Thanks Dom! I find the time wherever I can. Frankly, I need a new house as well!
Now I’d join that. I have a couple more of these big birds to build; one I was hoping to do in natural metal finish. Of course, mine won’t be nearly as good as this spectacular BUFF.
The first image below shows an MJ-1 (“jammer”) taking a 750 lb bomb off the bomb truck. There were usually two jammers working together to load bombs. While one held a bomb to be attached to a pylon, the other was picking up a bomb from the bomb truck.
Photo by David Buris
Note that there are two extenders - one short and the other long - bolted together and attached to the load table. These extenders were necessary in order to lift a bomb high enough to reach the pylon attachments on the B-52, and also to load bombs directly onto the clips in the bomb bay or at the munitions facility.
The second image shows the two extender assemblies I built for my jammers. Unfortunately, I can’t assemble my jammers yet until I’m certain what height the jammer tables will need to be in the diorama.
Later, as an ECM tech on fighter aircraft, I was required to become proficient in using the jammer as we often had to load and download ECM pods.
If you look closely at the bomb in the first picture, you’ll see a wire running from the nose to the tail. This is an arming safety wire. These wires were threaded through the propellers of the fuses to prevent them from turning until the bombs were dropped. There was a fuse in the nose of the bomb and one near the tail fins - you can just see the one in the picture on top of the tail fin. The fuses were designed to arm themselves after the propellers spun a set number of revolutions. When the bombs dropped, the safety wires were pulled out and the propellers turned until the bombs armed.
Thanks for the good words! Those extenders got built because I’m painting the top of the fuselage and the wings are done for the moment so I don’t really have anything to work on [:D].
I’ve got a G by AMT, but was thinking to go smaller. I was hoping to try for one of the re-issued Revell kits
from the 50’s, that’s about all the room I have right now. I’ld love to follow in Russ’ footsteps, but those are big shoes to fill right now, ahem.
There are a couple of the B-52.X-15 combos out there right now, and I’ve always loved that theme.
It’s definitely one to hang from the ceiling, so maybe I could do that.
I’ll keep you posted. We were thinking of giving Russ some breathing space, and spring is here in three weeks, so we’ll work on the feeler a bit more and keep you posted.
No Russ, not too wordy at all, that’s my department! [whstl]
Nice to know what we are looking at. Those black cables hanging behind the guy with his shoe up, is that some kind of saety or arming divice as well, and are those the chaff dispensers?
Those are actually red safety streamers that are attached to plugs made to fit in the chaff ports (the streamers look black because they’re in the shade). The plugs were designed to keep out rain and dirt from the dispensers. They would be removed before takeoff, like anything else with a red streamer.
Not many folks had the plugs so you will often see aluminum foil taped over the ports. The foil didn’t need to be removed before flight like the plugs - the chaff packages just went right through it.
Rich, awesome info there; it wasn’t too wordy at all. I learned something today. Nice job on the extenders. They do look very accurate and equal in quality.
Dom, sounds good. I’ll try to keep my eyes peeled for that.
I’ve been experimenting with different materials to simulate the fill used in revetments. They can be filled with sand, dirt, rocks or a combination of these. Since sand is more tedious to model, I decided to go with rock. I was fortunate to find a brand of cat litter that has the right shape, size mix and color. Below is a picture of the results.
I’m up for a Buff build. I have one of those X-15/B52 combo kits (Monogram 1/72). I have been pretty ill lately, so I have hardly been on the boards. My only stumbling block is that I can’t take images right now since my camera died and I can’t replace it. So I wouldn’t be able to participate very much. I’ll work up a badge at least and work out Details with Dom to get it going. Again, I’m still sick, so I won’t be on as much until I get rid of this virus.
You ask good questions, and the level of detail you put in and level of satisfaction are supposed to match…doesn’t always happen, but you never know until you’re in the ocean.
I can’t help with your ultimate choice, any BUFF is a great BUFF, but we do have some old hands around here to make suggestions and help out.
Starting with a few easier builds is a great idea. Finding space to build a big 1/72 BUFF is also a great idea, unless you already have it handy.
Rich and I are starting a BUFF build and just organizing stuff right now, so no rush to commit.
Sorry, but I missed your post too. Where is it BTW - what page? I looked back through the thread and can’t find it. Anyway, I don’t have any experience with any but the D-model kit, and I think AMT and Revell/Monogram are the only companies that produced 1/72 scale buffs in any model. Dom and Rich have a lot of experience and can point you in the right direction.
