B-36 Peacemaker Group Build

Yeah, I'm still going on it.  Still putting on silver.  Had to redo the top of the wing.

jeaton01

Here is where it's at.  Massive amounts of paint required.  Floquil Old Silver over flat white on the tail, Tamiya flat white on the top of the wings so far, waiting for fine steel wool rubdown.

Dominic

Howdy Too All, I haven't been too active foe several months my apologies, I have had since the 17th of Dec three eye surgeries. A cataract removed from my right eye on Dec 17th,  a cataract removed from my left eye Jan 21th, and a vitrectomy  to my left eye on Feb 19th. Now with trifocals most stuff is very clear but for the very small requiring magnification. After getting my new glasses I went back into the model room only to discover I had some mice put up housekeeping and they poo'd/pee'd all over the place. I initially didn’t think it was too bad having caught the problem early. I was wrong. The mice have been trapped and are dead. Right now I’m gutting the room, cleaning, and changing things around. So the YB-60 is still on the burner waiting for me. Just thought ya'll deserved an explanation. Andrew Magoo

Are you going to change your name if all this eye surgery pays off?

Sorry to hear you've had to go through all that.  Clearly, though, B-36 group builds move at a glacial pace.  I work on mine for a while and then do something else, right now it is a Wing Nut Wings DH-9a and a new storage building in my back yard, but one day that B-36 will be done!

Just thought I'd check in, glad to see some of you are still at it.  As soon as this 190 is completed, I'm picking up where I left off w/The B-36!  Hope your vision issues get resolved Magoo.

*bump*

Gee, nobody has posted since my previous on 4/18, so I guess it's time to pick up the gauntlet and move this forward!  Since getting frustrated w/ the beast about a year ago, it had sat in it's half stripped state waiting for my return.  Well, I'm ready........ I think .  This thing can break down the best tempered man.  I tried Alclad on this before (and since it was my first {and only} experience with it), I had a terrible result and had to remove the paint.  I was trying Simple Green with some success and will finish up the removal and clean up the surface to prep for the NMF marathon session which will hopefully come in the following days.  Here is a pic in her current state:

I haven't been getting much modeling don e due to working on a new workshop/storage building, but I came across this neat link to a 360 view of the B-36J cockpit at NMUSAF:

http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/media/062/B-36J%20Engineer.html

Hey John, great to know somebody is still watching!  I'll check your link out and let you know that the stripping process is such a pain that I'd recommend NOT messing up the NMF from the get go.  I scrapped the "Simple Green" and took the advice on another forum(s) that said "Super Clean" works....... and it does!  Post pics soon, good hearing from you.

jeaton01

I haven't been getting much modeling don e due to working on a new workshop/storage building, but I came across this neat link to a 360 view of the B-36J cockpit at NMUSAF:

http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/media/062/B-36J%20Engineer.html

Good grief, I'd like to see the instruction manual on that! 

Howdy To All,

      For the time being I have given up on the nose. I called Mike Herrill and had him send me a new nose. I haven't glued it together yet but will in the future. I did glue the two 0.08 of an inch thick disks to the fuselage and sanded them to the contour of the nose.

Ok the rest of the document didn't post nor did the pictures... Hmmm?

I seem to only be able to post one picture at a time. What am I doing wrong? Magoo

The conversion kit comes with a bomb bay plug and I think bomb bay doors. The plug is a little long so I trimmed both ends off rather than enlargening the bomb bay.

be back shortly, Magoo

I tried to sand off the paint from inside the bomb bay for better glue adhesion with a mesh sanding pad.

However, I wound up using a paper towel dampened with laquer thiner to take the paint off it was way faster.

I just did the lower area of the bomb bay.

Next was inserting the plug and three of the doors. I used the doors as filler material.

I had a centering issue so a piece of 0.030 inch thick plastic card stock was used on the right side to center the plug andfill the gap.

