Review: ICM B-26B Marauder

It has been almost 46 years since Monogram gave us the B-26B/C Marauder. Amt also produced a short wing variant as well. 1978 (the year I graduated from California High in Whittier) is when AMT and Monogram first gave us a Marauder in 1/48th scale. The Monogram kit is a bear of a kit, but like typical Monogram, it was fairly accurate it was just the engine nacelles to the wing contact point were terrible and the awful bit of engineering in attaching the horizontal stab to the rear fuselage. Plenty of putty, filling and sanding required. Now ICM gives us a brand new mould B-26B and hopefully as their MO to follow up with more variants. Don't need to mention the halleluha's that were heard when this kit was first announced. ICM seems to improve year after year. Their early kits have been very good. A variety of subjects and giving us great choices with the Invader series, the Sally, Beaufort for example,not just aircraft but their amor and civil subjects are outstanding as well. But enough chit chat lets take a look what is in the box. Introducing the ICM B-26B-55MA.

The lid slips off to reveal a sturdy white flip top box containing two large bags of medium grey plastic, with the clear parts in a protective wrapper. The instruction book, decals and other printed materials sit on the bottom of the box.

1st the instruction booklet. Typical well laid out booklet with the boxcover on the front page, paint codes and callouts and a short summary of the Marauder.

Next 4 pages of the parts map which list 8 sprues of grey plastic with one for the clear parts.

The next page has the templates and location points to apply the masks for the clear components.

Finally the 3 available schemes that you can build from this kit. One OD and a pair of NMF which includes the "Big Hairy Bird."

The large decal sheet is sharp and in register. ICM decals have worked well from the previous models built so far. I have no doubt these will as well.

A bonus is a nice calender supplied in the kit, it already adorns the wall of my hobby room. There is one item that did not come in the kit I have is the full range of paint mini catalog. No worries, my kit did not have that booklet.

Now lets get to the plastic, starting with the fuselage.

Unlike the Monogram with raised panel lines, ICM of course have engraved panel lines. Devoid of any rivets the details are a great start to work with. The interior has stringers and ribbing in the cockpit, bomb bay, gunners compartment and tail.

The forward section of the nose has the armored plating on the LH side, the gun packs also will be installed with holes to drill out to attach them.

Sprue D is one of 2 that contains the props, engines, wheels and tires, main gear bay doors, engine cowlings.

The engine cowlings are made up of 3 pieces. Hopefully these will fit better than the Monogram design.

The firewall looks great and something that ICM tends to provide on the details.

Like the Invader, the engines look fabulous. The Pratt & Whitney R2800 engines consist of the front and rear rows of the cylinder heads, crank case, ignition ring, pushrods and exhaust.

The main gear door

The wheel hubs look ok, Never been a big fan of ICM's tires. I may go with a resin set. Will deal with that when the time comes.

The big 4 bladed prop looks ok. Have not seen any reviews mentioning anything different. They look proper for this version of the B-26. More research into this when I get started.

Sprue F is the next sprue, contains inner and outer flaps, landing gear struts, gearbay walls, bomb racks, instrument panel.

Nice touch with the inner wing root wall inserts. The instrument panel has the dials with a decal providing the gauges if you choose to use this method.

The forward wall that separates the cockpit from the nose compartment.

The inner and outer flaps I will have posed down when parked.

The lower rear gun emplacement doors. Can be displayed open to expose the .50's

The rear gunners amored plate.

The upper turret gun mount base.

The main gear struts look a bit sturdier than when we got from the Invader.

The co-pilot seat.

Sprue G, contains bomb racks,bomb bay door actuators, .50 guns, interior detals.

The verticle bomb rack will hold 4 bombs each.

The nicely details bomb bay door actuators.

The guns have nice detail and just need to carefully drill them out.

Sprue B, contains LH side upper and lower wing panels, both engine nacelles, gear bay bulkheads, and the elevators.

The engine nacelles, wheel bays, wheel bay forward bulkheads. The inner wheel bays have detailed ribbing and stringers within.

Rear wheel bay wall and nose gear door.

A simple ribbing on the roof of the wheel bay under the wing doesn't look much but will see once the nacelles box in the main gear bay.

Spruce C contains the RH side upper and lower wing panels. The vertical tail and rudder, elevators, flight deck and cockpit floor, bulkheads and the turret ring.

The RH lower wing panel has the same level of detail as the fuselage, excellent.

The center the 2nd and 3rd bulkheads. Separates the flight deck and radio compartment, the 3rd wall is the forward wall of the bombbay.

The cock pit floor and flght deck section has better detail on the floor compared to the Invader which was sparse.

The elevators are one piece not upper and lower halves.

Sprue E, contains the front and rear wingspars bomb bay roof panel, the horizontal tail, aileros and roof insert panel.

The front and rear wingspars are moulded into the bomb ft and rear walls.

The bomb bay roof panel is a separate part and is much engineered in getting the bomb bay assemblee.

The horizontal tail looks excellent, also has a much better approach in attaching it to the rear fuselage,

Sprue H is the clear parts and they are as about as clear any kit I have ever seen. Crystal clear very little if any distortion.

There are 2 different nose glazings and 2 different cockpit windows.

The turret bubble is incredibly clear.

Now a quick comparison of the Monogram fuselage to the ICM kit. Both are the same length and with at a quick glance. Monogram has the vertical tail moulded to the fuselage. While it is a separate on the ICM kit.

The armor plating appear on both kits.

The Monogram has a window on the rear lower fuselage where as the ICM kit has it blanked off with a engraved square panel.

The interior details on the Monogram are a bit more heavier in detail, the ICM details are more suble and a bit more in appearance.

In all fairness both kits have their good points, only that Monogram was moulded with much older technology, raised panel lines it does not take away from the quality of what was available in 1978. ICM is an updated moulding with great details. Despite it's age the Monogram kit still has it's qualities despite the challenges in building it. The new ICm Marauder I am looking forward to in building. It is a most welcome model. It looks great in the box, and will start on it soon. thanks for viewing.

Chuck

Fly Navy

2 additional images. Click to enlarge.