-etch interior set has the typical photoetch seat, instrument panel, lots of cool levers, panels, control surfaces, etc, that is so well done. I also planned to modify the engine nacelle intakes which appeared on later versions with the intake moved from the front of the nacelle to the trailing edge. From my reference photos, not all Vietnam Invaders had the more powerful R-2800 engines with the revised intakes, but the aircraft I modeled was of a later version. Finally, Aeromaster “Air War Over Vietnam” decals for 2 different versions of the Counter Invader emptied my wallet!

The OZ Mods resin castings are clean and without a lot of flash, only the wingtip tanks required any mold line cleanup, and that was minimal. The instructions are fairly basic, and show where to cut the original fuselage and wings. I found that I cut more than necessary on the wing tips, because the tanks recessed join to the wing was too small after I had cut at the correct point. It was no big deal, just a little filler around the wing and it looked fine.

Next came the gun turret openings. Both have a raised lip that needed to be removed and replaced with plasticard, after some judicious sanding with the sanding stick! I cut half moons for each fuselage half, and reinforced the inside with some plastic rod. It required some filler, but went easier than I expected.

The nose modification was more frustrating. The ProMod nose has a lip that needs to be removed, but when I fit the new nose onto the fuselage, the diameter was smaller than the kit and required a lot of filler in order to make it look like it belonged! I almost tried using the original nose, but figured the resin piece looked better after all. It took lots of sanding, and although it turned out looking pretty good, it was disappointing that it was such a poor fit. I was worried that there would not be enough room for weighting the nose, since the OZ resin nose is solid, but I was able to fit enough weight around the cockpit opening ( fishing weights) to keep the nose on the ground.

I used brass sheet for the revised engine intakes after sanding off the kit offerings. The kit nacelle can be sanded off without damaging the lip around the engine opening, so that came off easier than I thought; very little was needed in the way of putty to smooth it out. It was also easy to replace the propellor blades with the resin replacements, and they turned out looking like the real thing.

Eduard’s cockpit photo etch fret was extensive and luckily included the co-pilot instrument panel that all counter invaders had. I used the seat and control stick from the Eduard set for the co-pilot station, so very little scratch building was required to finish the cockpit for “Mighty Mouse”. Sheet styrene was used for the instrument panel for the co-pilot, and I left the navigators seat, which was probably removed in the actual aircraft.

It is difficult to see from the pictures how many etched levers are included in the center console from Eduard! That and some dry brushing brought out a lot of detail and I was really happy with the end result. The interior was painted with Model Master interior green, and I eliminated the rear gunner’s station, as that was completely removed in the K model.

Pro Modeler provides 2 different canopies for the kit, as later models had a larger glass area and more headroom for the crew. I don’t think it is quite accurate in that there was no bulge in the roof that is apparent from all the pictures I have of the later type, but it still looks ok. The early canopy can be shown open, (unlike the later type), which would have been nice to show off the detail inside, but I was not up to that much of a modification!

The paint scheme was fun to do, flat black undersides, and the 3-tone dark green, standard green, and tan were from Tamiya and Model Master acrylics applied with a Badger 350 airbrush. Drybrushing and pastel chalks to dirty things up finished the exterior.

All the antenna and bulges were done with scrap styrene, stretched sprue, and guitar string. It’s amazing there are so many antenna sticking out of the fuselage..14 total according to WarBird Tech series on the Invader. Finally, the under wing pylons came from a KMC set for the Skyraider, and ordanance from Hasegawa’s Aircraft Weapons Set:A. Counter Invaders carried a variety of underwing stores, from cluster bombs to napalm to general purpose stores depending on the mission, so I use napalm, Mk. 82’s on TERS, M 117 GP’s , and CBU cluster bomb units.

Aeromaster decals finished “Mouse” over a coat of Future. There were not many to apply, as Vietnam aircraft were devoid of the personalization that was found on aircraft in the Korean and WWII conflicts. I did some weathering to finish her off, using pastels and dry brushing. I didn’t do a lot, since the paint scheme is pretty busy and sometimes less is more!! Last but not least was some flat base to take away the shine, and voila, the last version of the A-26 Invader!!

Hope you enjoy the pictures, I sure enjoyed building it!

Wade Middleton