Time now to see if all this detail will fit. The cockpit/nose wheel assembly, the bomb bay and the tail position was cemented to the port fuselage half along with a small bulkhead in the nose and tail and the dorsal turret mounting ring.
After test fitting, the two halves were cemented together. Everything fitted beautifully with nary a seam line visible. Cleaning up of these seams took only a few gentle swipes with a fine grade sanding stick.
Having checked the box to ensure this was not a Tamiya kit, the build continued with the addition of the tailplanes and fin. The tailplane assembly consists of three pieces with the full span upper part incorporating the correct pronounced dihedral angle – thoughtful engineering this. This and the fin again mount seamlessly to the fuselage. The separate rudder and elevators can be added with whatever deflection you desire.
For an open bomb bay, the four bi-fold doors can be attached to the hinges previously installed. For a closed bay, separate two piece doors attach seamlessly to the fuselage and lower beam.
The four fuselage, forward firing gun packs build up from three parts apiece and are mounted to the previously drilled holes below the cockpit.
The cockpit glazing consists of a single piece to which the two hinged escape hatches can be attached either in the open or closed position. These hatches can be seen in wartime photographs in the open position with the aircraft parked, presumably to help keep the interior cool. If attaching closed, there is no positive location for these hatches but it was a simple matter to press masking tape to the inner side to hold them in position whilst carefully using Krystal Clear as the adhesive. When cured, the windscreen and hatches were masked with Tamiya tape and a new scalpel blade. For those who prefer to use proprietary masks, these should soon be available I would guess. The large nose transparency also has some narrow framing and a flat aiming panel to mask off. Both clear parts can now be attached in position.
Test fitting did reveal a small amount of sanding was required to achieve a snug fit here. Note: There are two different clear cockpit and nose parts provided on the sprue. Make sure you use the correct parts for the B-26B as the others are for a G model aircraft.
The final two pieces to add to the fuselage are the blanking pieces which attach to the fuselage between the two wing spars to ‘box in’ the bomb bay.
Paul Ainsworth says
“Hello,Rob” – An excellent feature and build of the Marauder.
I’ve heard good reports about ICM kits and you’ve certainly done justice to this one.
I love the finishing-work.The tonal variation,weathering and chipping-effects really bring her to life.
A model to be very proud of.🏆
As Always,
Paul.😉👍
Rob Ruscoe says
Thanks Paul.
Much appreciated.
ICM are certainly up there with the top manufacturers. They also keep Revell going!
Rob.R
Tim English says
Very nice work, your paint work looks fantastic.
I built a 1/72 Airfix Marauder a few years back & had the same problem with the gear strength & can imagine it being worse with a 1/48 scale one.
One idea to add strength is to add a thin piece of wire connecting the gap beween the tire & the gear strut, or possibly clear sprue so that it is hardly visible.
The angle forward on the leg doesn’t help matters either!
Rob Ruscoe says
Thanks for your nice comments Tim. Makes the effort worthwhile. I build OOB for the SMN articles warts and all. I can report the main legs on the Marauder have been drilled and pinned already. Replacement white metal legs are the only long term answer though. With any model like this, I think the manufacturer should already include metal landing gear as standard. Trumpeter were guilty of this in the past but they have listened to the criticism and provided metal legs in their heavier kits. Hopefully ICM and others will take note.
Regards
Rob.R