In the 1950s my uncle flew this aircraft and as a kid I was always fascinated by his stories of SACs mission to strike back with nuclear weapons and flying adventures in general. This was built several years ago and still flys in my office with 1/72 B-36 and B-52 models. Everyone seemed to enjoy the B-36 post and I thought you might enjoy a B-47 sighting. Later in life I went to college in Wichita KS and lived at the end of the runway of the AFB. I would watch for hours as B-47s towing drogue parachutes would practice touch and goes. Seemed like a good reason to build this model. I only guessed on the nuke configuration and I was wrong. I’ll fix it someday! Later through connections at the base I was allowed to set in one. Wow, quite the experience at the time.
Magnificant!!! Beautiful paint job!! The white undersurface shows off the bomb bay and wheel wells wonderfully! I love the paint/decal details on the engines. I have this very kit in my stash, along with B-52D, G and H, all in 1/72. I started the G model, but living in a small apartment, I just don’t have the space to finish it. Sure am looking forward to building that B-47 though. Do you recall any fit issues or other problems with the kit?
I like the smooth perfect, metal finish, which is always a headache.
Nice story, I would love to live near an AFB or airport…at least. Too old in life I found I should made my career in some type of ground operations at an airport.
Hey Valkyrie. The kit is somewhat oldstyle in being somewhat basic. As I remember it went together smoothly. It comes with a rack of conventional bombs which I don’t believe it ever carried. I once talked to an old B-47 weapons loader and he told me that in the two nuke configuration the bombs looked like large beer kegs and were carried end to end rather than side by side as I have them. I little work on Google and you can probably find the bombs dimensions and scratch build them as I did on my B-36. The only other changes I made was to paint the pilots helmet with a red stripe around it like my motorcycle helmet so they could see who’s driving. LOL
Max
And Garzonh, as I remember the paint was Testors spray can Silver and White followed with a coat of clear. Pretty simple and it usually looks good.
Nice job, Max! Good to know it went together well, as I have that same kit in my stash. My Dad used to fly them at one point in his Air Force career. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Gene, Your dad and my uncle probably crossed paths in their B-47 careers. My uncle had quite the influence on me as a kid about aviation. I couldn’t wait for him to come and visit and tell more. I couldn’t get enough! His name was Col. George Wells and later flew SAC B-52s and Commanded one of two SAC F-111 squadrons. He was good for many flying stories even the first C-47 pilot to pick up the Bataan death march surviors in WW2. He took me on my first airplane ride in a Piper Cub. It’s no wonder I became a Airplane nut!
Thank you for sharing with us such a great story from your uncle. Your build is just fantastic. This is truly a fitting tribute, keep up the great work! Can’t wait to see more.
Love the B-47! I have an old balsa wood solid model of it in my stash.
When I was in a Minuteman training squadron in AF, we had a Major in the squadron who was the navigator on the famous (unauthorized) flight of a -47 under the Mackinaw straits bridge.
It sounds like your Uncle may have been a little earlier than my Dad, but who knows? He was in college during WWII, but was in the AF in time for Korea and Viet Nam. Between those two trips, he did time at Vandenberg and Wright-Patt., where he flew the '47, and maybe the '52. I don’t know that for sure, but he was in SAC at Vandenberg, and they had B-52s on the ramp. I used to get to visit the flightline with him often, and have fond memories of climbing through just about everything there. That was in the early-to-mid '60’s, doing a year in 'Nam in '68-'69.
I’m slowly putting a stash together that has at least one variant of what I know he flew during his career. I have just about everything except a T-39!!
Hey Gene, Thanks for the info. Like you I’m trying to build the stuff my uncle flew. I’ve got the B-47, B-52 done andI’m trying to find the SAC version of the F-111. It had longer wings than the standard ones and only carried nukes. I saw a real one at the Barksdale AFB museum in Shreveport LA. I took several pictures for reference. Someday I hope.
A little update on the weapons load that I need to change. The B-47 could carry 2-Mk 15 Nuclear weapons one behind the other. The dimesions were 35’’ in diameter and 140’’ in length. The bomb weighed 7,600 pounds and had a yield of 3.8 MT. Maybe my next project will to build 2 nukes (Sounds scary!) and replace the old ones for authenticity.
Hmm, a bit more research reveals tha the B-47 could also carry one whopper B41 nuclear weapon with a yield (I like that term) of 25MT. Looks like that will be the way to go. Only one bomb to build with a much larger bang for the buck. Finding all this out scares the heck outta Max. A little scale figuring and I’ll be back into the manufacture of Nuclear weapons. [:|]
While digging through my Barksdale AFB museum pictures I found this real B-47 complete with nuke. The nuke is on my scratch build list and will update my 1/72 B-47.
dimesions were 35’’ in diameter and 140’’ in length. The bomb weighed 7,600 pounds and had a yield of 3.8 MT. Maybe my next project will to build 2 nukes (Sounds scary!) and replace the old ones for authenticity.
