Lietsalmi

Wow, Alex! Brilliant. If you ever make this available to other modellers, I am sure you will get a lot of interest. Here is one interested buddy, to pick one.

I do have the Trumpeter F-6F kit and I am actually using its R2800 engine as a starting point for my A-26B resin engine replacements. Trumpeter actually made the R2800 engine originally for F-4U (written on the sprue) and just added the same engine to the F-6F kit. This engine still needs a few modifications to represent properly the R2800 engine used in A-26B but even without any modifications it is way better than the kit engines.

Indeed. I started to make an easy fix (just the two cylinder rows) but ended up making the whole engine. Quickboost engines would have been an easier solution but since I am already on my way...

Also Relish Resins have 1/32 B-25 props. But neither of those seems to be anywhere available. Does anyone know if they still exist? Or then I will just use my motto: if something does not exist, I will make it myself.

Next, let's get to the engine business! Douglas A-26B's had Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27, -71 or -79 engines, i.e., the "B" series R-2800 with a smooth nose casing. Here are a couple of pictures (first one is actually R-2800-21): The kit engine is completely wrong: 14 cylinders instead of 18, too short, wrong placement of the cylinders, too wide nose casing, etc. So I started to build replacement cylinder rows that I would cast in resin. Or that was how I thought I would solve the problem. After building the new cylinder rows with 18 cylinders in total I realized that they would not fit nicely inside the engine cowling with the kit bulkhead, if the separation of the cylinder rows was anywhere even close to a realistic engine. So the idea to use the kit bulkhead goes to bin and I need to build the engine all the way from the firewall forward. Since I will be doing that, why not to add the missing exhaust pipes as well? And then the nose casing could be better too... So I am now building the whole engine! I will cast that then into two main resin parts (front cylinder row + nose casing, back cylinder row + firewall attachment) and several smaller parts (front engine attachment ring, exhaust pipes, pushrods, etc.). More work than I thought but in the end I will have a proper engine that can be shown even without the cowling. Or I could just use the kit engine and pretend that the missing four cylinders are actually there.

Next, propellers! Here I have bad news. The kit propellers are both wrong size and wrong shape. The diameter should be 12 ft 7 in, which would mean in 1/32 scale 120 mm. Unfortunately each propeller blade is about 7 mm too short. Also the blades are a bit too narrow and the blade ends are a bit too pointy (should be more rounded). See photo here: Wait! I can see a Hobby Boss trend here. There is exactly the same problem with their 1/32 B-24 Liberator. Unfortunately there are no easy solutions here: either repair the kit propellers with some significant elbow grease, or wait for an after-market solution. To me this is such a significant error that I will correct it. I will make corrected blades and cast them in resin. If there are no after-market parts available then, I might make a short run of those propellers. We shall see. Any other ways to correct this? Would HK 1/32 B-25 propellers work? They are at least the same size and same make. But I cannot find any after-market propellers available for it...

Next a few words about the clear parts. As I have said before, the canopy framing is wrong and it seems that the framing tries to represent the later style bubble canopy framing. But the shape is for the earlier flat canopy. Let's let pictures talk for themselves: I will 're-frame' this canopy to make it the 'later flat style' canopy like on the plane just above this post. Very doable. But then the gunner glazing... It should have a recessed area where the periscope should be. But the glazing is completely flat on top, the top windows are too narrow and corner windows are a bit too rounded. See here: I will fix just the periscope area. I will protect the clear areas and then very carefully with a Dremel tool or knife drill a hole for the recessed area. Again, doable but this must be done very carefully in order not to break or scratch the part. That will be pretty much everything I will do to the clear parts.

I went through the fuselage cross-sections and I think that the fuselage shape is almost correct. That is the good news. For example, please, see here a comparison of the nose cross-section and the Hobby Boss nose part. Not bad. The bad news is that the cross-section is too bulky or too round exactly where you can see it: around the cockpit. Here is the cross-section blueprint: And here is the Hobby Boss fuselage part: You can see that the fuselage side is not straight enough and corners are too round compared to the blueprint. Now, is this visible? I am not going to do anything to correct that. To my eye the fuselage is box-like enough. Especially because the top of the fuselage is completely flat. But, yes, you can see it. For example, compare these two pictures about the cockpit side glazing: The kit side glazing is too curvy and not flat and you can see it when you compare that to an actual aircraft. Then, every modeller is different - for some (like myself) the fuselage shape is good enough to represent the A-26 well enough, for some the shape is completely wrong and must be corrected, and the rest of us are somewhere in between.

