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

Thanks, Jim!

Looks great Russ!

Thanks, Dom!  Ain't it the truth about the pinch?  

The trailer wheels are from a Hasegawa Weapons Loading Set. To form the cowling, I needed to move the front grill out about 7 mm. I first cut the front grill off with a razor saw - this piece was about 3 mm thick. Then I cut out a circular piece of 0.5 mm styrene about 1 mm larger than the engine diameter and glued it to the front of the engine. This piece would form the flange at the back of the cowling. Then I cut out three pieces of 1 mm styrene to the diameter of the intake and glued them together, then glued them to the engine. Then I glued the grill to the end of the extension. After that, it was a matter of trimming and sanding the cowling and flange to shape, then cutting the six slots - I used my scriber for that. The flange around the front lip of the cowling is a piece of 0.3 mm round rod glued in place.

By "shredder" do you mean the front "grill?"  That's the part I originally cut off the front of the resin kit.

Cheers,

Russ

Striker8241

Well, the engine and trailer are finally finished. It was an interesting build. The engine was relatively easy compared to the trailer - that thing gave me fits!  Below are some pictures. Now I need to build a crane truck.....

Cheers,

Russ

 

 

 

Funny how the things that look like a cinch are the ones that pinch

-Where'd you get the little wheels?

The front-cowling/hood assembly looks real good, so you never told us how you built that,

I especially like the "bug/bird screen/shredder" you put out front, how did you build that Chef?

Yeah, looking real good.

Dom

Thanks, Ken!

Striker8241

Well, the engine and trailer are finally finished. It was an interesting build. The engine was relatively easy compared to the trailer - that thing gave me fits!  Below are some pictures. Now I need to build a crane truck.....

Cheers,

Russ

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great job Russ!  Wonderful scratch building there!  The weathering looks really nice too!     

Ken

Well, the engine and trailer are finally finished. It was an interesting build. The engine was relatively easy compared to the trailer - that thing gave me fits!  Below are some pictures. Now I need to build a crane truck.....

Cheers,

Russ

Absolutely!  

Will that engine come with scale drips and leaks?

:)

Thanks for the good words, Dom.  The pump assembly is only a gesture - the real setup is incredibly more complex and would be pointless in trying to fully replicate at this scale. As long as it gives the right "flavor" when viewed up close, we're good .

Cheers,

Russ

Striker8241

Hi, All,

I finished and installed the fuel pump assembly and added the oil filler cap. Below are some photos. Next comes the components on the engine casing itself and the plumbing. I corrected the colors a bit but they will be toned down when I add a wash.

Cheers,

Russ

 

 

 

 

 

when I reduced your picture to about 1/72, it looks real good! That pump and fuel section is excellent, and again, unless someone has been up close to the real thing, they'd never be able to reproduce your details.

Dom

Striker8241

Thanks, Ken!  Now if I only had your painting and detailing ability, it would be 100% better!

Russ

Thank you for the compliment Russ!  But I think your detailing is great!  As far as painting goes, I think that if you started using an airbrush you would be as good if not better than me!

Ken

Thanks, Ken!  Now if I only had your painting and detailing ability, it would be 100% better!

Russ

Great job on the fuel pump assembly Russ!      It is hard to believe that is 1/72 scale!

Ken

Hi, All,

I finished and installed the fuel pump assembly and added the oil filler cap. Below are some photos. Next comes the components on the engine casing itself and the plumbing. I corrected the colors a bit but they will be toned down when I add a wash.

Cheers,

Russ

Thank you, Pawel!

As for how I'm going to do all the plumbing, I plan to add the major assemblies like the fuel pump, larger valves and breathers, then add the piping and wiring in layers starting from the inside out. Should be interesting .

Cheers,

Russ

Hello Russ!

A very nice looking engine - now I'm curious, how you are going to do all the plumbing on it. Good luck with the job and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks, Guys!

Russ

Striker8241

Here's the engine after painting. Ready to add the detail.

Cheers,

Russ

 

                           

 

 

The housing around the combustion chamber looks good and burnt!

That is such a tiny project, my eyes hurt just thinking about it; also like that intake shroud,

Dom

Striker8241

Here's the engine after painting. Ready to add the detail.

Cheers,

Russ

 

                           

 

 

Very nice Russ!  Great job on painting the metallic look!  Very realistic!   

Ken

Here's the engine after painting. Ready to add the detail.

