USAF B-36 Peacemaker in 1/72 scale

That was a lot of work...but it ends up looking very good. Also, I have to say, getting those Warbird decals sets was a God send. They do OUTSTANDING work, and allowed me to complete this (despite the time) much more quickly and with a much more professional look than if I had tried to mask all of those walk way lines and then paint them in that fashion.

At this point the overall model is looking great:


Still a lot of decals to go. I have the same types of walkways for the horizontal stabilizers, and then a LOT of "NO STEP" decals and other access panel and instructional decals for the aircraft.

I hope to complete all of that, the touch up, adding the HF aerial cables from the vertical stabilizer to the fuselage, and then complete the model in my next session.

Is there a museum that has an actual B-36 in display anywhere? I would love to see the rivets and canopy work up close.

Equation said:

Is there a museum that has an actual B-36 in display anywhere? I would love to see the rivets and canopy work up close.

Click to expand...

Yes, there are three of them on display.

One is at at the former in . Previously displayed at in Rantoul, IL from 1957 to 1991. This is an RB-36 recon version.



This one, that I modeled is called the City of Ft. Worth and it is on display , adjacent to in . This aircraft was the final B-36 built, named "The City of Fort Worth", and loaned to the city of Fort Worth, Texas on 12 February 1959. It sat on the field at the until that airfield was closed and the property was redeveloped as a business park adjacent to . I saw it there as a kid when my Dad took us to see it in 1965.



Finally, at the (NMUSAF), formerly The U.S. Air Force Museum, at near . Its flight to the museum from in Arizona on 30 April 1959 was the last flight of a B-36.



So, you can see one in California, one in Arizona, and one indoors at Wright Pat AFB in Ohio.

The Build - More decals, final painting, touch up and complete - December 23, 2015

There were still many, many decals to place on the model. The No Step markers, the Fuel Tank markers, Oil Tanks, etc.

First I started with the numerous decals around the walk ways on the main wing. This included the No Step markers as well as the eight wing fuel tanks and the oil tank markings. There were a lot of these markings, something like 36 of them on each wing. Then it was on to horizontal stabilizer walk ways and their markings.

Once completed I placed over 200 decals on this model. A number of them represented the walkway lines I cut up into manageable sections...but a lot of decals nonetheless.

I then painted some of the off-color sections of the fuselage. This includes two areas around the top of the fuselage painted in a steel color, located where the 20mm cannon turrets pop up. There are two of these turrets side by side fore and aft which have doors that slide down reveling them and allowing them to pop up. They are remote controlled. There are also two on the bottom of the aircraft behind the bomb bay.

Also a section around the front of the main wing.

There is a less noticeable path along the top of the aircraft painted in an aluminum color. All of this blends well with the metallic silver of the aircraft...but at certain angles the lighting shows them very well.

When that was completed, it was time for some touch-up paint work, and to add the dull coat finish. I had intended to string the aerial wires from either side of the front of the fuselage to the vertical stabilizer, but, though it is shown in the model instructions, in the later models of the aircraft like the City of Ft. Worth, I do not see them in the actual pictures of the aircraft...so I decided to leave them off.

Here are the completed model pictures:

...and here are a bunch of close ups:

...and a final set:


In the words of kids in North Central Texas when I was growing up..."that's mighty!"

So, that completes my 1/72 scale B-36 Peacemaker, dedicated to the great actor, and american hero, Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart, who flew them after World War II.