Italeri

1/72 A-26C Invader

Kit Number: 1259

Reviewed by  Steve Nelson, IPMS# 30925

MSRP: $30.00 Web Site: www.modelrectifier.com The Douglas Invader was probably the best American medium bomber to be developed in WWII. It went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam, as well as in numerous smaller conflicts in Africa and Central America. This is the second incarnation of Italeri's excellent 1/72 scale Invader. The Vietnam-era A-26K gunship was released last spring. This kit is the glass-nosed "C" version used as a night bomber in the Korean conflict. The kit consists of four sprues of 100 flash-free parts crisply molded in light gray and one sprue of five crystal-clear transparencies. Decals are printed by Cartograf, and include full stencils and markings for four aircraft: two black USAF Invaders from Korea, and two French machines (one black plane used in Algeria and a silver plane used in Indochina.) The comprehensive instruction sheet features one page of parts layouts, five pages of building instructions, and two pages of markings and painting diagrams. Painting instructions use FS numbers where appropriate, and give numbers for Testor's Model Master Enamel and Acryl paints. The box art is very nice, although the name "Invader" is trademarked, and the box top features an "Officially Licensed Product" label from Boeing, something I fear we'll be seeing more and more of.

The parts feature nicely engraved panel lines. Not as refined as some Japanese companies, but quite acceptable. One thing I noticed is the armored skin on the forward fuselage is accurately molded as standing slightly "proud" of the rest of the skin. A quick test-fit on some of the main components shows that the fit is good, but some careful trimming and filler may be needed. The kit features a fully detailed interior, including the bomb bay, along with optional position bomb bay doors. The tires are molded as flattened and bulged. Some parts are a bit simplified, and could use some extra detailing. The engines are nicely molded, but the cylinders are flat, without cooling fins. A few swipes with an X-Acto knife should fix this. The upper portions of the landing gear struts are molded as solid, when they should be made up of pieces of tubing. The propellers are accurately shaped, but are missing the prominent retaining bolts on the hubs.

When the A-26K was released earlier this year, there was a bit of criticism because Italeri made a few compromises to get different versions of the Invader from the same mold. The cockpit and wheels are correct for the earlier A-26B/C versions, but the tail also features the small vortex generators unique to the "K" (the instructions tell you to remove these.) This release includes all the parts necessary to the "C" version, including new engine cowlings and props, and fuselage gun turrets. The gun-nose "B" version is being released by Revell AG. All in all, this looks like a very nice kit, and one I look forward to building. We "Gentlemen's Scale" modelers have been waiting a long time for an Invader to replace the elderly Airfix kit, the only other A-26 released in 1/72 scale. The Build First off a disclaimer; I tried to keep this as close to an out-of-box build as possible, but being afflicted with terminal AMS, I couldn't resist a few "tweaks" here and there. Construction started with the interior. This is very nicely detailed, which is important since a lot of the cockpit and nose compartment are visible through the canopies. I added tape seatbelts to the pilot's seat. The instrument panel decal didn't look anything like an actual instrument panel, so I composed a new one in a paint program, printed it out on paper, and glued it in place. I had been warned by a review of the earlier A-26K release that the fuselage was a bit too wide for the canopy, so I sanded the mating surfaces down slightly. This meant I also had to trim the interior bulkheads a bit to get a good fit. Unfortunately, the nose gear doors are molded as part of the wheel well bulkheads, meaning you have to attach them before closing up the fuselage. Cutting them off would have made masking much easier, and I knocked one off during construction anyway. The kit comes with both upper and lower turrets, but I was modeling a Korean war bird, and most of them had the lower turret removed. I found a photo of the actual plane depicted by the kit, and sure enough, no lower turret. So I decided to fair it over. The kit features two different types of upper turret, but doesn't specify which to use. Photos show that the one with individual slots for the guns is appropriate for Korea. The wings went together nicely, although the joint where the trailing edge meets the engine nacelle required a fair bit of filling and sanding. The kit gives you the option of internal wing guns or under wing gun pods. Most pictures I found of Invaders in Korea show them with the internal guns or no wing armament, and rockets or bombs on the wing racks (not included in the kit.) The model needs a fair bit of weight to keep it from being a tail-sitter. Since the glass nose meant there was no room for weight in the fuselage, I blocked off the nacelles forward of the landing gear and stuffed them full of lead fishing sinkers. The main landing gear is designed to be "trapped" between the nacelle halves before assembly, which helps with alignment, but virtually guarantees that one will get broken before the project is finished (ask me how I know.) As I mentioned in my in-box preview, the main and nose gear struts are molded with the upper portions solid. I couldn't resist, and cut away the solid portions and replaced them with styrene rod. The nacelles have the prominent recessed areas for the engine exhausts, but the trailing edges of the cowls are flat. I thinned down the cowl flaps, and made exhaust stacks from styrene rod. I also used a bit of stretched sprue to make the retaining bolts for the prop hubs, and thinned down the blades just a bit, as they're a little to broad in chord. I made a "jig" out of wood scraps in order to get the wing alignment and dihedral correct. The wing/fuselage joint, like most of the joints in the kit, required some filling and sanding. Once the basic assembly was complete, it was time for masking and painting. I masked the canopies with Bare Metal foil and the wheel wells and bomb bay with tape and tissue, then primed the red areas with white, followed by a coat of Gunze acrylic H86 "Red Madder." I then masked off the red areas, and shot the model with Tamiya gloss acrylic. I think straight black looks much too "stark" in 1/72, so used a ten-to-one mix of black to white. The panel lines are fairly prominent, so I decided not to do any washes or shading. The decals went on well, and responded nicely to Solvaset. The red and yellow are very opaque, and look good over the black. The kit comes with all the appropriate stencils, as well as the yellow dashed lines around the canopies, which require considerable care to get aligned properly. There is supposed to be a letter "L" on each side of the tail, but there's only one on the decal sheet. Fortunately one of the other markings choices features and "E," which I was able to cut up to make the correct letter. The insignias came from an Aeromaster sheet. The kit only gives you the standard USAF insignias, but the black Invaders had only the white areas and red stripes. The nose art decal is very nice, but I think it may be a bit oversize. After the decals were dry, I finished the model with a coat of Model Master Acryl semi-gloss clear, and added some exhaust staining around the nacelles. The wingtip lights were painted silver, then with Tamiya clear green and red. For the under wing landing lights, I cut out circles of Bare Metal foil. I finished the model off with an antenna wire made from "invisible" monofilament quilting thread.

Conclusion Although I'm reasonably pleased with the final result, this kit does require a bit more effort than your standard Tamiagawa offering. But with some care, it builds up into a very nice replica of a classic war bird. Recommended to modelers with moderate experience. References - The A-26 Invader In Action - Squadron/Signal - Famous Aircraft of the World #92: A-26 Invader - 13th Bomb Squadron website (www.13thbombsquadron.org) - The National Museum of the United States Air Force

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