Academy 1:144 B-47 Finished

Oh, that's neat Don!  Want to find out what the kit is like.  Would really like a B-47 kit.

All I have is the old Revell 1/144 Bear.

Gary

I am interested in this too.  My Dad flew B-47s and B-52s in SAC.

Wow those crewmen must be nano scale  I think I see some detail on there, can't wait to see a view through the windscreen.

Don, it's a nice kit, I built one as a B-47B.  The doors for the aux landing gear were a little off, I think I reversed them for a better fit.  I had some silvering on the wing walk striping, I'd paint those next time.

jeaton01

Don, it's a nice kit, I built one as a B-47B.  The doors for the aux landing gear were a little off, I think I reversed them for a better fit.  I had some silvering on the wing walk striping, I'd paint those next time.

 

Yeah, I had intended to paint the wing walk, and also the anti-glare around the cockpit.  I don't like decaling on a double curved surface like that around the canopy.

For those pondering this kit, I find it pretty nice.  Had to remove just a little plastic- maybe a few mils- from the wing interface with the fuselage.  In general the detail is nice, and so far the fit has been pretty good with that exception.

I suspect the Ozmod pilots are a bit small- they look like 12 year olds in the cockpit.  But I needed something there to depict it in flight.

Had a near catastrophy yesterday.  I found that one is supposed to drill 3 holes in the bottoms of the wings, for mounting the drop tanks.  I neglected to see the little note at the bottom of the instruction sheet.

I applied a bit of CA debonder at each tip, and managed to get a knife blade between the bottoms and tops of each wing.  I then dripped in more debonder as I worked my way from tip to root, prying up as I went.  All of a sudden the plastic got weak, and eventually failed, so I had a piece brake off from each top piece :-(

One of the pieces that broke off was about three quarters of the wing semi-span, and I was able to get the holes drilled in that side.  After the drilling, I made a carboard template, so I could drill the holes in the other side, since there were no marks on the outer surface showing where the holes go.  I got the broken pieces glued back on, but In now have to seams to fill before I resume painting.

 Anyone building this kit, take warning.  You must drill three holes in the lower wing halves before gluing those pieces together!

Hi Don Stauffer,

       I’ll be following this build as I’m interested in this kit.  I have a question?  You will be building the B-47 with retracted landing gears?  How will you be displaying this kit?  Will you be hanging this kit from the ceiling or do you have a stand for it?  Thank you in advance.

Your friend, Toshi

Toshi

Hi Don Stauffer,

       I’ll be following this build as I’m interested in this kit.  I have a question?  You will be building the B-47 with retracted landing gears?  How will you be displaying this kit?  Will you be hanging this kit from the ceiling or do you have a stand for it?  Thank you in advance.

Your friend, Toshi

 

I will be displaying it on a base, and made a clear plastic pylon/stand.  The markings I intend to use will be a plane based at McDill AFB.  So I downloaded an aerial picture of that base, and will glue a print of it on the base.  I cut the pylon from plastic via bandsaw, and had to clean up the cut edges.  Polishing those edges was a bit of work, but I used the old pledge canopy trick.  I got the edges down to 1000 grit and then painted them with Future!  Saves a lot of work.

Don Stauffer

 

 

Toshi

Hi Don Stauffer,

       I’ll be following this build as I’m interested in this kit.  I have a question?  You will be building the B-47 with retracted landing gears?  How will you be displaying this kit?  Will you be hanging this kit from the ceiling or do you have a stand for it?  Thank you in advance.

Your friend, Toshi

 

 

 

 

I will be displaying it on a base, and made a clear plastic pylon/stand.  The markings I intend to use will be a plane based at McDill AFB.  So I downloaded an aerial picture of that base, and will glue a print of it on the base.  I cut the pylon from plastic via bandsaw, and had to clean up the cut edges.  Polishing those edges was a bit of work, but I used the old pledge canopy trick.  I got the edges down to 1000 grit and then painted them with Future!  Saves a lot of work.

 

Here are a couple of shots.  First is before I tore the wings apart to drill the drop tank mounting holes.

Next is a shot from today, with the wings fixed.  I glued the broken parts back on.  On one side the part fit so perfectly that it did not even need filling.  on the other side, it needed some slight amount of filling of the seam.  Got that done and it looks fine.

