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

One of my ROTC instructors was an Intel Officer at Guam during Linebacker 2.  He told us there was one particualr SA-2 site that was especially effective.  It had most of the kills in the first few days.  On the 3rd or 4th day, the lead cell of D models was tasked to strike that site.  Ironhand the SAC way!  After the impact of 324 iron bombs, that site went silent and stayed that way.  

Good old SAC thinking.  One bomb is cool, but 324 is even better.

I also have heard crew dogs from that era talk.  They were very unhappy with SAC HQ being involved.  While all staff weenies ahve the best of intentins, they do not have the direc feedback from the crews.  It is always better to give the deployed staff the targets and any other strike data needed and let them plan the route.

Jim

Yeah Russ and Jim;

That's the story. The way I heard it, the disconnect between the SAC staff

and the soldier staff on tactics cost a lot of guys their lives, and about 2 dozen BUFFS,

but correct me on the number, it was a lot of crews and planes.

SAC finally let the soldiers figure it out, but again, i heard that story about 10 years ago.

I gotta stop now, Jane Fonda is coming back into my mind, and Bob McVietNamara.

Rumor has it Bob owned shares in an ordinance company.....he was allegedly into 'quantity'

not 'quality,' but I have no idea if any of that is actually true.

Ever hear the story about the tail-number painting scheme for brass inspection?

Dom

We always found that SAC HQ was good for coordinating missions, but not so good from a routing and tactics standpoint.  Some of those folks were long removed from active flying.  Others were just plain idiots.  Either way, we always took what they said with a large load of salt.  The same could be said for the numbered Air Forces.  8th could be dumb, but 15th was much worse.

Hi, All,

Updated 7/21/19.

I've had to back off working on the tarmac project for a couple of days so I started adding some of the final details on the fuselage. The two pictures below show the addition some extra detail and the bomb bay door thrusters at each end. Since I'm showing the bomb bay doors in the load position, the thrusters are disconnected. I used some bits and pieces to simulate the thruster hydraulic pump between the arms. This adds some depth instead of having just the flat image.

I also added the rear panel that was created in the procedure on Page 2.

BTW, the thruster arms were always disconnected for safety reasons whenever the bomb bay doors were left open for any reason.

Cheers,

Russ

That looks familiar!

Buffirn

We always found that SAC HQ was good for coordinating missions, but not so good from a routing and tactics standpoint.  Some of those folks were long removed from active flying.  Others were just plain idiots.  Either way, we always took what they said with a large load of salt.  The same could be said for the numbered Air Forces.  8th could be dumb, but 15th was much worse.

"hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle".....------

Dom

Buffirn

That looks familiar!

Rgr that, Jim . I imagine that bomb bay was a big part of your walkaround. Could you take us through your preflight checks? I always wondered what the navs went through during preflight.

Russ

Hi, All,

I finally finished putting down the all the tarmac slices. It doesn't look too bad but there were some issues and I would probably redo it before entering it in a contest. For now, I will leave it as is. I experienced a color shift in some of the slices and wasn't able to correct it. Don't know if it was due to Photoshop or my printer. In any case, I learned what I wouldn't do the next time and what I should have done this time .

There was, however, one other rather large obstacle to completing it....

The next picture shows the two halves separated. A big thanks goes to Jim Williams (Buffirn) for sending me a batch of super magnets to use on the base. They hold the two halves solidly together without using brackets and screws.

Finally, here's the base with the aircraft (The wings aren't finished yet).

Cheers,

Russ

That looks great Russ!

You're gonna make me build an alert pad.  Dang it!!!!!

Thanks, Jim!  

An alert pad???  Great!!   When will you start?

Russ

I've finished painting and weathering the wings with the exception of the no step lines.

Below is a picture of the left wing. I also added taxi lights and locking bars to the inboard outrigger gear doors.

Cheers,

Russ

Russ, how many times can I say it?  Outstanding work!  Great detail!  Awesome job!     

Ken

Thanks, Ken!  I appreciate the good words .

Russ

Striker8241

Thanks, Jim!  

An alert pad???  Great!!   When will you start?

Russ

I'll start this summer sometime.  It will be just one stub.  I might start with 1/144 scale and use that to work out the 1/72 scale version.  Since I have what I need to make my airplane, 61-0025 Shack Rabbit, I might be forced to put her on Sortie 2 at K. I. Sawyer AFB in 1991.  My plane, my sortie.  It's gonna be some work.  Just so you know, you win!  I'll never have the patience to build what you have built. 

We'll have to see what comes of it.

Cool! Can't wait to see it happening!  

Is your dio going to be in winter time? With mounds of drifting snow? And some security policemen freezing their butts off? Boy, I remember those days...

Hey, as for winning, I have the advantage of a lot more time, being retired. Mine won't be any better than yours, it'll just have a lot more junk on it  .

Maybe after I recover from building this dio - say in a few years - I might do a nuclear bomb loading scenario on the flightline, with a weapons convoy and the works, couple of Hound Dogs.... That was always an interesting thing to watch.

Russ

I always asked the point guard if their recruiter had shown them the picture of the Airmen guarding the F-16s at Homestead AFB before they signed up.  They always scowled at me.

