B-36 Peacemaker Group Build

Hello Magoo,

I don't have an answer for you yet, but I recently discovered that a guy I know was one of the contributing researchers and writers for "Convair B-36: A Comprehensive History of America's 'Big Stick' " the 400-page monster by Meyers Jacobson. Had no idea of that part of his background until the words B-36 came up in conversation. I reached out to him to find out if he has any info. If I get anything I'll post it here.

Howdy Teutonic,

Thanks, I will wait like a .little kid at Christmas. your efforts are appreciated! Magoo

Hi Andrew,

A couple of pictures of the YB-60 cockpit are shown on page 190 of the Cold War Peacemaker book. If you can provide me with your US mail address I can copy them and send them to you.

Roger

Hi Reasoned,

Tuet has actually inspired me to try my "skills" (or more accurately) complete absence of skills from getting in my way at attempting to build another B-36 model. This time I plan on adding motors to the props, interior lighting, running lights, landing lights, etc., and perhaps I can do it somewhat better this time around now that I know where all the parts should go. I would have liked to add the aftermarket 20mm gun turrets but probably won't because of their price. I sure won't make any attempt at the super detailing that Tuet did as I could never do that no matter how hard I tried.

To ensure that I would get my new project started, I have already purchased the motors, LEDs, batteries and another B-36 kit to assemble, and most important, have also sold my completed model on eBay. And WOW, does it ever take a big box to ship a built 1/72 B-36 model.

Roger      

I recently bought a Monogram B-36 in 1/72 scale and it arrived in today's mail.  It's brand new. still wrapped in the original plastic.  But, unfortunately at least three of the propellers each have a blade broken off.  I'm pretty sure on such large props I can fix them, but would rather buy replacements if I could find a source.  I was thinking that someone in the Group Build might know of a source.  I would appreciate any assistance, guidance or suggestions.

Thank you,

         Al

Hello Al:

I don't have any props to sell, but I had one prop broken in my kit. If you need to reattach your broken blades I recommend pinning them by drilling a small, but slightly oversized hole in the hub and the blade. Then insert an 18-gauge or 22-gauge picture frame wire into the hole (available at just about any hardware store). I then use a liberal amount of glue to fill the oversized hole and reattached the blade. Before glueing you probably want to examine the blade-to-hub interface to make the alignment is accurate. You may also want to draw a line across the joint so you don't have to re-hunt for it once you apply glue. The oversized hole allows for some slop when you glue the blade to the hub to ensure the joints match perfectly, and it allows CA glue to fill the pin-to-hole void and bleed out into the joint.

Super glue will hold the blade nicely without a pin, but it is more subject to snapping back off with a bump. The glued pin really helps solidify the joint and I haven't ever been able to detect a joint in my B-36 or prior broken prop models.

Hope this helps if you need to go this route.

Thanks, Teutonic!  Frankly I was just going to try to glue them back together, but the pin makes total sense.  If I need to, and I probably will, I'll follow your advice and instructions.

Teutonic;

Looking grrrrreat!!!

Really appreciate that aluminum/magnesium contrast you've captured!

Dom

Thanks Dom. Frankly, the various NMFs were more of a pain in the patootie than I had hoped for. Tough to mask metallics without messing up the finish. I'll probably try Alclad on a future model that is smaller and I can screw up on.

We're moving soon, so once we get there and I get this plane hung up I can add all the little details like pitot tubes, ECM antennas, extended landing gear lights, etc.

Had a funny feeling about that......but it was worth it, a fine effort!

I've still got 3 B-36's left......2 in 1/72

Best of luck with your move.

I've recently separated and I've been moving,

the 300+ kits shoe horned into a little apartment....

my memory fading.....kits i don't remember buying....

I'm lucky i can still remember my GB exists these days

Dom

Tuet,

Your pics of your model are nothing short of perfection and it is just unbelievable the amount of detail that you were able to incorporate. Excellent job. I did notice that your side views did not contain any emergency rescue markings. I have no idea if 2827 had them or not but I came across some info that showed the addition as part of the "High Altitude Camouflage" paint scheme. It shows them being located directly in front of the lower aft blisters, painted red with the words "Cut Here For Emergency Rescue". It might add a nice additional detail if applicable. Let me know if interested and I can send you the info.

I also have a question for you regarding your fuselage landing lights. What are you using for them and their mounting? I have flat top LEDS that I will be using but haven't decided on how to mount them yet.

Roger    

Hello Roger:

Thank you very much. Believe me, there are plenty of flaws. I'm just trying to overlook them. The Cut Here For Emergency Rescue markings are there, they are just difficult to see in the photo. You can just see one of them on the port side near the U.S. and on the starboard side just forward of the rear observation blister. The red call out against the silver finish doesn't stand out dramatically.

