I have built and reviewed one other ICM kit, the Kozak-001. The Kozak kit was very advanced for my skills and I did not do that kit justice, by any means. However, the challenge of putting that kit together, while it did not produce the results I was hoping for, it helped me improve on my model building skills and was my most satisfying build of a kit overall. It inspired me to give another ICM kit a try. This time I took on the Nakhon Phanom Airbase kit (DS4804). This kit is phenomenal! It has 2 complete aircraft models, armament, figures and ground cover kits all together in 1 box.

As the Kozak did, this kit has really challenged me. I have once again learned so much while working on this kit. The most important thing I have learned is patience. DO NOT RUSH this kit! Take your time and enjoy it!

The details on this kit, all across the board, are beautiful. The details are plentiful and the sprues are very clean. Each of the “kit within the kit” has its own instructions and the sprues are also separated from kit to kit, so no confusion. As such, I will also divide the review by kit.

O-2A SKYMASTER

This is the smaller of the 2 aircraft kits in this set. Smaller does not mean less impressive, though! By itself, this is a beautiful aircraft kit. The Skymaster is a total of 2 sprues molded in color, and 1 that is clear. There is 1 decal sheet that contains all of the decals for all of the painting options. There are 4 different painting and marking options (beautifully illustrated in color) on the last few pages of the instruction book. (I chose option D, which is the all black version)

This aircraft model, even though it was much smaller than its counterpart, was still very detailed. I enjoyed the challenge of this model and overall am very pleased with the final results. Being a smaller plane, I had some difficulty with the smaller parts coming together as they should- not due to any short-comings of the kit, but due more to my large hands. Sometimes I would say that ICM goes way beyond where they need to on the details of the kits. There are many details inside the body of the aircraft that are actually very hard to see when the kit is fully assembled. This is especially true on the Skymaster. However, do not take that as a complaint. I actually like their attention to detail in this. Perhaps they do this thinking someone may manipulate the kit to reveal more than an “out of the box” build would show. Whether you do this or not, I personally like the little details, whether you see them or not.

I was worried about the decals for the color scheme I chose to go with. Considering the all black body in the chosen scheme, I thought that the red decals would be lost with the dark background. I have experienced this with other kits I have done in the past, where decals are lost against a dark background color, or the edges stand out like a sore thumb. This is another area in which ICM excels. The red decals that are the main theme for the black body color stood out very well! The edges seamlessly blended into the black but the red was bold and bright.

The only criticism I had on the Skymaster kit is the back landing gear. The legs are very thin and due to that they can bow under the weight of the rest of the kit. To counter this, I actually glued the bottom of the wheels to the included ground covering. Not my favorite solution, but it served.

B-26K Counter Invader

The larger of the kits is the B-26K Counter Invader. This is a truly magnificent kit! As a whole, this kit was much more enjoyable than the Skymaster, simply because of the size. It was easier to work with. Again, the details in this kit are beyond what you find in many kits on the market today. Once again, ICM has set the bar very high.

I just want to highlight some of the best things about the Invader. One of the most annoying things about aircraft models is the cockpit canopies. They are so difficult to mask because the details are so faint. Not the case here. The details stood out enough to make it easy to mask and paint successfully. This was the easiest canopy I have ever done on an aircraft kit.

Just about every piece fit exactly as it was supposed to across this model. The only pieces I had issues with were the aft landing gear. They took a lot of carful manipulation to seat like they were supposed to, and I even snapped one of them in the process. (Easily pixed with some sprue-goo).

Once again, the decals were of a superb quality and were applied without issue.

I chose to build it with the bomb bay doors open because the details inside the main body were so good I did not want to hide them at all.

You could consider that there are a total of 5 kits in this box. The 2 aircraft, the ground cover, figures and the weaponry. I did not do the figures because that is definitely not my skill set. They are beautifully crafted. The weaponry, however was a lot of fun to do. There are many different variations on the configurations that you can use. Even though I knew what I was going to use I still assembled all of the armament and plan on using with other projects or if I choose to make the Nakhon Phanom Airbase into a full diorama.

If you have never tried your hand at an ICM kit, all I can say is what are you waiting for? You will enjoy the challenge, the quality and the options that ICM gives you. Nakhon Phanom Airbase- HIGHLY recommended!!

Thanks to ICM for the review sample.