This is great! I will PM you. Now, I started to look a bit deeper to the canopy issue. Originally I thought that there were two kind of canopies: the earlier flat style front opening canopy and the later bubble style clamshell canopy. Like it shows here: Now, I started to look for a good aircraft to model and, since I found quite a few pictures and a color film footage about 41-39250 'Dottie Mae' (A-26B-20-DL), I thought that I will build that. BUT THAT PLANE HAS A THIRD STYLE CANOPY! This one is kind of an interim canopy model between the earlier flat canopy and the later bubble canopy. It is flat and only the right side opens and it opens forward but the lower corners of the windscreen are more rounded than with the earlier windscreen and the left side window does not have the heavy framing. See examples here: You can easily see that the canopy is flat but the heavy framing is missing. Some of the aircraft had some kind of a windscreen vent in left front of the pilot (see 'Carrot Top' above and the cockpit photo in my earlier post). I have now found numerous photos about this 'interim' canopy and it even seems that it was more common in the European theatre with -15 and -20 blocks. In fact, it is quite difficult to find war time photos about the early flat style canopy. So did the early flat style canopy even exist? Oh, yes! See here: Now I understand how Hobby Boss got themselves so mixed up with the canopy. If you just read the sources, they talk about two kind of canopies. Hobby Boss probably saw similar pictures as that of 'Carrot Top' and thought that this must be the bubble canopy needed for the French Air Force and museum planes. And then if you compare those photos with some drawn sketches, you might come to a conclusion that the later canopy was flat with fewer frames than the earlier canopy. And thus the 'Hobby Boss canopy'. Tonight I took a much closer look at the kit clear parts. The windscreen indeed has framing of the later bubble canopy but is too low for that. So for both flat style canopies sanding and re-framing is needed. But the good news is that the side windows are clear without heavy framing so it is quite easy to make the 'interim' canopy with that as well. So, Ali, I will PM you with further information. A few other points about the clear parts: All the canopy parts and very clear. There is some distortion but not much. So overall good quality. Gunner top glazing is also very clear. Heavily rounded corners do have more optical distortion but, again, good quality. However, the top periscope should have a recessed area in the glazing but there is just a flat panel instead. Those who dare may want to drill a hole for the periscope and build the recessed area for it. For many just adding the missing top periscope will do. Gunner top windows also seem to be too narrow with too heavy framing but it is something that most people wouldn't notice. The gunner side window and escape hatch are missing from most early planes. In fact, I watched a few hours of history footages and I couldn't find a single war bird with that side window. So check your references carefully. Underwing landing lights are really nice! They are both made of two clear parts: the dome for the light and the round glass. You can make really convincing landing lights with these. Navigation lights are very good and make you believe that there is an actual light bulb behind the clear part.

And Finnish... 'A few' years ago it was an earth shattering experience to see, hear and feel when a Finnish Air Force Draken took off from an airport in Northern Finland. It was like a space rocket and it even looked like one. At that time there were no noise limitations and when the afterburner lit on right in the beginning of the take off run, you really felt it. And a few seconds later it was that beautiful double delta shape that you saw against the blue sky. Those were the days... Which makes me wonder how on earth the Finnish Air Force had at that time a strange mix of jets: Draken's from Sweden, MiG-21's from the Soviet Union, Hawks from the UK, etc. From that mix I already have 1/32 Hawk and MiG-21. Only Draken is missing.

My best bet would be Aerocraft. What I have seen, e.g., from Nigel's review of the P-51D resin canopy made by Aerocraft, they should have the knowledge to create really first-class resin canopies. And I do have several of their brass and resin sets and they are really world class. Even though I am ok with casting resin, I do not dare to try to make clear canopies myself. Could we somehow make a kind plea to Aerocraft and ask them to create correct canopies for us ordinary mortals?