Using a straight edge to make sure thr plug/doors were level and flush with the fuselage I then started gluing the plug in place with gap filling super glue.

Both ends first.

Then the sides including in-between the card stock.

The next step was to fill in the gaps in the filler plug/doors with gap filling super glue.

Next was scribing along the excess plug material and card stock and snapping off the excess.

Thensanding the fill plug level with he fuselage. there were some hole that had to be filled in with super glue and resanded but it all went pretty smoothly.

Hey Magoo good to hear from you, hope your eye issues are resolved and fantastic work!  Your cockpit figure detail looks pretty darn good from what I can see.  I think using the plug is the way to go, I originally wanted the bomb-bay closed but couldn't work it with the kit doors. Where did you come up with that from?  I see that it's a conversion kit but the plug I remember seeing was transparent looking........ I think.  It may have been in a previous post by lajntx.  BTW, anybody hear from him?

Hi Reasoned, the eyes are way better 20/20 in the left and 20/30-40 in the right with tri-focal lenses of course. I do think it was lajntx that had the clear plug. The plug I used came with the conversion kit. I used it because my fuselage was already glued together because I used an already built B-36H as a base to build from. I will eventually scribe in the bomb bay doors when I get to that point. Magoo

Moving right along with the YB-60 next up the radom plug. I scribed along the inside of the plug and snapped off the excess material.

The hole in the fuselage was pretty rough and so was the plug. through several trimmings and dry fits the plug was ready for installation.

Using one of the  bomb bay doors I cut off a piece and then cut the short piece in half.

I used the two small half pieces as supports for the radom plug. I used gap filling super glue to glue the half pieces to the inside of the fuselage.

I had put too much pressure on one piece and not enough pressure on the other piece this required a small slice out of one to allow the plug to go down into the hole. the other side I used a small piece of scrap plastic to keep the plug from settling to deep into the hole.

Next I snapped the radom plug into place.

Next I liberally applied gap filling super glue to the plug and the camera bay door indentations and slide rail grooves.

When using gap filling super glue, after appling the setting agent you have to start sanding right away as fast as you are carefully able to do.

Next the gun blister holes. First I removed the gun sites.

Cutting a curved plug for the gun site blister holes wound up being easer that I though it would be. the bomb bay door material again came to my rescue. All I had to do was figure out a way to cut or stamp out some plugs. The more I looked at the holes the more I decided they were about the size of a .44 calibur bullett. Sure enough they were. so I took a .44 magnum shell case, hammer, and a piece of plywood and punched out some plugs.

Using a razor blade I cleaned up the edges by scraping off the burrs.

Next came installing the plugs. To keep the plugs from possibly falling through into the fuselage I used the green masking tape and gentley massaged the plug into place.

Then more super glue and I also filled in the door slide rails for the top gun turrets.

Then the back two.

The rear gun turret door slide rails were also filled with super glue and sanded flat.

This summer has been a busy one with not a lot of time to enjoy model work.

.44 mag shell case........ LOL, given the shortage of ammo out there I'm glad you found some!

Looking good magoo, glad to hear about eye situation.  I'd forgotten you were doing the B-60, so you got some serious modifications on the way.  Where did you find the additional engine pods?  Oh, and what did you strip the paint on your B-36 with?

I haven't been able to find an old B-52D kit on ebay or at a garage sale that some one has either put together or started and stopped so I can salvage the engine pods from it. Stripping the paint I used easy off oven cleaner and make sure it sits for an hour and that it doesn't dry out on you. If it starts to dry spray it again. Also make sure you  mask and plug holes and entry areas the oven cleaner raises issues with a new paint job. After an hour wash and scrub with dish soap detergent and a tooth brush. Magoo

Well, since it's been almost 2 months since the last post, figured I'd update.  FINALLY getting back to this build which involves stripping the initial botched Alclad finish off, what fun.  The Super Clean does make this job much easier than Simple Green but it is still a PIA.  Once I get it all cleaned up I'll post a pic of the plucked bird.  Fortunately, most of the other parts are already painted and ready to go on for final assembly but the real kicker is going to be the MASSIVE amount of paint finish followed by TONS of decal placements, given all the wing walk markings.  Anywho, I sure hope there are a few stragglers following this GB still, lajntx, Magoo, jeaton, boxcar?

