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Monogram B-26, Lone Star early conversion

jeaton01

Well-known member
Here's my entry, building as an early torpedo carrying aircraft based at Midway using the Lone Star conversion resin set. It's about time I built this kit, it's been in the stash a long time.

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Looks interesting John! Go for it! Looking forward to the aftermarket resin parts and seeing what you can do! :popcorn
 
I was going to build this same kit. I even bought the torpedo for it but when I got to looking through the kit all of my clear parts were missing along with one engine so I put it on the shelf. Ge on with it, John.
I can't wait to watch this.
 
The picture is just dark, Gary. The plastic is the usual dark green. After the Tamiya Lancaster it'll be awhile before I pick up another black plastic kit.
 
Here is where I'm at on the Monogram B-26. The first thing I did was saw off the fin from the fuselage halves, the early B-26's had smaller fins. Then I sawed off the outer wing panels after gluing the wing panels together. I did it with my band saw and it worked well and was gratifyingly fast. A rough file was used to remove the remaining plastic back to the tape line, which was even with a panel line on the top of the wing. A little of the tab on the end of the resin wing panels had to be filed off before the fit was correct. The resin outer panels were attached using thin CA and microballoons. One of the photos shows the difference in the early and late wing panels, not a minor difference. And that's all I've got to say about this.


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Interesting, do you have a way of slowing down your band saw ? All my attempts to date regardless of blade or plastic type usually end up with a lot of melted plastic along the cut line
 
Gary, the saw is a 9 inch band saw from Harbor Freight, no speed adjustment but the amount of heating is low if the feed rate is low. The blade is about like a coarse hack saw. There was some plastic to clean up but it was easy to do with a #11 blade. I cut about 1/16 back from the final line as I figured the precision would not be that good, and filed and sanded to the tape marker.

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Glad to hear that there is someone else here that has a band saw! (y) (y)

I have a 9 inch Ryobi band saw John and it is one of my most used tools. I find if I take great care in my setups the cuts are usually quite accurate. Another thing I do when cutting small parts is I take a thin piece of aluminum sheet that I cut a slot in to the center that is just the width of the blade.

The aluminum sheet is placed on the table so that the slot is out to the back side of the saw blade. This gives a nice smooth surface so I can cut small parts without fighting the large hole in the table. The slot behind the blade isn't an issue as the parts are already cut. I also hunted around to find a saw blade with finer tooth pitch. Still somewhat coarse but it works well on Plexiglas, acrylic, aluminum, and wood.
 
I finally got some more done on the Monogram B-26. Had an R/C project that had to get done.
I got some of the dental alginate that Paul Budzik uses. I'm still working on finding the right proportions to use with gel CA but it seems to be pretty good. I'll find out when the primer goes on. I used it where the resin wings join to the plastic, and filled a few spots where I made the cuts a bit wrong.
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Next I started on the new tailplane parts supplied by the Lone Star conversion set. Some holding your mouth right required here but everything actually fits pretty well. I have some gaps to work with but the main course in my mind was alignment. I made a paper template to locate the holes and drilled for brass pins to reinforce the stabilizer attachments. An adjustable angle tool from an old drafting set was used to get the angle between the fin and the stabilizers the same on both sides, the actual angle is LAR definite. The last photo shows how much bigger Martin made the fin when they extended the wings. Now all I have to do with the tail is figure out how to fit it to the fuselage. Worry worry!
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:popcorn Not sure what this is about . I have never studied the B-26

Are you modifying it back to the original design ?

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Thanks, guys.

Yes, Christian. The early B-26's had shorter wing span and smaller tail surfaces, and this was the type that was at Midway. The third major change happened late in production, where the wing incidence was increased. You can tell that type by the fact that the engines have a definite up angle and are not parallel with the fuselage. So far as I know only Hasegawa has done that version, and in 1/72.
 
I have one in the closet that says B/C . I was not aware they had produced an A model .

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Nice work John!I really should get back on my Buffalo so I can earn Dave's awesome badge and finish my own darn GB ;)
 
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