1/48 ESCI B-26B Marauder

Gallery Article by Don Enlow on Nov 16 2009

 

My Dad Malcolm D. Enlow was a member of the 322nd BG 449th BS From May 29th 1943 until the crew he was a member of was transferred to the 394thBG 584th BS. in  March 1944.  From Aug. 16th to Feb. 29th he flew 30 missions aboard  41-31757 "WE DOOD IT" .  Lt. Jack Hancock the copilot from this crew told me the aircraft name implied "We had a mission to do so WE DOOD It" ! By the way during the time the crew was with the 322nd BG 449th BS they did fly 41-31773 "FLAK BAIT" on a mission dated Feb.29th 1944.

The black and white original image of "WE DOOD IT" is of Lt. Henry Huber the bomb/nav from the crew

Lt. Jim Ferrell and his crew (first crew of "FLAK BAIT") were in the same flight of 3 B-26s flown to the UK from the States as was the crew my Dad was assigned to. They flew to the UK via the Southern Route.

Having several ESCI B-26 Marauder kits in my stash and being a B-26 researcher I just had to try my hand at building up one of these kits. It was a real challenge. First I had to acquire  some good Pratt Whitney R-2800-34s. "Quick Boost" had what I needed but for the Monogram/Revell 1/48th scale kits. For some reason ESCI  used 14 cylinder engines instead of the 18 cylinder Pratts.  ESCI  made  the engine firewalls different lengths on the right and left side.  I solved the problem by investing $.75 cents in quarters as spacers between the airframe firewall, and the back of the "Quick Boost" engine mold. The quarters also added  some of the forward weight needed to keep it from being a tail sitter. Second I robbed the props from one of the Monogram B-26 kits I have because the ESCI prop hubs didn't look like Curtiss prop hubs to me. Too blunt!. Third the ESCI had one chin pitot tube  which was correct for the serial modeled by ESCI, but not for 41-31757 which had duel pitot tubes, one on each wing  near the tip.

I smashed some fishing weights glued them together inside the radio compartment to also give the forward CG needed to sit properly on all three gear.

The decals I made using  the decal paper from MicroMark and taking some black/white images of the real  "WE DOOD IT" coloring and getting the scale needed for the model.

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I used both Model Masters enamel, and acrylics both regular Olive Drab, and Faded Olive Drab. I sprayed the Faded OD over MM's Aluminum used salt water in places between the Aluminum and  the Faded OD  to help with the chipping effect. Some of the salt also bled through the OD  to give an even better effect than I planned . I have also included a shot from above of both the original "WE DOOD IT"  and my model.

I hope to see more attempts at modeling the Martin B-26 Marauder by others.  If I can be of help please feel free to contact me via my  ARC user's name Don923

Don Enlow

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Photos and text © by Don Enlow