Oh, I'm still here too.  Finally finished all the work I was doing on the house and new workshop/storage shed and refinishing and insulating of my old workshop garage, so I'll be getting back to finishing my B-36 and a DH-9a soon.

Hello All:

I hope I can still get in on this forum. I just picked up a 1991 B-36 that I plan to model as City of Fort Worth. My dad and his best friend invented and designed the first alternator drive for the B-36. They both worked at Sundstrand. It was a $20 million contract in 1948 and put Sundstrand squarely into the aviation business. The alternator drive was, I believe, the first alternator-style device for generating on-board electricity. Prior to that planes used batteries or, I suspect, generators. The alternator drive allowed the variable speed from the engine to be converted to a constant speed output and thus efficient electrical generation. Thus, the B-36 has some emotional attachment to me. I even have his chromed B-36 desk ashtray.

I have a second attachment because I used to have business at GD/FW on a monthly basis and cruised past that B-36 every time I visited the plant. Truly a beautiful plane.There was also a great BBQ joint near the entrance. Thus, the City of Fort Worth seemed a natural.

I already have the diecast wheelsets by Scale Aircraft Conversion, the decals by Warbirds, the antenna wire by EZ Line, and plan to pick up the Click2Detail closed bomb bay doors (I'll be building wheels down).

I have a few questions.

1. What is the best color to use for the cockpit? I've visited the Virtual Tour of cybermodeler online and the green almost has a blue cast. Is this real or is it just a bad white balance during the photo shoot or band rendering on my monitor (I know cameras and monitors tend to lean towards the blue). I would suspect the color should be olive drab. If so, any particular Testor color?

2. Should the landing gear bays and landing gear doors (insides) be olive drab too, zinc chromate green, or something else?

3. I saw a previous posting that says Testors Metalizers are hard to mask over. Is this true? If so, are there any tips for making it easier or better. I plan to use Tamiya masking tape.

Thanks for your assistance. All 28 pages have been a great read.

I originally wrote this as a new post, but found out it doesn't place a new post into this forum.

Regards,

Well, I got my first post in on Metalizers and already have a change. Since the post I did more Metalizer research. I'm not sure I want to deal with the headaches of trying to successfully mask Metalizer (which apparently doesn't work well), dealing with decals (and clear coating over them), or the delicacies of handling. I'm pretty adept at modeling, but have never worked with Testors Metalizer and don't plan on working with Alclad.

Are there other alternative paints that will get me close to the aluminum and magnesium look, such as...?

   VHT Nu-cast Engine Coating: they are all rattle cans, but they have a color called "Cast Aluminum Look," which I suspect might be similar to magnesium. I'm concerned that it might spray too thick, although previous auto experience with VHT paints were pretty good.

   Dupli-Color Wheel Coating: comes in silver and graphite. Used to dress up worn out auto wheels (acrylic enamel). Claims to have a highly reflective metallic finish with superior adhesion to plastic.

   Eastwood Factory Gray High Temp Coating Spray: it says cast iron color, so it's probably way too dark, but at least my B-36 model could now withstand temps up to 1200 degrees.

I'm looking for a finish that is not as delicate as Metalizers and I can still mask and decal (and handle) carefully, but without paranoia of damage.

Thanks.

Teutonic222,

I would recommend using Alclad II laquor paint instead of metalizers.  Sprue Brothers carries a large range of Alclad II colors.  You can seal with a clearcoat and then mask without worry of pulling up your color.  Here's a link: store.spruebrothers.com/.../1977.htm.  

