I’m wondering if anyones tried this yet. It looks like it would leave the aircraft looking sleek if I could get it in right. I am a little bit concerned though that there is no panel outline for where the turret or scanning blisters were. I emailed them to see if this could be remedied. But I’m just wondering if anyone had done this conversion and what they thought about it. How hard was it to do? What methods did you do to cut the old panels out? Does this conversion also remove the upper blister that the Central Fire Control gunner used as well? I cant really tell from the pieces shown whether it does or not. I’ve got a B-29 I’m building as Enola Gay and really like the idea of not having the current monogram caps or having to carve the fuselage up to use the “more flush” caps. Thanks for any information you can provide.
I’m glad to see this. I was going to build my B-29 as the “Great Artiste” which is the weather observation plane that flew over Hiroshima and Nagasaki prior to the bomb drops. At Whiteman AFB, there is a B-29 on static display, the “Great Artiste”, it is a slick version, although I think it was later modified to look like this. The turret locations are now sheeted over with a small hole in the center, like your meteor conversion kit. The pictures of the meteor kit shows the holes, but doesn’t show a larger circle around it that would represent the original opening in the fuse for the window blister.
I may have to buy this meteor mod when I begin mine, also the bomb bay and gear door mods. Check out B-29 in Action from Squadron/Signal pg. 26
TJ your correct, the B-29 at Whiteman isn’t the real Great Artiste. The real one was lost at Goose Bay Alaska. The pilot coming in for an emergency landing came in too fast and too far down the runway. He groundlooped the aircraft to avoid hitting a parked tractor and ended up with so much damage that The Great Artiste was scrapped a year later in 49.
I sent meteor an email hoping they might be able to correct their mold and add the panel line where the blisters and turrets once were. I also dont know for sure whether they address the removed CFC blister in their kit or the small window that was added in its place like the side blisters.
Hey y’all, FNG checking in, might be dragging up a dead thread, but it’s on topic . . . I’ve been out of the aircraft modeling loop for a few years (until I got drafted to help out at the local IPMS confab last weekend, where I wound up with a Monogram B-29 to add to the tons of styrene in my closet), so bear with me if I do anything gauche.
I’m working on a collection of WWII USAAF bombers, and I’ve decided that the most appropriate cut-off point is Operation Crossroads, where we gathered up leftover Axis war toys and nuked 'em. I’ve been trying to round up references for Dave’s Dream, the B-29 that dropped the Able shot at Bikini. I’ve already googled it and contacted the historians at Sandia and Wright-Patterson, but I havent bought any books as yet. Anyone know of fertile avenues of exploration?
TJ, where were you planning to get markings for Great Artiste? Does anyone make a decal set for the 509th Composite Group, or were you planning to “roll your own?” I dig that zoot suiter motif 
TR
I’ve got a book by a 509th historian named Richard Campbell. The book is titled “They were called Silverplate”. It is an excellent book containing photos and very many details about the 509th up to Crossroads and Roswell. If you’d like Ill pm you his email address. Also check out the Children of the Manhattan Project webpage at www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org. and at Sallyann’s great B-29 site found at http://home.att.net/~sallyann2/b29.html. Down the side youll find a link titled “Crossroads to Roswell”.
I suppose you could get Mike Grant to make decals for you. Youll find that the Silverplates at Crossroads didnt carry the normal wartime 509th markings.
Thanks for the leads, DaveB.
One of my internet buddies dredged up a picture of Eddie Chavez’s Dave’s Dream, it’s the only color reference (most pix are B/W) I’ve found so far . . . . His stuff is gorgeous, but I don’t want to build a model of a model!