B-36 Peacemaker Group Build

Hello Roger,

I know your memory is good, so I won't question that. I see photographs of flight suits that all (or nearly all) seem to show the USAF patch on the left sleeve (blue disk, gold wings, white star, red dot). However, the photos seem to be a mix of whether there were squadron patches on the right sleeve. Or, they aren't squadron patches but something else (Bomb wing?).

Any insight is helpful.

Hello again,

It seems there may be differences between what the various wings were doing, the type of flight suit, and time period that we are referring to. For example, if I remember correctly, the dark blue nylon flight suits had the colored air force patch on the left sleeve and some wings may have had their wing patch on the right sleeve or located in front on the right chest area.  The later used light bluish-green flight suits didn't normally have any colored patches on them at all, just the small leather patch with air force wings stenciled on them in silver that was located on the left chest area. Again, various wings may have deviated from the norm that I am familiar with. So there probably isn't a one-fits-all answer to this usage. However, by the time we got to the J-III  models, I think that most if not all SAC wings would have been wearing the later style flight suits.

Roger  

P.S. There were no squadron patches that I am aware of, just those of the wing emblem.

Thanks Roger, Great information!

Hey guys:

I've been following the Build on and off

i was looking up ordnance for the B-52 and ran across this, it reminded me of Dayton:

That would ruin your day.

Questions for those in the know.

I have been continuing my research on B-36 notices (i.e. those handy little stenciled notices on the aircraft). The big question is what was actually on the aircraft? I'll explain a little better below (I hope)...

1. Looking at photos of the restored 2827 in Don Pyeatt's CD "Saving the Last Peacekeeper," I see notices on the fuselage such as "Water Drain" by the small hole near the front canopy and another note by the pitot tube. There are also notices in photos of the tail, apparently identifying the aft radome and the receiving antenna near the tail nav lights. There are also a multitude of additional notes stenciled around the aircraft. Were these actually on new builds or were these painted during the restoration to help in identifying various features of the aircraft (maybe for reference)? Also, does anybody have a good list of these notices and their locations. The reason for my question is that I think those little details break up some of the potential boring look of an all-silver aircraft. I know that might be a blasphemous statement -- the boring look comment, that is.

2. It appears there were the was a standard looking "CUT HERE FOR EMERGENCY EXIT" square just below the front blister/blister plug on the port side. I haven't seen a good photo of the starboard side to determine whether there was one there too or not. Looking at interior photos, it would seem there is only one on the port side. Was there only a port side CUT HERE square?

3. There are "CUT HERE FOR EMERGENCY EXIT" squares on the inside aft crew compartment just aft of the scanner blisters. However, I haven't seen any photos showing a CUT HERE square on the exterior of the fuselage on either the port or starboard side. Were there any?

4. It appears the CUT HERE markings and words were yellow based on my photos. However, the markings I have seen on other aircraft are always red. Were the B-36 markings yellow or is that just due to color changes in old photographs?

Thanks for any insight.

One more question for the road.  What is the oval shape with two dots in the middle below the forward turret door about midway down the fuselage? I think I recall seeing these on both sides of the aircraft and they  were red.

Hey guys,

Proof positive I'm actually building something on this end, rather than just asking a bunch of questions. I've finished the crew. As mentioned earlier, I intend to outfit the plane with all reasonably visible crew members: pilot, co-pilot, engineers (2), navigator, radio-observer, and scanners (2).

It was a little tough finding the right paint color for the latest flight suits. I needed a green with a slight blue-gray cast, so I went with Humbrol 78 (cockpit green matt). I intend to have the scanners peeking through the rear blisters. I understand 2827 reinstalled blisters in the lower rear and since my aircraft will be coming in for a landing, I figured it would be all scanners on deck to watch for air plug and flap positions and confirm landing gear lock.

Photos of the crew are below.

I also started work on detailing the landing gear bays. That is a tough job considering I'm working with a lot of photos, none of which really show everything perfectly. I'm also quite sure I don't have it any where near 100% accurate, but maybe 70% -- which in this case will be good enough. I ended up glueing in a pipe at the forward part of the bay based on a photo I saw of someone that had detailed in the bays, but unfortunately I don't think it is correct. However, it does provide rigidity to the "box" and it isn't all that visible once the wing halves are fastened. I have some additional landing gear bracing to add. Some of the "floating" cylinders are part of the landing gear supports. I'm trying to get them as close as possible to the landing gear main shaft (which is attached to the non-visible wing half, so when they are joined, all of the support rods look correct. I'll add the hydraulic lines and other tubing after the bays are painted. Photos below.

