AlexM

Hey Bruce, no, I don't have a B-29. The only vacuform kit I ever finished is the SM.79. And then there is that nearly completed Hampden that is still waiting to get finished ... maybe someday

Hey guys, the project is not cancelled, it just took a "little" pause. Too bad I get distracted easily... Back in 2018, there were some news about a B-26 from resin2detail. I don't if this one is still in the pipelines https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/72566-resin2detail-132-b26-marauder/

Here is a german drawing with dimensions:

Hi there, time for a little update. Already in 2019, I made some some surgery to the kit's fuselage, since I didn't like the fron cross-section. In my eyes, the fuselage should be wider on the upper side than on the lower side. At the Hobby Boss kit, its rather the opposide. Therefore I cut the nose-section apart, to replace it with a 3d-printed one together with vacuformed clear parts. Here are some pictures from 2019: Now, the fuselage is finally glued together: Now, It's time for for some panel line scribing. And I hate scribing Cheers Alex

Hi there, some time ago, I started with my Hobby Boss B-24D kit. Since the fuselage interiors are pretty much finished, I thought it's time to share some picutes. The fuselage section in front of the nose wheel-well was cut off and replaced with my own 3d-printed version, since I wasn't happy with the cross-section shape of the kit at this area. Like most/all aircrafts with nose gear, it would tilt backwards without weights on the front side, especially with its heavy tail. Therefore, I added lots of lead plates between the cockpit floor and the wheel well, as well as in front of the cockpit. Together with some additional lead below the floor at the bombardier station, this should be sufficient, although this makes the whole model quite heavy. To hide the lead plates, I added a styrene plated which contians some diagrams from the manual. The kit's bulkhead between the cockpit and radio station was replaced by a more open one made of styrene. I also added some 3d-printed radio-equipment. The side-walls got some more structure details. Since I wasn't happy with the shape of the kit's bombs, I replaced them with my own 3d-printed ones. That's it for now. Cheers Alex

When looking at 3d-models, one has to keep in mind that they basically consist of absolutely straight lines and absoultly flat planes. Something that appears like a circle on screen isn't a real circle, but a polygon which appears more and more round the more corners/segments are used. Many 3d-models look amazing on screen, thanks to mordern computer graphics, with apparently smooth rounded surfaces. Some 3d-models are totally fine for digital purpose, like in a video-game, but if you would 3d-print it, all the nice graphic tricks will disappear, and the straight lines and flat planes will come to light. It is a balancing act: the more detailed the 3d model is, the faster the computer hardware reaches its limits for a rendering that runs smoothly. For example, when looking at the non-textured wireframe model of the BK-117 3d model, it maybe appears a bit rough for 3d-printing:

Hi there, as Ali from Aerocraft Models said, there is the goal to create after market correction sets based on my 3d-model. Here is the current status: Here you can see how the positon of the wing is changed in comparison to the HB kit. The HB kit seems to be flawed in many area. For a really accurate A-26, one would have to create a completly new model, so somewhere a line has to be drawn and some compromise has to be made. This is especially true for the wing root area, since I didn't want to create new wings. Here you can see how I tried to get a somehow acceptable compromise to get the kit's wings fit while having the (hopefully) accurate drawing in mind: We'll see when and how this will turn out. Maybe I should also continue with my scratch build Marauder project so once finished, some manufacturer can announce a kit Cheers Alex

All right, this is insane. I like it. If there is too much shrinkage, you can try to enlage the sections by about 2-3 cm at the end where the print starts, with a small recessed line all around between the actual part and the added "waste section". The shrinkage will occure at the waste ares, which, after printing, can be cut away along the recessed line.

Clear parts are still a hard thing to tackle. There are clear resins available for 3d printing, but my experience so far is that they very soon turn yellow, when exposed to UV light (which is necassary to cure/harden the parts after printing). And then, the 3d model has to be pretty perfect regarding shape and whall thicknes. So for me, this is currently not possible. My approach so far in my projects (from which none of them are finished yet ) is printing a mould/plug, which is slightly smaller the the final clear part, get it as smoth and shiny as possible, and then make clear parts the old way via vacuforming.

Hey, thanks guys. I don't want to make money with this. Once the 3d model is finished, I'll propably make them downloadable for everyone interested.

In my eyes, surface detail of the Hobby Boss kit is pretty nice. The large parts also fit together pretty well. But shapewise, it's flawed. The biggest problem for me is the fuselage cross-section, especially at the canopy area, where it's very obvious. Therefore I started to think about a solution, using 3d printing, which ended up in a littel act of surgery. Here is the current status: Cheers Alex

Hi there, nothing really new to write about. But I made a new purchase that will be very helpfull. There are actuelly 1/32 Maurauder decals out there, even though there is no kit. The decals are part of this nice book: I ran across this when looking for reference about the A-26 Invader. However, only about 10 pages cover the invaders. The rest is all about the Marauder, with many photos, and some nice profiles. At the beginning of this project, I wanted to make this as a NMF aircraft with olive drab upper side and invasion stripes, as I find this scheme pretty cool. But as you know, a metal finish is very unforgiving concerning surface scratches. And since this is more or less a fully 3d printed model, to get a perfect metal finish would be pretty challenging. Therefore, a grey unter- and green upper-side scheme, ideally with invasion stripes, would be better to hide some imperfections And the decals sheet offer just this (sorry for the censorship, but I guess this is a family friendly site ) There is even a review of this book on LSP: https://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=1298 Hi Bruce, this is rather unlikely at the moment. Let me first finish this project (what, if things go on as they are, should only last a few more hundred years ), and then we'll see. Cheers Alex

No hits taken It's really a pitty, as at first, I was impressed how well the two main fuselage parts fit together. I also like the surface details. But the fuselage shape is a no-go for me. Once I start to tackle this kit, I'll see if there is any reasonable solution. I guess this won't go without some major surgery. Maybe In the end I'll drawi and 3d-print a whole new fuselage section. But at the moment it is rather likely the box will be but to the stash and stays there for quite some time.

Thanks for posting this drawing. My kit finally arrived, and after some inspection, it seems to be way more challenging than I thought. To say that the wrong engines are disapponting is an understatement. But I was aware of this when I placed my order, and at least, they can be replaced. The fuselage cross-sections are way more problematic in my eyes. Looking at the forward cross-section between the nose and the main fuselage-part, there is a bit of discrepance when comparing with the drawing. Being a tolerant and forgiving man, I would be inclined to say that it is close enough, if there were no other problems The real problem is all along the fuselage-area where the bomb bay is located. The red line is the cross-section of the kit. On the kit, the fuslage side is pretty much vertical, and starts to curve at the higth of the canopy. Consequently, the canopy-sides are curved, too, so there isn't much similarity to the real thing, where canopy sides are angeled, but flat. In my eyes, there seems to be no easy fix to this, like some little cuts and sanding here and there. On the contrary, the front half of the fuselage would have to be made completely new That's it for now. Cheers Alex

Hi Lietsalmi, thanks for your post That sounds much better than I feared. I'm still waiting for my kit to arrive. What's your opinion about the shape of the canopy/fuselage sides? When looking at the pictures I found on the internet, I have the feeling that the side is too curved where it should be rather flat. At least that's what i believe, but in fact I dont't know that much about the real aircraft, so I could be wrong there. Alex