USAF B-36 Peacemaker in 1/72 scale

The following pictures are meant to show what I intend in the next session, which will deal with the bomb bay.

There is a tunnel that connects the forward crew areas of the aircraft with the rear crew areas. in the rear areas you have access to the ready gun turret, but also have some bunks, comm equipment, and a small galley.

Anyhow, I intend to put the access tunnel through the bomb bay as it existed on these aircraft which is not included in the model. You can see the tunnel in the first picture, and then how it goes through the bomb bay in the second, with the overall location in the third. Then, I intend to replace the numerous conventional 500lb bombs that come with the kit with two, Mark 17, Hydrogen bombs from the 1950s.

When introduced, the B-36 was the only aircraft that could carry them and I intend to put the maximum of two into this aircraft.


Anyhow, I hope in the next session to add the tunnel, add the H-bombs, and then add the rear gun turret and then glue together the fuselage halves.

Again so good.

Clearly unusual, a giant ! almost more big as a Tu-160 like also this small bomb

Jeff,
A picture of the B-36J for your collection.

FORBIN said:

Again so good.

Clearly unusual, a giant ! almost more big as a Tu-160 like also this small bomb

Click to expand...

In some ways, bigger than the Tu-160, like wingspan, height, and unrefueled range.

Length: 163 ft. (B36) 177 ft. (Tu-160)
Wingspan: 230 ft. (B36) 190 ft. (Tu-160)
Height: 46 ft. (B36) 43 ft. (Tu-160)
Unrefueled Range: 10,000 miles (B36) 7,350 (Tu-160)
Ceiling: 44,000 ft. (B36) 49,250 ft. (Tu-160)

Brumby said:

View attachment 22478
Jeff,
A picture of the B-36J for your collection.

Click to expand...

Thanks...that'a nice one. Do they have a higher res version?

I used this one to help guide the build:

Jeff Head said:

Thanks...that'a nice one. Do they have a higher res version?

I used this one to help guide the build:

Click to expand...

The best I can do is to provide you the link to the picture.

Hope it helps.

Brumby said:

The best I can do is to provide you the link to the picture.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Hope it helps.

Click to expand...

Well, I was able to locate a little larger one, and then work with it to produce this:

The Build - Bombay, Access Tunnel, Fuselage assembly, painting the fuselage - December 9, 2015

I started this session by gathering the parts for the bombay, including the access tunnel I created, and then painting them.

I made the access tunnel by simply finding a felt-tip marker with the right diameter housing, cutting it to fit, and then painting it. Hehehe...no need to get too fancy.

I then glued these parts in place and then dry fit the fuselage halves to see how they would fit. I found that with the tunnel, it conflicted with the large support spar that the model has for the huge wings to attach to the model, so I had to trim that spar a bit to make it fit.

Once this was completed, I then added come more of the navigation instrumentation to the view ports on the aft halves of the fuselage, then inserted the wing support spar into the right fuselage halve, and then glued the two fuselage halves together.

It went together very well, but there are some seam issues you will want to either file or sand down to improve the look. All in all, though it came together nicely.

At this point I decided to paint the upper portion of the entire fuselage, including the vertical stabilizer. This is painted in the Strategic Air command (SAC) Silver color. I used Model Master Silver.


This is looking very nice at this point. it is really a mammoth model. The wing span is actually quite a bit wider than this is long so it will be really testing my table to even be able to get it on here! LOL!

I will paint the lower portion of the fuselage (about the lower 1.3) in flat white per the SC color scheme at the time in the next session. I hope to get the engines built and attach the horizontal stabilizers during that session.