This time I would like to take focus on the kit decals. Printing looks good and colors are well in register. So technically good quality. But stencils are missing and the selected aircraft are not suitable for the kit parts without modifications. Here are the selected aircraft: Douglas A-26B-15-DT, s/n 43-22337, c/n 18484, Douglas Fuselage Number 86 Produced in Tulsa, OK and delivered to USAAF in Aug-Sep 1944. Served in 416th Bomb Group, 670th Bomb Squadron in Base A-55 in Melun/Villaroche, France. During the mission # 201 on Friday, Feb 9, 1945 with Henry W. Borman and Raphael J. Perujo as the flight crew, the aircraft was flying as the # 5 ship in the Flight III of the Box I in a 42 aircraft mission and it bombed Scherfede, Germany at 3:03pm in a cloudy weather from an altitude of 12,500 feet. After that the aircraft failed to return to its base and was force landed on the alternative landing field B-75 because of shortage of fuel. The nose wheel tire blew out and the aircraft ran off the end of the runway. Neither of the crew members were injured. I was not able to find any photos of the plane but I gathered some information about other similar aircraft of the same production block and the same Bomb Squadron. Based on that information it seems that there are a few modifications needed: The nose should have 6 guns instead of 8. The lower turret, upper periscope, nose pitot tube and the left side slanted antenna behind the cockpit need to be added. This block had a loop antenna instead of the 'football' antenna of the kit. The extra belly vent/antenna should not be used. And the cockpit should be modified for one pilot only. Underwing gun packs may possibly be used as well. Painting: The instructions are correct, except that olive drab on the engine cowlings should go all the way down to cover the plane-side half of the cowlings. Also the black area on the rudder should be narrower. Markings: The kit identification code '24-D' is most likely wrong. For this Bomb Squadron all the Invaders used 'F6' as the first part of the code and, if the letter 'D' was correct for this plane, the code should be 'F6-D' painted in black around the US insignia, 'F6' in forward of the insignia and 'D' in the tail. 'F6' should be with higher letters than '24' on the kit decals. Not a difficult job to mask and paint. Here is a picture of an A-26B-20-DL model of the same Bomb Squadron: Douglas A-26B-61-DL, s/n 44-34575, c/n 27854 This -61-block B-model was originally produced for the Pacific theatre so the lower turret was replaced by a 125-US gallon auxiliary tank for extra range. The plane was designated as a B-26B and sold to France Air Force (Armee de l'Air) in 1951 where it got the registry number BC-575 and the plane code 'Q'. In the 1950's the aircraft served in French Indochina with the unit GB 1/19 'Gascogne' in Tourane and later with the plane code 'D' with the unit GB 1/25 'Tunisie' in Cat Bi. The plane was finally broken up. Please, notice the 'football' antenna on the belly. Note: These drawings mistakenly mention this aircraft as a block 60 model and also the first drawing mistakenly shows the lower turret that this plane did not have. Modifications needed: Replace the flat canopy of the kit with a bubble canopy (vacform? resin?). Move the 'football' antenna to the belly side and paint it black. Don't use the belly vent/antenna. Add the upper periscope. Insert 3 x 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns to each wing (wing mounted guns, not in underwing gun packs). Add hard points for rockets. And the cockpit should be modified for one pilot only. Painting: Kit painting instructions look correct. Only the olive drab on the nose should go a bit further to the nose and not so wide. Please, see the above photo for clarification. Markings: Markings show the plane in Tourane, French Indochina in 1951. Again, markings look right. The only confusing part is that decals have the unit insignia but it is not mentioned on the instructions. Just look at the drawing above for the insignia placement. All in all, if only there was the bubble canopy available as an after market part, this version would be the easiest one to build. And with an interesting history. Douglas A-26B civil version (On Mark Marketeer), s/n 44-34765, c/n 28044 Delivered to Reconstruction Finance Corp. as 44-34765 and immediately put up for disposal in 1945. Sperry Gyroscope Co, Great Neck, NY registered as N67160 and used it in 1954-1964. R.C. Johnson, Las Vegas, NV bought it in 1966. After that International Commercial Aviation Service based at the Kennedy International Airport, NY bought it and used it in 1969-1970. Then in August 1970 the plane was sold to Germany to W. Rall in Munich and at that time it was registered as D-CAFY. It was impounded and parked in open at the Antwerp Airport in 1972-1974. Since 1976 it has been restored and on display for the Musee Royal de l'Armee in Brussels, nowadays the Brussels Air Museum. The plane has been painted to represent a fictional war bird 'Mission Completed', aircraft code 'AN-J'. During the plane's history there was an interesting episode of lobster business that this plane had a part of. The aircraft was leased by Antwerpe Kreesten Central, which housed lobsters imported from all over Europe. Since transportation costs were also part of the price per lobster, it was decided in 1968 to transport lobsters from Europe to Antwerp using the company's own transport. The aircraft was leased in December 1968 and registered D-CAFY. In 1969, the company started with lobster flights between Turkey and France and Antwerp. At the end of 1969, it was parked at Antwerp for so long, that it was chained for failure to pay landing and parking fees. After many years the aircraft was donated to the Brussels Air Museum. Modifications: This is not a war bird but a museum piece painted to look like a fictional war bird. If that is what you want to build, then you just need to replace the flat style canopy with a bubble canopy (vacform? resin?) and that's it! No need to add the lower turret or upper periscope because this plane does not have those. Also the cockpit for the civil versions had dual controls like with the kit. Painting: All is well here except with the cowlings and the spinner heads that should be blue (see above). Also the 'football' antenna should be black instead of silver like in the instructions. Markings: The kit decals have the aircraft code 'A-J' so there is one 'N' missing. Ahead of the US insignia there should be 'AN'. Masking and painting the code would probably be the easiest solution. Conclusion? Because I would go with the flat style canopy the only option of all these versions would be the first one, 43-22337. But it looks too plain to my taste (no nose art at all) and there are no photos to verify that the painting and markings would be correct. But that plane is my recommendation if you want to use the kit decals. If there is an after market bubble canopy available in the future then the French 44-34575 would be really interesting and easy to build. For now, I am counting on my own laser printed decals and possibly after market decals if they are available soon.

