1/72 B-52D with Big Belly Mod, Operation Arc Light

Lol! It's coming, bud!

Striker8241

Hi, All,

Well, this diorama project is finally approaching completion. The base is essentially finished and is drying from its second coat of sealer. The bomber is fully painted and ready for its first gloss coat. Most of the support vehicles and equipment are done and ready for weathering. There is still a lot to do but I estimate I will be finished in about 2 months.

 

I was able to convert the decals that came with the model from tail number 50-677 to 56-612, the tail number of the aircraft I'm modeling. Once I get the first gloss coat on, I'll apply the decals.

 

Cheers,

Russ 

Great show.....

Like the paint job on the wings,

man, she's gonna sing when she is finished!

Dom

Thanks, Dom!

Russ

Russ:

After seeing some of the photos of the Buffs;

it is an education to realize, the guys on the painting crews did

not use masking tape!

man, some of them are all over the place......

I get so hung up on "accuracy", but guys in wartime just needed to get

the darn things out the door......funny how reality trumps accuracy......

Dom

On the old SIOP camo scheme, there was a lady on the right side of the aircraft forward of the forward wheelwell.  Some of these ladies were better endowed than others.  :)

Jim

Well said, Dom, and all too true

Russ

Hi, All,

I've started weathering some of my support equipment and the aircraft. I still don't have my paint booth set up so it's rattle cans and manual labor. The first candidate was the bomb truck. These trucks travelled over mostly dirt roads to get the bombs to the planes so they were frequently coated with dust. Even though the Air Force mandated they be washed regularly, mission requirements often prevented that.

And here's the weathered left horizontal stabilizer, just to give you an idea where I'm going...

Cheers,

Russ

Hey Russ:

Not criticizing here,

Those rear stabs by Revell/Monogram are an over/under

flat wing spar attachment arrangement, they assume lots of glue between the

those large mating surfaces,,, so only saying i would clean the

paint off the gluing, ahem, mating, surfaces, so the glue can stick

And,

yeah,

i know you were going to do that,

but I am a 1950's paranoid....

hey, you never mentioned all the weathering on your bomb transport truck,,,,,shisssh Russ,

gettin' partched jess' luuuukin' at it!!!

That beer was for me.....

Dom

Hey, Dom,

I never consider anyone's advice or comments as criticism. I always appreciate your concern and suggestions. And yup, I plan to clean them off prior to gluing. They do look tacky though  .

As for the truck, I just did the weathering yesterday. Thanks for the good words!

Russ

Striker8241

Hi, All,

I've started weathering some of my support equipment and the aircraft. I still don't have my paint booth set up so it's rattle cans and manual labor. These trucks travelled over mostly dirt roads to get the bombs to the planes so they were frequently coated with dust. Even though the Air Force mandated they be washed regularly, mission requirements often prevented that.

 

And here's the weathered left horizontal stabilizer, just to give you an idea where I'm going...

 

Cheers,

Russ

Nice job on the weathering Russ!  It looks very realistic!  A very nice touch!     

Ken

Thanks for the good words, Ken!

That bomb trailer remoinds me of a exercise deployment story.  We always got to do the coolest things on exercises.  So, anyway, we, the planners, were allowed to help the MMS guys build the bombs for the live drop in two days.  Since this was a low level drop, all the weapons were fuzed with an FMU-139.  Really cool fuze that required a whole string of things before it would go boom.  So, as the MMS troops put the fuzes in the tail, we were putting on the nose caps and high drag tails.  As my boss was straddling one of the bombs while tightening the nose cap, one of the guys from the office picked up a piece of 2x4 and slapped in down on the bed of the trailer behind the good Major.  It made a tremendous crack.  It is amazing how far you can jump when you think the bomb you are straddling has exploded.  While the Major didn't think it was so funny, the rest of us thought it was hilarious.  Crew dog humor at its best!

Lol!  I bet that major had to order a new uniform too...  Good story, Jim

Russ

Russ, that a stunning assortment of ground support you have there. I am just so glad I didn't do this 15 years ago when I first got this kit and wanted to do just this. How big is that base, and are you leaving it like that.

Thanks for the good words, Bish.

The base is 38 x 40 in. when the two halves are connected. Not sure what you mean by leaving it like that. It will be that color; however, I do plan to attach sheets of 1/4 in thick plastic poster board to the tops of the base to provide a smoother surface for the tarmac sheets; it will also provide a sharper and more exact joint than I couldn't achieve by sanding the matching faces of the two base halves. Finally, I plan to have a Lucite (or glass) cover made for the base. The finished diorama will sit on top of a display cabinet built especially for it.

Cheers,

Russ

Hi, All,

With the base almost ready, I've begun creating the individual slices of the ramp tarmac for printing. Below is  a map of the ramp slices and a print out of slice B-4 with the various effects for that slice applied. Once I create files for all the slices I can print them out and begin to piece them together like a mosaic.

Cheers,

Russ

Russ:

All those tiles,

You sure you are not Italian?

I call those tarmac marks "pawprints"

I am absolutely enjoying seeing you put this

project into operational mode.

Now you are a certified model maker, cabinet maker, and graphic artist......

Russ, Happy Memorial Day!

-Dom

Lol, Dom! No, I'm not Italian - I come from the German branch of the tree . And you left out certified nut...

Thanks for the holiday wishes; I wish you the same, bud,

Russ

That answers it nicely. Given the lovely finish on the base, I was wondering if you were putting the scene on it as it was.