I haven't installed the landing lights yet, but I'm using M.V. Products P/N 29 (0.1015"/2.6 mm) clear lenses. Easy to find at a good model railroad hobby store. I drilled out the location of the fuselage landing lights and glued a back-up piece of styrene sheet. For the lights, I placed each lens face down on some tape and applied multiple drops of Testors Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker to build up more of a headlight-style shell. I'm sure Elmer's white glue would work too. I then painted the backs of the lenses sliver. I plan to cut a small strip of photoetched brass from some leftover scrap and glue it to the lens and then glue the strip/tab into the hole in the fuselage in order to make the landing lights look like they are extended for landing.

That's one of the items I plan to do once I'm moved in to the office. I'm afraid it might break off during transit.

Hi Tuet,

Thanks for the info. I should have known that with all the detail that you have in your model that you would have included the emergency rescue markings as well. I just can't see them in the photos because there isn't enough contrast present even after enlarging them. But glad that you have added them already.

I can see how you are doing your lights and it should replicate the original ones quite well. My problem will be a little different in that I will have the depth of the LEDs to contend with. They are the flat-top ones so they will have less depth than the rounded ones. I will probable try to craft a curved backing behind the LEDs to look more like headlights while hiding the LED wires. I think I can use the wires themselves to mount to the front of fuselage holes. Oh well, something to play with.

What has me currently stopped in my construction is that I am using fiber optic cable to bring navigation lights to the wing tips. I have the green and red lights flashing just fine but the viewing angle of the fiber optic cable is very narrow such that you can only see them when looking straight at the end of the cable. I will have to resolve this before putting the wings together. Maybe I will have to try a different approach altogether but I haven't given up yet. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Roger  

Hello Roger,

I have a solution for your fiber optic lights. I have never used fiber optics, but I know it is easy to flare the ends so the light appears more like a regular light. All it takes is holding the tip near a heat source. Model railroaders do this a lot. Check out this link: thefiberopticstore.com/.../Train-Misc.htm

Hi Tuet,

I forgot to mention that I have already tried that method to improve the viewing angle. It seems to increase the diameter of the lit cable tip but doesn't seem to improve the viewing angle very much at all. But maybe that will be the best I can do. I've also tried fusing two cables together at the tips but it doesn't do much for the viewing angle either. I will look at the attached link to see if it has a method I haven't tried yet.

Thanks for your suggestion and fast reply,

Roger

I have been working on my RB-36H pretty steady for the last month, but you all know how it goes.  Hour after hour, but really not much to talk about or show.  I was unhappy with the loss of detail from lowering the wing on the fuselage, and in the end I got comfortable with rescribing the wing and tail group, top and bottom.  I used a JLC saw and a dental tool, and various straight edges.  There are a few goofs but I'm much happier with the result.  I painted the magnesium areas with Floquil old silver and the aluminum areas with Alclad Polished Aluminum, then rubbed in SNJ aluminum powder very soon after spraying.  I found that I got the best coverage with the least paint by using about 15 pounds pressure and back about 4 to 6 inches with both paints, it dried just right.  I put on the antiflash white, that took almost two bottles of Model Master Flat White and a roll of paper towels.  I did a loose mask so there is a soft edge demarcation.  It only took a day and a half of pretty constant work to mask and paint the cockpit and nose transparencies.  Another area that has taken some work is the nose cannon.  I think my fuselages were a bit warped right in that area and the fit to the lower transparency was poor.  Also, in order to make the nose cannon rotate there is a loose fit there that I was not happy with so there was a bit of Aves Epoxysculpt added.  Several attempts actually, but it is not too bad now.  I should have kept at it a little more but it will be OK.  Really.  As you can see I still have to install the nose cannon, the first one went away somewhere and the new one is from a second kit and has been re-sculpted some.  It and the tail cannon barrels will be the last things added after decalling, which near as I can tell is next.  Before that I think I will respray the aluminum area around the camera section, it is not as bright as I would like, though I want the contrast between the bare aluminum and painted magnesium to muted since the airplanes only had the antiflash white the last few years of service.

I took some quick pictures where it is now.  It's going to take some work to come up with a large enough photo setup.  Maybe I should take it down to Travis AFB for some pictures, it's just down the road.

Well, it appears to be done.  I haven't repaired the tail cannons, that will wait until the new display case I am building is done.  Not too sure where I will keep it until then.

http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/b36/1b36/0421b36.jpg

Well, well John fantastic job on her!   Having built one myself (and it will be ONLY one ) I can say with some authority that you did a great job on the wing roots, walkway strips, seams and the finish variations.  I also can see where you used 2 bottles of white too, that is A LOT of white you had to do.  Although this huge kit doesn't have as many parts as many of today's higher detailed 1/48 or even 1/72 kits, the sheer amount of plastic and NMF can really magnify any warts.  Again, congratulations on a real quality build.