And yet another update... Please, let me know if I get too wild. I checked the production blocks and serial numbers of early A-26B's. For me the most challenging modification would be the later style bubble canopy so I am focusing on the flat style canopy versions. So, now, which serial numbers could be built with relative ease with the Hobby Boss kit? Here is my summary: The first 500 production A-26B's up to the production block A-26B-40-DL were built at the Long Beach factory and the bubble canopy was introduced already with the block A-26B-30-DL. The Long Beach factory had the 'DL' ending of the production block (D: Douglas, L: Long Beach). During the whole Douglas A-26 Invader production 205 A-26B's were produced also at the Tulsa factory and their block numbers end with 'DT'. At the Tulsa factory they started with A-26B-5-DT, i.e., with one of the flat canopy versions. Only prototypes were produced at the El Segundo factory and they had the 'DE' block number ending. There were 450 flat canopy A-26B's produced in total but the first 35 had some really interesting nose gun trial arrangements, which means scratch building if you want to build any of those. The first production block A-26B-1-DL (5 aircraft, s/n 41-39100 to 41-39104, c/n 6813 to 6817) had the same nose armament as the prototype, i.e, one 75 mm cannon plus the turrets. The next production block A-26B-5-DL and A-26B-5-DT planes (30 aircraft in total, 15 aircraft from Long Beach: s/n 41-39105 to 41-39119, c/n 6818 to 6832, 15 aircraft from Tulsa: s/n 43-22252 to 43-22266, c/n 18399 to 18413) were armed with 1 × 75 mm cannon on the right side of the nose and 2 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns on the left and 2 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns in each of the turrets. So for these first 35 planes you should modify the nose for the 75 mm cannon and scratch build the cannon. Not that difficult but still some extra work. A new all-purpose nose was installed beginning with the A-26B-10-DL (55 aircraft, 20 aircraft from Long Beach: s/n 41-39120 to 41-39139, c/n 6833 to 6852, 35 aircraft from Tulsa: s/n 43-22267 to 43-22301, c/n 18414 to 18448). They had 6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns in the nose and 2 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns in each of the turrets. This is quite easy to build with the Hobby Boss kit because all the needed guns are included. Next blocks A-26B-15 through A-26B-25 (360 aircraft, Long Beach: s/n 41-39140 to 41-39349, c/n 6853 to 7062, Tulsa: s/n 43-22302 to 43-22466, c/n 18449 to 18613) had 8 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns in the nose, 2 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns in each of the turrets and 4 additional gun packs mounted on the underwing hard points, each with 2 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns. This is the most straightforward build with no modifications needed for the nose section. I also found a mention that this 8-gun-nose may have been retrofitted to some earlier planes as a field modification. Some planes had an exit hatch on the right hand side of the gunner position. Again, check your references. The kit has that hatch molded with panel lines and a clear window. If your plane did not have that, you can just fill the panel lines, paint over the window and copy the internal structure from the left half of the fuselage interior. All the flat canopy A-26B's had the lower turret installed at the factory. Only with the later bubble canopy aircraft destined for service in the Pacific (-51-DL, -56-DL, -61-DL, and -66-DL), the lower turret was replaced by a 125-US gallon auxiliary tank for extra range. There are mentions that the lower turret may have been removed from some aircraft because of increased drag and to improve the center of gravity. Also during low level missions the lower turret was considered useless. So again, check your references and you may find some flat canopy A-26B's without the lower turret which makes the kit modification easier. However, as I said in my earlier post, I am planning to make a resin part for the lower fuselage and that will add the missing lower turret. To me this is easier than trying to replace the clear flat style canopy of the kit with a home-made bubble canopy. By the way, if anyone needs the exact block number, production site, serial number or construction number of a certain plane, I can help with that. I combined information from a few sources and made an Excel sheet with all the produced Douglas A-26B Invaders. Just let me know. Or just check https://www.abcdlist.nl/main.html - they have a very accurate list of all Douglas aircraft.

