Marauder Mayhem!
& the Return of the Flaming Fatso!

I have not had a B-26 of any variety built & on my shelf since I was in middle school. That was the fun old Snap-Tite Monogram B-26. I was just starting to experiment with scratch-building interiors & I decided to do this with my kit. The trouble is that there was no internet back then & I had positively ZERO reference material so it was entirely fictitious. Once I reached high school, the kits I used to develop some real modeling skill earlier, wound up being personal embarrassments & as a result they had a limited "shelf life."

THIS project was a surprise choice for me. During my youth, my experience with Airfix was a mixed bag. There were some kits that I positively loved, like their big British bombers. However, there were others that I hated. Well, most especially their Vickers Wellington. That's a story unto itself though.

After Valom & Hasegawa released their own model kits of the B-26 I figured I'd pick up an early version from Valom to replace the original Snap-Tite kit in my collection. (As I understand it, the Snap-Tite kit has the shorter wings characteristic of a B-26A or more likely an early B-26B. This is a very old memory so don't quote me on it.) Then I would pick up a couple of Hasegawa kits to represent the later B-26B/C & B-26F/G.

Well, that was the plan anyhow. When I returned to the hobby the Valom kits could still readily be found at some hobby shops but they were pricey. There were other limited run kits I thought I'd better snag quickly before I went back for those. By the time I looked back the Valom kits were nowhere to be found & Hasegawa had even stopped producing either B-26. The only place either could be found at were on eBay with many of the prices being the epitome of the term obscene.

I really wanted to build an adulthood Marauder though. One day, out of sheer boredom, I took a look at the 1973 vintage molded Airfix kit instructions. My reaction could be summarized in a single word, "astonishment." Dating back to the year when my late mother finished junior high school & still during the course of the Vietnam War, it had a level of detail in it's interior & wheel wells that were way ahead of their time. I cannot even imagine what builders of the time must have thought of this kit.

Thus I set about picking up this interesting antique, my example having been popped from it's molds when I was in preschool & even managed to find some aftermarkets specifically intended for this remarkable model kit. I'm looking forward to this project, even if it will mean a little more work than a shake-and-bake Hasegawa kit. I still hope to add a Valom Marauder early type & a Hasegawa late type to sit on either side of her.