I was really excited when ICM announced they were doing a Korean War gun-nose B-26 Invader, and I only became more excited when the kit arrived and I pawed through it. With this, all I'm going to need is the Modelsvit F-82 coming next year to round out my Korean War collection.
Before proceeding, there's some information needed about the B-26 in the Korean War. Fortunately, my book "MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea 1950-53" will be released November 26, and I have the information needed as the result of my research for that.
The Fifth Air Force was in sorry state when the Korean War broke out - and it was the most combat-ready part of US Forces Far East! The five years between the end of World War II and the Korean War had seen the USAF become nearly a ghost of its former self. And what units and aircraft were left were stretched mighty thin. The reduction in funding for defense resulted in many aircraft being dumped, and many of those left placed in a "stand-by" status, while those that were used were used as little as possible due to funding shortages. On June 25, 1950, American air power in the Far East was a shadow of what it had been in 1945, yet the Far East Air Force was the military force in the region most able to immediately conduct operations. In numbers, FEAF appeared ready for any possibility. As of May 31, 1950, there were a total 1,172 aircraft: 504 F–80s, 47 F–51s, 42 F–82s, 73 B–26s, 27 B–29s, 179 transports, 48 reconnaissance aircraft, and 252 miscellaneous types. However, of these, only 657 aircraft were available for use in Korea, and not all were combat-ready.
In particular, the 1054 B-26s that were still officially in the USAF inventory were mostly in reserve units or in storage. The only B-26 group available to intervene in Korea was the 3rd Bombardment Group (8th, 13th and 90th Bombardment Squadrons), which was based at Johnson Air Base in Japan. The 3rd BG was equipped primarily with the the solid-nosed B-26B, but some transparent-nosed B-26Cs were also on strength. They were immediately thrown into action, initially flying reconnaissance sorties over the invading North Korean armies which were rapidly overrunning the South. With eight 0.50-inch machine guns in the nose and up to six 0.5-inch guns in the wings some of the B-26B bombers had 14 forward-firing guns. Their first mission was on June 28, 1950 when they attacked railroads supplying enemy forces. Their first attack against North Korea was on June 29, when they bombed the main airfield in Pyongyang.
The 73 B-26s had been with the 3rd Bombardment Group (Light) since World War II. Many of them still wore the olive drab camouflage that had been field-applied when they arrived in the SWPA in 1944. Maintenance had been minimal, and photos show they all looked like they had been "ridden hard and hung up wet." (A good source for inspiration is the 3rdattackgroup.org website, which has a lot of period photos you won't find in books). The good news here for modelers is, if you want to do one of these B-26s, you can have a lot of fun practicing your weathering skills, and you'll have to go pretty far to go too far.
The USAF Reserve 452nd Bomb Group (Light) was activated in California in late July and arrived in-theater in August. Their aircraft were mostly unpainted, and in much better physical shape. Over the course of the fall of 1950, the 452nd came to concentrate on daytime operations, while the 3rd concentrated on night ops as intruders.
I'm going to do BC-372 "N" of the 3rd BG(L), provided in the kit decals, since I have a good color photo of this plane in service in Korea. While the kit instructions appear to have the airplane in Olive Drab and Light Grey, in actuality these airplanes were painted OD on the upper surfaces, with the lower surfaces left in unpainted aluminum. By the fall of 1950, as the group began to specialize in night ops, many of the aircraft had their lower surfaces painted flat black; there are also large areas that had been repainted with fresh OD, which looks much darker than the faded OD on the upper surfaces, and can be mistaken if you don't look close for black. That's how I am going with my model, following the photo. The photo I am using is reproduced below.
For those who might have the Eduard P-51D, there's good news for your B-26: the rockets of the Eduard kit fit the mounting holes on the lower wing of the B-26 kit perfectly. I've got some of those, and so I will be arming mine with rockets and the kit-supplied napalm tanks.
That's enough for now. The next post has to do with preparatory detail painting.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
