B-36 Peacemaker Group Build

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Howdy Wild Child, I think you should build a B-36 that appeals to you. There a quite a few variations to choose from. The unassembled model kit on the left will be a GRB-36D/Ficon unit. The kit on the right will be a RB-36H from the 28^th BW in Rapid City South Dakota. The sacrificial lamb in the center will be a YB-60.

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Mike Herrill makes a vacuform conversion kit to turn a 1/72 Monogram B-36 into a YB-60

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The parts are made from styrene plastic some 0.030 of an inch some 0.060 of an inch and he labels them for your identification.

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I couldn’t find any 28^th bomb wing decals in 1980 so I hand painted the 28^th BW badge, 8^th USAF badge and the triangle S on paper then glued them to the model. Crude but looked good from 6 feet.

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The first step is the disassembly of the major parts of the plane.

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Here is the 1 pound lead ingot that I installed in the wing spare/fuel tank because I forgot to add weight in the nose at the start of the build. I’m going to try and remove it because I will be able to easily add weight to the nose section that will be cut off for the new nose.

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Here is the RF-84F kit that will be used in the GRB-36D conversion. The RF-84F can be easily converted to an RF-84K.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Mike sends some reference material that will come in handy. I’m going to publicly thank Jeff Thomsen for allowing me to upscale his art work that he did on his computer for his 1/144 scaled YB-60 and Greg at Draw Decal for contacting Jeff to inquire if I could use his program and have Greg upscale the decals. The art work and decals are high quality.

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I know many months ago I had posted a question about YB-60 decals and someone had given me the FS color number for the reddish/orange color of the stripes, engine paint, and script. Like a fool I didn’t write it down and now the posting seems to have been erased. Alas life is tough when you don’t pay attention. Magoo

Reasoned

Now don't go telling me my version of the B=36 didn't carry bombs....... MINE does!

If they dont go "BOOM" when they explode and make craters they dont count.

Those are photo flash bombs so the thing could take high altitutde recon photos.... kind of like that flash stick your parents would stick on those old polaroid instant camera we all hated being blinded by when we were kids.

lajntx

Reasoned:

Now don't go telling me my version of the B=36 didn't carry bombs....... MINE does!

 

 

If they dont go "BOOM" when they explode and make craters they dont count.

Those are photo flash bombs so the thing could take high altitutde recon photos.... kind of like that flash stick your parents would stick on those old polaroid instant camera we all hated being blinded by when we were kids.

   Now what fun is that?  Somebody needs to scratch build a nuke for this thing.

Howdy lajntx, thank you fro the information I didn't know this guy existed, life in the fast lane and I'm changing my tire. Magoo

Reasoned

   Now what fun is that?  Somebody needs to scratch build a nuke for this thing.

 

Somebody already has:

http://millcreekconsultants.com/SR-N1.html

Andrew Magoo

Howdy lajntx, thank you fro the information I didn't know this guy existed, life in the fast lane and I'm changing my tire. Magoo

NP.  Just one question. How are you going to build the right jet pods for the YB-60? Are you going to use the ones out of one of your B-52 kits?

Well the flash bombs Mk122 were natural metal colored, silver with black stencils.

Answer to an earlier question- the wing spar looked like the kit one, but with all kinds of extra detail and flanges and stuff. in fact the whole bomb bay is really busy.

I forgot my spar entirely when building that kit. Have it still in the parts box even tho the rest went to the great polar ice cap in the sky long ago.

Reasoned

Okay, I think the bomb bay door fiasco has been smoothed out (which is better than all my scratches), that's for tomorrow.

The retro fit BB with scratch spar cover.

 

The quick fix bombs.

 

Completed

 

Now don't go telling me my version of the B=36 didn't carry bombs....... MINE does!

Len

Hi Magoo!,

That`s going to be quite a build. I was just wondering...what does Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE mean? You have it all through this post.

Len

Howdy lajntx, yes I think I'm going to use my B-52D engine pods a masters and cast some in resin as I don't have a trashed B-52 kit around to rob parts from. Magoo

Howdy Troublemaker66, I have no idea why that comes up. The script Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE I thought was coming up because I double space a blank line under the pictures. I went back in and edited my post by removing the blank lines but it didn't help. When I was in the original post and during the edit of the post the Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE didn't show up if anybody can tell me what I'm doing to cause this and how to fix/stop/eliminate the problem I'm having would be great. Magoo

thats cool, i didnt realise the project started during WWII.....would have been neat to see the B-36 and a TA 183 Huckebein going at it over Berlin.......what-if build anyone? lol

that would be sweet! huge, but one-of-a-kind for sure!

TheWildChild

thats cool, i didnt realise the project started during WWII.....would have been neat to see the B-36 and a TA 183 Huckebein going at it over Berlin.......what-if build anyone? lol

that would be sweet! huge, but one-of-a-kind for sure!