Steve

Teutonic, first off heck yeah, this is a perpetual GB because once you start work on one of these beasts, a break is always in order to keep your sanity!  So welcome!  Loved reading your personal story and tie-in regarding the "Mg Overcast".  As for your questions, it's been my understanding from research that the cockpit and any interior metal was standard ZC green.  I'll try and attach a link that has some pretty good model shots.  As for the exterior finish, Steve is correct that Alclad would probably give you the best finish options but if you read through this thread you may have seen the mess I made of it, which was my first try with it.  I made the mistake of using the B-36 as a test subject.  I have had good luck with MM Metalizers, so I wouldn't be afraid of them.  In fact that's what I'm using this go around (Al, Stainless and Mg).  The key with the "buffing" version is to buff out the loose paint then make sure you seal it with either the MM Sealer or use MM Gloss rattle can.  This just prevents getting the silver smear on everything once you touch it.  Good luck and look forward to seeing your progress.  I hope to get busy and back at the bench soon too.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47751/message/1324147713/Monogram+B-36+Peacemaker+1-72+Scale

Thanks sanderson_91 and Reasoned. I appreciate the insight. As one might suspect, I have more questions. At least I'm not a newbie to aircraft, so I hope my questions won't be stupid. I worked in aerospace and defense for 15 years, grew up in the industry, and my brother was Navy air corps, so I had a lot of flight line viewing time growing up when we visited him at various NAS's. So here it goes:

1. Did the B-36 have a white light mounted on the vertical stab? I know they had port and starboard wing lights (at least I think I knew that). I used to paint marker lights and then clear coat, but I've used model railroad locomotive lights (little gem stones) to give some pop. A little drill out of the marker light position and then insert the gems. They really show off nicely. I recently finished the Intermountain International Space Station (1/144th) with the Space Shuttle docked (no marker lights), but the ISS has them (a la Star Trek). I worked on the ISS and a little on the shuttle, so they're now hanging in my office.

2. I read in this post about some wing sagging in the model. Is this common and has anyone come up with a good solution? I was thinking of epoxying some brass U-channels in the wing and trying to figure out how to meld those up to the wing spars during assembly of the wings. I'm open to any suggestions.

3. Have any of you tried the Dupli-color Chrome, Sliver Wheel Coating, or Stainless Steel Wheel Coating paints, as an alternative to Alclad or MM Metalizers? I know Dupli-color needs priming first so it doesn't craze the plastic. I bought some and plan to at least try out some test samples (if not for the B-36, then for something else).

4. Has anyone super detailed the landing gear bays? I'm going bomb bays closed, but most gear bays look really devoid of detail, even though in real life they have a fair amount going on. The only shots I've seen are two photos on the cybermodeler site of the B-36J walk around (my plane). At a minimum I thought I could fake in some picture frame-type wire to duplicate hydraulic lines inside the bay.

5. I have some significant rework of the glass. I've got my sandpaper, Brasso and toothpaste. Do most of you buff up the inside of the canopies too or just the exterior?

Thanks.

Four more things.

1. My kit had only one broken propeller blade. The plastic gods must have been on my side.

2. On the www.planesofthepast.com/b36-pima-air-museum.htm site there is a photo of the port side of the plane near the pitot tube. There is some stenciling that says:

B-36-J-111-10-CF-52-2027

SERVICE THIS AIRCRAFT WITH GRADE

I 15/145 FUEL. IF NOT AVAILABLE T.O

NO. 06-41-1 WILL BE CONSULTED FOR

EMERGENCY ACTION.

SQ1

AUG-0

Unfortunately, some of the words are clipped off in the photo and I can't guess what is missing. I wanted to print out some of these types of decals, but needed the rest of the words.

3. Are there any other notices on the aircraft in addition to the ones included in Warbird decal sheet no. 72 003? The Warbird sheet has the "no step," "do not walk between lines," "fuel tank" and "oil tank" notices.

4. Where can one find some additional seated figures to augment the four that come with the model? It would be nice to fill out a few more of the seats.