Bish

That answers it nicely. Given the lovely finish on the base, I was wondering if you were putting the scene on it as it was.

Ahh, I gotcha .

Striker8241

Hi, All,

With the base almost ready, I've begun creating the individual slices of the ramp tarmac for printing. Below is  a map of the ramp slices and a print out of slice B-4 with the various effects for that slice applied. Once I create files for all the slices I can print them out and begin to piece them together like a mosaic.

Cheers,

Russ

Nice work Russ!      That in itself was a lot of work!  Have you been keeping track of the hours you have been spending putting all of this together?

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

 

Nice work Russ!      That in itself was a lot of work!  Have you been keeping track of the hours you have been spending putting all of this together?

Ken

 

Thanks, Ken!   No, I haven't been keeping track. I started working on it last May and I guess I've averaged about 8 hours a week, so that's over 400 hours so far.

Cheers,

Russ

Striker8241

 And you left out certified nut...

I thought being an ECM troop already covered that!

I guess I can't say too much.  I loved riding around in them at low altitude at night.  That is certifiable.

Jim

Lol Jim! That's true! I think it's even mentioned in our AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) description

Russ

Hi, All,

I'm a happy camper again today! . I found just the right system to lay down the ramp slices on the base. Many thanks, Dom, for suggesting the double-sided tape - it's working out great! I used a heavy duty cloth double-sided carpet tape from Ace Hardware to attach the foam board to the base. The picture below shows the base with the foam board applied.

Next, I'm using 3/4" double-sided cellophane tape to attach each tarmac slice to the foam board (I'm using a brand called "2 Side It" Permanent tape. It seems a lot stronger and stickier than the Scotch brand). The picture below shows the first row of ramp slices applied.

The edges of the foam board are nice and sharp and give me a smooth even joint all along the face where the two halves of the base meet. I did run into one problem with the foam board - I had to buy two pieces and one of them is about 1/2 mm thicker than the other. That leaves a noticeable ridge where the base halves meet. To correct that, I used a board to press down along the edge of the offending piece to compress it slightly. It's still there but not so noticeable now.

I'm printing out more tarmac slices as I type this and I hope to have the base completely covered by tomorrow.

Cheers,

Russ

Looking good!

This will be a spectacular looking diorama when you are done!

Thanks, Jim! I sure hope so .

Russ

Striker8241

Hi, All,

I'm a happy camper again today! . I found just the right system to lay down the ramp slices on the base. Many thanks, Dom, for suggesting the double-sided tape - it's working out great! I used a heavy duty cloth double-sided carpet tape from Ace Hardware to attach the foam board to the base. The picture below shows the base with the foam board applied.

 

Next, I'm using 3/4" double-sided cellophane tape to attach each tarmac slice to the foam board (I'm using a brand called "2 Side It" Permanent tape. It seems a lot stronger and stickier than the Scotch brand). The picture below shows the first row of ramp slices applied.

The edges of the foam board are nice and sharp and give me a smooth even joint all along the face where the two halves of the base meet. I did run into one problem with the foam board - I had to buy two pieces and one of them is about 1/2 mm thicker than the other. That leaves a noticeable ridge where the base halves meet. To correct that, I used a board to press down along the edge of the offending piece to compress it slightly. It's still there but not so noticeable now.

I'm printing out more tarmac slices as I type this and I hope to have the base completely covered by tomorrow.

Cheers,

Russ

That is looking great Russ!!      How does it feel to see the light at the end of the tunnel?  This is going to look fantastic!

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

 

That is looking great Russ!!      How does it feel to see the light at the end of the tunnel?  This is going to look fantastic!

Ken

Thanks for the good words, Ken!   It feels good! (I'm already planning the next one...)

Russ 

Bockscar

Russ, Lee:

I heard about an electronic system to confuse the SAM radar.

I'm sorry if I can't get all of this right. my recollection is that

it would cover a number of aircraft in a relatively tight formation

and obviously all flying the same speed and little relative

movement between them.

When the bombers went to turn, however, that would upset the

balance in the system and then they would become visible, or more visible,

to the SAM radar.

What I can't remember is how the crews finally got it across to

the commanders that they could fix the problem and save crews and

aircraft. It might have been a directional change, or different procedure

when the formation made the turn.

I remember a pilot saying something like this about the SAM, "if you saw the

flash moving you were okay, but if it wasn't moving, you were dead."

Reminds me of what guys used to say about tracer ground-fire in WWII.

Dom

Update from Dom's post several months back:

Dom,

I didn't understand what you were describing until I read some articles about the Linebacker II Christmas bombings of Hanoi. SAC headquarters were setting up the B-52 missions instead of the more experienced staff on Guam. They had the bombers coming in cells of 3 or 4 in trail, at the same times, same altitude, and hitting essentially the same targets.

The bombers and accompanying B-66 aircraft provided massive barrage jamming that flooded the enemy's scopes and prevented their Fan Song radars from going into auto track mode. But again, at the direction of SAC, each bomber was required to make a hard turn after dropping it's bombs and this led to a weakness that the NVA operators could exploit.

When the bombers rolled into the turn, the jamming antennas on the bottom of the aircraft pointed away from the tracking radars just for a few seconds. The NVA learned to watch for a decrease in jamming level on their scopes and when they detected it, they fired their missiles. They quickly switched to auto track and the system could guide the missiles to the target while the plane was still turning. This resulted in a lot of B-52s being shot down before we finally figured out what was happening.

Thanks for bringing this up - it's been bothering me for a long time and now I know the story behind it.

Russ