Thank you! I will let you know as soon as I start casting some resin. When I compared the kit fuselage and nose cone cross-sections with the blueprints (see here: https://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/modernplanes/douglas/80220/view/douglas_a-26_invader/), I was pleasantly surprised. According to my first inspection it seems that all the cross-sections along the whole fuselage match very well with the blueprints. I don't know why the fuselage looked also to me too rounded when I had seen only the pictures on the internet. Maybe gray plastic versus metallic sheen on the real fuselage makes that optical illusion? I just don't know why it looked like that when in fact the fuselage shape seems to be very accurate. Today I also checked the surface details. They are very good! Nicely engraved panel lines where they are supposed to be and some nice riveting. And the ejector pin marks are almost non-existent. There has obviously been some very clever molding design because the ejector pins are, for example, in the shape of a cockpit equipment head or some gunner equipment head. Inside the fuselage you can find visible ejector pin marks only in places that will be covered with some other panels. And the fuselage is thinner around the landing gear bay to make it look like the real scale thickness. So a lot of nice little details that you can only see when you inspect the kit. One word of warning: when you consider using wing mounted guns or bombs, please, check your references. According to sources I have found, wings were strengthened during the A-26B production to carry the extra weight so early planes were not able to carry extra guns or bombs. Kit instructions make you understand that you have to drill holes for them and have them for all the variants. Just be careful out there. But then there are, of course, still some additional 'faults' that are to me so minor that I don't even bother to do anything to them. Sure, the canopy should go a bit lower on the left side of the fuselage but you notice that only when looking at a certain angle and comparing side by side with a blueprint or a photo taken from that same angle. And, sure, the flaps cannot be shown open if you don't cut out the inner flaps and position them open as well. Easy to do if you want to show flaps open or just keep them closed like with most planes on the ground. And there are one or two antenna masts missing but those are super easy to make from a styrene rod. And why the black vinyl tires? Hopefully and very likely there will be some nice after market resin wheels in a near future. All these are not even 'faults' to me when the main shape is accurate and the model looks, feels, smells and tastes like an A-26B. And this one does. With all this in mind, one might even build a very accurate model OOB: then don't build a WWII war bird, but just proudly build one of the demonstration/tanker planes that don't have the lower turret or top periscope, etc. Then the only thing you need to add are eight more cylinders...