I won't do snow.  At least I don't think I'll do snow.  Although, it would make the tarmac easier to construct.

I've thought about a weapons load also.  I'll have to hone my scratch building skills some befoe I try it.  A 4 pack of B-28s and a rotary launcher full of SRAMS would be cool.  Heck, if I go that far, I'll mount ACMs on the wings.  

Dang it!  Now I'm gonna think about that for the rest of the day!

Lol! This is getting better by the minute!   Go, Jim, Go!

Russ

(First time post for the FSM forum here)  This build is absolutely fantastic! I've done a couple of 72 scale BUFFs and am now inspired to do some ore detailed ones in the future; -D, -G, -H. Spent a little quality time in the ol' G-model, many years ago.

Might anybody have a close-up photos (or tech order drawings) that show the details of the B-52D drag chute door when open? Spoiler wells on top of the wings?

On a different note, I took my first foray into making my own decals today, and it worked out pretty well. It's going to take some practice but I'm getting the hang of things. My first project was the refueling guide marks located on the top of the crew cabin, as shown in the picture below. Now I'm working on the aircraft numbers for the nose and tail.

Cheers,

Russ

Von_L

(First time post for the FSM forum here)  This build is absolutely fantastic! I've done a couple of 72 scale BUFFs and am now inspired to do some ore detailed ones in the future; -D, -G, -H. Spent a little quality time in the ol' G-model, many years ago.

Might anybody have a close-up photos (or tech order drawings) that show the details of the B-52D drag chute door when open? Spoiler wells on top of the wings?

 

Hi, Von,

Thanks for the good words. The only clear picture of the drag chute door I have is below. Also, there is a photo of the early B-52 spoiler well, but not a very good one. I've seen some shots of the G and H wells on the net.

Sorry for the late reply - for some reason, your post didn't show up until this morning - weird.

Thanks for stopping by,

Russ

Von_L

 

 

~  Spent a little quality time in the ol' G-model, many years ago.

 

Von,

Was that as a crew member or technician?

Russ

Hi, All,

I decided to add an NF-2 light cart to my diorama. These carts provided bright light for nighttime maintenance. There was usually at least one cart stationed in each revetment; often there were two. They were basically a metal shell with a small gasoline engine that drove a generator. The generator powered the lights and also outlets on the end panel where you could plug in test equipment or a soldering iron.

Because the engine and generator took up only about a third of the interior, there was plenty of room to climb in on a cold day and warm up your frozen body. You had to keep the doors open though because of the danger of carbon monoxide.

The model is from the Hasegawa US Aerospace Ground Equipment set. I didn't try to do a lot of detailing. I did correct the brackets that hold the lights as they were too thick and shaped wrong. I also ground out the solid plastic that represented the lenses and made some clear plastic lenses. I also added the exhaust pipe (lower right corner of the picture) that wasn't modeled.

Cheers,

Russ

Hi, All,

Sometime back, Dom asked me how I planned to transport the diorama safely. My tentative plan for the aircraft is to leave off attaching the wings and transport it in three pieces, then reassemble it at the destination. I would pack the individual pieces in a box using foam cutouts. Still thinking about this though...

As for the ground equipment, my first objective is to find a safe way to attach them to the base so I only have to move the two halves. Barring that, I've made some transport boxes using foam inserts, as shown below. These also protect the pieces while I'm working on other things, and keeps them from collecting dust.

Cheers,

Russ

Striker8241

Hi, All,

Sometime back, Dom asked me how I planned to transport the diorama safely. My tentative plan for the aircraft is to leave off attaching the wings and transport it in three pieces, then reassemble it at the destination. I would pack the individual pieces in a box using foam cutouts. Still thinking about this though...

As for the ground equipment, my first objective is to find a safe way to attach them to the base so I only have to move the two halves. Barring that, I've made some transport boxes using foam inserts, as shown below. These also protect the pieces while I'm working on other things, and keeps them from collecting dust.

Cheers,

Russ

 

Cool idea Russ!  Thank you for sharing that!

Ken

Hi, All,

After a long and agonizing learning curve, I've managed to get my decals on the fuselage (see pictures below).

I discovered that the insignias for the fuselage that came with the kit are too large. The kit insignia are 10mm H x19mm W but I confirmed from several pictures that they should be about 6.5 mm H x 8 mm W. I had to reduce the size and make some new ones in Photoshop. That resulted in my using all homemade decals on the fuselage. There were some issues and they did not come out very professionally but I will leave them as is for now. Maybe down the road when I get more proficient, I can replace them.

Anyway, 56-612 lives! .

Russ

Lol! That's funny! That's exactly the way I feel, Ken!  

Thanks for the humor

Russ

Hi, All,

Well, 56-0612 is getting on down the line. She's got new shoes and her skirts are back on. I've also added the forward hatch and the 47 section hatch. The turret is installed and the ECM horns are back on. The only things left are some coms antennas and some pitot tubes. I'll wait until the wings are fitted to put them on.

Working on finishing the wings now.

Cheers,

Russ

Russ:

She is looking beautiful in her new shoes and skirt!

Man, proud to take her to the dance!

Dom