The crack was in the top wing, just outboard of the root.  Looks okay now.  The model is sitting on the piece of particle board that will be the base.  You can see the saw kerf that the Lexan pylon will fit into.

I decided to paint the engine nacelles and the drop tanks seperately and attach after the model is painted.  I believe if I put them on first, it would make painting the bottom of the wing too difficult.

Looks great. I love that airplane.

There's a wing walk painting trick you probably know. After priming, paint the walks masked just a little oversized, black. Then mask the black with the correct width of tape.

You've no doubt seen the SAC movie with Jimmie Stewart a million times.

GMorrison

 

You've no doubt seen the SAC movie with Jimmie Stewart a million times.

 

Not that many, but I loved the movie.  There is an even better SAC movie, Gathering of Eagles, with, I believe, Rock Hudson as the SAC Inspector General. I was in SAC at the time.  The movie depicted the actual IG at the time, who was informally called Sundown (you know, get out of town before sundown).  The nickname referred to the fact he fired so many unit commanders, and ordered that they leave the units promply.

Grabbed a few pictures this morning.  First is of the base and pylon.  The picture on the base is a Google Earth shot of McDill AFB, where the B-47 was based.

Second is the model after two coats of gloss black.  Lots of dust specs and hairs in it, so sanding it out.  Hope one more coat will get it ready for Alclad.

That's a great idea for the base Don.  Sure looks cool in all gloss black.  I tried the alclad black base on my current motorcycle build and am very pleased with it.  

Very nice fo far Don, I like your choice of base too.....

Ben

Wow, Don!  That is a fabulous "base" base.    This is going to look spectacular.

Gary

Got the Alclad work all done, and starting the decal work.  Decided to try the wing walk decals.  They seemed to work okay.  The ones surrounding the JATO bottles were real bears, though.

She's looking good, Don.  Will it have the SAC sash on the nose?

kensar

She's looking good, Don.  Will it have the SAC sash on the nose?

 

 

No.  I wanted a scheme based in US.  There were only two schemes provided from US base, both from McDill.  These are earlier ones, without the sash.  I will put the SAC logo on the nameplate, though.

Looking really good

Don Stauffer

Got the Alclad work all done, and starting the decal work.  Decided to try the wing walk decals.  They seemed to work okay.  The ones surrounding the JATO bottles were real bears, though.

 

Don, the wing walk areas, are they painted gray? What colors of Alclad did you use? The paint looks great! Using the photo of MacDill is a great idea.

Back in the 80s, one of the members of our motorcycle club flew Martin Marauders over Europe. He trained at MacDill before going over seas.

fotofrank

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don, the wing walk areas, are they painted gray? What colors of Alclad did you use? The paint looks great! Using the photo of MacDill is a great idea.

 

The wing walk is a decal. I think it is a bit too shiny and I intend to overcoat it to get a little less contrast.  I used just plain aluminum (I think that is now called airframe aluminum) and white aluminum.

Thanks, Don. I'm getting ready to paint a Monogram T-28A, the Air Force version. I have Alclad Duraluminum, Aluminum and White Aluminum. I might try to use one or two of the colors on the T-28. Most of the pictures of T-28A's I've seen show a pretty dull surface though. Your B-47 is going to look really nice flying over MacDill.

She's finally done.  The pylon is removable for transport.  With pylon and model assembled to base, it is very springy, and I am afraid transporting it like that would set up a lot of vibrations, so I will have to slip the pylon out.

Very nice! I like the idea of using the plane's airfield as a base.

Turned out great Don.  Really nice display.

Don Stauffer

She's finally done.  The pylon is removable for transport.  With pylon and model assembled to base, it is very springy, and I am afraid transporting it like that would set up a lot of vibrations, so I will have to slip the pylon out.

 

 

Don, it looks just terrific! Having the airplane flying over MacDill is excellent. I'm going to have to find a way to utilize your idea for a base for a Missouri ANG F-84 that will be on the bench soon. Thank you for sharing. BTW: Where did you download the picture of MacDill? I'd like to find a view of Lambert St. Louis Airport like that from the 1950s.

That is terrific Don.  Very unique base idea that just fits the model perfectly.  Great job as always.

Great work Don.  The plane looks fantastic, and paired with the airfield base it's awesome.  I too would like to know where you got the pic, or did you just screen capture something from Google Maps?

Cheers, Mark