B-36 Peacemaker Group Build

Well, on the plus side, it looks like you discovered a new way to make a realistic paint job for a junkyard bird! At least, that's what I thought after the first removal.

Howdy Reasoned, I had a marathon paint removing episode. but in the end it will save me a lot of time. On the original build I had given the stick many coats of flat red paint to act as a primer then black for walk ways. The white was what wound up being the stinker. I kept painting the bottom with gloss white and it didn't look very white. In hind sight I should have used a coat of flat white but I didn't so the layers kept building. when done with the white came the silvers and chrome being the last one. I was much too impatient to let the thing sit for a week or two so I coated it with a spray on varnish used to protect radio control gasoline powered air plane models. This kept finger prints off of the silver chrome but changed the visual look as well. This is why I optioned out for chemical stripping because I would have been sanding for two months. First I taped off all the openings to the fuselage you don't want to get oven cleaner into your model. Oven cleaner can find its way into your paint job weeks or months later.

Watch out for where the spray is going because it can damage other things around the sink. I let the spray sit for 45 minutes to an hour. Wear nitral gloved, safety glasses, and stay ventilated; oven cleaner isn't human friendly. Then scrub the thing with a tooth brush watching out for the taped openings. Sorry no photos of the scrubbing action my camera man (son) was at work. When it seems that you are no longer getting any results in removing paint start applying water to where you are scrubbing and scrub paint and oven cleaner away. The before look.

The first removal.

The second removal

And third removal.

Before first removal application.

1

2

And 3

The areas that still have paint encompass a small area and sanding won't entail too much time. I measured the new nose and found that it is only 0.003 of an inch in diameter out of round, three thousands isn't very much I think I got lucky.

As I thought the cut will be farther forward on the nose than where I was going to initially cut the nose. I have always been a measure it four times and I still might wind up with a mistake.

Well boys and girls that's all for now. Magoo

After a marathon sanding session, we are almost ready for the primer.  One thing I learned, not all primers are the same..  I had a Tamiya primer that worked great, dried REAL fast and sanded well.  The Testors seems to go on thick and is tacky.  Also, as far as the canopy, I tried to cut masks and it was driving me crazy so I did a combination fencing and freehand!

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Hi lajntx and everyone, thanks for the information. I have seen the picture with the little Yosemite Sam but for some reason I never noticed the ladder. I’ll have to agree with my wife I surely must have C.S.S. as she is always saying that’s what I have (Can’t See Stuff).

Magoo,

Was about to go to bed when I remembered this little gem that has an even better view of the nose gear & ladder. The ladder looks the same, but has an angle to it as well.

Also -  the enormous hydrogen bomb test shape just to the left of the jet engines in the background

.

Great work Magoo!

And one can NEVER post "too many pictures.

I`m jealous of you all being able to build.... I get to see my "kids" on the weekends,  and thats about it

I cant bring them with me due to the rules of the establishment that wont allow me to build here. Their rooms their rules I guess.

Today I was bidding on some old 8mm moives from the estate of a  B-36 Commander with the 95th BW...... Thought I was doing good until the annoying relatives from the the buyers on Storage Wars arrived with big piles of cash  and pushed me right out of the market as they plopped down nearly 2 grand for about half a dozzen reels of fim to which nobody knew if they were still good or not.

 It certainly looks like the YB-60 used the same nose ladder as the B-36

http://www.cowtown.net/proweb/detail.htm

Howdy To All, I like this forum because you can find out what is correct and I prefer the correct look when possible. I'm posting some more in progress work photos. If I'm posting too many please let me know. The first thing I thought I would do is assemble the nose on the YB-60. I scored at a 45 degree angle on the bottom and around the end pieces that will fit to the fuselage. used a pair side cutters to cut relief cuts to the scored lines.

After cutting the relief cuts I then using a pair of square end pliers and bent the tabs down. Most tabs broke on the first bend a few required a few bends.

Making sure my safety glass was clean, I sanded the nose halves down to the scored edge.

I then scored the nose halves (as one piece they are easier to handle and control) sawed the unit almost into, used side cutters to finish separating the halves, made relief cuts, and removed tabs.

Using the cut tabs I glued four of them into one half.

Slightly curling the glued tabs I then glued the halves together.

I then wet sanded the base for a smooth fit.

A little seam putty. I let my putting dry for two days at least then I sand with 400 wet and dry sand paper and use plenty of water.

I did the nose first because I have to cut the nose off the donor B-36's fuselage. As indicated on the drawings where to cut it seems to me a little too far back for what the YB-60 nose has for a base. Building the nose first will allow me to use the YB-60 nose as a cutting gauge. When a person cuts on the conservative side there is always more material to work with. If I cut too far back then I will cause myself a lot of work spacing and filling in the mistake. I did get the front wheel assembly, doors and hardware, plus the boarding ladder removed. Does anyone know if the YB-60 used the same ladder? I know it uses smaller tires on the front, why I do not know.

I have taped off the openings on the fuselage for the paint removal.

I will now go and spray the big stick with oven cleaner and let it set for at least one hour then scrub. I have found that quality masking tape will put up with oven cleaner, the tape is not bullet proof but its pretty forgiving Magoo

Only thing I can think of is either take your Xacto knife and whittle that spar down to get the fit you want, or pry that fuselage apart and redo it the right way. Since you already have mounted the nose & tail guns I`d say the chances of breaking them are about 100% if you try taking anything apart. Better get to whittling and whistling up a good tune to kill the time as you do that.

The pain just keeps on coming!   Remember when I thought no biggie with the upsidedown wing spar?  Well... it was a BIGGIE! the way the wing is constructed to fit w/spar is such that it causes the fuselage to stick about an 1/8" above the wing surface.  The wing roots are a complete mess, tried latex caulk on port side, not sure what to do on the starboard but am open to suggestions.

An idea how big this sucker is.

lajntx

 

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

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

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:

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

 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.

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.

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

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 

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

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

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.

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

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??)

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

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!!

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

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

.

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

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!

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