This is my first posting to the forum so, please, treat me kindly if I don't know exactly how to behave in the beginning. All the puppies and newbies need a hug first. I got my Hobby Boss A-26B Invader yesterday and I quickly reviewed the instructions and all the sprues and compared them with actual A-26 blueprints and historical photos. And to my great relief, it seems that it is not that difficult to make the most needed corrections to make this kit replicate the actual A-26B really well. Of course, to make it 100% accurate you would need to change the cross-section of the fuselage, etc. but to my eye that drastic corrections are not needed to create a very accurate kit. So here are those points that I think need modifications and what I am planning to do with them: Engines: As it has been said many, many times before, there are a few cylinders missing. But I think there is a quite simple and cost effective solution to that. The kit has cylinder rows molded in four parts (front row front and back sides, and back row front and back sides). All the other parts except these look good. So I will cast two resin parts (the two cylinder rows) that will match the other engine parts of the kit so they will be just easy replacements of the four kit parts. And then I will make those for both engines. With that there will not be a need to replace the whole engines, just the cylinder rows. Quite easy and very cost efficient compared to full resin engines. Engine cowlings: Now that I have seen the actual parts they look actually quite good to me. So I am planning to use them as they are. Missing lower turret: The lower turret is missing and the shape of that area of the fuselage is not as curved as it should be. And again, not that difficult of a solution: I will cut out that bottom fuselage area along the panel lines and with the cut out pieces I will create a new part out of resin that has a hole and a railing for the turret and is also more properly shaped. Then I will also copy the top turret with resin and use that for the lower turret as well (and maybe I will sand the kit top turret before that in order to improve the shape a bit). For the lower turret guns I will use spare nose guns (see below). I also need to create a cradle for the lower turret if I want to make it turn. That shouldn't be that difficult either: a couple of pieces of styrene and a resin copy of one of the top turret cradle parts. The gunner position aft bulkhead is vertical in the kit but it should be slanted like in the actual plane, to allow the lower turret to fit in. To correct that I will simply extend and modify the kit bulkhead part (and maybe cast that in resin as well). In the end I will have a replacement resin lower fuselage part with a turret and guns. This will be very similar to what ICM has done with their 1/48 A-26B-15 kit. Canopy: The canopy framing is for the later bubble shape canopy but the canopy shape is for the earlier flat canopy. Solution? I will go with the earlier flat-style canopy and simply sand away the misplaced frames and paint the frames correctly for the earlier style canopy. If I dare, I will very carefully place some rivets to the new frames. This will then make it easy for me to decide which sub-version of the A-26B I will make: this canopy solution will make me go with A-26B 'early' or A-26B-15. Nose guns and the nose shape: The kit comes with 8 nose guns that is correct for a later version of A-26B. But I need to have a nose for the earlier version because of the canopy. Most early A-26B's had 6 nose guns. So I will fill the existing nose gun holes and, once that is done, I might sand the nose part a bit to make it appear more square. Then I will drill new holes in proper places for the six nose guns. And now I will have two extra guns that I can use for the lower turret. Economical! Probably there is no need for a resin nose part because this is such a simple modification. Cockpit: The kit cockpit is correct for the Korean War era or Vietnam War era Invaders but is not right for the early A-26B's. There should be only one pilot seat and control stick/wheel and the dashboard should be only on the pilot side. Also the middle console should extend all the way back to the cockpit bulkhead. And various bits and pieces are missing. Well, this will be anyone's taste how much effort they want to put in here. I will remove the right hand side seat and the stick, cut the dashboard and scratch build the middle console extension and add wires, radios, jump seat, etc. Update: I mistakenly had looked at only the separate cockpit parts and did not notice that the cockpit floor part actually has that middle console extension. So no need to scratch build that. Little bits: The kit doesn't have the top periscope, the pitot tube on the left side of the nose and the loop antenna, which is typical for the early version of the A-26B (the kit has the 'football' antenna, which some earlier versions and all of the later versions had). On the belly side there are a couple of antennas(?) that early versions did not have. Well, this is typical model building: check your references and decide which little bits and pieces you need and which you don't. I will (again) make a resin copy of the lower periscope and use that for the top periscope. The pitot tube is quite easy to scratch build. And the loop antenna is that typical 'Tamiya staple' treat. The plane that I will make did not have the belly antennas so I will not use them. Decals: All of the decals in the kit are for later demonstration/tanker planes. So I will laser print my own decals unless there will be some nice after-market decals coming soon. So this is it for me! After all, not that difficult. At least a lot easier than the needed wing and turret modifications that I am planning in horror for my B-24J Liberator 42-99990 'Short Snorter'. There will be quite a few resin parts that I will make so if anyone is interested I might cast a few extra ones. By the way, the instructions say that there is 150 grams of nose weight needed. A lot! But fortunately not as much as is needed for the mighty B-24 Liberator.