1/48 Monogram B-26

'Idiot's Delight'

by Kevin Martin

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This is the first B-26 I have built to completion. Oh, I've tried  before. Only to fail close to the end. This one almost suffered the same fate. Built right out of the box using Floquil Railroad Line enamels and Aeromaster Decals. This project was built over a five day period and presented interesting challenges. The trickiest part of this build was jostling the turret into place. I carefully put into its hole in the fuselage and feeling pretty smart began gluing the fuselage together. As soon as I turned the thing up, the turret fell into the fuselage and started laughing at me. Lucky for me I came to this site and found a build article on it and the builder did about the same thing yet fished it back into position. Intentionally, preplanned!  He knew he had to place the assembly into the model before continuing. Thanks whoever you were!

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The nose framing was accomplished by cutting thin strips of Bare Metal Foil and carefully placing each on top of each internal frame inside the nose cone and pressing into place with a toothpick. Two attempts me I make, as Yoda would say.

Not a bad kit to build when one learns the little tricks to it. The engine nacelles give many a problem. The fit will be terrible if you assemble them first then attach to the bottom of the wing. I glue each half to their slots in the wing bottoms to get the best, closest fit. I then squeeze the opened seam running along the bottom of each nacelle together and glue. I actually used a minimum of filler on this build. The biggest disappointment with this project was the hose job Aeromaster did with the nose art. It's oversized for the model. But as I can't do a better job printing my own decals, I'll accept it and move on.  

Kevin

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Photos and text © by Kevin Martin