Nice work, John. I gave up on trying to mask a soft edge on the anti-thermal paint without destroying the NMF. You pulled it off well. I'm jealous.

John,

Your completed model looks really great. I actually prefer the Configuration II aircraft as they retained all of the 20-mm cannons when they added the anti thermal paint. That is the same way I am building mine as well. I originally thought that the white paint was only used on the feather weights, but it appears that some of the RB-H models also had it, although it seems that all of the RB-E models were feather weighted.

I have the perfect place where you can keep your model until you can get your display case built. Just find a large box and send it to me for safe storage as I am always glad to help with situations like this when I can.

Cheers,

Roger  

Roger:

I severely appreciate your kind offer, however it would require a hemostatically sealed container with framistan shock absorption and my normal supplier on Titan is on the wrong side of the sun at the moment.

Regards,

John

Hi Guys,

Well I've been watching this thread with interest for several years now.  It's been sort of quiet since John posted photos of his excellent build!  Nice job sir.  Where are you lajntx?!  Are you still out there I hope?!  Let us know...

At any rate, I have a 1997 issue of the Monogram kit in the stash that I picked up on eBay for a song about 3 or 4 years ago.  I had no place to put it back when this thread started so it stayed in depths of the stash.  This year however I moved into a new, larger house and I think a B-36 hanging from the ceiling of my man cave is just what I need.  So about a week ago, I decided to go for it!

Let me tell you that I have been hoarding B-36 decals for several years.  I have several of the Warbird common markings sheets plus their sheet # 002.  I have an old Scale Master sheet and also the old Microscale sheet #72-272.  After some thought, and armed with I think just about every B-36 book out there, I have decided to model RB-36F s/n 49-2703 from Microscale sheet #72-272.  I think the checkered tail will be good looking.  I have found a single picture of this plane in two of my reference books.  It's flying but missing her rudder!  Does anyone know if there are any other photos of this plane anywhere?

I know I am in for a bit of conversion work.  This a/c had the single tail radome and also one flight engineer station.  Those items should be fairly easy to produce.

I'll post some photos of my progess so far in a bit.

-Derek

Okay, here are some photos.  First, the cockpit bits removed from the sprue:

Just a few more tonight.

The upper cockpit seats are also done.  I added armrests and also added a thin strip of tape to the back of the pilots seats to simulate the belt behind the seat.  I also removed the head rest from the engineers seat and my photos/drawing didn't show one on that seat.

So that's where I'm at right now.  I will work on the jet pods and finishing up the cockpit area soon. 

You're doing a nice job, Derek, that cockpit looks great.

Hi Derek,

It has been awhile since your post and I was wondering if you added the 20-mm turrets to your model. If so, did everything fit OK without having to do any modifications. Was it easy enough to cut the turret area and just drop the kit in. Anything I should know before trying to add them to my model? I haven't purchased a kit yet but am thinking about it if it is easy enough to incorporate.

Thanks,

Roger

Hi Roger, Sorry for not saying in touch. My computer totally died, won't do anything but a black sceen with a blinking hyphon. I also went pretty much blind for a while, vison went to 20.95. I had surgury in both eyes, again, and I'm now down to 20/25 in my left eye and 20/40 in my right eye. Hang in there it's been a rough year for me. I would have contacted you through your personal email address but my computer is where that address resides. Untill later, Andrew Magoo

Hi Andrew,

Good to hear from you again and also good to hear that your eye surgery turned out for you. Did you ever get the YB-60 model completed? If so, I would like to see photos of your finished project. Either here or via my personal email address of rstgney@hotmail.com. And yes, I am familiar with computer crashes as I had the same experienece once and lost a lot of data with no back up.

Best regards,

Roger

Hi Roger, I haven't gotten past the tail section yet! The fuselage is glued together and the tail piece is one swep wing section. I think I have a solutrion but I have to get down to print shop. This has certainly been a challenge with the eye sight problem and trying to convert an already built kit. I do think I will get it done and it will look ok when done. I hope to have my computer fixed next month as it will be much easier to post pics and do the forum without bothering the wife for her computer. I will keep you and the foreum updated on a regular basis. Good modeling to all, Andrew Magoo 

Teutonic,

 When masking NMF I use damp newspaper. It sticks nicely and leaves no marks like tape does. Its worked for me for years. And is reuseable, just re wet it...

Majer Kong