B-26 Flak-Bait (Thai Paperwork/NOBI)

[Siwi]

Some may recall that I won a copy of this kit last year by correctly identifying the type whilst still being teased. So it seems right that I should start a build log for the model!


This Martin B-26 is the famous 'Flak-Bait' which completed over 200 missions and was preserved and donated to the NASM. In fact the aircraft has been in pieces for decades and is only now being fully restored.


I will be building the kit with the addition of glazing and an extensive interior, and probably enhancements to the landing gear and engines too. Another important decision is about weathering - the model out of the box depicts the aircraft with the famous nose art but in pristine condition, which it was not by the time it was complete, and at the time of writing is being preserved with all paint damage retained as part of the authenticity of the artifact. The real Flak-Bait recieved over 1000 holes from battle damage in its flying career.


The first task in enhacement is to use my riveting wheel to mark rivet lines across the fuselage skin panels. This already adds a great deal more textural interest (the placement of the rivets is assumed, I am not crossing a line and going down the rabbit hole of actually counting them).

[Draco]

Wonderfull!

[yankeekilo]

very nice!!

[Don Boose]

Looks like a project of first-rate super detailing.

One of my favorite airplanes (in my youth in Baltimore, Martin was still building airplanes at its Middle River plant) and a real classic. Anne McCombes of this Forum worked on the NASM restoration.

I look forward to seeing you apply your skills, talent, and experience to this build, Simon.

Don

[Siwi]

Don, it's always an honour (even in British spelling) to have your encouragement right from the start of a project.

Originally Posted by Don Boose

Anne McCombes of this Forum worked on the NASM restoration.

Oh, wow! I've been reading the articles on their website about the restoration; such things as removing the 1970s repaint and uncovering the crew signatures underneath from X-rays. There are some valuable reference photographs there too. I was suprised to see that the interior has some kind of brown lining rather than the metal longerons in drab primer I was expecting.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Siwi

I was suprised to see that the interior has some kind of brown lining rather than the metal longerons in drab primer I was expecting.

We as modelist are used to think that all the planes in WWII used only two colors to protect the inside of the fuselage and pieces: yellow or yellow-green. Recently (or at least the last 20 years or so) somebody used his head and looked all the surviving airplanes that exist today, and found that the allied planes used a wide scale of colors from yellow-green to very dark green, depending the amount of zinc cromate and othe elements, the factory, even the part o the plane.
German planes used dark green, and the japaneses varied but it was usually lighter.
It's the same problem that happened with the german subs: because the allied subs were painted red underwater, everybody decided that the U-boats were too, until somebody was checking the wwii sub bases inventary and couldn't find the tons of red paint that should have been requested.

[airdave]

Heres some photos I took back in 2014

(I'll reduce them down in size and quality for posting here)

[airdave]

And the interior

(last pic of interior with paint removed was taken in 2018)

[georgerutherford1861]

Wow, this will be quite the treat to follow. Thanks for inviting us along.

Doug

[Amccombs3]

Originally Posted by Siwi

I was suprised to see that the interior has some kind of brown lining rather than the metal longerons in drab primer I was expecting.

Oh, yeah, the interior. I’ll tell the story on that. There were a lot of areas with no yellow or green primer, just bare aluminum. The manned areas were lined with fabric insulating panels. We think they were primarily for sound insulation. So far as we know, no other Marauder still has the fabric panels. They were originally made from a fabric sourced from a supplier of luxury automotive interiors. That company is long gone. The sewn-in insulation was thick felt. That company is still in business and generously donated felt for the repairs/replacement panels.

Some of the original panels could be repaired and reinstalled, but others were damaged beyond recovery and had to have replacements made. There was a lot of insect and mouse damage.

The closest match to the “upholstery” fabric was, of all things, pool table fabric. By the way, pool table fabric is not felt, though most people call it that. It is actually a woven fabric. We contacted a manufacturer of pool table fabric and bought a special, custom length of the fabric that was not dyed or treated with any of the finishing chemicals like water repellent. For reasons known only to Martin, the fabric is brown below a certain waterline, and green above. So when we got the undyed fabric, we sent it to a dye house in New York, together with samples of the original panels for matching. Because we were sending artifacts, we had to do a loan agreement with them, the same as if we were lending them to another museum for display.

Meanwhile, I spent many hours designing the patterns for each panel. I started with the blueprints (yes, we had them), but I had to alter them a lot. It was clear that some of the prints were just plain wrong. For example, they omitted the openings for the aileron control cables on one panel.

The panels are held in place with a sort of snap — a fastener with a head like a snap, and a couple of prongs underneath. The prongs fit into slots in the various underlying sheet metal components. I forget the brand name for them. If you look real close at the last picture Airdave posted, you will see a bunch of lime green marks on the next-to-aft former. Those are bits of masking tape that I used to mark some of the slots.

I made a couple of the panels before I moved on to other projects. Now that I’ve retired, I’ve thoroughly briefed the volunteer who is making the other panels. She’s had to make some alterations to my patterns (which we all expected), but so far she says it’s going pretty well.

I’ll be happy to answer questions.