mdeanstrauss Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Before Lewis Lynch served as a Navy Medic in San Francisco, caring for wounded arriving from the Pacific Theater, he worked at the Martin Aircraft Plant in Omaha, Nebraska... He grew up in the Sand Hills of Nebraska and to survive the deprivations of the Great Depression, he and several members of his family migrated to Omaha to scratch out a living in the Martin factory... It was at the Martin facility in Omaha that the B26C Marauder was assembled and later the B29 Superfortress... Lewis was involved in B26C builds... In March 2015, Lewis Lynch will turn 93, and as celebration of his birthday, my 15 year old son Parker and I will assemble a Hasegawa 1/72 B26C and hang it from his ceiling in his home. Lewis Lynch is my son's grandfather... Just below is an archival image of a B25C exiting the assembly plant in Omaha: This will be a straight OOB and clean (I hope) build. Since Lewis only saw brand new versions of the B26C, we do not plan on weathering the plane at all. Here's the Hasegawa kit box and cover art: Not quite as overwhelming as a 1/32 scale Tamiya Superkit, but enough to keep us busy for a while. I've not built a 1/72 scale aircraft since a completely hand-painted Japanese Zero in 1961 and am far more used to working with 1/32 scale, so this will be a different experience. Here's a shot of the kit's contents: This afternoon Parker and I assembled the cockpit and bomb bay... I was actually astonished how quickly this portion of the build went, which is an attribute of the 1/72 scale... Since each of these subassemblies are a single color (mostly Zinc Chromate), we put them together and then I'll airbrush the paint on... here are the initial assemblies: Here is my build partner: And finally, here is the aforementioned Lewis Lynch taken back during the days of WWII: Here is Lewis in a more recent photograph: Edited February 22, 2015 by mdeanstrauss Vandy 1 VX 4, Jack, marauderdriver and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Great project Mitch. I look forward to following your progress. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marauderdriver Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Hi Mitch, The B-26 is a Family Affair for me too. My mom & dad are from Baltimore Md, and mom spot-welded bomb-bay doors at Glen L. Martin Middle River Md. My dad flew 65 missions in the Marauder in the ETO Aug 44-April 45. Hasegawa has made a great kit there and you guy's will enjoy building it as well as the Birthday Boy enjoying a thoughtful gift from son and grand -son. Looking forward to this build as I built several B-26's for my dad. My avatar has one I built in 1976 and is on my TV as I write this Nice way to tie y'all together Jack Jack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 Hi Jack, I am delighted that you will be peaking in during this build... I hope the work that Parker and I do measures up! Wow! 65 missions over Europe... I cannot imagine what he experienced and sacrificed to get that job done... thanks again... Mitch and Parker... marauderdriver 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hansen Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Mitch, i hope this is not too late to pass along, but my friend Terry Schuler commented that the glass bomb aimers nose is slightly larger in diameter than the matching fuselage. So, definitely test fit where these come together before you glue anything. Not hard to fix if you see it coming beforehand. I have the kit myself but haven't freed it from the sprues. Terry is a good model builder and i take him at his word. david Edited February 22, 2015 by David Hansen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 Mitch, i hope this is not too late to pass along, but my friend Terry Schuler commented that the glass bomb aimers nose is slightly larger in diameter than the matching fuselage. So, definitely test fit where these come together before you glue anything. Not hard to fix if you see it coming beforehand. I have the kit myself but haven't freed it from the sprues. Terry is a good model builder and i take him at his word. david thanks for the tip David... m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 Mitch,, Looking forward to your MARAUDER build... GOOD photos AND lovely box art too. Good luck thanks again, again for your kind words Marus... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 Parker and I made some progress today on the Marauder... We got the bomb bay and cockpit painted Vallejo Green Zinc Chromate, then we teased out some details with a bit of dry brushing and dark washing... The 1/72 scale has both macro and micro aspects to it, with micro sections like the control panel allowing "impressions" of accuracy... this scale is interesting... Below are the interiors after painting: We also mounted bulkheads into the fuselage and painted the fuselage with the Zinc Chromate too: Finally, today we did some dry fitting... with the several bulkheads, bomb bay and cockpit, it took a bit a fiddling to get it aligned, but finally it looks pretty good... now if I can only replicate this when bonding time comes... here's the dry fit fuse: Well... that's it for today... thanks for looking in... Learstang 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marauderdriver Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Looks like you and Parker are off to a good start. Are you planning to just use the star and bar markings and tail numbers? This is basically what they look like when they came out of the factory. Just like your picture. watch'in you Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Looks like you and Parker are off to a good start. Are you planning to just use the star and bar markings and tail numbers? This is basically what they look like when they came out of the factory. Just like your picture. watch'in you Jack Hi Jack, I've been wrestling with that issue... the plain star and bar markings would be the most historically accurate; however, both Parker and Lewis would probably enjoy the Flak Bate markings on the nose... I suppose those markings were applied before the plane went on it's first mission, thus I could keep it clean? What do you think? There is historical accuracy and then there's fun too... regards, Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marauderdriver Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Actually it had flown a few missions and was named after the Pilots family dog "FLEA-BAIT" Fun is what it is all about, so please paint her as you wish. I still have the Revell kit I built for my dad for Fathers Day 1975 along with a Flak-Bait print HAPPY MODELING watch'in you Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 How odd, I just threw away two 1:48 Monogram Marauder kits a few months ago, now I sort of wish i hadn't. I did keep the 1:48 AMT A-20 Havoc though. Looking good here so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 How odd, I just threw away two 1:48 Monogram Marauder kits a few months ago, now I sort of wish i hadn't. I did keep the 1:48 AMT A-20 Havoc though. Looking good here so far. As a rule, I enjoy 1/32 scale, but am doing this for Lewis's birthday... nevertheless, working at 1/72 has been enlightening... I have a friend who is almost strictly 1/72 and admits to being intimidated by the shear scale and visual presence of 1/32... m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Actually it had flown a few missions and was named after the Pilots family dog "FLEA-BAIT" Fun is what it is all about, so please paint her as you wish. I still have the Revell kit I built for my dad for Fathers Day 1975 along with a Flak-Bait print HAPPY MODELING watch'in you Jack Hi Jack, thanks for your continuing involvement in the project... m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdeanstrauss Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 Last night Parker and I got the fuselage put together... it was actually a bit more fiddly then I would have thought forehand... despite multiple dry fittings, when closure time came, the fuse did not close up as precisely as it should have... even though the upper portion seamed up nicely, the lower portion had a bit of a step to it and for the life of me I could not figure out why... At any rate, it was not that bad and some Vallejo putty with sanding has smoothed things out... Tonight, was a dry fit run and things are looking good... starting to look like an aeroplane... Learstang 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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