B-26 Invader

ICM 1/48th Scale B-26B-50 Invader Kit #48281

- Rick Greenwood

Introduction

The B-26 Invader has been kitted in this scale before, with Revell Monogram kit being the most recognisable, complete with raised panel lines. Recent re-boxes from Revell make this kit easy to obtain than the Must Have Models kit in the same scale. That kit is well regarded, being first released in the early 1990’s it has raised panel lines but a good level of detail elsewhere. Now, some twenty-five years later, ICM have brought us all-new up-to-the-minute tooled versions of the Invader family to the modelling world. Their first release of the B-26 B-50 is the focus of attention during this build, and the hefty box was collected from the Editor at Scale Model World in November.

Opening the Box

First impressions were good, with a nicely rendered digital picture on the box top, lifting the lid showed the valuable contents secured inside. The seven mid-grey coloured sprues were sealed in plastic bags for protection, but some of the parts had become detached from the runners and floated free inside the bag, so be careful when opening the bags to prevent the loss of any parts. The plastic felt a little slippery when handled, and a little soft but the detail, the majority of which is engraved, is fine. Where appropriate on the airframe, raised detail exists and adds to the overall good impression of the large fuselage and wing sections. The clear parts are contained on a smaller sprue and contain the usual lights and lenses plus two canopy sections, along with the glazing for the gun operator’s position.

A twenty-four-page instruction booklet accompanies the plastic parts and sees assembly concluded in one-hundred stages. The assembly is laid out in easy to understand exploded view diagrams with colour call outs referring to the table provided on the front cover for Tamiya and Revell paints.