Introduction

The following introduction is taken from the ICM website:

American twin-engine medium bomber B-26, manufactured by the Glenn L. Martin Company, was designed and created in 1939 under the requirements of the US Army Air Corps for a new high-speed medium bomber. Initially, the project was called Model 179. The construction of production aircraft was started without the usual stage of a prototype or pre-series samples.

The first B-26 flew on November 25, 1940, and it was adopted by US aviation in February 1941. Structurally, the B-26 Marauder was a high-wing with a spacious fuselage and a crew of five (in later versions up to seven) people. During operation, the design of the bomber was constantly changed to improve flight and combat characteristics. Since 1943, the wing area and keel were increased, with these changes, the aircraft was produced until the end of production.

The last modification of the B-26B Marauder (B-26B-55-MA) was produced until February 1944; these aircraft took an active part in US bomber operations in Europe at the final stage of World War II. B-26B Marauder aircraft are known as one of the most famous US bombers during the Second World War.

Review

This offering from ICM comes in the usual flip top tray with an additional card lid showing the artwork. An examination of the mouldings reveals no issues, there are some ejector pin marks in some places but I doubt very much that they will be seen on the finished model. I also like that there is a good quantity of rib detail on what will be the interior of the fuselage, and the exterior has very well done fine recessed panel lines in all areas. The cockpit of the model, judging from on-line images of bomber B-26s reveals an accurate lay out. But as with all model kits you can take it further if you so wish. A nice touch is that the rear of the instrument panel can be seen, which is accurate for a glazed nose. As usual, ICM has neglected to include seat padding and harness detail. The side walls of the cockpit also appear to be missing some detail such as padding, but otherwise what is provided appears to be accurate without measuring everything against the real thing. 

The bomb bay meets my expectations with regard to accuracy, but again would benefit from some additional detail added by the modeller - if you wish to get the most out of this release. Moving to the rear third of the aircraft, and you have good rivet detail and ammunition storage accurately detailed in regards from what I can access. While the barrels of the defensive machine guns are good, I would consider replacing them with after market barrels from a company such as Master as they will add that extra special touch. Shock horror, there are some holes that will need to be opened up, and ICM has provided the size of the drill you need to do this. This aspect and the fact that some parts are blanked out as not for use, indicates that future releases are already being planned. This model would be a tail sitter with ICM indicating that 50g of weight needs to be added between the rear of the cockpit and the front of the bomb bay. 

Moving to the exterior of the model, flight control surfaces are provided separately from the fixed elements, and so can be set as you wish. The bomb itself can be depicted open or closed, and in the case of the wings - wing spars have been included that extend from one side of the fuselage to the other and that slot into slides inside the wing giving you a positive location for their addition. The area of the engine nacelles is rich in detail for supporting both the under carriage and engines. Of course the engine could be further enhanced in you wished. Detail on both the inner and outer nacelles is good. The undercarriage itself has been well designed for ease of use, while replicating the major elements of it. Some hydraulic lines in this area will lift the model to a higher standard. ICM has included a mask for making glazed area templates and has also gone to a lot of trouble to cover their positioning on the model. ICM has provided 3 finishing options for this release, with the third option being particularly colourful. The finishing options are:

B-26B-55MA 42-96077 “ladies Delight”, 584th Bomb Squadron, 394th Bomb Group, Probably Boreham, England, Summer 1955

B-26B-55MA 42-96214 “Coral Princess III”, 494th Bomb Squadron, 344th Bomb Group, Pontoise, France, Autumn 1944

B-26B-55MA 42-96165 “The Big Hairy Bird”, 599th Bomb Squadron, 397th Bomb Group, Peronne ,France, December 1944 

The decals for this release have been nicely printed, and I can only just detect them on the carrier paper. Also included with this release, is a 2024 calendar fold out approximately A3 in size, with a large print of the box top artwork.

Conclusion

This release from ICM brings a modern moulded offering of the B-26B in 1/48th scale to the market, with I believe the obvious promise of future releases of alternative variants. The detail provided is of current quality, with the obvious issue of the seats minus their harnesses and padding. In all other regards I cannot find anything to complain about with this release, and I did look quite hard!! I suspect this series of B-26 offerings will be a winner.