My Dad Malcolm D.
Enlow was a member of the 322nd BG 449th BS From May 29th 1943 until the crew he
was a member of was transferred to the 394thBG 584th BS. in March 1944.
From Aug. 16th to Feb. 29th he flew 30 missions aboard 41-31757
"WE DOOD IT" . Lt. Jack Hancock the copilot from this crew told me the
aircraft name implied "We had a mission to do so WE DOOD It" ! By the
way during the time the crew was with the 322nd BG 449th BS they did fly 41-31773
"FLAK BAIT" on a mission dated Feb.29th 1944.
The black and white
original image of "WE DOOD IT" is of Lt. Henry Huber the
bomb/nav from the crew
Lt. Jim
Ferrell and his crew (first crew of "FLAK BAIT") were in the same
flight of 3 B-26s flown to the UK from the States as was the crew my Dad was
assigned to. They flew to the UK via the Southern Route.
Having several ESCI
B-26 Marauder kits in my stash and being a B-26 researcher I just had to try my
hand at building up one of these kits. It was a real challenge. First I had to
acquire some good Pratt Whitney R-2800-34s. "Quick Boost" had
what I needed but for the Monogram/Revell 1/48th scale kits. For some reason
ESCI used 14 cylinder engines instead of the 18 cylinder Pratts. ESCI
made the engine firewalls different lengths on the right and left side.
I
solved the problem by investing $.75 cents in quarters as spacers between the
airframe firewall, and the back of the "Quick Boost" engine mold. The
quarters also added some of the forward weight needed to keep it from
being a tail sitter. Second I robbed the props from one of the Monogram B-26
kits I have because the ESCI prop hubs didn't look like Curtiss prop hubs to me. Too
blunt!. Third the ESCI had one chin pitot tube which was correct for the
serial modeled by ESCI, but not for 41-31757 which had
duel pitot tubes, one on each wing near the tip.
I smashed some
fishing weights glued them together inside the radio compartment to also give
the forward CG needed to sit properly on all three gear.
The decals I made
using the decal paper from MicroMark and taking some black/white images of
the real "WE DOOD IT" coloring and getting the scale needed for
the model.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I used both
Model Masters enamel, and acrylics both regular Olive Drab, and Faded
Olive Drab. I sprayed the Faded OD over MM's Aluminum used salt water in
places between the Aluminum and the Faded OD to help with the
chipping effect. Some of the salt also bled through the OD to give
an even better effect than I planned . I have also included a shot from
above of both the original "WE DOOD IT" and my model.
I hope to see more
attempts at modeling the Martin B-26 Marauder by others. If I can be of help
please feel free to contact me via my ARC user's name Don923
Don
Enlow
Click on
images below to see larger images
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