BTW, I had to do some amputation to the RO (sorry Roger). The seat-to-radio distance was tight and those particular seats don't scale correctly, so I had to do some whittling to get the RO's butt on the cushion.

I also sawed off and reattached the Aircraft Commander's arm so his hands would be on the throttles. The Navigator's arm was also sawed off and rotated inwards to clear the canopy. I removed the kit navigator and bombardier seats. I'm shifting those to the engineer's position and taking the engineer's seat to the nav and bombardier position. The engineers sit perfectly on the near improperly scaled seats because there are seat tracks that raise the seats up appropriately. In turn, the engineer's seats now look correct for the navigator and bombardier when viewed through the canopy.

I just noticed that I neglected to get the photo of the Radar-Bombardier. He looks like the rest of the crew except I sawed off his head. Yes, I reattached it. He is now looking down rather than straight ahead.

Nice work Teut on the figures and the wheel bay (some kind of detail there).  And I was just happy shooting that bugger with a little ZC and painting those figures in blue fatigues with a little skin color.

Hey Teutonic,

I sure don't mind your doing the Dr. Mengele treatment on the RO as it is sure seems better than being positioned over on the toilet seat even if there may have been more room over there to do so. Did you also have a sleeping figure for the 2nd RO which was usually napping on the floor in front of the turret access door?

Speaking of tiny crew figures, I really can't believe how you were able to paint the details on them. Mine were so small in my kit that I would think it would be almost impossible to do. So I don't know how you did it, but I sure want congratulate you on this very difficult accomplishment.

As to the color of the Cut Here markings, I seem to remember them being yellow on the interior of the aircraft at least on the olive drab covering but don't recall what color they were on the outside. One would think that they would have been red but that is just a guess.

Excellent job,

Roger

Hello Roger,

I thought about the toilet seat, but didn't think I could model the toilet paper roll accurately. :)  I'll have to think about the sleeping 2nd RO -- good idea. Maybe I can cut off and reposition the legs and stick a bedroll under this head. I have experience in leg amputations now. So, who usually got the top bunk above the ECM equipment?

Roger,

BTW, the detailing on the crew is helped greatly by one of those big desk mounted magnifying glasses with the circular light surrounding the lens. That plus a steady hand and a tiny brush. I used to shoot 1,000 rounds a week on a rifle team in high school (trained by Army Rifle Team members), so I learned how to control my breathing and slow down my pulse. Helps to paint tiny eyeballs.

Teutonic,

I have that exact magnifying light above my work bench but that sure wouldn't have helped me with the painting, it would have only magnified my sloppy work. Also, no steady hand or small enough paint brush to work with. Completely dipping the figures in different colored paints would be the best that I would be able to do. When I tried to paint their caps red, they ended up with red faces and headsets as well. So no hope for any precision work by me.

No one ever slept on the bunk in the RO compartment. It was only used to store spare parachutes, dinghy's, and emergency survival equipment, etc. Front compartment crew members would use the bunks in the rear compartment on long flights. The RO would rest on the floor in front of the turret access door when not on duty.

Roger

Since I haven't heard from "la" for a long time in this thread, do any of you fellas know if the "no step" stencils  (and there are TONS of them on the decal sheet) are really necessary?  After messing with the fragile walkway strips, I just don't know I have it in me for those too!

If it ain't fun don't do it!

Hey Reasoned,

How about just plastering one really big one across both wings. Should just about take care of it.

In my opinion, it all depends on what look you're after. In my case, I want all the extras I can put on it because the whole aircraft is essentially bare metal. At least, thank goodness, there are three different colors of sheet metal. All those notices, in my opinion, break things up and add some detail. That said, however, model making is still supposed to be fun. I'm with Jim, if it ain't fun, don't do it.

Thanks guys for the input, I see your point on breaking up all that metal.  I could be a real smart alec and say, building this B-36 "isn't fun" but that wouldn't get it built at all   and trust me, there have been times that crossed my mind.........many times!

You're welcome. I know what you mean. A few nights ago I was getting pretty peeved with the main landing gear bay detail -- not everything was going together quite as hoped. Thankfully, this too shall (did) pass and I'm reinvigorated. There are always some frustrations in every build. It's usually when you realized too late after handling a clear canopy that you had some residual glue on your fingers.

Hello Reasoned,

I've been reflecting back on your "No Step" question. Am I correct in assuming you are referring to the Warbird Decals sheet (72 003) that has all the walkway lines too. If so, I just went through their diagram and counted 55 No Steps on the diagram, but they actually have 90 No Step decals on their decal sheet. If I missed any on the diagram it would have been only handful. I don't think I would have missed 35.

So, the good news is instead of tons of No Step decals, you probably only have to apply a little less than two-thirds of a ton.

