I think the only difference is the box art. I haven’t compared the decals, so that could be a difference too. The basic kit is identical.
Watch the markings to be sure that they match the model you are building. The tail gun radar, belly mounted ECM bubbles, nose plexiglass, scanner blisters and some antenna varied with the model. None of the decals in the original kit matched particular aircraft that could be made from the kit. Some retrofitting was necessary. The Featherweight program made some significant changes in the overall appearance. When the RB-36s were refurbished to have a nuclear delivery capability, the ECM bubbles were moved from bomb bay #3 to the aft ventral fuselage. [alien]
The kit instructions do tell you to place the radar blisters on the third bomb bay. I’d never seen that, so I put them under the tail section. Could be wrong, I don’t care. I got the Revell Germany reissue, $40 on a half-off sale at Hobby Lobby. That was lucky. I thought I remember reading something about the kit being discontinued for a while. I’m glad they brought it back! (More or less…)
For the paint sceme I sprayed overall flat aluminum (from a can) and covered the pressurized portions with BMF. It seemed the most painless way of doing that NMF. Hurt the pocketbook, though.
If you want some nice pictures of the 36, as well as all things Convair, try airliners.net and search ’ other convair’ with ‘USAF’.
Thanks for the info, Yardbird78!
Remember the spring day when I was a kid, heard the noise, looked up and saw three of those big B-36’s low, in formation heading into Lowery AFB.
Beautiful sight
Hey Mike. Do you have any instructions or have a link to anyone that tells you how to apply the Bare-Metal Foil as teh NMF? I like how yours came out and would like to try it.
I recommend to anyone wanting to build the Monogram(Revell) 1/72 kit as accurate as possible, to pick up the In Detail and Scale book on the B-36. It has all of the mods and corrections to make an accurate representation of many B-36 variants. I have one of the reissue kits from the late 90’s. I will have to build the sub-assemblies in my shed and the final assembly on the deck on sawhorses. Then, what to do with it when done!!!
I picked up the B-36 on a Squadron sale- thought it would look nice next to my B-29,B-50, YB-35 & YB-49! I also plan on buying some land when I get to NAS Fallon! LOL - Calvin
Wilki- Applying the foil is simplicity itself. You basically cut a piece a little larger than what you’re trying to cover, peel it off, and apply it to the area with a toothpick or Q-tip. There’s a few articles out there floating around that explain the process in further detail.
As to where it goes on the actual B-36, the general rule is every place pressurized on the fuselage, and for the wings…
That requires many hours of research trying to dicern shiny from not on many many black and white photographs. [:D]
I bought mine when it first came out (1980, I think) for $12. I seem to recall the instructions showing a way to make it either a pure bomber or an RB-36, which would required a lot more surgery than just a little carving as the instructions suggested. I don’t have any interest in building it again until I can find, or someone else makes, that great vac-form conversion to turn it into the C-99, which was a one-off cargo version that did not make it into full production. But that one mammoth prototype entered the inventory and flew with the Navy until, I believe, either 1957 or 1959.
TOM
I think the B-36 I would like to build (but not in 72, maybe 144) is the one I saw in International Airpower Review that carried the B-58 fuselage to Wright-Patt for stress testing. It’s on a long list of things to do.
Yes, in the great Aerofax book on the B-58 there are a couple of photos of this rig with the B-58 (the fuselage with wings attached – quite a large load) carried underneath. The flight had to be made with the B-36’s gear down, because the B-58’s wings covered the gear bays. What I’m curious about, and which the book doesn’t explain, is how they got the B-58 underneath the B-36. I know it didn’t have the tail on it, but still I’ll bet the ground clearance on takeoff and landing was little more than a frog hair in width.
TOM
Yeah, that’s one of the questions I want to look at in greater depth before I attempt this. The picture I saw was taken from the bottom so I don’t know if they cut some sort of recess into the B-36 fuselage or what.
They also had to make the entire flight with the jet engines running, which are normally only used ontakeoff and over hostile territory.
AND they had to remove the two innermost props to clear the B-58! Probably another reason why they had to use the jets the whole way.
In the pix I have, the B-36 fuselage seems to be cut to accommodate the B-58.
Interesting story!
Well? Could you put some pics here? I’ve never seen this, and it sounds awsome!
The pix I have are in the book B-36 Photo Scrapbook by Jenkins, Moore and Pyeatt.
The book, B-36 Photo Scrapbook by Dennis Jenkins, Mike Moore and Don Pyeatt has a two page spread on the flight where the B-36 carried a B-58 from Carswell AFB, TX, to Wright Patterson AFB, OH. The text says,"On 12 March 1957 a B-36F (49-2677) was used to ferry the B-58 static test article from Fort Worth to Wright Patterson AFB. It has recently come to be known that the modifications to the B-36 were somewhat more extensive than generally recognized. For instance, the inboard fuel tanks were removed from each wing in order to allow sway braces to be bolted to the main wing spars, and certain bulkheads in the bomb bay were modified similar to the FICON carrier aircraft. In addition, the inbord propellers were removed, and the landing gear was left extended for the entire trip. These are scenes after the airplane landed in Ohio.
Several of the photos show the bomb bay area in close up detail. The bay doors have been removed, but the size and shape of the opening appears stock. The B-58 nose cone has been removed and a very short, blunt cone attached. There are two color photos in flight from behind and underneath showing some black paint on the B-58 trailing edges and on the leading edges of the B-36 wing. I cannot copy any of these photos because my scanner is on strike. It flat refuses to function. [alien]
Upon closer inspection of those pix, I would have to agree. No cutting there!