The project was started because of the impending entry into WWII. On the first page of this GB there is the resources section.... See the Video with the Picture titled " B-36 Peacemaker" that is the Discovery Channel Austrailia`s Great Planes feature. The first 10 minutes is about the WWII & post war development. Also there see the online book of Convair B-36 Peacemaker and the first section is about intercontental bomber concepts by all sides of WWII along with some of the B-36 1942-45 progress

Howdy Wild Child, I think that you ought to take a try at that. You could certainly have fun setting things up for a forced

perspective or a diorama of some sort. Magoo

.

Andrew Magoo

Howdy Wild Child, I think that you ought to take a try at that. You could certainly have fun setting things up for a forced

perspective or a diorama of some sort. Magoo

.

Walt Disney already did that back in the day. Watch the video below starting at 3:35. It`s quite impressive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlr_HnLV2C4&feature=related

B-36`s that would have flown during WWII to hit either Europe or Japan would have been more extensively armed than the B-36`s that saw actual post war production. Some planes also would have been built expressly as being "Gunship Escorts" armed to the teeth for the bombers. The small planes would have had no chance to manuver into position to fire whereas the gun platforms on the 36`s would simply move into place and destroy anything that came anywhere near the formation. 30-40K feet on a bomb run also pretty much protected it from both fighers & flak

TheWildChild

thats cool, i didnt realise the project started during WWII.....would have been neat to see the B-36 and a TA 183 Huckebein going at it over Berlin.......what-if build anyone? lol

that would be sweet! huge, but one-of-a-kind for sure!

There's a subject. Eighth Air Force P-80!!

bondoman

 

It's been wargamed and we win because the B-36 stack is escorted by P-80 fighters out of Britain who in concert with Gloster Meteors out of France put a combined lid over Luftwaffe airfields (Meteor) and fight anything in the air. 

There's a subject. Eighth Air Force P-80!!

Ok, I`m confused here.

The B-36 only makes frontline service in WWII *IF* either of the following conditions became realities:

1. England is knocked out of the war

2. The B-29/B-32 fail to materialise and the Japs put up a much stronger defense in the Pacific .

In that scenario you have a bomber flying from the USA to bomb Germany escorted by fighers flying out of England & France from fields that would have had to have been overrun by Germany to begin with in order for the B-36 to be flying to bomb Germany. Even with an operational B-36 and fighter to launch from England and France, B-17`s, B-24`s B-25`s,  & B-26`s launched from those same areas would have done just as an effective of a job freeing up those 36`s to fight in the Pacific where they would have been needed the most because that would have meant the B-29 either was a lame duck or the war was going very badly there in order to have made the 36 a relatity.

Just saying

That video is great! Thanks for sharing, I will have to go back and watch the rest sometime.

As for the scenario, eh, what if is just that. What if? Maybe the Germans put up a better land defense (perhaps the Battle of the Bulge was more succesful, who knows??)

Howdy Everyone, I'm going to try this again and see if I can get the nonsense script to go away. I have an idea that it might be because I typed my stuff on Microsoft Word then pasted it here; so I will now update my progress and see what happens not pasting from MS Word. The first thing I did today was scribe several heavy passes on both sides of the tail and continued under the radomes to the end. Then with firm but careful pressure back and forth several times it cracked, popped, and came off.

I left a little of the forward part of the vertical stabilizer because I might be able to use it as a gluing surface for the new stabilizer.

With out a doubt there will be plenty of test fitting, filling, and head scratching. Next I removed the lower radome that is molded into the fuselage halves. The four smaller ones I just used a pare of pliers and with a twist they popped off without any problems but the one molded into the fuselage was a little more work. I sawed two cuts into the radome then chased he outer edge with my scribing tool several times. Then using pressure and pliers I got the four halves 

out one at a time. the first one was difficult.

I was able to lightly scribe around he canopy and bombardier's nose canopy without cracking either one.

The clear plastic popped off using the scribing tool and two very thin hobby screw drivers. I'm not real happy about the cockpit area and now I'll have to be careful so I do not break something. I'll have to research what the cockpit layout was on a YB-60 I doubt it was exactly like a B-36H.

Tomorrow its cut the nose off and paint stripping time. Magoo

sub revolution

That video is great! Thanks for sharing, I will have to go back and watch the rest sometime.

As for the scenario, eh, what if is just that. What if? Maybe the Germans put up a better land defense (perhaps the Battle of the Bulge was more succesful, who knows??)

Before you watch all 10 parts of Victory Through Airpower, read this very short info on the film on Wikipeadia  why Walt Disney fully funded & released t himself after reading De Seversky book, and how it actually influenced the Allied leaders. If you can get a copy of the film on DVD I highly recomend it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Through_Air_Power_(film)

German Defense wouldnt have made the B-36 go into production, it would have been them knocking England out and their U-Boats sinking anything that could float and carry supplies to the last effective places to launch counter attacks from: Iceland & Africa.

Neat-o Magoo!

If you find that you need some replacement spare parts that you cannot repair or replace,  let me know as I have my own fully stocked B-36 boneyard now.