I also could only find 16 out of 21 of the No/Step notices (the ones where the No is on top of the Step). I could find 16 out of 24 of the Do Not Walk Between Lines notices. I suspect they just included extra decals of the various versions because of the high chances of mucking them up during application because of the size.

Yep, that's the sheet.  I thank you for actually going through and counting those buggers, I would have been scratching my head if I'd had a bunch of decals leftover.  I just finished up the walkway lines around the engines and that has been enough of a PIA, now on to the wings.

You're welcome. I figured since I was going to go down that same rabbit hole, I should investigate. I made a photocopy of the decal layout diagram and then used some different colored highlighters to mark off the different decal notices. I know it will make application easier. You might want to try that. It takes the thinking out of it -- nothing implied about your thinking ability in that statement. :)

Hello All,

After looking down the engine intakes of the B-36 at Wright-Pat, I decided I wanted to add a little more interest to those holes. I didn't have a good drawing of what the internal ducting looked like, but I thought I could at least fake the look with some plastic tube stock that would resemble the rounded edges of the ductwork.

The top photo shows the tubes plus some flat stock behind them that I will paint black. The middle photo shows the actual B-36 intakes. The bottom photo shows my version with the two wing halves snapped together (not glued). I think once they are painted silver they will look like a reasonable facsimile of the real thing; Please forgive the sloppy looking wing interiors, it will all be hidden anyway. The plastic sheets near the trailing edge of the wing are there to provide a back drop to the exhaust ports. I drilled out the engine exhausts, but needed some plastic sheet inside (painted black). Otherwise I think anyone looking into the ducts would just see the inside of the wings.

None taken.  Your intakes look good, looks like you got the inserts to line up well with the leading edge.  Just don't do what I did (which you won't since you don't have slather the plane in paint stripping chemicles) and break one.....or two of those puppies loose.

Just finished some detailing on the nose gear and bay. Once it's all painted I'll add the hydraulic lines to the bay.

After what seems like an eternity, this is the Monogram B-36.  I modeled it “loosely" as a RB-36H, 51-13730 of the 28th SRW/BW 8th AF Ellsworth as displayed at the Castle Air Museum, Atwater CA.  This is a BIG model!  Not that difficult per se, just very awkward to work with due to its size.  I must confess, about 1 1/2 years ago I started this project (Note: I would have never bought it in the first place but the illustrious Hans Von Hammer said it was a good buy from a LHS going out of business, so what the heck) and early on decided I wasn’t going to sweat the small stuff.  That being said, I had a horrible experience with my first attempt w/Alclad (Note: NEVER attempt something new on a model this size) and it sat for a year waiting for me to get the desire to strip the entire plane of paint, sand, fill, sand……etc….throw in some health issues and well, you get the point.   So there are many seams visible, paint imperfections and decal issues.  I had purchased the Warbird Decal sheet with all the “No Step” decals etc. that I frankly couldn’t muster the energy to do after cutting and messing with all the “walkway stripes”.  I told my 8 (now 9 year old) that Dad would build this plane and hang it from his BR ceiling, so here she is, with all her warts, and boy did I give her some.  I will take one more once she’s in her final resting place, your comments, questions always appreciated.

After the Alclad debacle

Stripped!

Ahh.....

Next to son's 1/72 Spit, she's BIG!

Looks good from my vantage point. Truly an impressive model. What was your experience with the walkway stripes?

Your experience solidified my decision not to try Alclad, at least not on my model. Never used Alclad yet. I'll be testing out various Testor's and DupliColor metallics (rattle can or decanted and airbrushed) for my B-36. Has anyone tried DupliColor on a model airplane. I wonder whether it will coat too heavy out of the can or if I should decant and airbrush.

Thanks tuet, the walkway stripes were a pain but manageable.  They are not cut to exact lengths needed, so you lay the longest first (along the raised panel lines on the wings) then I took my Exacto and cut as it was laid into place.  I didn't try to precut before wetting.  The stencils around the engines are another matter, just make sure you use the right one on the right engine.  I literally had to flip one of the stencils to get it to fit correctly with the raised panel lines, these took A LOT of patience and micro cutting of the walkway stripes.  Another boondoggle was I used Solvaset to try and get the stripes to lay down even better and it was just too much, they broke down a little.

Paint wise I used Model Masters Metalizers (aluminum, stainless steel and magnesium).

Congratulations, Reasoned, first to finish!  I don't think any of us are going to finish this one as anything like the perfect model, but yours looks nice in the photos and seeing it done is helping my motivation, so thank you.  The framing on the glass looks quite good, and so does the overall finish.  And your tail and nose guns are all there, that is an accomplishment in itself.