I had made my decision to build the B-26 as if I was building it in 1978. I wish I had told my readers about it.
I got this comment which was warning me not to build Suzie Q using Monogram’s B-26.
Unfortunately, you cannot get there from here with the Monogram kit. The kit is a B-26B/C, very different from the B-26A. The A model has smaller tail feathers, a completely different rear gun position from anything in the kit, the wings are four feet less in span (and you can’t just cut off the tips) and the engine cowlings are completely different. There’s also some big differences around the nose.
Mike West makes a resin conversion kit that provides a different rear fuselage with the correct gun position, different tail, outer wings (from the engine nacelle out), different cowlings, and a resin nose. Unfortunately, due to family medical problems, he has closed Lone Star Models and isn’t producing things right now. He has announced he will re-open in September, but from what he told me in a recent e-mail, that is now « iffy » due to the continuing medical problem in the family.
The best thing to do is what I have done: set the kit aside until he reopens and you can get the resin set, or decide to do one of the many colorful B-26B/C Marauders for which there are lots of decals availabile at eBay for this out-of-production kit.
But trust me, neither you nor anyone else has the skills to just modify the kit to get to a B-26A. You’re talking about half the model being replaced with scratchbuilding. You really cannot get there from here and you’re wasting your time to try, I know whereof I speak.
I won’t be starting this new project right away, but I think I have made a wise decision to go out of box, to pause for awhile, and read some reviews like the one down below.
My Forgotten Hobby III 