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.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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
Click on
images below to see larger images
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