1/72 Italeri B-26K

Counter Invader 

Conversion to Airspray Tanker #36 C-FAGO" 

by Travis Chalmers

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Holy Smokes! I finished it.  This was a very challenging kit for me because I am new to the hobby, and pretty hamfisted when it comes to doing the fine detail work.  I also am working on upgrading my tool selection, so this model was made with tools that I am sure some of you would find laughable.   So - the kit.  It was my third serious model.  The first one that I ever tried to convert from the OOB form.  My buid depicts the Douglas A-26 C (Canadian designation; B-26 for the U.S.) Serial No. 44 - 35456 in the livery of Air Spray aerial applications, based in Red Deer AB.  The B-26 was what the A-26 (U.S. designation during WWII) was called when it was revived for service as an attack aircraft in the Vietnam war.  44-35456 Served with the 12th Air Force in Grosetto, Italy in 1945, and then from '51-56 she was with the 67th tactical recon wing in Japan and Korea, where she was christened 'Dragon Lady'.  During her time in Korea, she was based at Keagu K-2 airbase, as well as Kimpo K-14 airbase.  She spent many years on the civil aircraft registry in the U.S.A. before becoming a member of Air Spray's fleet in 1983, when she was re-registered as C-FAGO.

The Italeri kit was for the 1:72nd scale B-26K Counter Invader, which was bristling with guns and bombs and stuff, but thankfully already had the gun turrets capped and came in the hard nosed configuration.  I had the wife of the pilot that I made it for sneak me some pictures for reference, as well as using the wonderful pictures off the website Airliners.net.  Many thanks to John Olafson, who took those excellent photos. 

The Build...

My first priming session went well, but since I am not familiar with the steps that make the task easier, I ended up re-priming it after I moved the air intakes to the front of the cowling and filled the nose gun holes better (the filler shrunk enough so the holes showed up as depressions).  I masked the gear bays and cabin areas with tac, which I was to find out later, was a mistake.  The coat of yellow (humbrol enamel) went on well, which made me happy, 'cause just to get there was a struggle.  I missed the little detail in a photo showing that AGO had no aft window in the cojo's side of the fuselage, and so had to mask it and fill it after the yellow went on.  It all turned out ok after a bit of touching up to the surrounding paint.

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I took the kit props which were big square-tipped jobbies and sanded them down to the round ones you see here.  I also did a bit of painting over some of the windowed areas on the upper rear glaze.  The fit of the front canopy was atrocious.  The fuse was too wide for the canopy, by about 1/32".  I split the difference when I attached it, and then filed down the sides of the fuse to meet the glaze.  It's not correct, but it's really hard to notice.

I intended to leave the canopy open and the gear down, but alas, on peeling away the tac masking the gear legs, I was unable to rid the legs of the sticky gum-like residue of the tac.  It was then that plans changed, and the model would be displayed flying.  Oh well.  Adapt and overcome, right?  I closed 'er up, fashioned the dorsal antennae and pitot tube out of sprue and applied a coat of future (also my first time doing so). I then layed on the decals which I had created using a Testors decal making kit for the computer.  I just eyeballed the line spacing and lettering size.  For the 'Dragon Lady' logo, I scanned one of the pictures I was given, cut it out using MS Paint, and removed all of the background around it.  I shrunk it down and hey presto!  realistic markings! 

The weathering was pretty minor.  I read and tried to adhere to the advice of the pros on here who said "when you think you need just a little more..." and I think it turned out O.K. as a result.  The planes are usually kept pretty clean, so I just did what I thought (and what ref. photos showed) it would be sporting after a hard day's firefighting.  I didn't highlight any panel lines or anything, but I did chip a bit of paint off the front of the cowlings and leading edges of the flying surfaces.  The exhaust stains are drybrushed - flat black over the gloss first, then flat light grey, and finally military brown.  The retardant stains were done with a red wash.  Now all that's left to do is mount it! 

'Dragon Lady' turned out pretty good in the end, and I hope the 'Chief' likes her.  He's helped me out a lot lately in my job, so I did this one up for him as a way to say thanks.  I hope you all enjoy it.  I look forward to upgrading the airbrush and toolset and turning out some masterpieces like the rest of you here are doing.  Thanks so much for the ideas, technical info and inspiration!

Travis

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Photos and text © by Travis Chalmers