Cheers,

Russ

Ken:

Another great pic from your dad, much appreciated.

Dom

Son Of Medicine Man

Incredible work Russ!  Your skills at scratch building are just fantastic!     

Here is a picture that my Dad took while stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Viet Nam.  I believe that is the same trailer with an engine on it.  Not quite sure what engine that is.  I also believe that is a B4 maintenance stand to the far right.

Ken 

Thanks for the good words, Ken!   Yes, that is the same trailer. Actually, that looks like two engines on trailers, one slightly behind the other. They are probably new or rebuilt J-57s without the afterburners. And that is a B-4 stand off to the right .

Cheers,

Russ

Bockscar

Russ;

That sure is a lot of sculpting, the resin parts are supposed to

be more accurate than the injection parts.

The average modeler would have no way to know how to fix

that resin part.

Looking forward to seeing the hardware go on it,

Dom

Roger that, Dom. Actually neither the injected version nor the resin version are very accurate, but the injected version is more accurate. I was surprised too about the resin engine - neither the accuracy nor the quality was good. A lot of the details were just gestures rather that attempts to replicate the real engine. But that's ok - I planned to remove all the detail anyway and correcting the basic shape of the engine isn't that hard. It just takes a lot of time.

Also, the basic J-57 engine didn't necessarily have the shroud on the front of the intake - it appears that only the B-52 engines had those. There were a lot of planes that used the J-57 in a wide variety of configurations and finding usable pictures of those used on the D models has been difficult.

Cheers,

Russ

Striker8241

I had an itch to do a more detailed version of the kit display engine so I ordered a resin version from Roll Models, Inc. The result was pretty rough as you can see below. 

 

The whole surface was stippled and there were some serious holes in the casting. In addition, the shape of some of the engine sections was wrong, especially the exhaust nozzle. It had a solid plug flush with the end of the nozzle and the cone was too large and too long. I drilled out the nozzle and reshaped the cone so it looks much better.

Below is the reshaped engine with the molded on details removed. Now it's ready to add the fuel pumps, tubing, wiring and etc. I also added 7 mm to the front of the engine to replicate the intake shroud (I guess that's what you call it ).

 

To add this to my diorama, I built an engine trailer that was used to transport engines to and from the flight line and frequently to work on the engine while in the shop. It looks like a simple structure but there are some really small and delicate parts that gave me fits.

Cheers,

Russ

Incredible work Russ!  Your skills at scratch building are just fantastic!     

Here is a picture that my Dad took while stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Viet Nam.  I believe that is the same trailer with an engine on it.  Not quite sure what engine that is.  I also believe that is a B4 maintenance stand to the far right.

Ken 

Russ;

That sure is a lot of sculpting, the resin parts are supposed to

be more accurate than the injection parts.

The average modeler would have no way to know how to fix

that resin part.

Looking forward to seeing the hardware go on it,

Dom

I had an itch to do a more detailed version of the kit display engine so I ordered a resin version from Roll Models, Inc. The result was pretty rough as you can see below.

The whole surface was stippled and there were some serious holes in the casting. In addition, the shape of some of the engine sections was wrong, especially the exhaust nozzle. It had a solid plug flush with the end of the nozzle and the cone was too large and too long. I drilled out the nozzle and reshaped the cone so it looks much better.

Below is the reshaped engine with the molded on details removed. Now it's ready to add the fuel pumps, tubing, wiring and etc. I also added 7 mm to the front of the engine to replicate the intake shroud  represent the water injection shroud.

To add this to my diorama, I built an engine trailer that was used to transport engines to and from the flight line and frequently to work on the engine while in the shop. It looks like a simple structure but there are some really small and delicate parts that gave me fits.

Cheers,

Russ

Thanks, Ken!  

I just made it from some scrap pieces, and some I-Beam stock.

Cheers,

Russ

Striker8241

Hi, All,

I decided to catch up on some details I didn't have time to do before. I tried out glazing the gunner's compartment windows and I like the effect! Some pictures of the results below.

 

Also, I built a mounting frame for the third bomb clip and installed it in the bomb bay.

Cheers,

Russ

 

 

Wow Russ, that is incredible work!  How did you make that mounting frame?

Ken

Hi, All,

I decided to catch up on some details I didn't have time to do before. I tried out glazing the gunner's compartment windows and I like the effect! Below is a picture of the results.

Cheers,

Russ