If you cant find any info that you need on the YB-60 let me know, and I`ll go ask the experts and maybe some of the old Convair retirees they know might have the answer.

I would imagine that the 36 cockpit isnt much different seeing the two shared 72% commonality in componets, plus when the Air Force rejected the YB-60, Convair was willing to produce all of the remaining B-36`s they had orders for into B-60s at no additional cost to the Air Force if they would keep the program open

Howdy lajntx, thanks for the video. All the movie companies did an outstanding job during the war to help keep the population of the USA informed. However, we know some of what was show to the public was not exactly correct it still had a great impact on the people. Magoo

Howdy Again lajntx, thanks for the offer you never know when something will go wrong and get lost, break, or get misplaced. I used to have my own bone yard but I'm going to guess it got thrown into the garbage because I can't find the stuff and I know I didn't throw the stuff out. Magoo 

Andrew Magoo

Howdy lajntx, thanks for the video. All the movie companies did an outstanding job during the war to help keep the population of the USA informed. However, we know some of what was show to the public was not exactly correct it still had a great impact on the people. Magoo

It was mostly correct, but it is strange on how we watch educational films like Victory Through Airpower some 70 years after their release on just how much of it was new theory at the time became realities soon thereafter. Also, if you noticed on the film it looks very much like the animation the Japanese animation companies were producing in the 1970`s & 80`s during the "Japanimation" time frame ( Shows like Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers ), which was the inspiration of the modern day Japanese "anime" movement. That is because Japanese animators of the 1970`s were heavily inspired by the work of 1950`s ( and before ) work of American animation companies.

Here is an Air Force recruitment ad from the 1954/55 television season. Watch it and notice how similar the work is to the later work of " Japanimation" artists some 20 years later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpl7eFD6uKI&feature=related

Andrew Magoo

Now there's something I'd like to have in my grasp........ not looking forward to masking those bad boys.

Concerning the what-if scenerio above, we kicked around in Manny's thread "BoB" what might have happened if GB fell to the Germans and the US were to try and strategic bomb from our mainland.  I hardly think those B-36's would be able to make to the German airspace (unescorted) without taking significant damage from 262's and other high altitude a/c the Luftwaffe was working on.  Better thank God we never had to see it played out.

Andrew Magoo

Now there's something I'd like to have in my grasp........ not looking forward to masking those bad boys.

Concerning the what-if scenerio above, we kicked around in Manny's thread "BoB" what might have happened if GB fell to the Germans and the US were to try and strategic bomb from our mainland.  I hardly think those B-36's would be able to make to the German airspace (unescorted) without taking significant damage from 262's and other high altitude a/c the Luftwaffe was working on.  Better thank God we never had to see it played out.

Reasoned

 Concerning the what-if scenerio above, we kicked around in Manny's thread "BoB" what might have happened if GB fell to the Germans and the US were to try and strategic bomb from our mainland.  I hardly think those B-36's would be able to make to the German airspace (unescorted) without taking significant damage from 262's and other high altitude a/c the Luftwaffe was working on.  Better thank God we never had to see it played out.

I`m sure there would have been 36`s brought down, and it was also why there were emergency landing fields planned for Greenland & Iceland for damaged aircraft in addition to the major relay take off bases on New Foundland where the 36`s would come in from the mainland USA where they would be refueled, armed, and have the spark plugs changed before taking off to hit Europe, and then return to the USA post raid via New Foundland.

Even for 1940`s technology that appeared only in theory, it was going to be very hard for those German planes to reach 40,000 feet and remain combat effective. It took the Soviets improving on that captured technology until almost the mid 1950`s to make it a reality. How effective would those bombing runs have been in 1944-48 at 40,000 feet-- that would have been very interesting to find out.

Sorry for the above double post, my finger was a little heavy. 

Back to the above pic of the canopy, I noticed Magoo colored what I thought were wipers, black, on another build the modeler left them silver.  I would think Magoo correct.

Reasoned

Sorry for the above double post, my finger was a little heavy. 

Back to the above pic of the canopy, I noticed Magoo colored what I thought were wipers, black, on another build the modeler left them silver.  I would think Magoo correct.

EDIT: After further review, Reasoned`s build should have the bombadiers window left open. Please see this picture of the actual aircraft:

http://www.air-and-space.com/castle/940528dl.jpg

MOST everyone else with a late model build should fill that area in as it is below

Yes Magoo is right about the wipers, but it also has a mistake as well. I blame that more on the mistakes of the manufacturer though. The bottom greenhouse canopy in the 1980 kit is modled more for an early A or B model B-36. In the later models the bomadiers WWII  era sighting layout  was taken out, and the glass & wiper removed. Your build should  resemble this:

Hi lajntx and everybody, I got some stuff done but I'm going to bed its almost 11:30pm and I'm tired.  I'll post something tomorrow. Concerning the bombardier's oval window I'm in good shape with the YB-60 it has no windows just a very long pitot tube.Magoo